Jason McDonald - City of Cayn

Founded in Upper Pazardzhik, the White Circle was originally a loose organization of human spellcasters granted a charter by the Kral, which allowed them to build a small school and train novices. As a condition of their charter, they were tasked with promoting public awareness and countering the prevailing suspicion of all who manipulated magic. They also had to share their knowledge and ensure that all citizens benefitted from their presence.

The years went by and their numbers grew. Many of the mages elected to spend all their time at the school advancing their craft and teaching. By necessity, they petitioned the Kral for more space, and he granted them a large, three-story stone building that took up a quarter of a city block with frontage on the main road. They moved in and immediately dedicated one of the larger rooms on the second floor as a library. Their quest for knowledge knew no bounds, and they searched across the lands for all documents discussing magical theory. They even managed to bring back copies of books written by the powerful arch-magi of Korell.

Realizing their time was drawing nigh, many of the founding mages donated their personal books to the library, a practice that quickly developed into a tradition among the White Circle. Several generations of teachers came and went, and word spread that the mages trained at Pazardzhik rivaled those of Korell. The library grew, taking over the second floor of the school with rooms filled from floor to ceiling with books, tomes, and scrolls.

Centuries passed, and the knowledge of magical lore reached heights previously undreamt, outpacing science and technology. Mages traveled the world using the large, magical Tables of Vlactos, new cultures were brought together, and trade flourished. But it didnt last. Twelve hundred years after the Convergence and the time of Yeshua, the Dark One rose in the West and struck Korell on the coldest of winter nights. War raged in the south, pitting powerful wizards against the sons of Cayn.

Coming to the aid of their ally, Trakya sent its warriors and mages into battle, and the forces of the Dark One were defeated at what is now called the Valley of Mirrors; however, none of the Trakyans returned.

News of the battle reached the Kral, and, to his dismay, he learned that minions of the Abyss had overrun the great city of Val Magus, home to the most powerful magi in the empire and the greatest center of learning on two continents. The imperial might of Korell collapsed, never to recover, and the treasury of knowledge of the mages who fought and died was lost forever.

Torn apart, the Korellan Empire and its many country-states fell prey to barbarian hordes. Trakya focused on defending its borders and protecting its people. The Kral actively sought out the few remaining mages from all over Parlatheas and invited them to join him. In return, he gave them unlimited access to his library, and the Library of the White Circle became one of the last depositories of knowledge from Korell.

With the magic of the Tables of Vlactos on the verge of being lost, spell casters from all over the world made long pilgrimages to Pazardzhik to seek out the secret of their creation. To their dismay, it was never found, and, over time, the tables fell into disrepair and were eventually forgotten.

Their numbers struggling, the White Circle petitioned the Kral and asked that all witches and warlocks who lived in the city be required to become a member of their society. They stated that by doing so, they could bolster their ranks, regulate the use of certain types of magic, and outlaw the creation of cursed items. The Kral gladly accepted, and the White Circle became one of the first sanctioned guilds of magesprior to this, they were simply called schools.

The organization of the guild changed. A supreme council of seven arch-magi was chosen to preside over the White Circle. Each of the seven was a master of a specific school of magical philosophy, creating a bureaucracy of sorts. These schools of philosophy were formalized and given names: Astral, Charms, Divination, Elemental, Illusion, Protection, and Necromancy.

While most of the people tolerated the guild and accepted its presence in the city, there were a handful of documented incidents where the charter of the White Circle came into question. One such incident occurred when the White Circle was led by the great Arch-Mage Nikolai Kolev: a great fire consumed the library, and many of its tomes were destroyed.

Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but the interior of the building was gutted. They never discovered the cause of the fire, and, though there were many rumors casting suspicion on the country of Zhitomir and a ring of sorcerer spies, there was never enough evidence to bring a case to the Kral.

Kolev and the White Circle approached the Kral and asked to relocate their guild. The Kral denied their request, stating the building was still prime real estate and could be salvaged. The truth was the general public would never move into that building or even agree to build over its foundations. Although the mages and their school had been there for centuries, the typical person was still suspicious of their activities, and the fire only fueled their concerns.

The White Circle decided to refurbish the perimeter chambers of the existing building. They stabilized and reinforced the exterior walls and built new rooms of stone at each level, using them as anchors in the creation of an extra-dimensional space buried deep inside the building. One that could be expanded as the guild grew.

Extra precautions were taken when it came to rebuilding. The mages warded every stone, every door, and every window against magical attacks from outside. They also controlled who magically entered the guild by creating special chambers designed to facilitate magical transportation into and out of the building.

Eventually, the guild rebuilt its numbers, and smaller branches of the White Circle sprang up in the other cities of Trakya, all with ties to the guild in Pazardzhik. The guilds core purpose remained true to its charter, and the mages remained steadfast in their dedication to teach the youth the ways of magic.

As the guild regrew, so, too, did its collection of magical tomes. Items of great power were again placed in the vaults, but it never quite attained the level of knowledge it had accrued before the fire. Three thousand years after the fall of Korell, the Library of the White Circle was one of the best sources for arcane knowledge on the continent of Parlatheas, second only to the mystical Library of Erinskaya.