In decades past, it was considered a mark of prestige and wealth to be able to send one's gifted child here, to Mysidia, for training in magic. It was still perfectly acceptable, however, for the bulk of any given Kingdom's mages to have been taught at their own academies. Certainly today, this has since changed, with our much more extensive knowledge of all magic arts. It's not rare to see a new student standing frozen in the Great Library's entrance, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, in complete awe of it all. This shouldn't be mistaken for boasting, as Mysidia's library is the largest collection of books on the theories and practices of magic.

The greatest contribution of the modern thinking toward magic came from the most unlikely of places. After her death, the writings of Rosa Farrell Harvey, the forgotten widow of the famed paladin king, were found in her isolated home in Troia. She had put down to paper her knowledge of the white art, of which she was exceptionally skilled at. But most surprising was her extensive recording of a much darker subject: necromancy.

There are, of course, the typical speculations that she abandoned her training and oaths as a white mage, and turned to the evil art in her quest to revive her deceased husband. Made a widow so early on in their marriage, this rumor is easy to accept as truth, for most, with little need for further research. But records show that most that had known her as a young magess claim that her turning to necromancy is impossible, and simply out of the question.

I find it interesting, then, to look at the Magess Harvey's involvement in the second war of her generation. Very little is known about her place in the Crystal War, and even less about her actions in the unnamed war that followed. It is rumored, however, that during this second war she spent a significant amount of time behind enemy lines, presumably as a captive. Given the heavy influence of undead forces under the necromancer Marin's command, it leads me to believe that the majority of what she knew of necromancy came from this violent period in her life.

Overshadowing both her ideas of white mage and the undead, however, was the revolutionary theories she developed about the Crystals, and their interaction with our world. A new age of thinking was spawned from these, and consequently, a new era was ushered in.

It goes without saying that while Rosa Harvey's books might not fill our library walls, her ideas certainly do.

- Mage Sellinger, Mysidian White Order.