I feel like its very telling of what Raya Lucaria was originally like that most of the Conspectus were formed from the successful studies of seemingly Very Aged Men, but the women who gain their own Conspectus were much younger.
Now this could be basic sexism where the Paintings of Conspectus creators simply painted the women at ‘their most attractive.’ Or it could be that the women actually achieved their study realisation at a far younger age because they were Very Good at sorcery.
Granted we only see two of them, which could be rooted in sexism too, in the Witch and Rennala. With women not being given as much of a chance in the Academy to excel or even learn at large. The majority of sorcerers we encounter throughout the academy are male-presenting after all, though thats likely more for the ease of model creation and duplication on the Devs part than it is of any real-world significance.
I’ve always been on the assumption that the Carian Royals existed but had no hand in Raya Lucaria directly as an academy until Rennala found her Moon during her own studies, and took over the Academy. Rennala ‘failing’ to be a Champion of theirs when Radagon left is thusly the reason why the Cuckoo Knights and the Academy rebelled against her. They’d accepted a Carian to champion them, only for said Carian to fall apart in their eyes, and leave them Leaderless in their studies. This too could be an educators sexism fallacy, as it was common for women to be looked down on in roles of education for so long as being lesser in knowledge, something both Rennala and the Witch proved to be false.
It’s also interesting that out of all the Conspectus Leaders painted, we truly only encounter the Witch (Sellen) and Rennala. We never encounter Hierodus, Haima, Karolos, Olivinus, or the Twin Sages directly. Though this also acts on the assumption that Sellen Was the original Witch of her Conspectus, and that that Conspectus wasn’t simply the ‘woman’s school.’
And its either Hierodus or Haima who lack a portrait of their Conspectus which makes sense because one of them was focused on spellcrafting warfare and the other on nomadic study, so both were likely always far from the Academy itself. I believe it’s Haima who lacks a portrait, as one of the portraits possesses a very apparent skull cap, which is what Hierodus wore. It’s likely Haima has no portrait because his spellcraft was created and utilised in the Wars of Liurnia, and thusly wasn’t a creation of pursuit of the stars but a creation of a pursuit of defence of the Academy.
The Lazuli Conspectus were those who followed in Rennala’s footsteps exploring Carian sorceries of the moon as equal to the stars, so they lack a portrait of their own Crown because they actually follow Rennala. It may be their Crowns are masculine because they imitate the original Astrologer who founded the Carian royals.
Also, unrelated, but a part of me feels like the Twin Sages are actually a simple DS3 reference to the Crystal Sages. Both being sorcerers who employ ‘crystal’ magic and being twins (of which there are two Crystal Sages) and obviously the name choice of Sage for the crown itself.
I only got to thinking about this because I was wondering if anyone had ever done artwork of Liurnia and the Academy before it began to sink into the Lake. Because what a brilliant sight that might have once been.
