Consider an academy of magic with the following seven disciplines. Disciplines are equivalent to general majors. I have taken help from existing D&D concepts; this video about the different schools of magic in D&D was instrumental to me bringing structure to ideas I have played with for a long time.
Magical Disciplines
Wardcraft
- shielding
- negating a spell
- reflecting a spell
- pocket building (with metamancy and others)
Kinesomatics
- advanced physical capabilities
- heightened senses
- perfect weapon control
- agility
- endurance
- bodily enhancements, such as growing wings, claws, etc (in combination with metamancy for inorganic materials, or lifecraft for organic additions)
Klesiurgy
- summoning objects
- summoning living beings
- teleportation
- telekinesis
- weather control (in combination with energetics)
- flying
- spying (in combination with mindcraft)
Metamancy
- transmutation of objects
- alchemy
- potions
- controlling marionettes (in combination with lifecraft)
- earth-based elementalism
Energetics
- weather control (in combination with klesiurgy)
- fire and water elementalism and related forms like smoke and ice
- thunderstrike
- explosions
- darkness
- heat and cold
- gravity manipulation (in combination with wardcraft)
Mindcraft
- illusions, visual and auditory
- persuasion
- calming and agitating
- confusion
- memory loss
- memory manipulation
- telepathy
Lifecraft
- healing
- taming birds, beasts, fish
- tending plants
- imbuing lifelike properties to mechanical objects, controlling marionettes (in combination with metamancy)
- instant death curse
- contracts
Academic Structure
- Candidacy requires high mental and physical abilities along with proficiency in languages and mathematics. Candidates would typically rank in the top 0.1 percentile in mundanes’ college entrance examinations.
- Time at the academy is divided into three non-equal phases.
- All seven disciplines are taught in the first phase.
- There are additional lessons in mathematics and languages beyond those taught in these disciplines.
- Candidates study four disciplines in the second phase.
- Candidates study one or two disciplines in the third phase.
- There are exams at the end of the first and second phases, and a capstone project at the end of the third.
- The candidates’ third phase disciplines are their majors. The other second phase disciplines are their minors. Typically, it’s one major three minors, or two major two minors.