Where would stuff like Mathilde's robes go to after she's completely done with them (post mortem for instance)? Journeymen aren't supposed to need them and non-Wizards won't go into combat in Wizard robes. A collector item for really rich adherents of Wizard Chic?
Don't Bright Journeymen often get one of those Fireball Rings we found in the underground palace, if available?
Isn't that also a much older von Bitternach, decades in the future, serving a different Emperor? They could have changed positions, or even have redefined responsibilities by then.
I think the only way to scale this is to make it a part of the standard progression by adding it to the magisterial exam. It depends on the survival rates for journeymen; for example, we know that at any given time there are about 100 journeymen and 50 magisters, but if each magister spends 50 years in the position while each journeyman is up-or-dead in 10 years that means only 1 in 10 journeymen survive to make magister, in which case breaking even on one-item-per-magister would require each item to serve 10 journeymen. That's somewhat unlikely given the 9-in-10 mortality rate. It's probably not that bad, but it'd probably still be difficult to break even. It's probably how the Brights make it work - they're noted as being the only college with enchanting as a main-line discipline - and that ring we found is still in demand.
From memory, it's a dead von Bitternach. He's mentioned to have been the previous spymaster before a definitely-not-a-Lahmian got the job IIRC.
...that's horrendous. I'd not made the link, but if the survival rate of a coming-of-age proving ritual is 10%, it needs serious revision.
Bit like the modern (US) debt-education industrial complex, now you mention it...
I will note that it's entirely possible to be a career Journeyman, who either spends their entire life at that rank or only becomes a Magister at 60. A Journeyman might not be a prestigious position, but they can still make a good living selling their skills in any number of ways. Some Journeymen just really want to speedrun their way into Magister, and are willing to go to the Chaos wastes to do it.
The Lahmians manipulated the politics to get a guy they could manipulate in charge, then had one of their own hired as an upper-level spymaster.
While I don't doubt that there are some perpetual Journeymen, you're not supposed to get stuck there long term. The term "Perpetual" on its own is almost always used as a shorter form of "Perpetual Apprentice". Journeymen are also literally not allowed to return to the Colleges and are kept apart from most of their old support systems, thus not being enriched, but also not enriching the institution of collective magical research and education.
This isn't a 4 action job. This was a 2-4 action job, I'd say (now 1-3, probably 2-3). On a really bad roll, we added a 1/4. If we had a good roll, I'd expect something more like 2/4, maybe 3/4, depending on where Boney put the cut offs.
It astounds me every time this gets brought up (because I keep forgetting) that oh yeah, Mathilde's Journeyman stage was very atypical.
