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Rival Academies, a Lost Omens setting book from Pathfinder, takes players to school as a wide array of magic-users gather. Players may think of college movies as inspiration for pranks and epic parties, or they may look back on nightmarish stories of illicit studies and hours-long midterms, and they would both be right. With so many different perspectives in one place within Rival Academies, anything can happen, however light or heavy, as players wish.
The Convocation Brings Magic Together
Rival Academies opens the curtains on the Convocation, an event brought on by the Academy of the Reclamation to foster attention to what has been for over a century known only as a battleground. The Crusades have ended and nearly all of the demonic monsters have been chased from Sarkoris, leaving behind not only a geographic scar but also a new frontier and hopes for a brighter future.
Education is certainly a bold pathway to improvement, but the land has been so dedicated to violence for so long that magic is, at best, untrusted. The solution is to invite magic-users from other lands, to gain their wisdom, bringing the Sponsors together in an energetic mishmash of learning where just about anything can happen.
While the Convocation establishes a setting where anyone from across the world, or even other planes, might gather, Rival Academies offers six main points of view among the Sponsors. The Academy of the Reclamation are of course the hosts, with their curriculum based on holding onto the ancient good that preceded the demonic invasion through magics that bolster memory and encourage new growth upon the land.
Magaambya, too, reach deeply into the living world with nature, especially plant life.
The Monastery of the Unbreaking Waves has a different perspective of nature, focusing on the primal forces, especially water, and achieving perfection through discipline and practice.
There are more modern schools, as well. The acting- and arts-based Kitharodian Academy focuses its magic on impressive illusions and social performance. The technologically driven University of Lepidstadt looks to mechanize magic by controlling energy flows and quantizing knowledge.
Finally, there is Cobyslarni, who is the headmaster and the campus of his school, a colossal elephantine creature bearing a castle on his back. Cobyslarni’s faculty and students count many fey among them, whose only binding rules come from pacts made and given.
Many Avenues for All Kinds of Players
Rival Academies serves as a rich launching ground for narrative potential. So many different schools coming together makes for a powderkeg of potential conflict, whether playful or deadly serious. Players might inadvertently insult a student of the Unbreaking Waves by interrupting their Dance of Perfection, leading to satisfaction through a violent duel. Or, players might want to crash the legendary afterparties following the wrap of performers and storytellers, if only they can decipher the confusing instructions to find it. An entire “Running the Convocatin” section gives ideas not only for interactions but also rules for consequences in building reputations either good or bad.
Inspiration on Every Page
Along with its story potential, Rival Academies offers a slew of new archetypes, spells, and items that even parties passing through the Convocation might want to explore. Players might want to try out new characters, like a Lepistadt Surgeon with a Frankenstein flair, or study Pactbinding to maximize the impact of making deals with fey, altering reality itself to better match the terms of a contract. At the very least, players will want to stock up on Kitharodian fake-blood packs and spark wafers to confuse their opponents in battles to come.
The sourcebook is packed with NPCs for interaction, such as Professsor Cheris Nefrititus-Sincoth who could open the lines of communication with creatures well beyond this world, and demon-hunter Msuna Elewe, always eager to join or lead a quest against the nefarious. Players might need to find someone among the busy Convocation, like the centaur Aesara Fleethoof for astrological knowledge or Nochtli Tlatoa to identify a strange leaf as a clue in a roader mystery. Just flipping through the pages gives flashes of inspiration.
