Seven Excellent Schools

The Seven Excellent Schools (Itarakoské: Shurda céméru ilnarune), also known as the Seven Great Traditions or the Seven Excellent Philosophies, are a group of seven philosophical lineages, also known as Ilnaru (pl. ilnarune), which were categorised during the Lein Dynasty to provide a comprehensive syllabus for educating scholars and inductees into officialdom.

The list was compiled by a group of officials under the leadership of Kas Niran, one of the close advisors to Tairazun Sora of Lein. The goal had originally been to create a new, independent philosophical lineage encompassing elements of all other schools, to be taught with official backing as a part of the ambitious governmental goal to influence intellectual life, but this was stopped, and the focus shifted to finding schools that were historically and intellectually prominent.

Seven Schools
The seven schools are normally listed in order of seniority, in terms of their earliest attested teachings or writings. The resulting list is as belows: The schools are often themselves grouped together as the Former and the Latter Schools; the first three are Former, while the next four are Latter. This is because the four Latter Schools, while themselves containing new teachings and ideas, are founded by students of the first three schools, and often serve as a synthesis of competing ideas.
 * Naturalist School
 * Arenist School
 * Tilénist School
 * Varesian School
 * Logician School
 * Legalist School
 * Megirian School

The Varesian School, for example, is a synthesis of Tilénist and Naturalist thought, while the Logicians are an offshoot of Naturalism. The Legalists were a derivation from Tilénism, while the Megirian School merges important tenets of Arenism with Naturalist fundamentals.