Academy District

At a Glance

Situated within the shroud of Heorot’s darkness curse, the Academy District is an oddity among its naighbors, favoring a more rustic viking style as opposed to the sharp stone spires prevalent in the other shaded districts. Magical lights are abundant, if dimmed, to allow even those with low-light vision to see quite clearly in the darkness.
Enchanted walls surround the district, prohibiting access from any non-student, however the gatehouse of this wall also serves as a public library and school for the citizens of Heorot. Admission to this library, as well as lessons from resident tutors, is free, however only students bearing the academy’s Mark are allowed beyond.

Origin

After Queen-Matriarch Kalaraja conquered the danelands and surrounding territories, her close ally, Finrod Lungerson, began expanding his search to find other mages, trained and not. Knowing how magic was not understood by most, and therefore underappreciated when compared to the powers gifted by the gods to clerics, he wished to give burgeoning mages a place to learn and hone their skills without the risk of potential harm to others or themselves.
His search, at first, only yielded a handful of apprentices, for magic was rare, but as those students grew in power and word spread across the empire of Finrod’s teaching, others arrived or were found. Soon there were dozens of potential students, and the queen worried that so many could cause wide scale destruction if even one lost control. With this in mind, Finrod used his impressive abilities and earth elementals to craft the academy district, and its raised platform foundation.
To further guard against accidents, he created the true Arcane Academy, a demiplane beyond Midgard, where magic could be controlled and taught, and even go wild, while causing no harm to the outside world.
After nearly forty years, the royal advisor stepped down as headmaster, appointing his original apprentice to the position, to oversee his greatest project while he pursues his love of gathering new knowledge and aiding his friends in ruling the ever growing Kalarian Empire.

Structure

Headmaster

The lead instructor of the academy, though primarily focuses on paperwork, maintenance, and wellbeing of the students rather than teaching. Occasionally the headmaster may choose a particularly promising student as a personal apprentice, but that has not happened since the previous apprentice disappeared in 43 AC.

Instructor

The primary teachers of arcane arts within the academy, oftentimes graduate students themselves. They tend to specialize in certain areas of magic, and even those that gain power through ancient blood ties or natural talent have learned how to share their skills as easily as those who use pen and paper to log spells.

Acolyte

Assistants to the instructors, acolytes are students who have spent years learning their craft and magics, and are near graduating. They aid in the teaching of students where they can, and also work to craft magical items to be sold to the rest of the empire. These near-graduates also have access to more guarded spellbooks and knowledges, offlimits to the standard students and public.

Student

Inexperienced spellcasters, though not always young, that have come to the academy to learn control and perhaps for a chance at a better life, as even a lowborn slave can rise to high status if they graduate from the academy.

Arcane Mark

Each student carries a glowing arcane mark upon their palm, signifying their allowance to study within the academy. As this mark is a spell that fades over the course of a month, it must be renewed regularly and has become a signifier of when a student needs to pay their fee. Each month, a student who wishes to continue studying pays a single gold coin to receive this mark from the academy’s Headmaster.

Arcane Academy Demiplane

Entrance Hall

Located at the edges of the demiplane, this hall seems to form a narrow ring around the rest, containing hundreds of portals and doorways to areas around the Kalarian Empire and beyond. Most of these portals are open, and though there are many, they seem tuned to taking a student back to whatever doorway they found their way into the demiplane through. Instructors and the headmaster can use these doorways to go to various places, but students cannot without a proper escort. Assumable this is to aid in students not becoming lost on their journey home to Midgard.

The Library

The primary region of the demiplane, defining its structure as just that, a massive library. Halls and rooms are made from lines of bookshelves, containing books beyond counting. This leads to a very labyrinthian atmosphere, and many students struggle to navigate the halls without a guide. This is not aided by the objectively directional gravity that permeates the demiplane, allowing those within to walk along the walls at will, allowing easy access to higher rows of books, though a magical force prevents them from climbing over the tall bookshelves.
Unmarked paths through the booklined halls are not fully mapped, and indeed seem to shift and change to make such a task useless. Those that get hopelessly lost within the labyrinth often find themselves inexplicably funneled by disappearing and reappearing pathways till they reach the entrance hall.

The Classrooms

Large rooms within the halls of the Library, these areas have a more controlled atmosphere, as only instructors can control the conditions within, rather then the students being able to decide things like gravity. These areas are actually double layered in effects, as there is a thin shell around that is made up of anti-magic, disallowing magical effects to pass. Within this shell, magic can be enhanced, dampened and even made to go wild at the whim of the instructor, depending on the aim of the class.

The Feast Hall

Located around the headmaster's tower, this open space has the appearance of a garden, brimming with fruit trees and tables of food and drink for the students to enjoy. This also creates a buffer between the library halls and the tower.

The Headmaster's Tower

A tall tower that can be seen from any area of the library as it reaches to the very ceiling of this demiplane. Only acolytes and above have access to the tower, and it is said it contains knowledges and training floors for more advanced and secret magics. At the base is the headmaster's office, where occasionally a student may be called in for a meeting. No one is quite certain what lies at the very top of the tower, but it is a common belief that the founder of the Academy placed the force 'ceiling' over the library to keep individuals from reaching it before they were ready.

Assets

• Gatehouse library, and resident tutors, are free to those wishing to learn to read and write.
• Food and board are provided to students and staff, free of charge.
• A steady output of magical items, potions, and texts keep the Academy funded.

Defenses

Whatever fool thinks it wise to attack the Academy will soon be corrected, as the stone statues of hounds, wolves, and other canines located throughout the academy begin to move. These large elementals are only the first wave, to buy time for the huge varients to emerge from the platform foundation beneath the academy. Following this, there are the mages themselves, a fair number of them well trained in evocation spells that can be thrown from the safety of the high ground.

Notable Residents

• Royal Advisor Finrod Lungerson, of House Kalaraja, a human Arcanist (Occultist)
• Headmaster Alf Thorson, a human Sorcerer (Celestial-bloodline)
• Instructor Siv Skufsdottir, a human wizard (Transmutation and Illusion specialist)
• Instructor Eladan, of House H'vora, a drow wizard (Abjuration and Conjuration specialist)

Headmaster
Alf Thorson

Founding Date

12 AC [After Conquest]

Type

Educational, School/Academy

Fee
1 gold per month