Fantasy Worldbuilding: The Magistri of Andomhaim

Reader Paloma asks a question about Andomahim:

“A question: magistrias get married and have families, but I don’t remember any magistrius in the books having any woman (or man, though hard to think like that with mentality of Middle Age Christians) with them. I hope is not that the men in this situation are like monks, cause I hope Joachim has someone amazing in his future.”

Magistri can get married.

MINOR SPOILER – if you read FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON, the Magistrius Camorak marries a widowed baker after the Frostborn War, after she essentially bakes her way into his heart. The Magistri were founded at a time when Andomhaim’s population was low, and so everyone of every station of life was encouraged to have children. A few of the First Magistri wanted the Order of the Magistri to become a monastic religious order that happened to wield magic, but there was sufficient opposition to the idea that it didn’t happen. They sort of compromised halfway where all magic users in Andomhaim would be required to join the Magistri, but could still have possessions and get married.

That said, the Magistri do tend to get married at a much lower rate than the nobles and commoners of Andomhaim for three reasons.

First reason is that Andomhaim has an overall suspicion of magic. It’s much stronger among the commoners than the nobles, but it’s still there among the nobility. A lot of people remember that a significant portion of the Order of the Magistri sided with Tarrabus Carhaine and the Enlightened of Incariel during the civil war. There are many, many stories about Magistri going bad that have worked their way into the folklore of Andomhaim. The “evil wizard” is as much a stock character in the songs of Andomhaim as it is in modern-day fantasy novels. This isn’t entirely fair to the Magistri, of course, but the belief is there. Though people who have been healed of serious injuries by the healing spell of the Magistri often have much higher opinions of the Order.

The second reason is money. Magistri get a stipend from the Order or from the noble in whose court they serve, and they can’t hold lands, though the Order as a whole can hold estates. Marriage in Andomhaim, especially between nobles and wealthy merchants, is usually more about property and producing heirs than romantic love. Since the Magistri don’t bring any property to a marriage, that’s often a non-starter, especially among nobles. Commoner Magistri (like Camorak) are more likely to get married.

The third reason is that Magistri frequently become so enamored of their studies that they simply don’t have time for marriage and very little interest in pursuing one. Magic, to paraphrase an old comedy sketch, is one heck of a drug. Which is one of the reasons why Magistri do go bad – they become so obsessed with magical power and learning more secrets that they lose their connection to the rest of humanity.

That said, it’s not terribly uncommon for male Magistri to have mistresses in the form of “housekeepers” and so forth. It’s a bit like the western church during the Middle Ages. One thing that perpetually vexed clerical reformers in the western church throughout the medieval period was how many priests had common-law wives and concubines. Remember that life in the Middle Ages was frequently very harsh, and while the village priest often would work lands alongside the rest of the peasants, he nonetheless had a better income and more prestige than many other villagers, and so becoming the priest’s “housekeeper” was often a more attractive prospect than the other available options. In fact, in some regions this arrangement became so common that a frequent effort of clerical reform was attempting to keep a priest from passing his office down to his eldest son via his common-law wife. (In Andomhaim, the church evolved to a structure more like the eastern church during the Middle Ages – priests could be married, but bishops and abbots were expected to be unmarried and celibate.)

While less frequent than a Magistrius with a “housekeeper,” female Magistri sometimes become the mistresses of the nobles in whose court they serve. It’s frequent enough that the “beautiful young Magistria” and the “grim lord whose eye is caught by the beautiful young Magistria” are stock characters in the songs of Andomhaim, like the “evil wizard” described above. Though depending on the personality of an individual Magistria, a bard who sings one of those songs within her earshot might gain a lifelong enemy.

The Swordbearers, by contrast, are much more popular than Magistri. Partly this is because they integrate into Andomhaim’s social structure more easily – Swordbearers can (and frequently do) hold land. Constantine Licinius is a Swordbearer and the Dux of the Northerland, and Ridmark Arban is the Comes of Castarium and the Constable of Tarlion. Since Swordbearers are supposed to protect the people of Andomhaim from dark magic, and knights and nobles are supposed to protect the people of their lands, the two roles fuse rather neatly. While both commoners and nobles have become both Magistri and Swordbearers, there’s something more aspirational about becoming a Swordbearer, a wandering knight who wields a sword of white fire against monsters. Knights of the Soulblade, of course, can get married, even though they are more likely to leave widows and orphans than the Magistri.

And consider the Swordbearers and the Magistri from the perspective of a common peasant who doesn’t know any of this. A Magistrius or Magistri would be a remote, aloof man or woman wielding abilities that you don’t understand and that he or she might have gotten from the devil. You’ve heard stories about how Magistri can serve dark powers. Maybe they can heal injuries, but at what cost?

But then an urvaalg starts prowling around the forest near your village. It kills three of your cows, and it also kills the blacksmith’s son and two of the lord’s men-at-arms. Nothing can kill the monster, and everyone locks themselves in their houses at night, fearing that the beast will come out of the darkness for them. Then a grim, taciturn warrior arrives at your village, maybe alone, maybe with a few trusty companions. With a sword of white fire, he kills the monster that’s been terrorizing your village, and leaves its head mounted on a stake. Then he kills one of the village elders – apparently the elder had been controlling the urvaalg with dark magic, using it to attack his rivals’ livestock and in some cases his rivals themselves.

With that done, the Swordbearer moves on.

So both the Magistri and the Swordbearers are feared, but the Swordbearers are more respected. However, the Magistri in general tend to live much longer.

-JM