To Chancellor Alastric Emmannulas Noens pel Colophon the Grey, XVIIth Gryphonhorn Magus, Th.M. M.Ex. O.S. Esq.
Chancellor,
I am writing to share some serious concerns regarding one of our students at the College of Martial Magick, which I have unfortunately been unable to resolve internally through dialogue with the other faculty of the College. I believe this matter requires attention and action from the University administration, in order to ensure that the mission and educational principles of Aletheia University are upheld.
The student in question, Susan Surn, joined the College of Martial Magick via our Combat Trial Admissions process. Her score was apparently the fourth-highest anyone has achieved since the College’s founding, and as this year’s Combat Admissions Supervisor, Senior Professor Blatchley was quite enthusiastic about her performance.
However, during the very first practical recitation of my Advanced Combat Rituals course, it became abundantly clear to me that Susan Surn has no thaumaturgical aptitude whatsoever. When asked to perform Relter’s Strengthening Charm, Surn merely spat on her knuckles, and proceeded to punch a training dummy through the wall. Her attempt at a Kalixian Defensive Ward was a single circle sloppily drawn in the dirt with her foot, and a threatening glare which prompted her assigned sparring partner to excuse himself from the remainder of the recitation. For her demonstration of the Fifth Rite of Destruction, she pummeled the target with both fists while shouting some sort of repetitive battlecry, until nothing remained except fine rubble. When I pointed out that these were simply acts of physical violence and not spells at all, Surn replied that they were “somatic components.” This appears to be the one piece of terminology she has retained from my lectures, although I do not believe she understands what it means.
I raised my concerns regarding Susan Surn at a College faculty meeting the following week, but was immediately rebuffed by Senior Professor Blatchley. The Senior Professor has brought up their views on the Radix Magia and thaumaturgical descriptivism on numerous past occasions, and while I adamantly disagree with their assertion that “the real magick was the friends we made along the way”, up until now I have been content to entertain these discussions as purely philosophical. However, the Senior Professor’s insistence that the College of Martial Magick retain a student with no skill in actual magick, however astounding her martial prowess may be, is frankly absurd. Surn’s physical strength is impressive, but we are a college of a thaumaturgical university, not some sort of pugilists’ society. Pounding an object into dust with one’s fists is not a spell of destruction, no matter how much Surn or Senior Professor Blatchley may insist otherwise.
As the faculty of the College have so far refused to see reason, the only option left to me is to escalate this matter to the Chancellor’s Office. It is my firm belief that Surn’s continued enrollment runs counter to the Aletheia University Academic Charter, and that the intervention of the University Council is urgently needed to rectify this. I appreciate your attention, and I hope we can discuss this matter further at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Professor Darius T. Vasquet, Th.M., College of Martial Magick