Wizard Academy

[dspringer1]

I think the primary qualification for white council is the power.   If you lack the skill, you are an apprentice. If you lack wisdom - apprentice or warlock (depending on how your lack of wisdom manifests).  If you have skill, a measure of wisdom (or at least not obviously dangerous/stupid/deranged) and the power, then you are a full white council wizard.

I would personally like to see more of the middle tier people.  Enough power to be dangerous, but not white council material.  Alphas are in that category as is that "magic makes me fast" cult leader in Ghost story.   Elaine and the ectomancer were both assumed (incorrectly) by the white council to fall within that category.   They have to be more common that WC wizards, but we see fairly few of them in the series to date. 

[Quantus]

But others things might very well stop 'everyone from knowing that they are the ones to go if you have talent'.

We see the DV through Harry's eyes, and so we really don't know what the Paranet looks like to the typical minor talent or commoner.  We don't know how well-known it is, we don't know how trusted they are, and we don't know if other people are actively trying to cast doubt on it or sabotage it (in fact, I suspect that this is precisely the case).

A newly emerged talent might be directed to the Paranet by the magical community, but first that new talent has to discover that:

1.  There even is a magical community, and...
2.  How to find them, and who to trust once you're there.

Neither of those items is trivial.  A new talent who doesn't know what they're doing, or even that what they're doing is magic, is as likely to end up with a Gregor as an Elaine, or more.  If they go looking for information, they might come across the Paranet, but they're also likely to come across 38 other sources as well, of varying degrees of accuracy and wildly varying safety.

Add in the fact that some supernatural predators are going to be actively watching for and trying to snare vulnerable, desperate young talents, and things begin to look kind of dire.  It's a good bet that a good percentage of young new magical talents, when they start experimenting with what they can do, and looking for guidance or others like themselves, end up in the clutches of White Vampires, people like Victor Sells or Justin DuMorne, or worse.

According to Bigfoot on Campus, it has become surprisingly easy to get informed post-Paranet.  Sounded like it's basically the top Google hit as soon as they go lookinng, once people have had an experience that makes them actually Believe.  Beyond that, well "Who Do I trust" is an issue regardless of the circumstances or walk of Life. 

[LordDresden2]

According to Bigfoot on Campus, it has become surprisingly easy to get informed post-Paranet.  Sounded like it's basically the top Google hit as soon as they go lookinng, once people have had an experience that makes them actually Believe.  Beyond that, well "Who Do I trust" is an issue regardless of the circumstances or walk of Life.

Yeah, it's always an issue, but the stakes are far higher for magic-users than most. 

A young practitioner with no reliable guidance is just as likely to end up in Lara's bed or being trained by a Kemmlerite as not.  The predators (of various sorts) are actively looking for just these young mages, either because they can make use of them, or because the are delicious, or both.

If such a young practitioner is really lucky, they meet up with Harry or Thomas or Elaine.  But for every Harry there are several Gregors.  For every Thomas there are several Madrigals and Laras.  Etc.  It's shaky odds.

[Quantus]

Yeah, it's always an issue, but the stakes are far higher for magic-users than most. 

A young practitioner with no reliable guidance is just as likely to end up in Lara's bed or being trained by a Kemmlerite as not.  The predators (of various sorts) are actively looking for just these young mages, either because they can make use of them, or because the are delicious, or both.

If such a young practitioner is really lucky, they meet up with Harry or Thomas or Elaine.  But for every Harry there are several Gregors.  For every Thomas there are several Madrigals and Laras.  Etc.  It's shaky odds.

True, but now there's an active national organization of well-meaning kindred who are just trying to help.  For every Lara or Gregor there are now thousands of Paraneters.  In at least one city they even can offer daycare. 

[Rasins]

True, but now there's an active national organization of well-meaning kindred who are just trying to help.  For every Lara or Gregor there are now thousands of Paraneters.  In at least one city they even can offer daycare.

You know, I could totally see a TV show about paranetters discovering talents.

[dspringer1]

According to Bigfoot on Campus, it has become surprisingly easy to get informed post-Paranet.

It depends on what you are looking for.  if you want info about creatures or what might be possible or news about magic related events, then the post paranet world is probably quite helpful.  If you want training in how to do magic, then I suspect the paranet driven change has been quite small.   Learning magic is hard and real magical texts are rarely available.   

Yea maybe harry went and scanned his library of books on wizardry and posted to the internet, but somehow I do not see that as having happened.  All the wizards (including Harry) are pretty hard core about not putting dangerous knowledge in the hands of people untrained to deal with it.  And Magic is dangerous - and I suspect  hard to learn just from books.  And that assumes you can easily exclude the books on magic that are basically garbage or poorly written or traps by dark creatures.

[LordDresden2]

...Learning magic is hard and real magical texts are rarely available...

...And that assumes you can easily exclude the books on magic that are basically garbage or poorly written or traps by dark creatures.

This last is important and true.  In fact, as we saw in Dead Beat, valid magical texts are out there.  For ex, in Bock's bookstore Harry ran across a copy of Elementary Magic, an introductory magic text written by Ebenezar.  Justin had used that text to teach Harry and Elaine.

But to cite an example I've used before, imagine a newbie finds a copy of Elementary Magic by Ebenezar McCoy and Basic Magic by H. Relmmek (i.e. Kemmler).  One source is trustworthy, one is toxic and worse than useless.  But how is the innocent newbie to know that he can trust McCoy but Relmmek is a monster out of nightmare?

To make it worse, once the newbie finds out that the Council and Wardens exist, there's the problem that from the point of view on an innocent, idealistic kid or newbie, the Wardens look like the bad guys.  The Wardens kill people for breaking Laws they never heard of or knew about.  They're freaking terrifying.  It's going to be hard for a 16 year old newbie to believe that the Wardens, who beheaded a friend of his for breaking a Law neither one had ever even heard of, or for using magic in what looks like innocent or even admirable purposes, are actually the good guys (usually).

To a naïve observer, Hannah's complaint about being under a death penalty for defending herself from rapists looks like a case of a victim being hounded by bullies or worse.  By the time you discover that it's more complicated than that, it might be too late.

The Wardens are also annoying.  They tell you what you're allowed to read, who you're allowed to talk to, what magic you can study and what you have to run away from, and they couldn't care less about your supposed 'rights' under the Constitution or the common law or whatever.  You can't read that book or tell that person about something because the Wardens said so, and that's the end of the discussion.

But they also are more or less the good guys.  Whereas the real bad guys may well pretend to be friendly, easy-going, kind, etc.  By the time you find out the truth, it may well be too late.

[Zaphodess]

Exactly, that's why it was so easy for the White Court to frame the Wardens in WN. But that might be about to change too. One of the purposes of the Paranet was to improve the relationship between the magical community and the Wardens so this won't happen another time. There are several references to Elaine pushing something up to Carlos or Harry being on a mission for the Paranet. If the Wardens are seen helping people instead of just bullying them, more people are going to trust them. Bob even said he approved of  the approach because it made the job easier in the long run.

btw: I think it was said somewhere that the Paranet isn't a US-based institution any more. That it is spreading in other countries. Some European chapters or something like that. Can anyone remember where that was mentioned?

[Rasins]

Harry said there were "branches" in several cities, including Canada, and that there would probably be some in Europe soon.

[Quantus]

Cant find any mention of the Paranet outside the US, in GS forward (not counting shorts).  But they specifically mentioned Paranet cells in state all along the canadian border, so at the very least I expect they've jumped that border. 

[Rasins]

Pretty sure it was during the conversation with Luccio in the Worry room.  But I don't have my copy with me.

[Quantus]

Pretty sure it was during the conversation with Luccio in the Worry room.  But I don't have my copy with me.

No, that talks about it's value, but not it's current scope.