The Academy's Origin

Where did Arcadia come from?

The Adventurer's Academy of Arcadia did not exactly pop out of thin air.

Well, it sort of did - technically.

It was following the second great mage war (which almost destroyed reality itself) that the surviving members of the Circle of Eight reached an agreement to safeguard the future against a possible dreaded future of total annihilation.

The question was though, how to do this?

Their answer was twofold.

The Scourging

First, greater arcane magics had to be kept out of the hands of those who would use them for foul purposes. The remaining circle members decided that they would have to sweep the planes for greater magics and lock them away as best that they could. This would be a life's work for many of them, but should they fail - the cost would be too great.

The Creation of the Arcadian Academy

Second, a virtual army of guardians (heroes?) would have to be recruited and trained to keep those powerful secrets locked away for time eternal or to hide away one that might have been missed. These guardians could also serve as a defense should the outer realms become in grave danger of an imbalance that could unwind reality itself.

It was with this goal in mind that far out on the Western Ocean of Mir that the Circle gathered and worked heavy magics together in a ritual known as an Arcane Conjunction.

The Circle's Arcane Conjunction not only created the Isle of Arcadia, but it wove together the Campus grounds of the Academy from planar material and laid a powerful mythal to protect the entire Isle from interlopers and aggressors.

So, yes, if one was watching this - it would appear as if Arcadia just came out of nowhere.

The First Headmaster

Now, if you know the story about the Circle of Eight then you also realize that they did not always get along. They had some...personality issues and a history of getting in each other's way. They also knew this would be problem and so they agreed to pass the control of the Academy to a Wizard not related to any of them. The First Headmaster and eventual Archwizard, the well-liked hairfoot, Tilbit Weatherbottom.

However, that was ages ago.

The Academy has had many Headmasters since then. So many in fact, even the current headmaster doesn't know for certain.