Emergence Academy
House objective/beliefs
The Emergence Academy is founded on the following principles:
First: Science, experimentation, and research.
Second: The fundamentals of solid, dream wide Diplomacy
Third: The notion of Free-thinking and the attempt to handle situations with an open, clear mind, after viewing scenarios in as many angles as possible.
Fourth: The desire to re-shape the Dreamscape in a way that it alters, enhances, and betters the Dreams of tomorrow. Respect the past, but focus on the present and on the future.
Fifth: We believe in the Weave. The Weave being the Dreamscape *itself*, it's energies, avatars, planes, and elements. We are all apart of the Weave in some way.
Sixth: That the body of the House has an opportunity to relay ideas, concerns, comments on House administration for consideration to the Cause's leadership.
Seventh: The concept of unity, as a well-oiled, and functioning machine free from stagnation.
Eighth: A House that takes stands on pressing issues that may affect the safety, and preservation of the Dreaming.
Ninth: A safe-haven for the Newly Awakened to come, and to grow and learn about the Dreaming.
Tenth: A Cause committed to intellectual excellence, and the spread of knowledge through experience, and by example.
Members
Rulers: Shae
Guardians: Angele Valorian
Members: Kelosinna, Vill Valorian, Lunk, Parthos, Abbra, Pune, Syrra, Harley, Yarven Kreen, Krodoc
Guide: Ethan
History
Enlightened (Illuminate) Cleansers.
Plane: Basin of Stars.
Purpose: To Achieve Nirvana
The Emergence Academy is an institute of free-thinkers and paragons of the trade; teachers and students. The EA was founded on Science, experimentation, and research. It offers multiple paths for everyone to walk, in our desire to re-shape the Dreamscape in a way that alters, enhances, and betters the Dreams of tomorrow. We are a cause committed to intellectual excellence, and the spread of knowledge through experience, classes, and lastly by example. Our trade of work includes, but is not limited to: Blacksmithing, Planesmithing, Locksmithing, Military and Mediation. We are a neutral-based house, but will head to war in defense of our home or City, should there be a city-wide threat. Preserving our City is our first objective.
~Beliefs~
Our beliefs will be ever-changing, as our needs change. Our core beliefs will remain, but there will be room to adjust the charter on an as-needed basis, after a majority of us has voted in favor of said changes. We must keep current, and move with the City, rather than against it.
Nightmares: They are beings of Chaos – these are something that the City can learn to use to their advantage, whether it be for combat purposes (mind manipulation of the beasts), to leather their hides for armor, or any number of things. Although dangerous to tangle with the chaos, it needs to be evaluated further. As dreamers before us attempted, we wish to discover all of the weakened areas of the dream, close off the known areas, (such as spawn points, the DA, the Rifts, and entrances from the Lightless) and collect them for our use, or learn to destroy them, if there comes a time when this is a necessity.
Essence Manipulation: The Emergence Academy is Opensoul and neutral toward essence manipulation. Illuminates, FreeSouls, Imprisoners, Banishers, and Cleansers are all welcome. Our Prime, the Heart of Phoenix, is universal and has a function for each manipulation method. We do not judge a dreamer’s past, but only their potential for the future. Our home is all-encompassing.
Leadership: At least one of the Knight’s positions will be rotating, so that each trusted and loyal member will have the ability to join leadership for a set amount of time. If we are a teaching house, we are to teach the basics in leadership skills. It is a life-long skill that will raise the bar for each of our members, as they learn the finer aspects of leading, as in diplomacy, team-building, resolution of disagreements or house/city conflicts. Current leaders must make the decision on whom to choose, out of the members who wish to be in the Knight’s Rotation.
Emergence Emergency
by Arnaya
A couple of Dreams ago, there was an incident up at the Prospective Emergency Academy.
Dimitri's Discourse:
A piece of faded beige parchment, frayed on one side where it was torn from a journal. The writing upon it is purposeful and neat, but obviously scrawled by a hasty hand: It has taken me nearly an entire day to recover from the events two nights past. Up until then, it had all be just talk. Mindless bluster and carefully worded diatribes that, if I am to be completely honest with both the city and myself, served more to ease my feelings of not belonging than any sort of solid plan. We spoke in hushed tones at first, discussing charters and beliefs, hierarchies and structures. We spoke of recruiting; bringing back those from the past whom we wished would return and those we would draw into the fold. As I said, it was all talk. That night was not even set as a meeting. It was simply supposed to be more talk. More planning and an attempt to draw back one we lost.
I must admit that the idea to return Vampyro to the fold was not my own, but Shae always did have a way of making me see past my own shortsightedness. As I had told Anasina several nights before, ousting Vampyro in the manner we did was not right. He was a likable enough fellow, but our guide and several of our housemates had become frustrated with his rule. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that Shae and I take the reins or lost the Academy. It was done so fast, and done privately that rumors swirled for weeks how the mysterious upstart had turned the head of the once loyal guardian, causing her to turn on her ruler. I bore the burden of being the villain for the good of the house, and to maintain Shae’s good name. After all these years, I was sure that he still held a grudge, still blamed me for it all. We spoke cordially for a moment. Shared a bit of feeling on past events. It was not long before the proceedings were interrupted by Rukar. I’ve seen beasts enter a room without immediately attacking before, but it still takes me by surprise each time. I will not say that Rukar led us into the Celebration Hall as much as I will say that he entered with a purpose after warding the portal and we chased him in. The beast ascended the steps, made several gestures toward the hidden portal behind the stairs and attempted to communicate and, as quickly as he came, he disappeared.
I am still not sure what transpired in the Celebration Hall of what this city calls “The Gathering of the Entranced”, however. We began to speak, idly at first. Vampyro turned his attention to the portal into the Teaching Hall. Suddenly, Idoloclesian after Idoloclesian began to simply appear. As if being drawn to that house. I had just told that I wished this new Emergence Academy to act as a beacon to our people, drawing them to this new city and giving them a sense of home. It was as if my words brought life to my wishes simply be being uttered. I am neither a child, nor a simpleton. I know better than to believe in wish-granting faeries. However, as it always has been with the Emergence Academy, the will of the Song has a way of fulfilling itself.
It is scary, the way the Song does that. Puts the right people, in the right place, at the right time. If I dwell on it too much, it makes me doubt the existence of free will, and that is an existential crisis I am not prepared to delve into. Perhaps this city had it right when they named the stronghold Gathering of the Entranced. It was not long, however, before the portal that Vampyro was idly fiddling with caught fire, extinguished itself, and began to spin.
It was not long before we found ourselves in an unfamiliar room. It is true that we, in our time, had built The Tower of Light – it was operated by a series of pulleys, levers and ropes. In this room, however, stood a dingle panel, with levers, dials and buttons. It was a sight wholly unfamiliar to be. We stared at it a bit, with trepidation and awe. If there was discussion over what to do with the bloody thing, I did not hear it. From the moment when we entered that room, I heard something I’d not heard in many years. A melody that had been ever-present in the background of my most formative dreams. Something deeply missed, yet unrecallable when absent. You are both painfully aware of its absence, yet completely unable to remember what it is you are missing. The emotion is maddening. However, that is not the point. The point is that the Song lead me to the panel. This device of mysterious origin and unknown use. I am usually one to apply an abundance of caution to these things. I abhor the practice experimentation without research. This, however, I was unable to resist. Allowing the melody to guide me, my hands danced over the controls. I flipped switches, turned dials; all with a sense of purpose and understanding I could not possibly possess. Whether it was the Song itself, the Spirit of the Phoenix or just my innate ability to see the into the fabric of the dream, I was possessed with some knowledge of the device.
Or so I thought. The device activated the Tower of Light, turning it’s weapon on the façade of the Order of Light. It was all I could do to stop it. I worked the controls at a maddening pace. The panel caught fire. I am told I, myself, caught fire, though I cannot, for the life of me, recall feeling any pain. In the end, disaster was averted at the cost of damaging the device.
Now, if nothing else, we have purpose. We have a starting point. The device shall be repaired. We shall learn to control it and the Song of Ash shall be heard throughout the Basin once more. The Emergence Academy, the Jewel of Idoloclesia, shall sit atop the Basin of the Stars once more shining a beacon and welcoming our people back to this city while we strive to make new alliances with those here before us. A grand new era is upon us.
For the first time in a very, very long time, I feel as though I have purpose… and that is, I believe, the point.
~ From the Journal of Lord Dimitri Mathias Ursuul Raith
The Great Sinking at the Hands of the Sect
During the time after the expulsion of myself from the Sect of the Prudent, its ways became more violent, and more terrible. I became an outlook for non-Sect to voice their grievances because it was believed I would overthrow Bortami and reclaim my position as Ruler, righting the path of the Sect and installing a more diplomatic outlook toward the Dream. I knew that this goal would never be achieved. Once you’re out of the Sect, your voice does not matter.
Still, I used my influence to collect the secrets of the Dream, and in some ways, found my true calling as Secret Keeper during those melancholy days after my expulsion. One rumor that got to my ears was that the Sect of the Prudent was building a bomb to destroy their new enemy, the Emergence Academy. The one thing that the Sect despised more than open hostility – which they received from the Emancipators of Men – was complete neutrality – which they received from this new foe The Emergence Academy. For a time, the EA was mostly passive when it came to matters of the City. They were content to hole up in their stronghold and perform experiments and engage in discussion about art and plane creation, and the improvement of the City. In the Sect’s eyes, this was a waste of time, because time spent without action is time wasted.
When I heard of the bomb being created by Bortami and presumably Ash (the name I heard at the time), I immediately brought this knowledge to Shae, and we devised a way to try and locate and dismantle the bomb prior to its explosion, which we knew was imminent. Unfortunately, while Shae frantically searched her stronghold for the weapon, and I search the Basin plane, we realized we were too late. For me, it started as a rumble at the top of the Basin that became more violent and louder the closer it got to me. I looked for a place to take refuge, but I could hear how fast it was coming.. I was going to be directly in the blast. It hit me hard, and for a moment I assumed everyone at the stronghold, namely Shae, was dead. The blast flung me across the room with such impact my connection to the Dream was severed. On my shard, it took me a moment to collect myself before I could re-enter the City, and when I traveled back up the Basin, the damage was staggering.
The pristine stone of the Basin was chipped, the vegetation scattered everywhere and barely clinging to life. But when I reached the top, I realized I was no longer traveling upward, but instead down. Down into a subterranean cavern dripping with water. Meandering through this tunnel, which seemed to me almost like a sewage drain, I emerged at the submerged façade of the Emergence Academy. The bomb that went up above had ripped the plane askew, plummeting the entire façade below the lake above, but somehow intact… albeit barely.
In this moment, the City came together, and knew that the Sect of the Prudent must be destroyed. Even the faces of the Sect, so frequent to gloat after a triumph, displayed a moment of pause upon entirely, the result of their catastrophe momentarily shaking even their stoic demeanor. We endured their taunts, and then I, and the leadership of the Emergence Academy, entered into talks about how the time has come to shirk the mantle of presumed pacifism, and begin the talk of complete annihilation of the Sect. ~Cuero/Sevlen
The Ins and Outs of Serving as House Adviser
The station of "House Guide/Adviser" for the Emergence Academy is indeed an incredible privilege. To keep the company of previous Guides such as Targen, Gira, Xiarasya, and others is truly something special. When I sought to become an Adviser for our Academy, I was not entirely sure I could become one, much less ever actually qualify for the station in the eyes of the House herself. But it is my sincere belief that my life as a member of the Academy would only truly be complete if I were able to serve the House full circle - in all capacities. I have served as an initiate, a knight, a Ruler (Dean), and now I have the honor and task of serving as our Guide.
I can recall my relationships with the previous Guides of the Academy back in Idoaclesia. When the house had it's initial "training wheels", long before it became the Academy as we knew it then and know it now, it was merely a pack of folks under the "Emergence Project" banner. SoulMaster Elder Xiarasya believed in our Cause and signed on to serve as our initial Guide, taking a chance on us, our mission, and sacrificing her station as a neutral Teaching Elder of Idoaclesia. While I was never incredibly close to her, that type of commitment and leap of faith always stuck with me, and still does to this day and every day I walk into Threshold to serve.
The next Guide, Targen, touched my dreams like none of the other Guides managed to do. I recall organizing a Dreamwide concert to summon *someone* to serve as the Guide once we made a Strong effort to re-open after a harsh variant shift locked the doors to the entire City for a while. To my knowledge, it was the first Dreamwide concert ever held in the City (on record), and I wasn't even sure it would work. I remember a couple of weeks before, an Elder named Queznay and I created a key to access the Gathering Hall. There we found a statue carved into the wall with the sacred Guide's crest em blazed in the middle of it's chest. Of course the Gatekeepers chose to smash it, and before I could stop them, the rock fell and a Dreamer appeared -- but then disappeared moments later. This same dreamer responded to the concert - the Song of the Phoenix - and returned to us, passing out crests, awarding me the helm to serve as Ruler, and remained our Guide until his murder at the hands of Dynroth. Targen was a Father Figure to me and I learned more from him than I have any other dreamer as it relates to the principles of house politics, structure, faith, guidance, empathy, and support. He, like myself, was very old-school in his methodology and experiments and taught me to examine things from as many angles as possible - even the simple things. While he taught me simplicity, my adoration for the Guide was complex. To this day, I carry his Tool Set and cherish his memory, and work hard to honor him.
A pair of other Guides, Johanna and Gira also served the station. Gira, a granny and a saint, was cheerful, kind, and direct. She did not beat around the bush, and failed to sugar coat things when issues arose. I always appreciated her for that, and felt envy over her leadership style. The lessons she indirectly taught me have proven to be valuable and I recall serving in all three capacities during her tenure. Johanna and I had a volatile relationship to say the least. But she taught me the value of honesty, keeping your wits about you, pledging myself to the body of the Academy as a whole, not to any certain individuals, or motives, or even to myself. I have no love whatsoever for Johanna, but I appreciate the bittersweet lessons I learned, and hope I am able to strengthen the Cause now because of these experiences. Ethan would serve as our final Guide in Idoaclesia and I'm so happy that he still hops around our current variant from time to time. I've learned more from him than words can express - but less from a House perspective; rather, more from an individuality, and creativity perspective. His brilliance is absolute, and he's taught me that there are many forms of expression, and to develop, pursue, and successfully exercise one's ideas, hopes, and dreams. His character is radiant, and he has inspired me to be unique, and embrace my strengths - everyday.
Many have wondered how average Joe's like me can ascend to this position, and I think it's only rational to admit that each Guide has a unique story on how he or she came to the position. For me, it was my destiny. As lame and simple as that sounds, it's the best, and most brief explanation I have to offer. But for those craving substance: a) I have served as one of the 'original' members of the Project, long before it became the Academy; b) I have held all other stations in the Academy; c) I have extensive past experience with multiple Guides and have learned from each and every one of them along the way; d) I understand the supernatural plane that *is* the Basin; e) I know the Song of the Phoenix, truly, deeply, intimately; and f) I've served as our Guide during times when the House was closed, and most recently, proudly as an initiate. I have stressed that my word is not law, and I have been appointed to support all members of the Cause, regardless of crest color, and am required to meditate spiritually on the direction of the Cause and help steer it in that direction as it speaks to me.
It has been documented that average dreamers must first be raised to a knight before ascending to the House Adviser position. My case was no different; however, what is different is *how* I ascended. And as profound as I try to sound, I honestly have no idea *how* it happened. Ethan was not around to make it happen, despite being instrumental in the distribution of our initial crests upon opening once more, and in the raising of our leaders. This goes back to my mentioning how this position must've been my destiny, and how *alive* and spiritual the Stronghold and the Basin truly are. Once I was raised to Knight, I felt a pull on my heart strings, and a whisper in my ear that merely said, "Serve, full circle. Wave your hands, Emergent Child, and show us some magic!" So, I obediently did as commanded, wiggled my fingers in front of my crest, and it changed before my eyes. Just as the City blessed me, the Basin, and the community at large with my Tavern, the Flask and Chak; so too has the Academy found a way to bless me with this Station.
So here we are - we did it. But the journey hasn't ended. My circle, while complete in terms of crest colors, is far from closing and creating a finished loop. I don't know where the Phoenix will lead us, where the leadership plans to go, and what words the House herself will speak to me. . . but I do know one thing: I *must* serve as the Guide to the Emergence Academy under the banner of Grace, and Truth.
- Vampyro, Advisor
The Emergent Cave: a Memoir
One of the most remarkable facts regarding the political landscape of Idoaclesia is that the Emergence Academy served as the longest running, most preserved, and resilient Cause of that variant. While the Academy certainly was not the first, nor the last House standing, it sustained the highest volume of endurance and spanned across multiple regimes and City variant shifts. I can recall when our Stronghold was buried, trapped inside of a cave, due to a series of unfortunate events....
During this time of Idoaclesia, the Dreamscape was in sharp pain. There were forces waging war on the citizens, and the ‘scape itself: and as most natural bodies tend to do, the reactions of each often clashed. The warring among the citizens certainly did not help, and I can distinctly remember Dynroth, Bandaret, and the many Hotai’s presence in our City. As a result, the Dreamscape attempted to heal itself that created a mighty shift - one that would result in serious damage to our Stronghold, causing it to fold up and collapse....
And yet, the principles and direction of the Cause remained unshaken initially. Although the structure itself was now buried underground, trapped in a dark, damp, and unstable cave, the Cause continued on. The Facade was poorly lit and a long, winding stream of dirty water twisted and turned against a tunnel of rock before eventually spitting travelers and guests onto a broken island of rock. There were stairs on each side of the rock slab, but no bridges. The water within the Stronghold was no longer the cool, crystal clear waters of the Basin; rather, polluted liquid, overly enriched with elemental energy to the point of spoil. The tunnel itself leaked, and slimy water plants would often wrap around the legs of those venturing across the Main Entrance. From a natural standpoint, it was the lowest of lows for the foundational properties of our Stronghold...
More issues came with the shift. Internal betrayal happened, the Guide was kidnapped and nearly executed, and one of the crested fell victim to Dynroth and would perish, a skeletal Seer named Anubeion. Yet, some positives did eventually come during this period - the House art was created, a successful rescue attempt on an unfit Guide came to pass, and as the Cause limped on, a sense of unity became reforged. As the Dreamscape wept, and the Cause faced insurmountable odds, still, the Emergence Academy lived on....
Perhaps one of the greatest enigmas of this period is how those that experienced it view the aftermath. While this was by far the most painful experience of my entire Dreaming life from a personal standpoint; still, it is my favorite time while serving the Academy... Until now. In an otherwise heartbreaking series of events, the sacrifices the members had to make, the rallying around each other in the face of closure, death, and fear, and the effort to rebuild - to rise like our spiritual Phoenix - out of the cave and re-establish our presence is something to marvel and cherish. Many can say that their Cause has experienced the highs, and the lows, and while we normally refer to this from a membership or accomplishment standpoint, we can also say it from a physical standpoint. Should the unexpected face us and this City again, we will be ready.
Vampyro Guide, Emergence Academy
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