Well of Shadows
Overview
The Well of Shadows is the name given to a locale belonging to the eternal Sadogua which apparently functions as a college of magic. The Brother of Wizards controls access to the Well, and apparently has some ability to move the entrance around.
At some point following the Wassail of 386YE, which was attended by numerous heralds of the eternal Sadogua, a door appeared in Tower March about a day's lazy hike east of King's Stoke. A meandering path, little more than a hunting trail, that nobody entirely remembers being there now connects the Stoke to the door, which is set into the bole of a massive ancient oak tree. The door is round, green, and resists all efforts to open it up to and including charging it headlong with a log. The Brother of Wizards mentions that this is the entry to the Well of Shadows - a place of magical learning that is part of his domain. As a mark of the welcome he has received from them and from their people, he chose to move the door to Upwold. The first group to be granted access to the well were the landskeepers of the Marches, but since then he has also given the Unfettered Mind access to the Well.
There is one limitation on magic codified in the Well of Shadows, and that is that the resulting ritual must not be put into Imperial lore. Indeed, in offered an assurance of their own that Conclave would never breach the restrictions of the Well by putting a ritual codified there into Imperial lore. The eternal himself certainly seems to believe this assurance is binding in some fashion.
Scholar in the Well
Custodianship of the Well of Shadows is a boon offered by Sadogua. Sometimes, the individual who enjoys that boon is made public. Sometimes only the recipient and the eternal know who has access to the Well. This represents a campaign title rather than an Imperial title. As such, being Scholar in the Well does not prevent an Imperial citizen holding an Imperial title. The title cannot be removed through revocation or even excommunication. Who holds it, and for how long, is at the discretion of the eternal.
Responsibilities
The Scholar is responsible for using the Well to codify rituals, either personally or by appointing someone else to take a turn in the depths of Upwold. The Missive for Sadogua can be used if the Scholar wants someone else to use the Well in the coming season. They are also responsible for ensuring the protection of the Well and its entrance, should it come under threat. It's also likely that as with many campaign titles, the Scholar holds other responsibilities communicated by Sadogua themselves; the nature of such responsibilities is not common knowledge and may indeed change at the whim of the eternal.
Powers
Codification
Unlike a traditional college of magic, the Well of Shadows does not have a staff of wizards who work to codify a ritual. The Scholar in the Well works alone, but the magic of the Well allows them to perform supernatural acts of scholarship. Months of work from the point of view of the Scholar might actually take only a single season; the inspiration provided by the Well allows them to bring together the threads of magic as effectively as an entire faculty in another College.
The Scholar in the Well can research the formula of a new ritual so that it can be mastered. The ritual must already exist in the form of an arcane projection, but there is no requirement to select one that the Scholar has personally commissioned. The Scholar can work on formalising one ritual at a time, and the task may take anywhere from a season to several years depending on the complexity and the resources available (and, indeed, may seem to the scholar themselves to take much longer, or much less time, than passes in the mortal world). The amount of time it takes to complete research into a ritual depends on the magnitude of that ritual.
It requires three months (one season) for every 10 ranks of magnitude the final ritual will have. If research is not completed, the scholar leaves the notes on their work so far in the Well, and may resume it at a later date from where it was left off, assuming they have further access to the Well.
At the completion, the scholar receives a ritual text suitable for use in mastering the ritual. They may keep the knowledge of the ritual restricted to themselves and their allies, or in theory use a Declaration of Imperial Lore in the Conclave to have that ritual added to the wider body of Imperial Lore, making it available to any ritual magician in the Empire. However, this would break the bargain with Sadogua, with potentially tragic consequences. Given the Conclave has offered an assurance this will not happen, the results could be quite far-reaching.
OOC Note: The player selects the arcane projection they wish to formulate by e-mail to Profound Decisions at plot@profounddecisions.co.uk before downtime closes. The final magnitude of the ritual text is not guaranteed to be the same as that of the arcane projection.
Music of the Night
While the Well of Shadows has the facility to allow the scholar to formulate any ritual, its nature makes it much easier to work with the realm of Night. When the scholar works to towards a project that is part of the lore of Night, the work proceeds at the rate of 15 ranks of magnitude each season.
Shimmering Tinctures
For particularly time-consuming codification, the Scholar can increase the rate at which the ritual is researched by expending measures of iridescent gloaming to secure the assistance of Sadogua, his heralds, and the shadowy presences inside the Well. The first five ranks of additional research in a season cost 18 measures. The next five ranks cost a further 44 measures. The next five ranks cost a further 88 measures, and so on doubling the cost for each additional five ranks of research within the same season.
This gloaming must be available when the Scholar begins their season of work in the Well, and they must ensure they mention their intention to use it to speed up research when they email their decision about which arcane projection to work on.
Limitations
Every ritual text codified in the Well of Shadows shares the same limitation; if a declaration of Imperial lore is used to add it to the wider body of rituals available to all Imperial magicians, then the agreement between the Empire and Sadogua comes to an immediate end. The Well of Shadows is no longer available to Imperial citizens, the Scholar in the Well title ceases to exist, and it is likely the eternal will permanently remove the entrance to the Well from the Empire. Given the Conclave has offered their assurance that this will not happen, if it does happen it is possible there will be wider consequences for Imperial magicians.
Some members of the Unfettered Mind have speculated that the Brother of Wizards might be able to damage, curse, or even destroy all other ritual texts codified in the Well of Shadows if the limitation is breached, especially since the Conclave has offered its assurance. There is no actual evidence for such a claim, however, and so far the Father of Bats has not commented on what might happen.
Appointment
As a campaign title, the eternal Sadogua chooses who serves as Scholar in the Well, and may set any period of tenure he desires. There is no public record of who has held the title, nor what they have researched. In the past he has both offered use of the Well to specific people or groups, and hosted games of skill and chance with the Well as prize.
The title cannot be removed by revocation or excommunication because it is not an Imperial title.
The Well Proper
Exactly what waits beyond the door in the oak tree in the woods near King's Stoke is not common knowledge. It is believed that the Well takes the form of an eternally descending spiral staircase studded with odd doors and portals that open into rooms that resonate with a very specific form of magic. The Scholar does their work in one of these rooms. The general consensus is that the Well does not exist in the mortal realm, but is actually a chamber between it and the Wondrous Forests of the Night.