• Everwood Wand

Everwood Wand was a noted scholar, politician and archmage who flourished in the 34th century AE. As a young unicorn, she demonstrated prodigious magical talent and scholarship at an early age. As a graduate student at the Crooked Tower, she discovered the tau-prime magion, the first new magical particle discovered since the Golden Age. Everwood became an archmage before her fortieth birthday, and served as the master of her alma mater for nearly 45 years before retiring and embarking on a second career in politics. Elected to the Harmonic Senate after a redistricting, she did not have as much success as a politician, and failed to win reelection. A few years later, though, she became the Ensconced Archmage of the Isle of Yore, a capacity in which she served with distinction until her elevation to the office of Procurator of the Oneiric Curacy. After the completion of her single constitutionally-permitted term as procurator, she was appointed a curial magistrate. She retired six years before her death of natural causes in 3402.

Early Life and Education

Everwood Wand was born on 11 Seeds 3281 to a life of substantial privilege, the illegitimate but acknowledged daughter of Golden Fall. Golden was the scion of the deposed Noble House of Yore who controlled large agricultural holdings north of Agister. Everwood's mother was Ebony Wand, a hedge mage of the middling social classes in the feudal system. Golden reportedly wanted to marry Ebony when he found out that she was pregnant, but his mother, the incumbent baroness, forbade it, needing to marry her son well for political reasons. Nonetheless, Golden provided abundantly for Ebony and their daughter. After Golden married, Ebony had another foal, Iron Wand, a colt, in 3285. Everwood was quite close to Iron.

It soon became evident that young Everwood was a child prodigy in magic and science. Exhausting the tutors of the baronial household, she was sent to the Crooked Tower aged just twelve years old, getting the fourth-highest score on the entrance examination. Her admission was irregular; she did not possess the prerequisite undergraduate degree in magic, but her grandmother secured an exception. She struggled at first with the adjustment, but found her pace and graduated with a DM in 3301.

Academic Career

Everwood began a tenure-track professorship at Radiance Magical College. Despite having been the first to discover a new magical particle (the tau-prime magion) since the Golden Age, she found it difficult to secure funding for her work in theoretical magical physics. She eventually opened her laboratory with money from her father, now the heir of the barony. In 3304, tragedy struck Everwood's family, with the suicide of her younger 19-year-old half-brother Iron Wand. Iron, an adult blank flank, had suffered from depression for many years, and was despondent over his lack of a cutie mark. Everwood abruptly abandoned her theoretical magic studies and threw herself into the study of psychic magic and cutie marks for the next ten years. She made only modest progress in the field, and dangerous self-experimentation left her with a disfigured cutie mark on her left side. Thereafter, she always concealed the injury with fur dye, a fact that only became known many years later, during her senatorial election campaign.

In 3316, Everwood, by that point a tenured professor, was hired by the Crooked Tower, and in 3320, she was elected Archmage and Mistress of the Crooked Tower by its faculty. Though young by the standards of the position, Everwood excelled as an academic and administrator, and was popular with students and faculty alike. Although professing asexuality, Everwood was involved in a scandal involving her supposed sexual activity with a married stallion, Windy Pin. The truth of the matter was never arrived at convincingly, but in any case, Everwood's position was not seriously threatened by her alleged affair.

Everwood was a mentor, either directly or indirectly, to many young scholars. During her tenure at the Crooked Tower, Everwood knew Emerald Hues, later the Element of Magic.

In 3365, shortly after supporting the establishment of a laboratory to study Shadhavar magic at the Crooked Tower, Everwood resigned, stating a desire to end her tenure on a high note.

Second Career in Politics

Everwood returned to her father's lands, writing and mostly keeping to herself, though she occasionally travelled to lecture or attend conferences. A vociferous supporter of the State of Harmonia virtually since its foundation, Everwood became frustrated with some aspects of its politics, and decided to run for office. A negative campaign against her backfired: in an attempt to portray Everwood as a reckless experimentalist, one of her opponents bribed Everwood's disgruntled former personal assistant to expose Everwood's false cutie mark and the events that had led to her adopting it. However, Everwood's explanation of her actions was accepted by the electorate, who instead perceived her as self-sacrificing and passionate. She was elected in 3366 by a wide margin, receiving an outright majority of first-choice votes, 54%.

Unfortunately, however, Everwood was not as successful in the Senate as she had been in academic life, adapting poorly to its, as she put it, "lack of rigorously evidence-based, rational methods for devising legislation." She also made certain comments which were interpreted as anti-democratic. Though she attributed these to frustration with colleagues and the voters who elected them, they did not sit particularly well with her own, and Everwood narrowly lost her re-election bid in 3370. Afterward, she again retired to the barony. By this time, however, her father was gravely ill, and soon died. His legitimate daughter Platinum Fall, Everwood's half-sister, had always regarded her father's bastard as a rival, and friction with the new baroness resulted in Everwood leaving their ancestral lands. Desiring a change of scenery, she moved to New Canterlot, where her younger cousin Mahogany Wand lived.

New Canterlot and Late Career

Cut off from her family’s wealth, Everwood put most of her savings into building an unusual townhouse in Solaria-On-The-Lake. She tended to live outside her now-reduced means, and after a bitter legal dispute with a neighbor, she was hard up for money, briefly having to support herself by tutoring and teaching magical life extension. However, she was soon able to use her connections and notoriety to secure appointment as the Ensconced Archmage of the Isle of Yore. In this position, she got her second wind, serving successfully - and largely uncontroversially - from 3374-3389. She was nominated for the procuratorship of the Oneiric Curacy and was easily confirmed by the Harmonic College of Archmagi, assuming the office in 3389. She moved to the procurator's official residence in the Oneiric curacy's mother sconce in Haywaii.

As Procurator, Everwood oversaw the opening of several new magical research facilities and institutions in the Oneiric Curacy, and recognized six new archmagi during her tenure, including her own successor in the sconce of Bluestar, Solar Paragon. At the conclusion of her five-year term (3389-3394) as procurator, Everwood was made a Curial Magistrate, one of several officers of the curacy responsible for deciding cases on appeal from the archmages' courts at the sconce level. After developing unexpected complications of magical life extension in 3396, Everwood retired from the curacy and returned to her home in Solaria-on-the-lake, where she lived with her cousin Mahogany Wand. She passed away from natural causes in 3402, aged 121. She left her modest estate to Mahogany, who had cared for her in her final illness.

Everwood Wand's legacy was widely acknowledged in magico-legal and academic circles. Her funeral in New Canterlot was attended by many Isle of Yore notables, including representatives of the Curatrix and the Noble House of Yore. A volume of her selected scholarly works, published in honor of her 120th birthday, was repeatedly republished after her death. The Everwood Medal, awarded to researchers who make discoveries in magical physics, is named after her.