The Sable Magic System

 
 

Graduation Day

Excerpt from the Sable Mage College Student Prospectus

Graduation Day is traditionally one of the high spots of the student calendar, for graduating and remaining students alike.

To graduate as a mage proves both a competence in a variety of magical fields, and an understanding of the responsibilities of mages within Society. Usually, the graduating class will be between 50 and 60 in number.

Graduation Day, like the Second Year Public Examinations, gives an opportunity for the people of City and the surrounding lands to have a chance to see the College at work. Usually, the College compound opens to the public at about 9.00am, and visitors are allowed to look around the buildings and grounds, and watch and sometimes even participate in the demonstrations and exhibitions put on for the occasion by the various classes and faculties.

For years One to Three, individual tutor groups normally give displays of thus-far learned skills, while for the higher years the faculties put on more advanced and specialised demonstrations for our visitors. The graduating mages, especially, have the opportunity to show their soon to be licensed abilities to the general public.

The ceremony itself begins at 2.30pm in the King's Hall, and is a combination of graduation, and the acknowledgement of the new mage's responsibility to the public. This is when their Oath is sworn, in the eyes of all; they receive their symbol of status as a mage, the Signet; and their degree, and they are admitted as full members of the College of Mages.

The mage's Signet is a combined symbol of rank, and licence to practice magic, and is usually worn on the little finger of the right hand. The design is universal: a fleur de lis, etched on a gold ring, with white gold around the plate to denote the rank of Master, where applicable, or a platinum ring for the rank of Doctor. Each Signet is enchanted so that it has an individual link to the mage it is presented to, and safeguards are built into the rings such that they cannot be duplicated or forged.

The front ranks of the hall are split between those who are about to graduate, seated on the left, and the other members of the College present, who will be seated to the right. On the platform will be any attending members of the Royal Family (it is a rare year when our Royal Family is not represented by at least two members, one of them often His Majesty himself, given his status as a guest lecturer at the College), the Master of the College, and the Heads of the Faculties.

Candidates for the rank of Doctor will be in the front row of the right hand side, and they will be recognised first, after the Master has made a few welcoming remarks.

He stands to greet them, and they walk onto the platform one at a time. First they will reaffirm their Oath to the Council, and then they will be presented with their Doctor's Signets, and their degrees. Once the last of the Doctorates has been awarded, the presentations begin to those being admitted to the rank of Master, and finally the newly-qualified mages, the Bachelors.

The procedure is simple. Each candidate approaches the platform. The Master then greets the candidate, and asks him (or her) if he is prepared to swear the Oath. The question is, of course, a formality, as without it the candidate will not be allowed to practise, and therefore the answer will be in the affirmative.

Then the following Oath is administered.

"I [inset name here] do solemnly swear to abide by the laws of the Council, and uphold them to the best of my abilities.
I agree that in all my actions as a mage I will conduct myself honourably, and with dedication, never forgetting my responsibilities
both towards my fellow mages, and to the people of Sable, the Commonwealth, Murray, Terra Magica and all other lands."

Once the Oath has been sworn, the new mage will be presented with his Signet and degree, and then he steps down from the platform to the right to take up his position in the ranks of the College.

After all the candidates have been awarded their Signets and degrees, the Master usually makes a few closing remarks, then first the King and members of his family depart, followed by the Master and his staff. Then the College file out to the back of the hall, Doctors, then Masters and Bachelors and finally the audience departs.

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