From:
James Harvard
Doctoris Minora, Doctoris Honoria
Brightwood Academy
Brightwood
To:
Administration of student admissions
Sylvan College of Arcane Warfare
Ocean’s End
Dated: 25.09.2022 Delivered: 06.13.2022 (Scheduled delivery)
To the most august administrators of Sylvan College of Arcane Warfare,
As no doubt your excellencies are aware of, recent events have forced upon His Royal Majesty the sad duty of destiny, which is the providence and sacrifice of kings.
His Majesty’s wise and sorrowful thoughts and ponderings have seen fit to turn towards the little contributions my quaint hamlet can bring towards the nation’s future in these troubled times.
As a learned elder of the community of Brightwood it has been my solemn duty, not only to cry throughout our township, His Majesty’s High King’s Sylterin’s II second Royal Decree in the year 2022 After Emergence, but also read and carry out all accompanying instructions and directions. As I am also His Majesty’s Schoolmaster of the Brightwood academy and overseer pro tempore of our local King’s Alphabet School, it fell to me therefore to facilitate His Majesty’s Royal Decree within my humble hometown.
For this purpose I have overseen the outfit of no less than 67 young men and 13 young women for the King’s army, long may he reign over us, for the greater purpose of continental subjugation and whichever roles such as His Majesty’s trusted commanders consider expedient.
As I ready myself for the destiny His Majesty has seen fit to assign to his most grateful servant, which I shall be so bold as to name myself, it also falls to me to endeavour to assign the remainder of my flock towards a profession or lot, from which they can most easily aid our wondrous nation.
And although the judgement of such things is generally considered to be the providence of future generations, I cannot help but consider my own not insubstantial contributions to the sacred field of academia, the endowment of which must be performed by others henceforth, as I undertake the temporary closing of these hallowed halls by order of his most wise and generous Royal Personage, His Majesty the High King of our great Country who I have had had the honour of conversing with on numerous occasions on a variety of topics and who has insofar I may indulge myself to believe, availed himself of the incalculable benefit of advice by the elder scholars within his royal demesne of which I may consider myself a member of.
And as it is the privilege and duty of elder scholars to ensure the advancement of not only academia itself but also the proliferation of such, I have pondered the possibility of one of my remaining charges being suited to more than the simple and easy life that is the entitlement of the lower subjects of His Majesty.
From these considerations, that are solely for the good of our great nation, I prevail upon your indulgence towards one of my pupils.
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Miss Sara Haymaker is a most bright student with a ready mind and quick grasp of even advanced concepts both arcane and otherwise. Her family has been steadfast supporters of the crown and community here in Brightwood for generations and have been blessed with a gift for desiccation magic, which has greatly aided both their own wealth and the wealth of our community. It is a testament of their respect towards their betters that they have continuously contributed to the King’s coffers as well as local endeavours and education far in excess of their required contributions. Such sentiments and bearing must surely be seen as an offset for their station of Peasantry and further proof of the quality of our national education system, that shines so brightly as to attract even those whose natural state and station is foreign to the lofty paths of knowledge.
Why, even Miss Haymaker’s mother, who is a simple weather witch from a family of local hedge mages and has little understanding of formal education has expressed on multiple occasions her admiration for the work my colleagues and my humble self do for our community. That was after she was married and had been exposed to the sentiments and considerations that the Haymaker family has held for generations, which is surely a further credit to the family’s affinity towards higher education.
Those noble sentiments have led Mister Haymaker to enrol his daughter in my fine institution, after her quick wit turned out to be simultaneously quite irksome to some of her student peers, and the occasional teacher at the King's Alphabet School, in which she was educated by the generosity and grace of the revered late father of His Majesty before joining our academy.
I hold steadfast faith that the Sylvan College of Arcane Warfare has within its majestic walls, scholars of such character as to be able to polish her features while smoothing her faults and to look beyond her parentage which although such weighty matters should not be hastily discarded can in particular cases such as the one I believe this case to be, be set aside in the interest of our country towards the betterment of our lessers and in the knowledge that while certainly the possibility of a lowborn woman becoming the equal of such highly regarded individuals as have studied at one of this continent´s finest establishments and institutions of which your college is rightly considered to be one, can be set aside with incredulous amusement, it cannot so readily be ascertained that Miss Haymaker cannot one day through the grace of fate and the excellency of our country's finest tutors become of similar usefulness as those individuals which hail from those northern parts of our great nation that have only recently seen the wisdom of ceasing henceforth any futile defiance towards our beloved crown and which by the graciousness of our esteemed High King have been given the opportunity to prove themselves assets to our ever growing nation.
As these savages must now be efficiently and gracefully guided towards the standard by which they will henceforth be expected to comply, certain works of esteemed scholars both within and without Sylvan College, which have been brought to my attention recently, postulate the advantages admitting some lowerborn students might yield provided they show proper deference and contributions to the institution which would undertake such an experiment, as such a strategy could offer similar benefits as can be derived from recruits from the north, while eschewing some of the potential drawbacks. As while the manners of such lowborn students will undoubtedly be uncouth and coarse, compared to those who have gained admittance both by excellence of birth as well as birth of excellence, they will at least be familiar with their natural place below the proper students and be mindful of the expectation of their betters as well as proper society and scripture. It is with these thoughts that I present to you one Sara Haymaker for consideration of admittance.
I remain as ever your most humble contributor and fellow scholar,
James Harvard, Doctoris Minora, Doctoris Honoria,
Schoolmaster of the Brightwood academy
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Filed in the Archives of the Sylvan College of Arcane Warfare under:
Country: Harverkan (11.600.177.958)
Correspondence (6.186.001.165)
Unsolicited correspondence (1.009.866.511)
Month: 13 (987.111.543)
Day: 06 (498.210.980)
Year: 2022 AE (3.911.776)
Student applications (2.790.175)
Rejected applications (2.341.511)
Letter of introduction (1.789.703)
Mentions Royal Decrees: 2022/2 (7.221)
James Harvard (331)
Sara Haymaker (5)