An Excerpt from the journals of Theo Winemar
Bard, and Herald to the Twilight Vanguard
On Sylvani Windrider, Arch-Mage of Moonglow, Age 31
Early sections were recounted to me by Unaxx, Inquisitor of Moonglow
Early Childhood, Yew to Moonglow
Sylvani Windrider was born during the winter in the city of Yew fifteen years before the disappearance of Lord British. Her father Seirloth was a vinter, and her mother Siasesso was a local silk merchant. Neither one of them had the gift of magic, even though they understood what it was. She was considered a troubled child, gifted with magic, but born into a family that didn’t possess the gift. At age nine she happened to encounter a young prodigal traveling scholar from Moonglow’s Lycaeum named Unaxx who was using the Empath Abbey library to track down a powerful magical artifact said to be locked away in Dungeon Wrong.
Sylvani, spent much of her time in the library to keep herself out of trouble. She couldn’t be blamed for every bad turn in town if everyone knew she’d been tucked away amongst books and scrolls trying to understand the world that lay beyond the woods and farms. One day, as she was shuffling about the books and scrolls that littered the shelves, tables and corners of the abbey’s library she happened to notice Unaxx taking notes. Unaxx regularly corresponded with others looking for the artifact, knowing that his notes may be seen by those with ill intentions, he often used a magical cipher or wrote in code. Sylvani read his notes aloud from over his shoulder, naturally curious as children are, even though he’d already ciphered them. Naturally his interest was more than a little peaked. He made introductions with the wide eyed elven girl, who was certain she’d done something wrong. Playing on her childlike fears, however terrible it might have been at the time, Unaxx made the girl promise to meet him in the library every day when she was finished with her chores or he’d tell her parents what she’d done. He spent the remainder of that winter season making games out of various magical aptitude tests all of which she failed. Unaxx came to a conclusion that would have escaped his eldest peers at the Lycaeum, Sylvani failed their aptitude tests because the tests weren’t designed to score someone of her latent talents. He would have to abandon his quest for the artifact and return to Moonglow. Now ten years old, Unaxx made Sylvani promise to keep studying while he was away. He promised to return as soon as he could.
Upon his return to Moonglow Unaxx devised a series of tests known as the Triallum. Yes, the very same Triallum eventually used by The Council of Mages to conscript anyone with the gift into their ranks, though he couldn’t have known what they would do with it at the time. The Triallum tested all aspects of one’s magical talents, and eventually lead to the formation of the Britannian combat magic schools. It was not that he changed the face of magic in Britannia, but that he changed their perception of magic. Upon his return to Yew he met with Seirloth and Siasesso, and petitioned them for the chance to take their daughter to Moonglow where she would be allowed to study magic. Reluctantly, as they understood her struggles, her parents agreed. Just after her eleventh birthday Sylvani began her studies at the Lycaeum. In just four short years, Lord British would disappear.
Sylvani and the twins from nowhere
It was not long before Sylvani, nicknamed the Wunderkind of Yew, was sitting at the head of her class. However, her cloistered childhood had made her aloof. She was considered a stranger to many of the other students, especially given that they’d come from families where magic was practiced for generations. During her early years at the Lycaeum she befriended two other outcasts, twins a few years younger than she was. Known as the twins from nowhere, Marius and Arimus Underwood. They had earned their nickname because all attempts to trace their lineage, even magically, had failed. The three of them became fast friends. Marius was one of a handful of students in the first class of Battle Mages whereas Arimus’ training and instruction laid the foundation for what would eventually become the regimen learned by Spell Blades. In contrast to the twins Sylvani excelled at nearly all aspects of magic from the basic eight circles to wizardry and sorcery. She also excelled in many forms of magical craft, alchemy, inscription, and imbuing also became pastimes’ of hers. In record time, and well ahead of their peers, Sylvani, Marius and Arimus breezed through the curriculum. Two years after Lord British disappeared, Sylvani completed her studies at the Lycaeum at the age of Eighteen. She accepted a position amongst the Lycaeum’s instructors. Arimus, at the age of sixteen, became the first Hexed, and began to take on tasks of varying importance for the Lycaeum’s headmasters that often saw him far afield. Marius, and those he’d graduated with, became the Lycaeum’s first Battle Mage guards.
The formation of the Council of Mages
Unknown to many of the Lycaeum’s instructors at the time, Arimus Underwood was quietly being sent all across the realm to silence early dissenters and coerce other powerful figures into cooperating with the founding members of the Council of Mages. In a very short time the Lycaeum began to consolidate much of the realms magical talent in Moonglow. Arimus Underwood eventually went rouge and turned on the Lycaeum after he discovered the real purpose for his work. He retreated to the City of Wind and began to gather other dissidents there. Unaxx and Sylvani, truly wishing to absolve any potential conflict were sent to Wind to try and convince Arimus to return to Moonglow. When they arrived in Wind and learned what he’d been doing for the last few years Unaxx, Sylvani and Arimus began to gather those with magical talent in Wind in order to protect them from the growing reach of the Council of Mages. The Council of Mages petitioned the newly formed Council of Towns for recognition as a separate entity within Britannia who held sway over Moonglow and Magincia. Sylvani, then age twenty one, declared Wind a free city that would hold allegiance to neither the Council of Towns or the Council of Mages and began to seed mainland Britannia with information about the true purpose of The Council of Mages. Unaxx agreed to remain at her side as an advisor and confidant. Shortly after her arrival in Wind, a haunted and vengeful Arimus Underwood departed the safety of the city intent on acting upon his own agenda. He would be beholden to no one, not even Sylvani. When she wrote Marius asking him to flee the Lycaeum, he refused, he knew exactly what the Council of Mages had been doing. While he did not condone it, he could not leave those who were subject to the Council’s whims without a protector. He continued his duties at the Lycaeum secretly feeding Sylvani information on the Council’s movements all the while using their resources to search for his twin brother.
The Non-Magica Sovereign Movement
A full three years had passed since Sylvani and her comrades in Wind had declared open insurrection against the Council of Mages. They had spent the last few years staying only a few steps ahead of their enemies as they gathered rouge mages and repelled continual attacks on Wind. The infant Council of towns, hastily formed after Lord British disappeared was too busy trying to resolve its own problems and establish governance to move against the Council of Mages. The Council of Mages had continued gathering and massing their numbers for war. Plans were being laid to attack Nujel’m. Sylvani hastily dispatched a messenger to Mayor Robert Pembridge, the leader of Nujel’m. A former privateer, merchant and Britannian sailor Robert Pembridge was no stranger to spy craft, deceit, guile and least of all combat. He spent several months preparing to counter their attack, and did his best to ensure their arrival would be on his terms. With Sylvani’s information he quietly chartered the boat that the Council of Mages sent their assassins on. Unbeknownst to the Council of Mages, they were playing into Robert’s hand. On the day they were to arrive in Nujel’m Robert sent a fire ship to intercept the arriving chartered boat and blew it up off the coast of Nujel’m. With evidence of their actions in hand he quickly departed for Britain to alert the Council of Towns.
The Battle Mage Rebellion and the Seven Day War
After their plan to attack Nujel’m failed The Council of Mages hastily ordered the Spell Blades rounded up and killed as a mea culpa to The Council of Towns so they could claim they were blameless and that the Spell Blades had been acting of their own accord. Their Battle Mage brethren were split down the middle with regard to the order. Spell Blades hoping to earn favor with the Council of Mages joined Battle Mages supporting the council and skirmishes began to break out in Moonglow and Magincia. Sylvani gathered together anyone willing to fight and headed for Moonglow. The Council’s forces in Magincia fell quickly to the insurrectionists and after securing the city they sent what forces they could to aid the rebels in Moonglow. Marius, still pledged to the protection of the Lycaeum and its students, fought both loyalist and rebel forces during the rebellion as the Lycaeum housed mages wishing to avoid the fighting as well as citizens trying to escape the carnage in Moonglow. Those forces rebelling against the council split their forces in Moonglow and sent men on to the Lycaeum where they demanded Marius and the other Battle Mages surrender the Lycaeum to them so they might pass judgement on those inside. Marius refused. For the better part of two days the defenders and the rebels, who should have been allies fought a series of skirmishes with the Battle Mages stalling waves of attacks despite being outnumbered. Still, the rebels eventually began to wear them down. Soon Sylvani’s forces from Wind arrived to help the rebels. They were mistaken for council reinforcements, however, and the bloodthirsty rebels proceeded to attack both the Lycaeum and Sylvani’s forces. Meanwhile forces from mainland Britannia’s Council of Towns lead by Commander Roth Bosen, of Jhelom, had forcibly put down the rebels in Magincia who’d lost themselves to their quest for vengeance. Joined on the seas by volunteers from New Haven Commander Bosen lead an attack to retake Moonglow from the rebels. After nearly three days of fighting he drove the rebels from the city and secured it and then pressed on to the Lycaeum. They joined Sylvani’s forces from Wind and the attackers at the Lycaeum were culled nearly to the man. Those who wished to leave Moonglow for the neutral city of Wind were given time to do so. On the sixth day of the fighting while Commander Bosen was finishing off the remaining rebels that refused to surrender and had sheltered in the buildings and farms on the eastern side of Moonglow the other representatives from the Council of Towns gathered and voted Sylvani Windrider in as the new representative of Moonglow.
Talley of Votes found in records kept in the library at the Lycaeum:
Fairchild, Britain: Nay
Estwein, Cove: Aye
Gideon, New Haven: Aye
Bosen, Jhelom (Gideon casting in Absentia): Aye
Stoneaxe, Minoc: Abstain
Pembridge, Nujel’m: Aye
Lyons, Skara Brae: Aye
Thobin, Trinsic: Nay
Lor, Vesper: Nay
Aldun, Yew: Aye
By the dawn of the seventh day of fighting the rebels had all either surrendered to Commander Bosen or been killed in the fighting.
Present day Moonglow
Sylvani Windrider can usually be found at her house North of Moonglow’s bank. She has proven a capable and effective leader, and is beloved by her people. Her longtime friend and mentor Unaxx was named Inquisitor of Moonglow shortly after she assumed her position and still advises her on matters pertaining to the city’s wellbeing as well as matters of magical importance. She maintains frigid relations with Marius after he refused her proposal for marriage and later petitioned the Council of Towns to name the Battle Mages as an independent arm of Britannia not beholden to any city, which was passed in light of his detachment’s valor at the Lycaeum. Sylvani and Unaxx permit the continued training of the Britannian combat magic schools at the Lycaeum in Moonglow and a lesser trained contingent of Battle Mages can complete their training to opt to serve as Sentinels for Moonglow’s personal guard detachment. Today Moonglow is still recovering from the fall of The Council of Mages and the severe fighting that occurred during that brief and bloody conflict. With the first classes of Sentinels and Wardens graduated from the Lycaeum they have recently begun to patrol the streets of the city and the roads on the island. A small contingent of surviving Battle Mages, a dozen or so, recently arrived in the city assumedly on business for The Council of Towns.