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Authors: julie ann dawson
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The Politics of Warlocks
November 10 th ,
“Doctor Verlock?”
“This is Nancy Werlock. How can I help you?”
This is Varlock Lucian Magus. If you have a moment, please?”
I do not need this today.
“Just let me get this transferred to my office,” I reply. I place the call on hold and take a deep breath. “Houston, give me a minute to get to my office and then transfer this.”
“ What’s wrong?” He thinks to me.
“ Oh, nothing. Only the magus of the school of demonology calling out of the blue.”
“Crap. What now?”
I shrug and head for my office. My grandmother had served as Magus for the school of demonology up until her death. Her successor was Phillip Jovalli, not exactly my grandmother’s choice for a successor but considered a “compromise” between the powers-that-be to fill the seat. Mom said it was because the Chancellor wanted someone a bit less willful after having dealt with Nana all of those years. He died in a freak summoning accident a few years ago. Apparently, someone used the wrong declension of a word in Latin, which by itself wouldn’t normally be a huge issue for a powerful demonologist, but there had also been a problem with using a low-grade sulfur reagent that wasn’t the correct purity. That’s what happens when you cut corners to save a few bucks. Or what happens when you vote for a compromise candidate, I suppose.
I’ve never met Lucian Magus, but I did make a point to read up on him a little when I jumped back into the craft. He’s part of the Neo-Traditionalist faction, which is really just a fancy way of saying they are Traditionalists with those things they agree with but Posteriori with those things they don’t agree.
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of politicking in the craft. At the meta-level, you have the ongoing conflict between the Colleges of High Magic and the Colleges of Advanced Studies. The Colleges of High Magic are the original core fields of study. The Colleges trace their origins all the way back to Babylon; and there are unbroken hereditary bloodlines that go back almost a thousand years. The Colleges of Advanced Studies are far younger. Psionics only became its own College in the 19 th century, while the College of Technomancy broke from the College of Transformation in the early 20 th century. To Traditionalists, these Colleges are all considered acquiescing to the whims of witches who lack the discipline or skill to master “true” magic.
That obviously does not go over well with practitioners of those fields of study.
Then of course you have the political squabbles between individual Colleges, and the internal politics within Colleges. In the College of Evocation, you have Traditionalists who still think the Craft should be practiced as if we all still lived in the Dark Ages. There are the Neo-Traditionalists who want all the pomp and ceremony of Traditionalists without the chain-of-command and eighty miles of restrictions. The Posteriori Movement takes a scientific approach to the craft that strips away everything that isn’t actually necessary to perform the task (I confess to leaning more toward this philosophy, but I’m not wedded to it). The Regno Hominum Movement believes humans are the true, supreme entities of the multiverse, and our ability to control demons and other creatures through magic is the ultimate evidence of this supremacy (don’t get me started…). The Cosmic Universalists contend demons, fae, and elementals are really no different at their core than humans and, with communication and understanding, can co-exist as easily with each other as various human races co-exist peacefully.
Pretty sure the CU people don’t watch the news much insofar as the whole “co-existing peacefully” thing.
After locking the door, I sit down at my desk, take another deep breath, and pick up the line. “Master Magus, it is an honor. What can I do for you?”
“You are very kind, Doctor Verlock,” he replies.
November 10 th ,
“Doctor Verlock?”
“This is Nancy Werlock. How can I help you?”
This is Varlock Lucian Magus. If you have a moment, please?”
I do not need this today.
“Just let me get this transferred to my office,” I reply. I place the call on hold and take a deep breath. “Houston, give me a minute to get to my office and then transfer this.”
“ What’s wrong?” He thinks to me.
“ Oh, nothing. Only the magus of the school of demonology calling out of the blue.”
“Crap. What now?”
I shrug and head for my office. My grandmother had served as Magus for the school of demonology up until her death. Her successor was Phillip Jovalli, not exactly my grandmother’s choice for a successor but considered a “compromise” between the powers-that-be to fill the seat. Mom said it was because the Chancellor wanted someone a bit less willful after having dealt with Nana all of those years. He died in a freak summoning accident a few years ago. Apparently, someone used the wrong declension of a word in Latin, which by itself wouldn’t normally be a huge issue for a powerful demonologist, but there had also been a problem with using a low-grade sulfur reagent that wasn’t the correct purity. That’s what happens when you cut corners to save a few bucks. Or what happens when you vote for a compromise candidate, I suppose.
I’ve never met Lucian Magus, but I did make a point to read up on him a little when I jumped back into the craft. He’s part of the Neo-Traditionalist faction, which is really just a fancy way of saying they are Traditionalists with those things they agree with but Posteriori with those things they don’t agree.
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of politicking in the craft. At the meta-level, you have the ongoing conflict between the Colleges of High Magic and the Colleges of Advanced Studies. The Colleges of High Magic are the original core fields of study. The Colleges trace their origins all the way back to Babylon; and there are unbroken hereditary bloodlines that go back almost a thousand years. The Colleges of Advanced Studies are far younger. Psionics only became its own College in the 19 th century, while the College of Technomancy broke from the College of Transformation in the early 20 th century. To Traditionalists, these Colleges are all considered acquiescing to the whims of witches who lack the discipline or skill to master “true” magic.
That obviously does not go over well with practitioners of those fields of study.
Then of course you have the political squabbles between individual Colleges, and the internal politics within Colleges. In the College of Evocation, you have Traditionalists who still think the Craft should be practiced as if we all still lived in the Dark Ages. There are the Neo-Traditionalists who want all the pomp and ceremony of Traditionalists without the chain-of-command and eighty miles of restrictions. The Posteriori Movement takes a scientific approach to the craft that strips away everything that isn’t actually necessary to perform the task (I confess to leaning more toward this philosophy, but I’m not wedded to it). The Regno Hominum Movement believes humans are the true, supreme entities of the multiverse, and our ability to control demons and other creatures through magic is the ultimate evidence of this supremacy (don’t get me started…). The Cosmic Universalists contend demons, fae, and elementals are really no different at their core than humans and, with communication and understanding, can co-exist as easily with each other as various human races co-exist peacefully.
Pretty sure the CU people don’t watch the news much insofar as the whole “co-existing peacefully” thing.
After locking the door, I sit down at my desk, take another deep breath, and pick up the line. “Master Magus, it is an honor. What can I do for you?”
“You are very kind, Doctor Verlock,” he replies.
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