Apocrypha, the Lore of the Academy of Esoterics
"Welcome," Professor Artemis Tam adressed the freshmen class, his red eyes peering out from under the absurdly small spectacles perched on his lumpen orcish nose. Tam stooped slightly, his age just beginning to catch up with him, but his gaze was keen and his mind sharp. The collection of new students shuffled uncomfortably as Tam walked the line of them, taking a mental snapshot of each face. He made it his business to know each of his students, it was a matter of pride to him. Among them were all races of Azeroth and a few of the worlds beyond the portal. To see the fruit of Unification you only had to look into their faces. Man stood next to orc, elf to troll. Several of the new students showed the strange amalgams of the hybrids. No one stood above another in respect or honor. All had worked, struggling to attain their place here, though they may not have if they understood the new commitment their ambition would demand of them.
Some would survive the training, becoming the next generation of Seers to lead the order. Some would fall. That was the way of it, sad though it might be. Even the First Seer had not been able to scry the fate of each initiate. Some would turn of their own will, others would fall to the will of their enemies. Though the Yet appeared fickle at times, Tam knew better than most, it was not. His duty required that he teach each in turn, no matter the outcome. He had performed this task admirably in mosts estimation with the exception of himself. In that he was like his students, too ambitious perhaps.
The throng began to murmur and Professor Tam, blinked realizing that he'd lost himself in thought for a moment. “When you get to be my age,” the old orc joked, “occasionally you simple blink out for a moment.” A muffled laughter seemed to flutter about the assembly, relaxing the tension. “As I was saying,” Tam continued, “welcome to the Academy of Esoterics, home of the order of Seers. As you already know, you have branded yourself heretics simply by joining us here. I don't have to remind you that the Church does not sanction the activities of our sect. It is only by edict of the First Seer that the Pogrom has not purged this school from the peak of Teldrasil. The heirophant does not appreciate the foundation stones of their dogma being called into question. They think their history to be fact, but we know different.”
Tam had given this lecture two dozen times in his tenure. Each new crop of students came with the cobbled together truthes that the Church had fed them over their maturation, reinforced by a society that accepted these facts without question. Though theirs was an age of science, no so much had changed among the populace. In some ways that was good. People lived their lives, felt their simple triumphs and tragedies. They had little need for the truth that the Order offered. Still, it was the nature of power to corrupt. The First Seer had established the order to be guardian of truth, because she had known this. Having no official power, it had for the most part been able to remain free of the political intrigues that had begun almost as soon as she had died. Tam continued.
“We know that the theocracy has twisted and turned history over time to suit their temporal ends, just as all other empires have before them. We know that Legion still works against us, even though the Sacrifice offers us freedom from it's influence. And we know that the saints who they pray to were just people, like yourselves. They loved, mated, shat and ate like you do.” A titter of laughter arose in the crowd and Tam smiled. It was a line that never ceased to please the young. “We know this...because we have Seen it. We have stood in the moments of History. We have watched the unfold and most of us have discovered that we have some hand in the unfolding of those events. That which you observe you change. The act of Seeing in itself in interaction with the flow of Time. That is why we take your training so carefully. Some of you may never progress to the circle of Travel. This is not a failure. Simply by standing here before me, you have attained knowledge that will be hidden to the rest of the world. I congratulate you on this achievement. And I welcome you. Welcome to the Academy of Esoterics. Let us begin.”
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An orientation given by Professor Artemis Ravenclaw Tam, to the First Year Seers class, year 1675 PR (Post Reconciliation), Academy of Esoteric Studies, Imperial Province of Teldrasil, Kalimdor.
((This is the "book" thread for the stories previously published on the Hand of the Dark Queen and Scriptorium websites. Versions published here may differ slightly from those as rewrites are applied. Be prepared for a deluge.))
