The coming of age ritual where a mage in The Citadel connects to the Lemniscata for the first time and becomes able to cast magic.
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Almost everyone in the Citadel is a mage, and in adolescence they all connect to a great source of mana in order to begin learning the skills required to wield it. The most sterile term for this source is called the Lemniscata, but it has also been known as the Aqualux, the Allflame, the goddess Magiae, the Gnosis Clock and many more. The initiation and introduction to the "Weave" is a rite commonly known as Blossoming.
The Blossoming takes different shapes depending on the Tower. A Vermillian usually has to walk across coals that represent the Allflame, while the Azurite steps into a pool in order to drink in the Aqualux. But the mechanics are the same - reach for magic, and pull it into you.
This is not difficult. In fact, it's the easiest thing in the world. From early age children already seem to have a sense of the presence of magic, and finally being allowed to reach for it is as natural as taking your first breath. Yet, from whence does magic flow? The Lemniscata is merely a word, a term, but its truth scholars have debated since it first appeared in Azyn's "The Materiarum"-tome.
Some say it's the goddess Magiae, and that the nexus-point of her web is where all power resides. Others that it is actually within the mage themselves, and that one is merely tapping the unknown potential of said self. And thirdly, perhaps magic is just a materia, such as air, that exists on the same premise - because it just does? Either way, magic exists and it is performed. In every profession and by every citizen. Those born without it, spellblinds, are pitied and ultimately locked out of normal society; and those that willingly choose to not sip the nectar, becoming spellbarren? Fools and madmen, clearly.
Once your Blossoming-ritual is complete, the young Neophyte is chosen or chooses their Magus and teacher. This can be a mentor-tutor relationship, with one to five people involved, but classes of more apprentices than ten per Magus are incredibly uncommon.
The Magus won’t only teach her apprentices the discipline and focus required to shape mana into spells, but will also prepare their neophytes for adulthood. They will share their professional skills - be they smithing or academia - and also their life-views and/or religious views.
It's an apprenticeship in every meaning of the word and is such a personal relationship that the Magus and Neophyte develops a bond that shan't ever break during one's lifetime. Once a neophyte is fully learned - somewhere around the age of 25 to 40 - the Magus personally grants them their own Magus-title. After this they are expected to take upon at least one neophyte of their own, and usually more.