Broken Lands: The Academy of Arcane Relics
by RipvanwormerHidden deep in the caverns of Lower Bugburbia is a fortress compound inhabited by exiled Glantrian mages. Once they lived in Glantri City with their colleagues, but when they approached the council, proposing the creation of a new Secret Craft, they were rebuffed. It was Etienne d'Ambreville, his voice thunderous with outrage, who rebuked them.
"This so-called craft of 'machine magic,' it makes use of Blackmoorian artifacts recovered from the Broken Lands? The very same eldritch tools that unleashed the Lesser Rain of Fire that sundered the realm, destroying the civilization of the elves?"
The leader of the machine mages, Caerwyn Annaig, stood tall and unrepentant. "What of it? Sometimes the old must make room for the new. If not for this Lesser Rain of Fire, Glantri would still be home to the hidebound elder elves who rejected Atziann's genius. It would never have become the mecca of wizardry it is today."
It was Prince Jaggar who cut in. "What is the meaning of 'mecca?'" he inquired.
"A word from another world," muttered Prince Etienne. "Where have you been, Caerwyn?"
"Where wizards should be. Learning, growing. Progressing our art. Which is all I seek permission to do. Can you really look down at me from your high throne, Prince Etienne, and deny my research when the source of your own power is not so different?"
"Such secrets are not for you," said Etienne, "nor will they ever be. Begone, you and your blasphemies are no longer welcome in Glantri."
So Caerwyn and his students left, founding a new academy closer to the source of the ancient relics they studied. With the aid of illusions, and an alliance with doppelgangers, they made friends with the local bugbears. In their subterranean halls they crafted magen and androids, and they learned how to replicate certain devices they incorporated into their bodies, storing spells as do magic wands. Constructs and bugbear miners excavate the ruins, adding to their stores of lore.