Kamar-Taj: Preparations for a Counterattack
Not all Arcanist apprentices came from secluded Arcanist Families. Many young Arcanists came from the outside world, while people like Cassilius, who did not enter Kamar-Taj to study until the age of forty, were rare. Most were young, and some Arcanist apprentices came from family businesses that managed Kamar-Taj's secular assets. These young people had no resistance to such tactical, standardized equipment. Industrially produced psionic longswords were also sharper than the Tribunal Staffs that had been used for centuries, and pistols capable of firing psionic bone-ash rounds were more accurate than bows that launched psionic arrows.
Although some older Arcanists claimed that the Emperor's reforms would deprive Kamar-Taj's young apprentices and deacons of the chance to "grow in wisdom," the Emperor valued the lives of apprentices and deacons, as well as the efficiency of completing missions, more than wisdom. After all, this was a department that carried out killings, and also the proving ground for promoting all Arcanist apprentices. Sometimes, under the guidance of effective tactical thinking, a single Thermobaric Bomb could inflict far more damage than an Arcanist who had studied for over ten years.
This structural change was clearly aimed at the Arcanist Families.
Militarizing the operations department meant building a violent army, while scientifically reorganizing the logistics department meant that Kamar-Taj's resources and manufacturing would begin relying on the outside world. Every reform meant that the Arcanist Families could no longer mobilize resources as they had in the past. Kamar-Taj's armed apparatus and logistics department would be firmly controlled by the Emperor, and even its educational system would be stripped from the Arcanist Families, reducing their influence to a minimum. Compared to the previous Sorcerer Supreme's methods of forcing the Arcanist Families to yield through violence and bloodshed, the Emperor's policies could