Tomes & Scrolls: Learning and Scholars in Fantasy

Whether your teacher is a grey-robed old wizard, a flamboyantly-dressed minstrel, a grizzled warrior, or a deadpan minor noble, every hero needs someone to point their quest in the right direction. But how do they know what they know? What secrets are they in possession of? And most importantly, who taught them?

If you're creating a fantasy world, you must have asked yourself this question. Where does a prospective wizard get their knowledge? Who builds the library of arcane secrets?

For more worldbuilding tips and insights, we have many more topics in our blog - you can check out Magic in your Fantasy World here. Our video tutorials will go into more big-picture perspectives on our YouTube channel here.

The Well of Secrets

Forbidden knowledge is forbidden for a reason. And, of course, it follows that if some knowledge is forbidden then someone will build a very large, very foreboding building in which to safely keep all of this forbidden knowledge. Because why would you destroy it?

Scholars in fantasy do the thankless tasks of writing and recording. The watchers, the observers, the hapless academics on the fringes of great events, trying desperately to keep their libraries from combusting.

And if your hero needs to break into their library to steal some forbidden knowledge, the question arises: why did they collect it at all? So here are some questions to help you to flesh out the story behind the quest:

• What knowledge is forbidden? A simple beginning, but it's important. Generally, this question answers itself. Dark magic is dark for a reason. The secrets of necromancy are icky, the depths of summoning are dangerous for the caster. Knowledge about the political manoeuvres of the last succession are not for public consumption. This is your motivation for the antagonist.
• Why would they keep it? This lends itself to more depth in your schools and academies. Maybe they are a dark necromancer using the power to augment their own abilities. Maybe they keep secrets because they feel that it is their duty. Maybe they record history and its hidden facets in order to make themselves look better for future generations.
• Who wishes to destroy it? The last of this trio of questions - if knowledge is forbidden, why is it kept and not destroyed? Surely, there must be some sensible middle-management figure out there who has come to the conclusion that this dark secret could be kept safely out of the wrong hands with a brief flame.

The Schools of Thought

It's a sad but true fact that scholars and philosophers are often seen to be a thorn in the side of a ruler. Particularly philosophers. But despite this, schools and academies will naturally form over time. People share knowledge and insight, teach one another to advance and grow.

The questions of how a school was started and by who are the beginning. But there are many other questions about the school's place in the world and its legacy to its students and contemporaries:

• What does the school teach, and who decided this curriculum? There is knowledge that must be shared, but there is far too much knowledge to be given to everyone. Scholars specialise, but someone has to choose what is taught to the general population of an academy. But this is, in a way, censorship. Preference of one perspective over another.
• What doesn't the school teach? And why not? This leads us back up to the 'forbidden secrets' track above. There are some things that are not safe for public consumption. It could be ideas that challenge the status quo, concepts that have no place in the current understanding of the universe, or powers that are too dangerous for an individual to have.
• Who chooses the teachers? It's often underappreciated. But a school has the ability to shape the perspective of the following generation. Sometimes - mostly, even - this comes from a position of wanting to better the world. But what if it doesn't? What if there are more practical, less ideal reasons?

The Kinds of Teacher

For those teachers that did not attend the magic school. For those worlds that do not yet have universities. Someone still has to pass knowledge down to the next generation, to disseminate their knowledge before they are gone. Whether they do it willingly or unknowingly.

So, when your heroes encounters their teacher, who will they be facing? All teachers have a degree of mystery - their knowledge makes them strange and often they speak in riddles - but what flavour is yours?

• The Quirky Sage. This one can be funny and heartwarming: a teacher who pretends to be a harmless fool, while dispensing wisdom, can make some tremendous jokes. Jesters, hermits, crackpots and vagabonds often fall into this category.
• The Mysterious Masters. They are aloof, serious, and tend to frown. They puzzle over riddles with a dark expression and grow impatient with their companions' lack of understanding.
• The Otherworldly Strangers. They are also mysterious, but their mystery comes from a completely alien perspective. They could be a timeless creature, an extradimensional being, or an aloof observer. Their knowledge is from outside the normal experience.

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Whether your protagonist learns on the road or at a school, your world will need to answer questions about the origin and nature of knowledge. Hope fully these questions will help you to flesh them out. Please comment below if you have any other questions, or you can share your ideas!