Albion University
The first university in Valor, Albion University was founded to imitate and improve upon the Universal School of the High Arcane, the epicenter of higher learning and research under the Raithar Empire.
Purpose / Function
The University is a hub of learning--both of research pursued by masters, and of instruction passed down to students. For any field of study, for any question or quandary, there is someone at the university seeking a greater understanding of it. There are likely also a number of students following that person, more or less enthusiastically, through the course of their research.
The guilds have a cooperative relationship with this and the other universities, funding and otherwise supporting the universities' research in return for a deeper or broader education of the guilds' members. The only distinction made between guild students and those (usually wealthy) students who apply to the university directly is that the former must prove their guild's approval of the classes and apprenticeships they have applied to.
Alterations
Though individual rooms have been re-purposed or updated with the latest equipment, the university buildings have changed remarkably little since they were completed. The primary alteration of the university has been the additions of a few auxiliary buildings in the Eastern Inland district, used for additional housing, experiments that may be too disruptive of nearby classes, and for keeping some distance between the Alchemy department and the Chemistry department.
Architecture
Located in the southeastern corner of Albion's city center, the university fits in well with the clean lines and bold shapes of Temple Square and the colonnades of the Forums. It consists of four buildings, laid out around a central courtyard.
The grand hall is made of albion stone, and is symmetrical with a single tower at the center front of the building. Along the back, a palisade stretches the full length of the building and past it, connecting to the dormitories on either side. Across the courtyard, the research hall is shorter but has a larger footprint, and is also primarily albion. The wall facing the courtyard is curved inward, with pillars and arching windows, but the most stunning feature is the clock.
Set on a broad, solid white wall at the center of the building's side, the intricate, multicolored clock risks looking out of place. Much of the mechanics were left showing; the rest of the clock is lavishly decorative. The clock was commissioned and installed as a symbol of the university itself--scientific, precise, beautiful, and reliant on every one of its components to ensure the steady function of the whole.
The dormitories are utilitarian by comparison; twin buildings of wood and brick, one each for students and for faculty. Though not all of either category choose to reside at the university itself, most prefer to, and both dormitories are generally full to capacity.
History
At its founding, many longer, more formal names were considered, but the scholars tasked with its creation eventually came to consensus on the simplest option.
We hope to build a place not of pompous elitism or of nationalist showmanship, but of clear-minded learning. In pursuit of pure and unvarnished truth, let us select a name for our school that is likewise unvarnished. No poetry nor genius of phrase could improve on this plain truth: Universal knowledge studied from this location in our dear Albion, hence the name, Albion University.
In the two hundred-and-some years since, several other universities have been founded following the model set out by Albion University, including two others in Albion itself (Leimeren University and the more specialized Starlight University).
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