A Brief History of Avistrum Academy of Sorcery
Excerpted from The Roots of Magical Society in North America, by Sigurd Quantrill, 1843
Non-magical people were not the only ones to immigrate to the New World beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries. Witches and wizards also sought to improve their lives on a new continent. Many magical families from England, Scotland, and Ireland settled in the North American colonies, especially in New England. However, for several decades they had no schools of magic to educate their children.
After the so-called Salem Witch Trials in 1692, many magical folk grew concerned. While the Trials had not killed any real witches, they realized that their lack of a proper school for magical children left them vulnerable to persecution in their new home. Four in particular who saw the need for an academy were Pyramis Parador, Englebert Enigmus, Luna Lobostro, and Caterina Colubrae.
The four friends, all educated in England, decided it was time to found a school for North American magicians, in order to teach them to use their powers correctly. Quite a few magical families had taken to teaching their children on their own, thus causing a rapid increase in the number of dark wizards and witches. The four friends realized what a great danger this was to magical society in the New World.
The Avistrum Academy of Sorcery took its first students in the fall of 1697, becoming the first school of magic in the Western Hemisphere. Parador, Enigmus, Lobostro and Colubrae created four fellowships within the school, one named after each. Today, Avistrum is still the largest and most prestigious magical school in the Americas.
Sadly, old attitudes did not disappear in the New World. Caterina Colubrae, a pureblood wizard with roots stretching far back to her native Russia, began to echo the opinions of many purebloods before her, that only pureblood wizards and witches should be taught magic. She left the new school after a bitter feud with her partners; the final straw was when Pyramis Parador was selected over her to serve as Headmaster after the death of Englebert Enigmus in 1707.*
As the American frontier expanded, Avistrum grew larger and larger. Just as they had from the original British colonies, new magic families immigrated to the United States and Canada along with their non-wizard counterparts. Avistrum has taught witches and wizards who hail originally from every part of the globe.
As a bastion against dark magic, Avistrum faces its share of threats. Naturally, the school is hidden from detection by non-wizards, and only those with magical ability can find it.
* Editor’s Note: It was later discovered that this account of Colubrae’s feud with the other founders was pure fiction, created by other wizarding leaders who were jealous at the success Colubrae’s students found in the New World. In reality, Colubrae had been very close with the other founders, and the story of her disappearance was a cover for a secret mission to time travel to the future.