GUILD of the WHITE ASH

Guild where Azariel and Bungo met. It is ten miles from the Temple City of Shandala in the Western Empire. There is a small village that has sprouted around it called White Ash.

Zinaida, the Ice Queen, Married to the head of the guild. A Sorceress, she was experimenting with ice magic, and killed her true love years ago, freezing him in eternal ice – subsequently she discovered the spell for eternal ice, and dry ice. Her love’s frozen figure stands in the center of the guild gardens, like a glass sculpture. She takes long walks at midnight through the gardens, and has been seen sobbing over him. She was married by the head of the guild, and seems to love him, but she’s cold toward everyone. She smiles at her husband, but it’s always haunted. She always walks regally-cold wherever she goes. She works closely with the Warlocks of Earth and Water, but most of it is underground, since the majority of the arrogant wizards on the council hate warlocks and sorcerers – and since the accidental death of her husband, she despises all of the plotting, scheming, arrogantly experimenting old magicians and their laboratories. She has an underground great hall only accessible from the guild gardens, below her love’s feet, whose doors open only when you speak the passphrase, “In Memorium di Ander.” There she teaches ice magic and crystal magic to the warlocks. She’s learned naturally, with no experimentation, how to make crystals and has mastered ice magic of unprecidented destruction and beauty. She puts together the winter solstice gala, with help from the Druids and Warlocks. Her dress is always breathtaking, with crystals grown into the fabric, and ice crystals lacing her hair and jewelry.

There are no classrooms or dormitories on the first few floors of the tree. There is a grand entrance hall, roughly 200’ square. Two staircases that go off in either direction, and straight across it is the assembly hall. The stairs go up circling the tree’s trunk, and for the first few stories they have doorways onto the assembly hall. Then they branch off on the outside, leading to the separate studies and rooms. The kitchens are at the bottom of the guild buildings, right above the assembly hall. The library takes the spot right above that, and then the individual magical schools have their own hall from there. In the assembly hall, there is a raised dais at the back, where the councilors sit, with a raised seat for the head in the center. There is room for benches, but it generally isn’t set up that way, with a clear white marble floor, with veins of gold. Red, black, blue, green, purple, yellow tapestries adorn the hall. In runes around a gilded compass superimposed on the symbol of the White Ash is, “Coniungens il mundo via scientiem.” “Connecting the world through knowledge.” There is a study behind the dais where there is enough room for all of the councilors to sit in private conference, but normally it is locked to all except for the head of the guild. He generally just steps through his teleportation circle from his rooms to the study. The other councilors have a flair for the dramatic, and fly from the entrances to the assembly at the top of the guild hall, 50 stories up, down the narrow (15’ diameter) marble chute, to their positions on the dais. Some cast fly on their throne-like chairs, non-chalantly or boredly drifting down, or reading papers on the way down. Others cast fly on themselves, and gently glide down. because of the energy required to teleport, they rarely do.