Lorehold
Lorehold College is where keen scholars gather to unravel the mysteries of long buried civilizations, and forgotten secrets of magic hidden in the past.
The whole of this campus resides in the arid desert to the northwest of Strixhaven's main settlement, where Lord Velomachus makes his home among the layers and layers of ruins long forgotten empires have left behind.
There is a popular story told to newcomers, that centuries ago, when the university was still in its infancy, Velomachus turned over in his sleep and triggered a massive underground quake. When he awoke he discovered his pupils were excitedly exploring the remnants of an ancient city that had been long buried by the dunes, now accessible via a deep canyon that had opened up from the Dragon's fitful slumber.
Effigy Canyon, as it was dubbed, has since been populated, and repurposed to suit the needs of the Lorehold school - serving as an abundance of living spaces, a thriving market space, an ongoing excavation and research project for keen students, and an ideal locale from which to commune with the spirits of long ago. It also means the majority of the school of history is underground, a fact that all its inhabitants are most grateful for given the blazing heat above the sands.
The main center of learning here is Kollema Hall, which serves as an archive of historical records that rivals even the Biblioplex, as well as a gathering place for important lectures and a safe location for some of the more extreme lessons taught by the Lorehold scholars, which can range from summoning the spirits of ancient beings as guest speakers, to immersing students in massive simulations of how things were in specific time periods on hundreds of worlds. The cavernous and winding underlevels of the mighty structure are also said to house a secret route into the lair of Lord Velomachus himself, rumored to be a secret library of particular magnificence.
Lorehold College is dedicated to the study of history, and studies here include a great many related subjects, such as archaeology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, religion, and economics. All factors that impact the way people live are of great interest to the scholars and students of the school of archaeomancy.
The dichotomy of Order vs. Chaos pervades historical studies at Lorehold. This represents historians' tendency toward arguing either that history is a series of neatly repeating patterns, responding to push and influence in a tidy and predictable way - or a series of happenstance and coincidence that drives all things towards entropy.
The perspective of the Order-oriented scholars, headed by Dean August Tullus, is that the forces that drive civilization pull people together - law, religeon, economics, education, social class, and so on - drive historical events and create a predictable rhythm that can be analyzed in studying the acts of people collectively.
Conversely, the Scholars of Chaos -currently led by Dean Plargg Morgakh- focus on the the spontaneous acts of individuals - single pivotal actions driven by the passions of those inspired by family or friends, forced to drastic measures by circumstances of their lives, or simply propelled by personal aspiration. The sheer disruptive force of such acts, borne from emotions and inspiration can send the course of whole civilizations careening off in whole new directions like a ship carried inextricably off by a storm.
The whole of this campus resides in the arid desert to the northwest of Strixhaven's main settlement, where Lord Velomachus makes his home among the layers and layers of ruins long forgotten empires have left behind.
The School of Archeomancy
There is a popular story told to newcomers, that centuries ago, when the university was still in its infancy, Velomachus turned over in his sleep and triggered a massive underground quake. When he awoke he discovered his pupils were excitedly exploring the remnants of an ancient city that had been long buried by the dunes, now accessible via a deep canyon that had opened up from the Dragon's fitful slumber.
Effigy Canyon, as it was dubbed, has since been populated, and repurposed to suit the needs of the Lorehold school - serving as an abundance of living spaces, a thriving market space, an ongoing excavation and research project for keen students, and an ideal locale from which to commune with the spirits of long ago. It also means the majority of the school of history is underground, a fact that all its inhabitants are most grateful for given the blazing heat above the sands.
The main center of learning here is Kollema Hall, which serves as an archive of historical records that rivals even the Biblioplex, as well as a gathering place for important lectures and a safe location for some of the more extreme lessons taught by the Lorehold scholars, which can range from summoning the spirits of ancient beings as guest speakers, to immersing students in massive simulations of how things were in specific time periods on hundreds of worlds. The cavernous and winding underlevels of the mighty structure are also said to house a secret route into the lair of Lord Velomachus himself, rumored to be a secret library of particular magnificence.
Studies At Lorehold
Lorehold College is dedicated to the study of history, and studies here include a great many related subjects, such as archaeology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, religion, and economics. All factors that impact the way people live are of great interest to the scholars and students of the school of archaeomancy.
Order and Chaos
The dichotomy of Order vs. Chaos pervades historical studies at Lorehold. This represents historians' tendency toward arguing either that history is a series of neatly repeating patterns, responding to push and influence in a tidy and predictable way - or a series of happenstance and coincidence that drives all things towards entropy.
The perspective of the Order-oriented scholars, headed by Dean August Tullus, is that the forces that drive civilization pull people together - law, religeon, economics, education, social class, and so on - drive historical events and create a predictable rhythm that can be analyzed in studying the acts of people collectively.
Conversely, the Scholars of Chaos -currently led by Dean Plargg Morgakh- focus on the the spontaneous acts of individuals - single pivotal actions driven by the passions of those inspired by family or friends, forced to drastic measures by circumstances of their lives, or simply propelled by personal aspiration. The sheer disruptive force of such acts, borne from emotions and inspiration can send the course of whole civilizations careening off in whole new directions like a ship carried inextricably off by a storm.
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