Arcana Academia

07 Jan, 2026

A game for one Magi Maestro and any number of pupils to dive deep into learning, advancement and magic in the Burning Wheel.

Obligate Jargon: Hypodiegetic Westmarches Magical School Game

This is a westmarches format assembled with lots of hypodiegetic rules. Many regular diegetic rules are here too. See if you can spot which is which.

I have tried to cite out most BW specifics into footnotes. Exhortations to BW players given as indentations. Expunge both to make system-neutral.

Westmarches fits naturally with the tendency of Burning Wheel PCs to fluidly join together and part ways in play. But note this comment from kendesign; PCs tend to generate more chaos than they remove from the region. Good, that is how a gaggle of apprentice sorcerers should be.

Careful readers might also find all the ways this hypodiegetic system could break. That's the game!

Invitation

Every seven years water serpents slither forth from Laguna de Nereti. They are servants of the Academy, the most renowned (and feared) school of sorcery in the world as it is known.

When a snake reaches its destination -which may be miles away- it locates the destined recipient and coils about their neck.

The snake whispers into the recipient’s ear The Message:

"You have been born with the Gift that is bestowed with no regard to blood or station.
The Gift is meant for greater matters on this turn of the Wheel. You are now ready to begin.
The Academy invites you to apply for enrollment. Only at the Academy may the Gift be unlocked, refined o-so-carefully and unveil its true purpose."

Before the next full moon, the recipient can whisper back their application to the snake. The snake returns to the Academy.

The Tower in the Lagoon

The Tower of the Academy is said to reside on one of the islands in the Laguna de Nereti. Somehow concealed there is an alabaster keep, 13 stories tall. At the very top dwells the headmaster, the Magi Maestro. From that perch, the Maestro sees beyond the horizon.

To some, the Academy is a utopia of enlightenment. Others fear sorcery and certainly don’t want more bloody mages mucking about.

Many accuse the Magi Maestro of ensorcelling all the land’s magicians for his own malevolent agenda. Objectors say the Magi Maestro is virtuous, but that the Academy has been usurped by powerful, corrupt students. Perhaps it is simply a matter of perspective.

Whatever the case, it is true that each time a graduate of the Academy has chosen to reveal themself, they weave works great and terrible.

The Prepared Pupil

Accepted candidates receive an orientation packet and directions to the isle where the Academy resides. Prospects are advised to study both closely.

The orientation packet is a broad survey of magic's expansive remit, as well as its practical employment.

Players can familiarize themselves with corresponding chapters in the Burning Wheel.

The Burning Wheel Gold Revised (Bwgr.)
Hub and Spokes
Relationships, Circles, Affiliations, and Reputations
Resources
Sorcery

These chapters from the The Burning Wheel Codex (Bwc.) are also in effect
Corruption, see here for a modification
Enchanting
Spirit Binding
Summoning
Death Art
Blood Magic

Note that Blood Magic is a base activity; its practice strictly forbidden on Academy grounds. The subject is still taught, however.

There are a number of skills sorcerers understand to be essential to their craft, some magical, some not. The art of sorcery is its own discipline, which must be learned in addition to the practice of particular spells. Pupils should to keep references handy.

Sorcerous skills: Alchemy, Aura Reading, Circination, Death Art, Enchanting, Sorcery, Spirit Binding and Summoning

Non-sorcerous skills: Astrology, Demonology, Empyrealia, Folklore, Obscure History, Ritual, Symbology and Taxidermy

Syllabus

The Magi Maestro sets forth a lesson plan of available assignments available each week. Once undertaken, assignments have a time limit for completion. Each is followed by a short symposium at the tower by all pupils in attendance.

Class

One or more pupils may elect to begin an assignment. The group schedules a class with the Magi Maestro for a particular time.

Teacher student ratios are important. Class sizes of 4 or more will be divided evenly into classes of 3 or less. Class is scheduled on a first come, first serve basis.

Assignments are challenging open ended affairs. It is up to pupils to make the most of the practical education offered in the allotted time.

Each completed assignment earns the pupil an A grade. They may also win other sundry prizes in the course of their schoolwork. Any sorcerer worth their grimoire keeps an eye out for treasure and sorcerous lore.

Incomplete assignments earn partial credit: a grade of B or C. Every two accumulated B’s or three C’s conjugate up to an A.

When class ends, the pupils must return to the tower.

Symposium

After class, pupils hold symposium to discuss the assignment with each other and what they learned from it. This is mandatory.

Players should take this time to award artha.¹
Traits will not earn artha directly. Instead track instances of affirmation or rejection. This helps players know when Embodiment or Moldbreaker is due, and informs if a trait should be enhanced or removed.²

School Camaraderie

Players may award each other artha any time they recognize each other’s good play, not just at symposium. As usual, you can only earn artha once for a particular incident.

Arcane Library

The Arcane Library takes up the second floor of the tower. It is locked except when seminar is in session.

Seminars

A pupil who earns an A grade has proved their dedication to education. For each A, they may request a seminar be held by Magi Maestro in the Arcane Library.

The pupil selects whether to receive instruction in a sorcerous skill or the first reading³ of a spell chosen by the Magi Maestro.

If the requesting pupil has yet to master the basics of the sorcery skill, sorcery is the only skill seminar on offer. Once the fundamentals are in place, the pupil may request a new sorcerous skill. Only sorcery or that skill is on offer until the pupil passes the fundamentals, and so on.⁴

All pupils in good standing may join the seminar regardless of their progress in a skill.

Study

A pupil who does not wish to join a seminar may read or research in the Arcane Library while the seminar is in session. The library contains many subjects of an academic, artistic, medicinal, musical, schools-of-thought, or sorcerous nature.

Within the enlightening atmosphere of the library, each day spent studying counts as two days of practice⁵

Borrowing

A student may borrow one scroll at a time from the library.⁶

While the library imposes no late fees, damaging or losing a scroll will result in a fine and loss of standing.

Course Load

Pupils of the Magi Maestro have the fantastic ability to learn up to two spells concurrently.

A spell cannot be abandoned after its first reading is completed. The magic is stuck in, blocking further acquisitions until mastery.⁷

Self Directed Learning

In between class, pupils are at liberty. If there is no seminar in session or the pupil is not in good standing, then the Arcane Library is closed to them. However, the environs and settlements near the Academy offer many opportunities for edification.

Peer Tutoring

Pupils are encouraged to instruct each other in their free time.⁸

The instructor receives extra credit. They may use it to improve their grades. One grade of B improves to A. If there are no B’s, then two C’s improve to a single B. If grades can be improved no further, an extra credit earns an additional week of personal access to the Arcane Library.

Peril

Mastering sorcery is a risky business, no doubt about it. A botched casting is hazardous, even lethal. Legitimate assignments that are capable of improving sorcery must be intense challenges.

Incapacitation

The watchful tower of the Academy monitors pupils in class. When a pupil is incapacitated, help -if available- is alerted.

Notoriety

The mere choice to harness supernatural power threatens those who fear magic or fear at least how magic may be used against them.

Although the Academy takes pains to maintain an upstanding reputation, it is not uncommon for a pupil’s enemies to see enrollment as a provocation. Pupils are wise to prepare against adversaries interrupting their assignments.

Probation

At all times it is expected that every pupil will conduct themselves in a manner exemplifying the gentile honor of the school.

The activities below are forbidden to any student of the Academy.

• Rowdiness
• Suborning disorder
• Base behavior

Those found in violation by the Academy will receive probation for one to six months and a loss of standing. Discovered or not, the pupil risks festering Corruption.⁹

Standing

A pupil who has lost standing may cure it with an extra credit.

While on probation, standing must be cured each time the student wishes to use the Arcane Library. That is, for every seminar or self study they wish to attend, the pupil must earn an extra credit. Standing must be cured one last time after probation ends in order to fully recover.

From time to time the Magi Maestro will conjure additional extra credit opportunities to encourage reformation.

Prefects

Pupils who maintain good standing for a year or more are eligible for a prefect’s seat. The number of seats is capped at $\frac{1}{3}$ the total student body.

The Magi Maestro promotes prefects who will cultivate learning and good standing in their peers. Prefects must strive to set a positive example to their fellows and always lend a helping hand.

Prefects may design and submit their own assignments to the Magi Maestro’s lesson plan, who evaluates if it is a legitimate challenge.

Prefects may also apply to become adjunct professors, assuming all the duties of the Magi Maestro during class.

If ever punished with probation, a prefect's seat is suspended. After probation, a prefect must petition the Magi Maestro to end the suspension.

Expulsion

Pupils on probation are liable to be expelled. If found in violation again, the student must appear at a hearing before the Magi Maestro and one or more prefects. The student argues their case against the Magi Maestro or a prefect. The remainder judge if restitution, extension of probation or permanent dismissal from the Academy is appropriate.

Tuition

Every six months, the current term ends and tuition is due.

If a pupil does not pay, they are denied lodging until the start of the next six month term. They must figure it out outdoors now.

The Academy believes that spending a term tilling the land as a farmhand builds character in aspiring sorcerers. Pupils living outside the Academy owe only half tuition.¹⁰

Working pupils can still elect to begin assignments. Pupils should take into account the limitations imposed by most jobs: 10 hour workdays, 6 days a week.¹¹

Prefects lodging at the Academy may expend one extra credit each term for a scholarship, reducing their tuition by half.¹²

Additionally, each prefect is permitted to adopt an indigent pupil as a postulant. The postulant shares lodgings with the prefect. The prefect is responsible for the postulant’s improvement. Failure may cause the Prefect and their postulant to receive probation at the Academy’s discretion.

Time Management

The path to sorcery winds on and on year after year. Pupils should expect long periods of time in between assignments. They should not fear waiting out an injury or job, if they would rather not deal with the penalties.

In game time, a class is scheduled after the last pupil who signed up is free to do so, plus the number of real time days it has been since the last class.

As players accrue gaps in the timeline of their pupil, they should backfill these days with practice. It is okay to decide whenever.

If a player wants to begin an assignment right away, but their pupil is indisposed, they can create a new pupil for the purpose. Afterwards the pupil belongs “to the troupe” and can be used by any player.

Your First Pupil

The first character a player creates is theirs alone.

A special session is called for when a player’s first pupil is invited to the Academy. The invitation only guides the candidate to the Academy’s home island. Puzzling out its actual location is the first assignment!

There is no time limit for this assignment, only once it is completed will the initiated pupil be fully enrolled. For the first assignment only, the seminar given instructs the pupil in the sorcery skill and also the first reading of a spell chosen by the Magi Maestro. The seminar is not open to other pupils.

Further characters may be introduced as pupils already having completed their initial assignment and instructions. The player may choose the spell for the first reading for these characters.

Character Burning

Make characters with the Charred Burner. Your pupil may walk 2-5 human lifepaths before enrolling at the Academy.

Players should be cautious of “overloaded” characters. A pupil who is also Faithful or Born to Be King will have a hard time keeping up with their coursework. In practice, they will need to prioritize learning magic or the other thing.

Gifted

The Academy only invites prospects who have the rare inborn talent for spell craft.

All characters start the Gifted trait for free and no Corruption from it.
If a lifepath requires you to take the Gifted trait, instead gain 1 trait point.

Demi-humans

From time to time the not-quite-human are invited to the Academy, hardly surprising for a sorcerous institution.

Demi-humans may be wonderful or strange, but are not the full-blown Elves, Dwarves or Orcs found in the Burning Wheel. At most, demi-humans are cousins.

If a player can express their demi-human concept with just a character trait, they may invent and buy it for 1 trait point in character burning. This trait counts as pre-eminence in Spirit Binding.

Vulgar Sorcery

Only pure beginners are accepted at the Academy. Applicants may not possess any garbled sorcerous knowledge learned before enrollment at all. It is imperative all education originate from the Academy.

If a lifepath requires you to open a sorcerous skill, you may instead gain a general skill point.

A student discovered to have learned a perverted version of sorcery from a vulgar teacher is immediately given probation and liable for an expulsion hearing.

Application

Before their initiation assignments, candidates are required to submit to their application to the Academy, which must declare two things:

1. A problem or goal which the candidate absolutely must learn magic in order to address. The proposed solution should have significance beyond the candidate's own self.¹³

2. A hypothesis explaining how magic will help. The magic should be the lynchpin of the plan, but it is not necessary to know exactly what kind of magic is needed.

If insufficient, the Magi Maestro sends the application back for revision.

Lesson Plan

Hypotheses are recorded in a public ledger.

Hypotheses are crucial to the Magi Maestro's labors in designing appropriate assignments and seminars. As well, they aid in peer tutoring.

One belief should be clearly related to your hypothesis

Thesis

Graduation from the Academy is simple. There are three prerequisites:

1. Complete the fundamentals of the sorcery skill
2. Complete the second reading of a spell
3. Complete the second reading of an additional spell or the fundamentals of a second sorcerous skill

At any time, a qualified pupil may declare that they are embarking on their Thesis assignment. A graduation party is celebrated; the sorcerer is no longer a pupil. They move on, seeking to prove their hypothesis out in the wide world.

Before this, the pupil should all the while have tested and refined their hypothesis. Improve, work, rework, even abandon and formulate a brand new hypothesis.

After the sorcerer leaves the Academy, they can approach their Thesis assignment any way they please within the strictures of their own hypothesis.

There is no time limit for this assignment, but sorcerers who spurn their Thesis are viewed severely by the Academy. They may not return or fraternize with any student. Rogue sorcerers are at risk of becoming assignments themselves.

Post Graduate

If the sorcerer does manage to accomplish their Thesis assignment, the Academy raises them to a Bachelor of Magic. It is not necessary for the hypothesis to have been proven correct.

Bachelors may re-enroll in the Academy as post graduates working on a new hypothesis. They enjoy permanent access to the Arcane Library, but are not permitted to instruct their junior pupils unless it is part of a seminar.

Bachelors who complete a Thesis assignment by proving their hypothesis correct are invited to join the Magi Maestro’s inner-circle.¹⁴ Members gain entry to the magical laboratory on the 3rd floor.

In the laboratory, novel sorcerous development is conducted. Experiments are extremely dangerous and top secret. A bachelor who produces a magnum opus from their experimentation is hailed as a Proven Magus by the circle.

Magi have the right to construct a new floor of the Academy tower, for whatever purpose they choose. They may also found a new Academy elsewhere and become a Magi Maestro themselves.