The Scholar's Salon
It started out as a joke.
A professor of arcane theory at d'Historia Bardic College pointed out that, when people sought information from a mapmaker, they paid for a map, yet when they came to the College Library, they paid a nominal fee to the library for access to the books, but also would query the professors who wrote the books without ever once offering payment to the scholars who had studied the subject. If the scholars were half as smart as the mapmaker, they'd start charging for the privilege.
So they did...
A professor of arcane theory at d'Historia Bardic College pointed out that, when people sought information from a mapmaker, they paid for a map, yet when they came to the College Library, they paid a nominal fee to the library for access to the books, but also would query the professors who wrote the books without ever once offering payment to the scholars who had studied the subject. If the scholars were half as smart as the mapmaker, they'd start charging for the privilege.
So they did...
Purpose / Function
The Scholar's Salon is the the location to access the collected lore of the Bardic College and the Church of the Archivist. The Royal Guild of Lecturers, Professors, and Scholars establishes rates for consulting with academic experts on every subject under the sun, with correspondingly higher rates if one wants consultancy, tutelage, or even a monograph or book written on a subject.
Architecture
The Salon is a large, club-like structure, adjacent to d'Historia Bardic College's Grand Library.
History
The first colleges and universities were founded less than a century ago by the Church of the Archivist, as sites for the brightest to live the life of the mind, delving deeply into the scant histories of the Kingdom, and developing new insights in both statecraft and the physical or arcane sciences.
Over time, however, the monarchs began investing more in the houses of learning closer to the capital, forcing the further-flung institutions to consider other options. In Hero's Gate, d'Historia Bardic College took a page from their dozens of students singing for their supper and hung out a shingle, selling their expertise to any with the coin to pay. This mercenary outlook has been a long and stormy source of controversy among the scholars of the college, but steady demand from the nearest city, Shenzar, means the College rarely has to go seeking additional Baronial endowments.
Over time, however, the monarchs began investing more in the houses of learning closer to the capital, forcing the further-flung institutions to consider other options. In Hero's Gate, d'Historia Bardic College took a page from their dozens of students singing for their supper and hung out a shingle, selling their expertise to any with the coin to pay. This mercenary outlook has been a long and stormy source of controversy among the scholars of the college, but steady demand from the nearest city, Shenzar, means the College rarely has to go seeking additional Baronial endowments.
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