Aaron L
Hero
OK, so this is a major pet peeve of mine, and I just wanted to know if anyone else gets as annoyed as I do from people totally misunderstanding and misusing these terms... and maybe I can try to explain what the terms actually mean to anyone who doesn't know. I know this is pedantic, but I can't help it; people really should understand where words come from and what their original meanings are, before terms lose all meaning through misunderstanding, otherwise language is meaningless.
So many people, both online and off, seem to think that Schools of Magic are actually learning institutions that teach magic, as in the modern English use of the word "school," and that Bardic Colleges are actual places where Bards go for higher education, again as in the modern use of the term "college." Very few people seem to understand what the words school and college actually mean in the original, classical sense, the sense they were originally intended as their use in D&D.
The term "school" in the sense of Schools of Magic means a grouping of similar things, as in a school of fish. Likewise, "college" means an association of like-minded people, a society, from the same root as collegial and colleague. The term Schola meant an organized unit of Roman Imperial servants or soldiers, such as the Scholae Palatinae being a unit of Imperial Guards (see Wikipedia for more information.) Likewise, a Collegium was "any association in ancient Rome with a legal personality." (again from Wikipedia) almost in the modern use of the term corporation, an association of colleagues with a united profession, goal, or duty.
The College of Pontiffs was the professional association of those who held the office of priest of one of the Roman gods (the Roman priesthoods were government appointed offices, and the priests served a term of office before moving on; being a Roman priest was not a lifetime religious commitment.)
The Bardic Colleges were originally, in 1st Edition, professional associations of Bards of similar level, and as a Bard progressed through the levels he would graduate from lower Colleges to higher. Now, in 5th Edition, the Bardic Colleges are professional associations of Bards with similar preferred styles of entertainment and skills; Bards who want to learn to fight well don't go to an educational institution called the "College of Valor" to learn to be a warrior-like Bard, it's the other way around; Bards with a martial mindset and warrior skills they learned from their mentors join a loose professional association called the College of Valor.
This is just something that sticks in my mind, and has ever since I read years ago in Forgotten Realms books about how the Harpers were "reestablishing the Bardic Colleges" like Fochlucan and Ollamn. And I thought "they can't be serious, can they? That was just a joke, right? They can't actually believe the names of the 1st Edition Bardic Colleges actually represented physical Bard Universities (BU!) where people wen't to learn to be Bards, can they?!!" But yes, apparently the people writing the actual D&D setting books didn't have the first clue what the term Bardic College actually meant, and actually believed that Bardic Colleges were Bard Universities.
This is why I sometimes get annoyed with the ways D&D has evolved; instead of being a game inspired by ancient legends, mythology, fantasy, and pulp Weird Fiction, D&D has instead, in many ways, become something of a rootless, unanchored mess, and as a result people don't have any understanding of where the references and terms used in the game originally came from, or what they even mean, because the only thing D&D refers back to is earlier ideas from itself, like a snake eating its own tail. How many D&D players have actually read Michael Morcock to understand where the concept of Alignment comes from? How many have read Jack Vance and have any idea where the idea "Vancian Magic" came from?
This isn't meant to be mean-spirited or to belittle players who don't know these things; in fact, it's my hope that it would inspire them to look into this stuff and read and discover things they don't know. I just get so very frustrated and disheartened by people misusing concepts and terms because they have never read or been at all exposed to classical mythology and classic literature (and the not-so-classic but still wonderful pulp fiction) that served as the basic roots of D&D, and so don't understand the deeper meanings, or even the basic ideas, behind so many of the terms and concepts behind so may game elements. It's extremely sad to me.
We should try to start up some kind of reading and discussion club that goes back to read and evaluate the kinds of stories that inspired D&D, the pulps, the Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Anderson, Leiber, Vance... all the stories from the list in Appendix N of the 1st Edition DMG, and all the other associated literature of that style. This is the original roots of D&D, and going back to read it would be invaluable knowledge for players. I remember reading an article series on the TOR website back a few years ago leading up to the release of 5E where they did just that, going through some books from Appendix N, and I think an expanded version of that idea would be fantastic for ENWorld to do.
In fact, one of the big reasons why I loved 5E so much when I first read the PHB was the sense I got that it was really going back to more of the style of those kinds of stories, with the lower Armor Classes, lower attack bonuses, and reduced spell progressions with more reliance on less powerful cantrips, giving the game more of a gritty feel.
Well, this post ranged farther than I had intended, but it still all ties together with my original point; I really think people should read the original stories and history D&D came from and try to understand the original meanings of the terms and concepts found in the game, because too many of the terms have become so unmoored from their origins that, in the minds of too many players, they are nothing but meaningless game terms with no ties to anything else, when in reality these terms and concepts have deep mythological and literary roots that really should be understood and appreciated.
Sorry for rambling.
So many people, both online and off, seem to think that Schools of Magic are actually learning institutions that teach magic, as in the modern English use of the word "school," and that Bardic Colleges are actual places where Bards go for higher education, again as in the modern use of the term "college." Very few people seem to understand what the words school and college actually mean in the original, classical sense, the sense they were originally intended as their use in D&D.
The term "school" in the sense of Schools of Magic means a grouping of similar things, as in a school of fish. Likewise, "college" means an association of like-minded people, a society, from the same root as collegial and colleague. The term Schola meant an organized unit of Roman Imperial servants or soldiers, such as the Scholae Palatinae being a unit of Imperial Guards (see Wikipedia for more information.) Likewise, a Collegium was "any association in ancient Rome with a legal personality." (again from Wikipedia) almost in the modern use of the term corporation, an association of colleagues with a united profession, goal, or duty.
The College of Pontiffs was the professional association of those who held the office of priest of one of the Roman gods (the Roman priesthoods were government appointed offices, and the priests served a term of office before moving on; being a Roman priest was not a lifetime religious commitment.)
The Bardic Colleges were originally, in 1st Edition, professional associations of Bards of similar level, and as a Bard progressed through the levels he would graduate from lower Colleges to higher. Now, in 5th Edition, the Bardic Colleges are professional associations of Bards with similar preferred styles of entertainment and skills; Bards who want to learn to fight well don't go to an educational institution called the "College of Valor" to learn to be a warrior-like Bard, it's the other way around; Bards with a martial mindset and warrior skills they learned from their mentors join a loose professional association called the College of Valor.
This is just something that sticks in my mind, and has ever since I read years ago in Forgotten Realms books about how the Harpers were "reestablishing the Bardic Colleges" like Fochlucan and Ollamn. And I thought "they can't be serious, can they? That was just a joke, right? They can't actually believe the names of the 1st Edition Bardic Colleges actually represented physical Bard Universities (BU!) where people wen't to learn to be Bards, can they?!!" But yes, apparently the people writing the actual D&D setting books didn't have the first clue what the term Bardic College actually meant, and actually believed that Bardic Colleges were Bard Universities.
This is why I sometimes get annoyed with the ways D&D has evolved; instead of being a game inspired by ancient legends, mythology, fantasy, and pulp Weird Fiction, D&D has instead, in many ways, become something of a rootless, unanchored mess, and as a result people don't have any understanding of where the references and terms used in the game originally came from, or what they even mean, because the only thing D&D refers back to is earlier ideas from itself, like a snake eating its own tail. How many D&D players have actually read Michael Morcock to understand where the concept of Alignment comes from? How many have read Jack Vance and have any idea where the idea "Vancian Magic" came from?
This isn't meant to be mean-spirited or to belittle players who don't know these things; in fact, it's my hope that it would inspire them to look into this stuff and read and discover things they don't know. I just get so very frustrated and disheartened by people misusing concepts and terms because they have never read or been at all exposed to classical mythology and classic literature (and the not-so-classic but still wonderful pulp fiction) that served as the basic roots of D&D, and so don't understand the deeper meanings, or even the basic ideas, behind so many of the terms and concepts behind so may game elements. It's extremely sad to me.
We should try to start up some kind of reading and discussion club that goes back to read and evaluate the kinds of stories that inspired D&D, the pulps, the Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Anderson, Leiber, Vance... all the stories from the list in Appendix N of the 1st Edition DMG, and all the other associated literature of that style. This is the original roots of D&D, and going back to read it would be invaluable knowledge for players. I remember reading an article series on the TOR website back a few years ago leading up to the release of 5E where they did just that, going through some books from Appendix N, and I think an expanded version of that idea would be fantastic for ENWorld to do.
In fact, one of the big reasons why I loved 5E so much when I first read the PHB was the sense I got that it was really going back to more of the style of those kinds of stories, with the lower Armor Classes, lower attack bonuses, and reduced spell progressions with more reliance on less powerful cantrips, giving the game more of a gritty feel.
Well, this post ranged farther than I had intended, but it still all ties together with my original point; I really think people should read the original stories and history D&D came from and try to understand the original meanings of the terms and concepts found in the game, because too many of the terms have become so unmoored from their origins that, in the minds of too many players, they are nothing but meaningless game terms with no ties to anything else, when in reality these terms and concepts have deep mythological and literary roots that really should be understood and appreciated.
Sorry for rambling.
