College of the Council of Sages

I always enjoy an Investment Day, the College looks so festive covered in banners!

— Rothilimion city resident

The College of the Council of Sages is ornate in the classic style, yet relatively small compared to some of the grand buildings in the Quarter of the Sages. It has modest offices for the Sages and their immediate staff plus some chambers for the workers who keep the building. The bulk of the building is taken up by the vast central Council chamber.
The Council chamber has a central circular dias, wrapped around by curved tables. Seated at the tables for a Council meeting, all the sages can see each other across the middle of the room. Staffers and visitors will sit in the seats behind the Sages and by custom, remain silent unless requested by the Sages to speak. All this under a vast domed ceiling, painted with frescoes depicting the creation of Hvatvetna, the spheres of the realm, and all manner of living creatures of the air, the land, and the sea, with Dagstjarna at the peak of the dome. The Council is more interested in accuracy than in maintaining the originality of the work, so updates will be made to the frescoes periodically, to represent new learning.
Most days, the Council chamber stands empty. Staffers use it as a short cut to get across the building quickly, and some groups might slip into the outer seats to have a private conversation. But when there is a vacancy on the Council, a new Sage must be chosen. Potential candidates are chosen from among the most learned in Rothilimion, and each will spend days standing in the center of the chamber, answering questions from the assembled sages and being judged. The one who best demonstrates the depth of their knowledge (and can handle the ordeal) is elevated to the Council.
The selection is followed, typically the next day, with the Ceremony of Investment. This is a major occasion, a holiday for all of Rothilimion. Cloth banners are strung around the city to celebrate, bands play, and street vendors prepare vast quantities of food for a day long celebration in the streets. The College of the Council of Sages is at the center of it all.

I can think of at least four different ways the "piirakka" from that vendor are not as good as real piirakka from Hyvamaa. No, five!

— Junior Research Assistant Lomir, to his friend

In the chamber, the investment ceremony involves recitations of the new Sage's major findings during their career to date, which could take several hours. Any citizen who wishes to attend is welcome, as long as they are not disruptive. After the recitations, a formal robe is draped across the shoulders of the new member of the Council. Then they announce their Great Work, the first research project they will undertake with the full backing of Rothilimion. Great Works are intended to be projects that will benefit the whole country, if not the world, and they are often breathtaking in scope.

The College of the Council is neither a formal research facility, nor the home of a vast bureaucracy, nor is it an imposing fortress, nor is it a prosperous port. But the decisions made here guide the future of Rothilimion by influencing what happens in all those other places.

— Sage Barimoz

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/* Peleril */

/* Rothilimion */

College Town

There are more schools here than bars, looks like.

— trader visiting Rothilimion
for the first time

The Rothilimion people respect knowledge in all its forms. Rothilimion has colleges to train wizards and bards, training halls for fighters, seminaries for the priesthood, and master crafthalls of every guild.

A college could be one modest building, or it could be a sizeable campus, depending on the size and resources of the college.

DRAFT

This article is currently a work in progress and may be incomplete or subject to change.