Mystic society
Mystics are arcane wielders of Source who rely on intelligence, centuries-old knowledge, and formal training to practice their art. Mystics are the most organized and numerous of various orders of magic-wielders and preserve their knowledge against wanton dissemination.
Source users have existed far longer than the Omban Empire or even its predecessor, the Omban monarchy. Today, we identify mystics as those trained at one or more of the various Omban Academies, or those individuals apprenticed to Academy-trained mystics. By that understanding, the Academy at Dundures was formed in 151 BE, and is thus over nine hundred years old now. The guiding principle of the early Academy was to exercise guild-like control over the teaching and learning of Source magic, and to record and share knowledge in their own secret written language. Of course, there are other Source users, but none so well-known or organized in their craft as the mystics.
Other major Academies were founded during the Imperial period in the city of Omba in 91 IE, in Ardukh, Khutu in 211, and in Lunduso, Daligash in 308. There are around thirty in total, the newest of which is the one in Zhardif (Charadip), Ashnabis, formed in 757 in the early years of the fos rush. The spread of new Academies was motivated in part by an awareness of untrained or loosely trained fos users becoming more prominent - most notably, the manifests, who draw on a radically different theory of Source. The Empire recognized that its control over fos supplies and over the supply of Source-using individuals served important military and strategic goals. The end of the Empire in 338 gave Basai its independence and established the Chancellor of the Academy at Dundures as the head of that country's government. As fos supplies in Basai dwindled in the sixth and seventh centuries, culminating in the fos blight of 651, mystics drew increasingly inwards and supplies of remaining fos came under increasingly strict control. It was during this period that prejudice against manifests, who were seen as wasteful of scarce fos resources, developed.
Around 80% of all known mystics were trained at one of the Academies, which are large, complex institutions of learning, mainly for young adults, although there is no strict age limit on attending. Such mystics are known as bound mystics (chalam, pl. chalamme) because they are linked to a specific institution. Academies are designed to teach the formal techniques and theories of Source magic, as well as the history and use of arcane tablets (aisamon, pl. aisamonne), of which every Academy has many. Training at an Academy takes several years. Academies each have their own various traditions and practices, which vary enormously from place to place - form of dress, unusual coined words, and modes of greeting are particular to each of the larger Academies. The Academy at Dundures has far more of these than any other.
Around 20% of mystics are trained somewhat more informally, by individual mentors who teach one or a few students in an apprenticeship system. These are sometimes known as unbound mystics (hechalam, pl. hechalamme). This practice is most common in rural areas, where Academies may be nonexistent, but also among the children of the very elite and wealthy, whose lineages can hire tutors. Cloisters like Nemnosti are also, generally, of this sort, although it is virtually the only mystic school headed by a saint, and is really more of a mini-Academy. There is no stigma attached to being an unbound mystic, so long as there is a direct line traceable to a mentor, or mentor's mentor, who attended an Academy.
Mystic society is dominated by rules of propriety and decorum that hold whenever multiple mystics meet. There are a variety of titles and appellations used depending on a mystic's training and rank. In general, among mystics, graduates of any academy are entitled to be addressed with the title August (andal), teachers and mentors as Serene (dolda), and Chancellors as Venerable (gugastor). The Most Venerable Chancellor of the Academy of Dundures is, at least nominally, the head of all Omban mystics.
Mystics are not merely a guild of equals. Their society is a highly competitive environment and mystics have various games that they play among one another that use Source. The principle governing mystic interactions with one another is jovra (roughly 'one-upmanship') and the norm is that mystics should never be satisfied at any particular level. This principle is not generalized to interactions with family, political leaders, or other non-mystics, however - displays of jovra against non-mystics are viewed with scorn. At the most extreme, duels (novungun) are not only permitted but encouraged, and while these are usually non-lethal, there is no requirement that they be so. In order to occupy the Chancellorship of an Academy, one must defeat the current chancellor in a highly regulated duel.
Being a mystic is not, in itself, a profession. Mystics hold a variety of roles in society, depending on their interests and uses for magic, ranging from craft/artisanal to academic to political. Only a small fraction of mystics continue to regularly teach or train others. It is often the case that well-off lineages (either common or noble) hire a mystic to serve their ends or, more often, ensure that every generation has at least one well-trained mystic from within the ifti.
