Editing Setting:Tabula Gloria/Benalor/The Ebony Tower (section)

=Further Distinction=
The other difference between the Benaloran College and the Imperial Department lies in the structure and function of each. Unlike the scholastically oriented University, the College of Shapers functioned more like a guild than anything else, merely an official association of practicing Shapers. The structure of it was also very much like the traditional apprenticeships of the present-day guilds. An apprentice would be selected to join the College, in which it would learn the basics of Shaping on both the factory floor and in the magical laboratory - it was important to the Shapers to be able to perform both parts of the task instead of becoming either a grunt of the factory or a lofty mage. Once graduated, the apprentice would become a journeyman who would travel throughout Benalor to hone his craft until he attained the title of Master Shaper by the College. By then, he could either become an independent Shaper, or return to the College to train the next generation as well as assist on collaborative research.

It is also noteworthy that the College operated separately from the Benaloran administration, which focused more on maintaining order within as well as handling foreign policy. Though it had to follow many of the government's labor laws (which were surprisingly progressive at the time, protecting children under the age of ten from working in the harsh conditions of the factories), the College otherwise regulated itself. Annually, the College would send out a wave of '''Inspectors''', who were tasked with ensuring that College-certified Shapers both within the College itself and among the independent Shapers in the Benaloran cities were maintaining the College's meticulous standards for Shaping. In the case of independent Shapers, the inspection was two-fold, for whenever they produced a machine, they had to make a duplicate for inspection. By College standards, the machine would have to be made for constructive and peaceful purposes unless otherwise commissioned by the Benaloran government or the College itself. This process was usually regulated within the College's laboratories, so that part of the yearly inspection for those working there provided to be a moot point.