Magister's Consortium

This article defines the organization, role, and charter of the Magister's Consortium, Solarity of Kowloon nobility of knowledge.

The Magister's Consortium is a league of researchers, scientists, engineers, and explorers who are chartered nobility, responsible for the proprietary technological and imperial advancement of Solarity of Kowloon. The Consortium itself is a collective term rather than an organization and only possesses one official, standing office. The Archmagister, and Keeper of the Kowlani Compendium, holds this position at Soran Nast, where the culmination of all of Kowloon's studied research and advancement is kept within reach of the Lord Empress.

In 3017 in the founding waves of the Solarity of Kowloon came an evident truth; the nation needed to make itself self-sufficient. The Chancellery of this budding country were established to address those needs, managing commerce and the collective technology assembled. The Magisters were formed alongside it in its infancy. They mostly consisted of technical experts that were familiar with the majority of loaned and acquired capital that the Lord Empress used to defend and sustain her nation. Familiarization, however, would not be sufficient for growth of the suzerainty's scientific might.

Later that year, an elfin researcher approached the Lord Empress's court with not only an offer of expertise, but reform for the Magister's charter. What she proposed is what the Consortium is largely recognized as today - a society of academic nobles that possess free reign to perform research. This system gave Magisters a great deal of freedom in their pursuits, granted that the diadem would accept and fund them. Instead of cloistered researchers, they would gain the ability to take their research to the stars in free-reign environments, and charter resources from other nobles. This new system was found palatable to the diadem, on one condition.

Absolutely everything they developed and created belonged to her.

• Fauxmarium Ammunition
  • Ammunition carrying various magical properties, created by artificers within the Consortium.
• V.I.N.E.
  • The “Visual Integrated Neutral Enhancement” is a small device pressed onto the temple of a user, which allows them to access the VINE Network.

The term 'Magister' defines the scope of noble privilege and responsibility, and does not indicate the study of magic or mysticism.

Scientists, Engineers, and Explorers; these are but a few occupations that a Magister may have. Overall, to become chartered, one must have a credible academic background with a credible certification, and a willingness to serve the diadem in her ambitions. From there, one's amount of funding and capital depends on their experience, prior success, and most of all, their pitch to the Lord Empress. For example, an explorer seeking to survey the reaches and study strange organisms will need to explain either the profit or glory to be gained, or present proof of great success prior. If properly entertained, the Lord Empress or an official acting on her behalf, will award a charter and starting capital to the hopeful to achieve their objectives.

From there, they become a Magister, one of the lowest ranking nobles in the hierarchy. Despite this, these noble-scholars have a unique position despite their low starting status. The charter they will have signed indicates that all they find belongs to the Lord Empress, and thus cannot be surrendered to any person of rank or status below her without permission. This complexity in their duties can put them at odds with Dukes, Earls, Barons, and Lords of which they must sometimes request assistance from to complete their assigned research. To mitigate any strain with those of higher social status, credit for the discovery is often deferred to these aristocrats an amount depending on how much they supported the research. If certain Magisters aren't careful or savvy, their names could disappear entirely, robbing them of greater potential and capital for further projects.

Within the Consortium there lies ranks and positions indicating either status or responsibility.

• Archmagister Noble - Board leader for the High Magisters, Consortium representative of the Mikado, alternate approver for Magister Charters, and Keeper of the Kowlani Compendium. The Archmagister may conduct their own personal projects, but their responsibilities are largely administrative and give them little time to pursue these things. Despite this, the title has immense political clout due to its proximity to central power, and influence over the directions of the High Magisters. There is only ever one Archmage.

• High Magister Noble - Research Directors of great scope and influence, coordinates research directives to lesser mages, and manages large projects of their own. Becoming a High Magister indicates a great deal of trust, and thus is often allotted a larger amount of resources to accomplish riskier goals. Their projects will often have more than a few Magisters working under them.

• Magister Noble - The vast majority of the Consortium, and carries little influence with the rest of the nobility, but their personal projects can carry the weight of the diadem if acting alone. Trying to wield that responsibility like authority, however, can achieve mixed results. Alongside their regular duties, Magisters can also levy people into their service, provided they have the resources to do so.

• Scholar Levy - A form of understudy that typically works under an existing Magister to build rapport and a record. Scholars are Magisters without the official charter, but operate rather similarly, usually with the goal of gaining their own charter. They aren't nobles, but are instead a form of scientific levy that can be hired on for projects.

• Excavators Levy - The lowest set of hands in the Consortium, and are most often levys hired or contracted out to carry out industrial or field work. As their name implies, they are most often involved in digging, routing, or salvaging out finds that Magisters seek. The wording in the charter does not specify an exact task for the Excavators, only that they are used for purpose of furthering research. This loose wording is sometimes used to hire muscle in order to beef up a Magister's retinue in less hospitable work zones.

The noble ranks of the Consortium wear the following badges to indicate their status and limited authority:

The Marque	The Solarium	The Archdiamond
Magister	High Magister	Archmagister

The Consortium is not a tightly bound organization, but is instead the collective scientific interest of Kowloon. Their efforts are individual and credited, but are all the possession the Lord Empress of Kowloon. As such, even the most far-flung of posts must submit findings at yearly intervals. These findings are typically organized by file of contributing projects and collected into a massive data-vault called the Kowlani Compendium.

Headed by the Archmagister, and manned and maintained by many lesser mages and scholars, the Kowlani Compendium is a complex research data-vault of all Kowloon's scientific achievement. Having a 'finished chapter' in the Compendium is the final goal of every Magister. A finished chapter means that their research is not only complete, but has created a tangible result that can be marketed to an industrial manufacturer for production. The success of this product will weigh heavily on a Magister's status as a noble, and can end up defining or ending their careers.

A Magister's Sanctum is the defined location and sphere of influence of where they carry out their research and where they manage their retinues. These places are usually offices where they can organize their work. The status of a Magister usually defines how well-stocked, spacious, or glamorous their Sanctum becomes. An especially poor or unsuccessful researcher could likely only afford to manage out of their bedroom, whereas known or successful researchers could have their own science vessels. All sanctums keep their own compendiums to collect their accrued knowledge, and will take these data-vaults to upload it to the master repository in Soran Nast.

Much like other nobility in Kowloon, Magisters are chartered to carry out their duties and tasks in exchange for influence, power, and resources. Unlike other Noble Charters, however, the Magister's Charter is unique in that it does not bequeath land or an area of responsibility. Instead it dictates responsibilities and powers, which gives the owner of the charter the freedom to roam the galaxy or seek its knowledge from the safety of an office front. The important portions of the document are as follows for all three titles:

• All accrued knowledge under the charter belongs to the diadem, and reports of progress and research must be submitted yearly to the Compendium.
• Capital will be allocated based on the holder's and project's assessed worth and trust. This is to be spent as they see fit, but is expected to done in the pursuit of their project's goals.
• The holder may approach other Kowlani nobles to request assistance or aid, but has no authority to demand it.
• The holder may recruit Scholar levys to enable and assist in their academic research and expand their project's wealth of experience.
• The holder may recruit Excavator levys to further their research in all non-academic matters.