From then until never

Part 2, The Pedran school

Currently writing

"It's like squeezing blood from a stone, fun to watch."
-About Trolls trying to perform magick.

In the first days of Empris, every betting house Rotemeda was giving good odds that the sorcerers would destroy each other within the first year of the new nations existence. Tölva, the smartest stone on Sojurut, had calculated that the oddsmakers should have been right, but something unforeseen was right around the corner.

In the Obsol talks that followed the disastrous Spell that created the Khmur desert, the sorcerers had agreed with the other nations that EVERYONE who was found to have the least talent for magick would from that day live in Empris. The other nations had also promised them masons to build Quares, the sorcerers' city. However, masons crazy enough to work for sorcerers weren't easy to find. By sheer luck the stumbled on to the legend of Pkrud, a Troll with a talent for magick. Everyone knew Trolls were great masons, perhaps the best, although some Dwarfs might disagree.

In the end they found a few hundred Trolls that fit the criteria. The other sorcerers of course objected on the grounds that making rocks pretty wasn't magickal enough. Still, in the end they were forced to concede that it was magick. This was the unforeseen circumstance. Upon bringing the Trolls to the plain where their city was supposed to stand, it wasn't long before the first council of sorcerers realised the Trolls had a much more useful feature. Besides fearsome strength and being able to work for days on end, there were all to some degree resistant to magick.

This was the unforeseen circumstance that saved the sorcerers from themselves. With Trolls, the council could uphold the rules they were busy making up by bringing in even the strongest sorcerer for correction. This also required a change in their overall plan. They could not have just anyone policing sorcerers. It would have to be done by other sorcerers. So, the Pedran school of magick officially became a part of Empris created, even if Troll sorcerers had been around for longer than any of the other sentient races. Another change was made to accommodate this fifth school of magick. The square city wall of Quares got a circle around it that became the new city wall of Pentakl.

In those early days of Pentakl there were often shouts of "Run! Here comes the Rocks!" echoing of the quickly growing stonewalls. The Pedran Trolls are still known as the Rocks by sorcerers who don't respect the rules in Empris, which is all of them.

Something else that was new was the fact that the Pedran school was the first, and so far only, magick school whose practitioners were made up of a single race.

Trolls being lovers of rocks and masonry, they still build almost everything in Empris in their spare time, even helping free sorcerers, the servant class, and in some cases the Knomes.