Sonnigtal College
"We may not be as popular as other schools, but we have more history and scholarship than any of them."
Sonnigtal College is the oldest academic institution in the Ynys Archipelago still in operation. While it is often overshadowed by the better-known Foxbridge College, it has educated many important and famous people in the region including Guortepir ap Gruffudd, the king of Dyfed. It is located on the island of Amwythig in the Gulf of Pengwern, and dates back to early days of the Kingdom of Wuffa. Wuffa herself granted the charter to the Gelehrte des Tals (Scholars of the Valley), a group of philosophers and academics who founded the school. The faculty of Sonigtal like to point out that this was several decades before the establishment of Foxbridge, and dismiss those who assert that the Coleg Cerddorion in Mathrafal is older, since it wasn't officially recorded as a school until over a century later.
The Scholars of the Valley
The Gelehrte des Tals were a group of academics that appeared on the island of Ynys shortly after the Age of Warlocks. While they claimed to have originated in the Volksland islands, there is no record of exactly where the group formed initially. The first documented proof of their existence was when they petitioned Wuffa for permission to establish a school within the domain of the Kingdom of Wuffa. According to the court documents, she met with them in closed session for several hours before granting them rights to the island of Amwythig. Wuffa granted them dominion over Amwythig itself, to fund their pursuits from its fields and coffers.
The College and the Kingdom
During the height of the Kingdom of Wuffa's power, Sonnigtal was a hub of noble society, and the who students studied there formed connections that persisted throughout their lives. Clubs and secret societies were formed, and many of the graduates of Sonnigtal could pull invisible strings of influence that stretched across the Northeastern Region and beyond. Even the royal family of Wuffa sent their children there, to learn how to be proper rulers of the kingdom. This patronage gave the College immense power and wealth, and nearly every person of importance in Wuffa spoke fondly of their time there.
When Eofa's rebellion shattered the Kingdom of Wuffa, this connection proved to be Sonnigtal's downfall. The atrocities revealed beneath the palace in Lorbeer tainted everything the Wuffan royal family had touched, including Sonnigtal. In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, Amwythig and the College came under the control of the Kingdom of Pengwern, a short-lived domain founded by a distant branch of the Wuffan royal line which placed its capital at Llawenydd on Amwythig. When accusations of the dark deeds and perversions the royals in Lorbeer reached the island, the Dean of Sonnigtal assured the people of Pengwern that the branch of the family in Llawenydd was innocent.
The Fall of Sonnigtal
This support proved to be the College's undoing when Edmund of Estwald, King of Creoda invaded and conquered Pengwern in 3955. His armies revealed what was hidden beneath Pengwern Castle, and showed that the Pengwern royal family had continued the tortures and mutilations that had made the Kingdom of Wuffa notorious. King Edmund only allowed the College to continue to exist on the condition that the entire adminstration was exiled, and replaced with people of his choosing. He also stripped the College of all its wealth and estates, leaving it impoverished and despised.
Since then, Sonnigtal has been surviving on the dregs of their past glory. Nobles who had sent their children there for generations have chosen to patronize Foxbridge instead, while the inhabitants of half-abandoned Llawenydd whisper about what horrors the faculty permit in the vaults beneath the school grounds, particularly in the medical college. Some report that those who work at Sonnigtal have grown weak and ill, only to recover shortly after leaving their employment. Combined with the gloomy atmosphere of the Gulf of Pengwern, the college has gained a reputation as a haunted and sinister place, and the teachers and students there are viewed with some degree of suspicion.
Still, Sonnigtal endures. A relic of a fallen kingdom, it clings to relevance through whispered rumors of buried secrets. Students who cannot attend Foxbridge College will instead attend Sonnigtal, and it is particularly known for the studies of ancient history and anatomy. Surgery is another specialty of the College, and the faculty in the surgical school are unmatched anywhere else. And as the years have passed, some of the old alumni have begun to quietly support the school again, allowing it enough resources to continue operating in the immediate future.
Librarian's Note
What can I say about Sonnigtal? Of course, they are a competitor to my own institution, and thus anything I report might be dismissed as intercollegial feuding, but there's something creepy about our southern colleagues. Their scholarship is good, and many of my books have their roots there. But there's some dark secret buried in the heart of the school that I can't quite place, at least not yet. I suspect that the Gelehrte des Tals were not what they claimed to be, and that their school serves a purpose other than education. I've decided to keep an eye on them, and I am certain I will discover their secret truth given time.
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This article was originally written for Spooktober 2024. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
This article was originally written for Spooktober 2023. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
The insistance that they are the oldest really reminds me of Oxford and Cambridge. XD It's a shame that they have lost a lot of their former glory and they have gained a rather sinister reputation. I'm curious if it is warranted.
Explore Etrea | March of 31 Tales
I was a wee bit inspired by Oxford and Cambridge here. And also a completely different fictional academic institution, which would probably answer your curiosity if you knew which one.