A name for a magic academic journal

[Odin's Eyepatch]

Hello!

I'm looking for any inspiration for a name for a academic journal specialised in publishing magical research, spells and knowledge.

In our setting academic journals do not exist (the printing press and any form of mass production of identical writing has not been established yet) but the dm is happy to let me try and introduce the concept.

For context, my wizard in this campaign is currently trying to gain respect from his peers (so to hopefully become High Archmage of the Kingdom). He hopes that by publishing a regular journal of discoveries and research from his adventures, he can advertise his knowledge and exploits to the wider public.

Unfortunately, the best name I can think of so far is "Unearthed Arcana," and I think that's been done before :p

[ExLibrisMortis]

Proceedings/Findings/Advances/Studies in/of
Arcana


Journal of
Thaumaturgy


[nothing]
Magic


Recordings of the nth Conference on
[school of magic]


[any other in this column] + the Royal Society of
Theoretical/Practical + [any other in this column]


Arcane Review also works.

[Biggus]

New Arcanist

SuperNature

Magical Review Letters

Proceedings of the National Academy of Wizardry

Thaumaturgic Faerunian (adjust for campaign setting)

Esoteric Transactions of the Royal Society

[Zanos]

Why not The Spell Book?

[Zaq]

I feel like The Potion just makes sense here.

[Odin's Eyepatch]

A lot of great suggestions here, thanks all! I definitely like the name New Arcanist, though the Spell Book tickles my fancy too. I'll have a chat with the rest of the party to see what their favourite is too.

Thanks again for the help and inspiration :smallsmile:

[PhantasyPen]

I'd like to toss Archmage Annual into the ring.

[Calthropstu]

Wirt the Magnificent's Woundrous Musings and Findings of Noteworthy Noticement.

[Uncle Pine]

Archbulletin.
What's on the Shelf (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483064-What-s-on-the-Shelf-1001-Essays-Treatises-and-Books-on-Magic) also has a LOT of generally evocative names for books, essays, journals, etc.

[Doctor Awkward]

When I was in a a game where a DM allowed me to use a book as a masterwork tool for Use Magic Device checks, I settled on a missive that the character had written himself titled, Bindo's Pocket Guide to Common Magick's.

[Odin's Eyepatch]

Archbulletin.
What's on the Shelf (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483064-What-s-on-the-Shelf-1001-Essays-Treatises-and-Books-on-Magic) also has a LOT of generally evocative names for books, essays, journals, etc.

Oh that's a great resource! I bookmarked it.


Wirt the Magnificent's Woundrous Musings and Findings of Noteworthy Noticement.

Don't tempt me :smallbiggrin:! This is the sort of thing that my wizard would do, but if this plan is going to work, I'll be needing something a bit snappier.

[D+1]

Magick!!! (yes, it needs three slammers, lots of NSFW hentai-ish interior art, and frequent articles on dodgy necromancy and monster crossbreeds)
Magic Today
Magic Weekly
Magic Annual
Popular Magic
Magic Review
Magic: the Gathering
Castings
The Big Black Book (that won't fit on a shelf)
Sage Advice

[Troacctid]

Name it after a prominent institute of arcane study in the setting. In Eberron, for example, you might have the Arcanix Alchemical Review or the Morgrave University Journal of Arcane Research and Study.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Odin’s Eyepatch
He hopes that by publishing a regular journal of discoveries and research from his adventures, he can advertise his knowledge and exploits to the wider public.

It sounds like your wizard isn’t actually publishing an academic journal with contributions from other researchers, but rather an account of his own work in the field.

This is a key difference, because an academic journal would be a way for professional researchers to share their work, ideally reviewed and edited by other researchers in the field. If your wizard is chronicling his own adventures exclusively, then it becomes more of a travelogue/adventure diary with research notes on the side.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Mage/Magic Monthly (for added alliterative appeal)

There's gotta be some pun that can be pulled out of Farmer's Almanac. Alchemist's Almanac?

The Esoteries

Unearthed Arcana

[ExLibrisMortis]

New Arcanist

SuperNature

Magical Review Letters

Proceedings of the National Academy of Wizardry

Thaumaturgic Faerunian (adjust for campaign setting)

Esoteric Transactions of the Royal Society
These are all excellent, but I fear you have missed one: Spell.

[NNescio]

Equal Rites.

[Biggus]

These are all excellent, but I fear you have missed one: Spell.

Thank you :smallsmile:

I did think of Science (I assume that's what you're referring to) but Magic seemed the obvious equivalent and that had already appeared on your list.

[Odin's Eyepatch]

It sounds like your wizard isn’t actually publishing an academic journal with contributions from other researchers, but rather an account of his own work in the field.

This is a key difference, because an academic journal would be a way for professional researchers to share their work, ideally reviewed and edited by other researchers in the field. If your wizard is chronicling his own adventures exclusively, then it becomes more of a travelogue/adventure diary with research notes on the side.

It definitely should be presented more as an academic journal, in which case, you are right, it will require contributions from other mages to truly work. The concept doesn't exist yet though, so for now the only contributions will be my wizard and the other casters in the party, at least until the journal idea of publishing research takes off. I guess that will be my next goal once I manage to launch the first few issues.

I should clarify that it's my plan to make the journal a proper academic journal, focused on sharing research and ideas. The archmage advertising is going to be by subtle editorial choices (the campaign is centred around uncommon magic, so my wizard will be using the information found during the campaign to inspire his first articles)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Odin’s Eyepatch
It definitely should be presented more as an academic journal, in which case, you are right, it will require contributions from other mages to truly work. The concept doesn't exist yet….

This could make for some interesting RP in its own right, since wizards typically don’t like to share their research, especially if they’ve spent a great deal of time and effort developing unique spells. Even if they don’t publish those spells verbatim, publishing notes on the course of their research would enable others to duplicate their work.

So, there’s a tension here between hoarding knowledge (with implications for self-preservation) and the sharing of knowledge for the common advancement of magical understanding. If you wanted to go all-out you could write an introductory essay, in-character, on just this dichotomy and how your wizard means to address it.

You might also ask how your wizard will circulate the first copies of his initial articles—how the logistics will work, who he’ll send it to, how he’ll advertise it. If there’s a deity of magic in your campaign, that deity’s clergy and temples (if any) might help with disseminating the research.

To develop it into a full journal, your wizard will need one or more editors, plus some standards for deciding what to accept or reject. A letters section would also be interesting and highly entertaining, especially once particular wizards begin epistolary duels over research methods, treatment of apprentices, abstruse points of arcane protocol, and just about everything else.

You will probably also need to screen submissions for Sepia Snake Sigils and other traps based on the written word, which would give “poison pen letters” a whole new meaning. This could be a whole plot arc in itself, with forward-looking arcane practitioners eager to collaborate through this new medium, and more traditional isolationist wizards fearing and hating the prospect of magical knowledge becoming widely available.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Thank you :smallsmile:

I did think of Science (I assume that's what you're referring to) but Magic seemed the obvious equivalent and that had already appeared on your list.
I'm referring to Cell, a journal of life sciences with a very high impact factor.

[Katie Boundary]

Popular Science Magic

[Ryton]

Mordenkainen's Dependable Digest

[Odin's Eyepatch]

So, there’s a tension here between hoarding knowledge (with implications for self-preservation) and the sharing of knowledge for the common advancement of magical understanding. If you wanted to go all-out you could write an introductory essay, in-character, on just this dichotomy and how your wizard means to address it.


That's a great suggestion. Wizard competition can run high in our setting (we have several wizard colleges competing for a monopoly on magic teaching, and plenty of independent wizards in between) , so getting ahead of the crowd and introducing the issue and the benefits of the journal might be a great way of making people pick up the idea quicker. The rest of your post has given me a lot of food for thought. Thank you for taking the time to write this out.

And thanks to everyone so far who have taken the time to suggest names. I've got a nice shortlist of some of my favourite names seen in this thread. I'm letting the ideas stew in my head until I choose my answer.

[TristanS]

Are there any major institutions of higher learning with which the periodical would be associated?

Is there an area of magic he specializes in? Is the target audience the general population, all arcane users, or just high-level wizards?

In Faerun, the Nether Scrolls are basically the source of modern magic.

"The nether scrolls were among the most influential artifacts in Faerûn.[3] In fact, in the 14th century DR, a good portion of the sum of magical knowledge on Toril was based on the theory described in these scrolls. Shreds of its knowledge were known by every mage in one fashion or the other with varying completeness"

Arcanus Fundare is the first chapter - the "Foundations of Magic"

Could go with something like:

Arcanus is latin for "hidden, secret, private, mysterious" or ... magic
Fundare is basically latin for "pour out" or distribute - here they clearly mean foundation though

Novus is new or modern -

Could go Novus Arcanus Fundare

[NNescio]

Are there any major institutions of higher learning with which the periodical would be associated?

Is there an area of magic he specializes in? Is the target audience the general population, all arcane users, or just high-level wizards?

In Faerun, the Nether Scrolls are basically the source of modern magic.

"The nether scrolls were among the most influential artifacts in Faerûn.[3] In fact, in the 14th century DR, a good portion of the sum of magical knowledge on Toril was based on the theory described in these scrolls. Shreds of its knowledge were known by every mage in one fashion or the other with varying completeness"

Arcanus Fundare is the first chapter - the "Foundations of Magic"

Could go with something like:

Arcanus is latin for "hidden, secret, private, mysterious" or ... magic
Fundare is basically latin for "pour out" or distribute - here they clearly mean foundation though

Novus is new or modern -

Could go Novus Arcanus Fundare

They wanted to say "arcane foundation(s)" but wound up saying "Hidden, you pour out!" because they messed up the grammar fierce. (insert mandatory Monty Python skit.)


Edit:

You want Fundamenta nova disciplinae arcani (New Fundamentals of the Discipline of the Arcane).

Or, well, De re magica ("On magical (matters)"), because everybody and their mother likes to write books starting "De re" and ending with an 'adjectival' noun to mean "Concerning X" or "On X Matters", "On the Subject of X" because of how pithy (and therefore Latin) it sounds.

[schreier]

If you wanted to go the Latin route, but tweak it a little --

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam is to the greater glory of God (

could take a similar phrase

Maiorem Arcanus Gloriam Editio

I am far from a Latin scholar - but

Maioerm in context is "Greater"
Arcacnus is magic
Gloriam is glory
Editio - to publish

MAGE - Published for the greater glory of magic

if you need Ad up front, A MAGE - Ad Maoierm Arcanus Gloriam Editio ...

Does that work?

[NNescio]

If you wanted to go the Latin route, but tweak it a little --

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam is to the greater glory of God (

could take a similar phrase

I am far from a Latin scholar - but

Maioerm in context is "Greater"
Arcacnus is magic
Gloriam is glory
Editio - to publish

MAGE - Published for the greater glory of magic

if you need Ad up front, A MAGE - Ad Maoierm Arcanus Gloriam Editio ...

Does that work?

It just sounds like gibberish, sorry. "To greater (something), the secret (something), glory, the edition."

Grammar is important in Latin (more so than English); otherwise you wind up with a bunch of sentence fragments that can't be meaningfully linked together.

Majorem (or maiorem, both spellings are valid) means "greater", but it's an adjective in the accusative (direct object) form.

"Arcanus" means "secret", "hidden", or "private". It can also mean "something related to magic" in the same sense that English "arcane" does, but you usually need some additional context to make it clear (an attached noun, for example, like saying "the hidden arts" in English), since "arcanus" has a lot of other more common meanings in addition to the above. In any case, it's an adjective, and it's in the nominative case (subject).

"Gloriam" is glory. It's a noun, and it's in the accusative (direct object) case.

"Editio" means "edition", "statement", "exhibition", or more generically, "act of publishing". It's a noun, and is in the nominative case.

So here we have a direct object adjective, followed by a subject adjective, followed by a direct object noun, then ending with a subject noun. The adjectives can't be meaningfully attached to the nouns, and each word is isolated into separate sentence fragments.

Edit: Misread "editio" as "edito" earlier, partly because I was expecting a verb. Fixed.

[schreier]

I could tell based on a site I found - trying to shoehorn an acronym in using a language you don't speak is hard :)

How would you say something like to the greater glory of magic (giving up on the acronym)?

Ad Maiorem Arcanus Gloriam? I'm assuming Arcanus is some faerunian (is that a word) language's word for magic, based on the nether scrolls

[NNescio]

I could tell based on a site I found - trying to shoehorn an acronym in using a language you don't speak is hard :)

How would you say something like to the greater glory of magic (giving up on the acronym)?

Ad Maiorem Arcanus Gloriam? I'm assuming Arcanus is some faerunian (is that a word) language's word for magic, based on the nether scrolls

Ad majorem Magiae gloriam. Ad majorem Arcani gloriam might also work, if one insists on using arcanum/arcanus.

[Telonius]

Ars Draconica
Gnomish Research Quarterly
Proceedings of the Society of Boccob
Topics in Contemporary Postmortem Research

There was a bit of a scandal awhile back when the Church of Olidammara claimed to be selling the Vecna Society Colloquium. Turned out it was just a collection of blank pages.

[ExLibrisMortis]

How would you say something like to the greater glory of magic (giving up on the acronym)?
Starting from "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam", we can simply substitute "Artium Arcanum" for "Dei". I think that works, anyway. "Ad" takes the accusative (maiorem gloriam, greater glory), and Dei is in the genitive case, which often means something like "of the [word in genitive]", i.e. the gloriam is of the deus.

"Ad Artes Arcanas" should mean something like "for the arcane arts", which is not a bad title, with the alliteration and all.

[NNescio]

I could tell based on a site I found - trying to shoehorn an acronym in using a language you don't speak is hard :)

Actually, come to think of it, one can go with Magia Arcana Geometria est. "Arcane Magic is Geometry."


Starting from "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam", we can simply substitute "Artium Arcanum" for "Dei". I think that works, anyway. "Ad" takes the accusative (maiorem gloriam, greater glory), and Dei is in the genitive case, which often means something like "of the [word in genitive]", i.e. the gloriam is of the deus.

That becomes "To the greater secret glory of the arts". You want "artium arcanarum".


"Ad Artes Arcanas" should mean something like "for the arcane arts", which is not a bad title, with the alliteration and all.

That works. Gets you to the front of the phone Sendingbook too.

[Fyraltari]

A wizard read it.

:smallwink:

[NNescio]

A wizard read it.

:smallwink:

Hoc magus fecit legit.

Hey, the pun even works in Latin Celestial!

[ExLibrisMortis]

That becomes "To the greater secret glory of the arts". You want "artium arcanarum".
Ah yes, missed a syllable and it all comes apart :smalltongue:. I'm just glancing at the Wiktionary declension tables--almost used the dative, too, looking at the wrong line.


Actually, come to think of it, one can go with Magia Arcana Geometria est. "Arcane Magic is Geometry."
Would this also mean "Magic is Arcane Geometry"?

[schreier]

Is editio related to published or journal? Any way to work that in, or is that a more modern concept?

[Odin's Eyepatch]

A wizard read it.

:smallwink:

I've been thinking over this for a couple of minutes now, and I can't get the pun/reference. Help!

[Tallyn]

Playmage.

"I read it for the articles dammit!" :smallbiggrin:

[Bartmanhomer]

Spellcraft Magazine. That's all I got. :sigh:

[Fyraltari]

Is editio related to published or journal? Any way to work that in, or is that a more modern concept?
It does mean edition or publication in latin.

I've been thinking over this for a couple of minutes now, and I can't get the pun/reference. Help!
A wizard did it. (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt)

[Tallyn]

Cantrip Quarterly

[NNescio]

Ah yes, missed a syllable and it all comes apart :smalltongue:. I'm just glancing at the Wiktionary declension tables--almost used the dative, too, looking at the wrong line.

Come to think of it, I always thought Latin was a bit odd for using the accusative after "to/for" prepositions. Some languages use the dative.



Would this also mean "Magic is Arcane Geometry"?

Yes, it would. More intuitive to read it that way as well. (Since "arcane magic" is kinda tautological except for D&D settings that distinguish between arcane and divine magic.)

[Odin's Eyepatch]

It does mean edition or publication in latin.

A wizard did it. (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt)

Aaand I almost got stuck in TVtropes. I managed to stop myself by the 5th page. Someone should really put a warning sign on that place.

Thanks! I had heard that expression, but I never knew it was a trope in on itself!

[Fyraltari]

Aaand I almost got stuck in TVtropes. I managed to stop myself by the 5th page. Someone should really put a warning sign on that place.
I mean, they did (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife).


Thanks! I had heard that expression, but I never knew it was a trope in on itself!

Where I'm from, it's "Shut up, it's magic!"

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by TristanS
Novus is new or modern -

Could go Novus Arcanus Fundare

I’d say Novum Arcanum could be an option, meaning (vaguely?) “new things from the arcane.”

Or Novitates Magiae, meaning loosely “magical news items.” There’s a whole series of real-world journals using Novitates as part of the title, including Novitates Zoologicae.


Originally Posted by Tallyn
Playmage.

"I read it for the articles dammit!"

The issue with the catgirls is a highly prized collector’s item.

:smalltongue:

[NNescio]

I’d say Novum Arcanum could be an option, meaning (vaguely?) “new things from the arcane.”

"The New Secret".

Of course, you can make it short for Novum Arcanum, sive indicia vera de Interpretatione Magiae ("The New Secret, or true directions concerning the Interpretation of Magic") to riff off Bacon.

(Because it will then be a pun on "Novum Organum", the seminal work by Francis Bacon that formed an important basis for the scientific method.)



Or Novitates Magiae, meaning loosely “magical news items.” There’s a whole series of real-world journals using Novitates as part of the title, including Novitates Zoologicae.

"News* of Magic". (Also, the other one is "Zoological News*".)

Novitates magicae ("Magical News*") might work better, and it keeps the parallels better with all the Novitates (Adjective) journals.

(*Okay, more literally "novelties" or "newness", but one can read it as "news", and is probably what the journals intended it to mean anyway.)

[Bartmanhomer]

Mage Comics. :biggrin: