School of the Sacred Image

Author: Sam Elliot

Icons are repositories and channels of magical power in the West and it is the many academies of the School of the Sacred Image that are commissioned by the various churches or people of rank to produce them. Although under no obligations of neutrality, iconographers will usually do their utmost to remain so as this is good for business. Where they are less than neutral is in regions which are also more heavily dominated by a particular church, and this has itself created many separate academies and new movements within the School.

The two most important movements are Representation (the earliest and most fundamental movement, deriving from the teachings of the school's founder, Hidalgo) and Misrepresentation (wherein the image reflects the iconographer's chosen version of reality); other movements include Perspectivism (essence being channelled along lines to focal points of great power) and Postperspectivism (taking the principal lines of power but subverting them in an abstract fashion for greater malleability).

Each movement is based upon one or two seminal pieces of work, which a student of the movement will copy as best he can, and will pore over for weeks upon end seeking hidden meanings. Thus, these copies are the School's grimoires. The portal of power created by an Iconographer is called a Harmonious Easel.

The Iconographers' academy in Syran has links to the local churches of Inspiration and The Architect, but the work of its adepts is respected by all of the churches in the Ecumenical Communion.