Lessons Learned the Hard Way in Creating Various Academic Factions.

By Amicus Mourchaux.

From the Horizon Exploratory Guild to Whiterose Capital, I have led and aided in many great endeavors. Sadly, many of said endeavors faltered one way or another. If you are starting out in the world and wish to start an academic guild, heed my advice. It may save you a lot of trouble.

Make sure the noble you're establishment is dealing with understands and supports your vision. Have it written down and "signed" so a noble doesn't change his/her plans for the academy on you down the road. If it's the royalty itself, there's not much you can do about that.

I just got back from a self imposed Elyrian exile. A few months had gone by from that point. I started Agravaine Academy with a friend and there were miscommunications concerning the goals of the school with one of the nobles involved.

The vision of myself and my friend was a trade academy centered on the study and advancement of mystical persons, places, and things. On an upper level though, it was meant to be a safe haven for those burdened by anti-mystic machinations.

To cut the story short, this vision was not shared properly, which led to me and the count thinking two different goals for months. At that point of revelation there was so much drama swirling around everything that I pretty much just handed the keys to the count and said good luck.

Work on what you know you can commit to.

Do not build up something thinking that it will be occupied by another person later down the road, but not too far down the road where it's too late. Necessity is key. Build upon necessity and interest. That's what all of this *should be about. A bunch of crazy people, working their entire Elyrian life for a specific whatever. Find these people, but don't bet on them before you meet them. DO find them and build up your vision by including it with those you meet.

Don't spread the division of labor too thin.

You want to find a balance. If you trust one whole area to just one person, this one whole area isn't being looked over when their offline. You want a decent amount of people working on the same thing, so when one person is out for a month, there's Timmy working on healing salves.

Don't name an organization based on where the organization is currently located in.

Just don't. Name it something else. Be creative. Use a word generator. Use "Magic Rainbow Midgets in the Sky Academy". Just don't use the location you are in. Say you and a count have a falling out and you need to move your guild elsewhere. Well, you jumped the gun with the name and now there's this whole thing about changing ownerships, changing names, and editing forums all over the place.

Don't start something in a barony, county, duchy, until you have spent some time there and know the actual motives of the baron, count, or duke to the best of your capabilities.

The very first guild a friend of mine and I created got bombarded almost immediately by this one rule. Lets just say the Dance of Dynasties was well into motion a year before now.

Yeah, just understand that the people you partner up with have their own agendas. Some are good, others not so much. If they are often not honest, try to impose restrictions on your interactions with other decent standing factions, or just try to put you in a corner, get out of there.

Keep pushing forward.

The level of difficulty in this area differs according to the server you want to be on.

There is an elitism in academia, which is gather by the amount of time and people you have in an academic organization. Some have been here for a decent amount of time, so naturally there are a lot of people there. Which is great. Fantastic for them. Well done and all that, but this does cause an issue for new and existing academic / research groups.

Why stay and fight for this new guild that is struggling to gain interest and members when I can just go to this pre-existing guild and not worry about that other one? What you have to understand is that this is fair. Making people struggle to make your vision complete is not your vision. But, on the flip side, it's not fully fair because when someone posts something about wanting to join an academic guild, about three people from the same elite are going to post a reply within the hour. A tad hard to compete when you're just one lass with a sign, standing outside a shack you bought with IP.

Something similar to this happened to Agravaine. Due to "intolerance of the subject matter", many in the academy left the kingdom altogether. Then the median of new members just dropped and the academy withered into nothing. It especially turned into nothing when it became nothing more than a handful of tents and a kitten. Note: Cute Kittens don't solve everything.

But to my point, I probably should have stayed in Agravaine and just punched someone in the face to deal with that matter. I don't regret leaving, seeing where I am now. However, I should have listened to my own advice, punched back, and sank with the ship. THEN have a good reason to leave.

If an academic/research pursuit is something you want to lead instead of follow, do it. And take boxing lessons, because you're going to have to do a lot of punching to get your way. Respectively, of course.

Be Special.

Specialize and focus on a specific subject. Don't try to cover everything. Try to go for something that intrigues you, no matter how uncertain it is. For me, it's magick. That's my thing. For you, it might be underwater basket weaving. Go for it.

And that's that. If you are starting an academic guild or plan to, I hope this helps in some way. I kinda wish I knew all of this before the ride. Hopefully, some of you may put it to good use.