University of St. Michael

Large university in Waynesburg. Founded hundreds of years ago, the 100s, by southerners, growing steadily, to become one of the premier universities in the world. The older of the two schools in Waynesburg, and the oldest university in the north. It is very prestigious and exclusive, though at different times they have had more or less relaxed view of who could attend. It is fairly conservative, in the 1610s, largely due to the troubles of the 1590s. It had been the opposite before the troubles, and some remnants of its radical side remain. It tries to maintain discipline, exclusivity, a certain high church tone, combined with a strong magical tradition, though this is disguised as mathematics or logic.

Structure

There were a variety of factions hanging around: if you went through the main faculties you would find: 1) The Law faculty was uniformly hostile to magic - they were the most active in opposing it. That didn’t mean that a good number of law students didn’t practice it, but it did mean that the faculty worked against it at every chance. 2) The Medicine faculty was fairly neutral - they were more practical, and there was a lot of overlap with other areas, some of them magical. There was not much point in disconnecting botany from alchemy, as it were. 3) The Theology department was conflicted. Different churches, different areas all had differing ideas on the role and nature of magic. The straight religious types tended to oppose it violently - the philosophically oriented tended to support it. 4) The liberal arts faculty was all divided. Philosophers were for it - linguistics was a hotbed - math too; natural sciences was split, with some rationalists arguing against it, and others using it as a springboard into alchemy. Literature was mostly sympathetic.

Magic itself began to claim a place - as a college of magic (as in Norwich) - this was dominated by the guild, which was becoming radically reactionary at this time. (Though divided.)

Assets

Very rich.

History

Founded in the 110os by southerners.
St. Michael’s has the long history and remains committed to its past. Women were never admitted, though by the 1570s, quite a few of them were openly attending anyway. There was a women’s college in through that period, which increasingly became a formality - the teachers and students crossed over between the two freely. This did not survive the wars. St. Michael’s retained a more traditional curriculum as well - emphasis on liberal arts and the traditional faculties - law, medicine and theology. Strong philosophy, mathematics, history, literature departments. Also, very easy to find magic classes - alchemy, paranormal phenomena, history of magic - were thinly disguised magic theory classes in the guise of classes about magic. Others - Phenomenology; Introduction to Linguistic Psychology; Properties of Light and Color - were straight up magic classes with coded names.    The wars changed things there more than at St. Peter's. The university itself barely functioned through the late 90s - it started to come back around in the 1600s, though very different. The rules that stayed on the books while being ignored in the 80s were not ignored anymore. Women were rigorously excluded. Laws about students were enforced (or not) - the idea of students as only subject to ecclesiastical law was revived and defended. The thriving literary studies were mostly driven away. Magic - unlike at S. Peter’s - was openly practiced and taught. However, this was very troublesome, and led to innumerable quarrels.

Type

Educational, University

Leader

Castigone

Parent Organization

Free Cities of Waynesburg and Sigmund’s Fork

Location

Waynesburg