The Founding of the Silent College
The twenty-year reign of Arch-Prelate Pavuul the Cruel was marked by a rising tide of intolerance and savagery. His Inquisition first targeted the members of own faith, clearing out all opposition in the name of purging heresy. They turned next to persecuting followers of other deities, driving them from the land and seizing their holdings for the Church. His power and the power of the church and Inquisition grew, seemingly without limit.
In his seventh year Pavuul declared a grand witch-hunt aimed at ending the practice of all "unholy" magic throughout the land. This lead to countless hedge wizards, wise folk and village witches being forced to abandon their ways through the Holy Ritual of Silence. The Silencing was a horrific ceremonial torture, with tongues cut out and teeth removed before a sentence of exile was imposed. Any resistance meant death.
Eventually the College of High Magics took notice, and their Masters came to Pavuul's stronghold to demand an explanation. Overconfident and full of hubris, they were betrayed and treated just as their hedgecrafting fellows had been. The lesser practitioners and students of the College fled or were taken and Silenced, and the facilities set to the torch, the ruins buried and the grounds salted. The Church (under the Arch-Prelate's guiding hand) now reigned supreme, with even the royal family obedient to his every dictate.
Thus it remained for thirteen longs years. On the anniversary of the Masters' betrayal and Silencing, they reappeared outside the temple of Pavuul in the fullness of their power, each bearing a long staff that incanted terrible magics that their ruined mouths could no longer utter. Pavuul, his court, his god's temple, and every member of his Inquisition were swept away to other realms by a dreadful wind, and in that place rose a new and grimmer College. This was the College of Silence, whose Masters had shown their own powers to be greater than Pavuul's cruelty.
Following the Masters' return, many other victims of the witch-hunts returned from exile as well. They too had found ways to work around the Silencing, humbler ways but ones that let them teach the next generation the lesser ways of the craft and give the benefits of their wisdoms again. While few survivors of the Silencing still live, their talkin' sticks are a common sight among those they taught and command respect in the small settlements where hedgecraft is most common.
The Masters have never admitted it, but they had their revenge largely through building on the "little magic" practiced by a hedge-witch who created the first talkin' stick so she could resume giving advice to her countless nieces and grand-nieces. To this day, even the haughtiest graduates of the College of Silence are bound by secret oaths to treat wise folks and hedgecrafters with respect and to remember always that the highest magic can spring from the humblest seed.
Talkin' Sticks
Description: These appear to be a simple walking stick, crudely cut from a suitable tree branch. At the top of the stick is a small wooden plaque decorated with a stylized mouth, fixed in place with a single iron nail. Even the most basic magical examination reveals a simple but robust aura of communications magic.
Powers: While holding a talkin' stick, the user is incapable of making any sound with their own mouth, including speech, song, whistling, etc. Instead, any sound they attempt to make issues from the "mouth" atop the the stick. The stick grants no special abilities to most people (eg it uses your voice, and can only sing as well as you could naturally) and cannot be used for verbal spellcasting, although it can trigger items that require simple command words. About the biggest trick you can do with a talkin' stick is to make your voice sound like it's coming from a few feet away from your actual position by stretching the stick out, something that might actually be useful if you poke it around a corner or through a window without being seen.
People who were born incapable of speech (in a species that can normally communicate verbally as adults) or lost the capability during infancy will discover the voice they would have had when using a talkin' stick, and that voice will remain theirs even when using a different stick. Speech impediments (regardless of cause) are "corrected" when speaking through a stick whether you want them to be or not, which may actually cause some problems in recognizing the speaker if listeners are familiar with their real voice. Of course, in such cases you could always just let go of the stick and speak normally.
Possible Origins: Very much hedge magic, talkin' sticks are almost entirely used by people who've had their speech impaired or removed altogether through heritage, injury or magic. They're effectively magical prostheses. Unsurprisingly, the process of enchanting one of these things requires no verbal components at all.
Complications: For most users, you have to lug around a big stick with a board nailed to it if you want to speak clearly. That can awkward. Rumor has it there are fancier (and much more expensive) variations of this enchantment embedded in more convenient items like rings or amulets or necklaces, but those are for nobles and require far greater magical skill to produce. The same rumors suggest that many of these are cursed in one way or another.
Incanting Staff
Description: A six foot long staff made of smoothly-polished silverwood inlaid with a spiral of jet winding up its full length, topped with a disc of pure gold engraved with a stylized mouth surrounded by arcane symbols. Simple detection magics will be nearly blinded by an intense aura of raw power surrounding the staff. More sophisticated auguries will reveal the item is bonded to a single user at a time and provide clues as to how to re-weave that bond for a different individual.
Powers: A spellcaster bonded to an incanting staff cannot make any sound at all with their own mouth, but can speak normally through the staff as though it were a mere talkin' stick. The staff's voice is unaffected by magic that would silence or alter it. More importantly, the staff can be used for spellcasting, including both the user's own inherent magics and any scrolls or other items that require verbal components.
Possible Origins: These are universally the product of the Masters of the Silent College, and they jealously guard the arcane formulae required for their creation. That said, a few of them have been made as gifts for other wizards with need of such magic, usually in exchange for some great favor or quest. At least two of the Silent Masters have perished and their staves bonded to new owners over the years as well.
Like the talkin' sticks, the process of enchanting one of these things requires no verbal components at all, although these items requires enormous skill and power. by comparison
Complications: If you have one of these and you weren't given it by the College of Silence, expect the Masters to take an interest in where you got it and how. They don't take kindly to murder of their fellows and allies, and don't want anyone using an incanting staff to try to duplicate its enchantment.
Design Commentary: Inspired by a post about wizards with speech impediments, of all things.
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