Brunnhold

Brunnhold is the first university of sorcery. Located in Eastern Anaxas, it is home to over 15,000 students, 1,500 professors, and an extended faculty of almost 1,700. Apart from galdori, Brunnhold also houses a substantial wick, passive and human population in its college town, the Stacks.

History

Brunnhold was established around 100 BT (the exact date is lost to history) as an early settlement of galdori. Then called Bruanhald, it was built from red sandstone from the surrounding hills; its name means "red home." Construction of the massive university would continue for several hundred years until Brunnhold was roughly the size of a city. Over the centuries, Brunnhold has been the backdrop of numerous technological and magical advances, including the first production of artificial fire, the mapping of the brain, the discovery of timekeeping, and the invention of steam power and hydraulics. It houses several prominent intellectual gatherings, such as the annual Clock's Eve festival (which functions as a fair for new spells and inventions as well as a religious rite), the Arts Fair, the biannual Southern Galdori Convention, the Gala of Physics and the Cartographer's Convention.

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Initiation Test

Brunnhold begins accepting students at the tender age of 10, the age when the galdori mind becomes receptive to magic. Prospective students are subjected to a lengthy initiation test, which is graded on a decimal scale of 0 to 10. In order to be admitted to the school, a child must test with a score of above 1. If the machine used for testing does not register a hint of a field, this means the child is a passive galdor. Any passive is denied the right to study at the school, and many passives go on to work as servants at the school.

In addition to passives, wicks are not allowed to learn at the school, though in some rare cases the child of a galdor and a non-galdor can pass his test and achieve admittance, provided his true parentage is kept secret. Most wicks have a very weak field (compared to galdori).

Studies

The accepted students study for ten years in an environment which has produced the majority of the world's intellectuals, a rigorous program intended to instruct them broadly before allowing them to choose a single (or even two) areas of focus and specialize them. The program intends to prep young galdori to be the movers and shakers of society. Often, students are taken on as apprentices, either to the extended or the resident faculty; this puts them in an ideal situation for moving up in society.

Faculty

see also Brunnhold Course List

The extended faculty at Brunnhold are usually magisters, scientists, explorers and other high intellectuals who use the campus for their research. They occasionally give guest lectures to the students and faculty.

Apart from teaching, the faculty of Brunnhold serves another purpose - to elect the King and Queen of the country. When the royalty reach retirement age, the Headmaster of Brunnhold, who is elected from within the faculty, chooses the King and Queen based on the nominations he receives from the Chairs, a group of ten galdori who serve as the Headmaster's advisory board. The Chairs are also elected from within the faculty. The basis for this system is the belief that the highest intellectuals in the land should choose who they want to lead the country. With this system in place, it is often unclear where the real power in the country lies; the King is often little more than a figurehead, and the Headmaster of Brunnhold is allowed to make other executive orders.

Campus

See Map of Brunnhold for a graphic map of the school.

Brunnhold is an ancient circle-shaped city surrounded by a thick wall of red stone 3 miles in diameter. It is composed of two parts: the gibbous-shaped Brunnhold campus, which contains the inner and outer campus, and a crescent-shaped college town known as the Stacks. These two parts of Brunnhold are separated by an enormous Aqueduct and connected by a huge bridge.

Brunnhold is home to the Church of the Moon, which houses a religious sect called the Everine. These priests study Time and everything associated with it. Many students go on to serve within the ranks of the Everine.

The Campus

The expansive ""inner campus"" of Brunnhold, located along the northern wall and extending into the middle of the city, houses such structures as dormitories, lecture halls, classrooms, a large galley, the Long Hall (where important lectures are given), the Banquet Hall (where state dinners are often held), the Church of the Moon, various laboratories, and a huge Library of grimoires. This part of the University is staffed exclusively by passive servants.

The ""outer campus"" (which is located along the Aqueduct) is home to lawns, gardens and forests, as well as some faculty housing and a collection of school shops. The Field of Practical Application is used for demonstrations of magic; the Gardens are a place of relaxation and contemplation (and sometimes, paranormal investigation).

The Stacks

At the southern side of the campus is the college town known as the Stacks, where visitors to the University find lodging and students and professors spend their free time. The Stacks is home to many taverns, bars, shops, bakeries and other attractions. It is also the home of many humans and a handful of wicks, who run the businesses and profit off the disposable income of the young galdori. Since students tend to have more liberal views towards humans and wicks, it is a relatively peaceful area.

Student Life

Daily Routine

After breakfast in the cafeteria, students attend class for most of the day. These classes can be in many forms - lectures, practicals, demonstrations, field trips or other formats, depending on the teacher. Most students have around six classes in a day, an these classes can be one, two or even three hours in length. There is a one-hour break for lunch and tea. Dinner is eaten after classes end, usually around 22 o'clock, and students are then free until curfew, at which time they must check in to their dormitories or get a pass to study in the Library. There is not usually much homework, but teachers usually assign students spells to practice and long-term papers or projects.

The students have two days off at the end of the week (the ninth and tenth day of the week). They may do anything they like on this day, including go to the Stacks.

Students eat together in a cafeteria for most meals. Each day of the week, a formal dinner is served for a single form. For example, on the first day of the week, the first year students eat together at the Banquet Hall with the Headmistress; on the second day, the second form, and so on. This is called Formal Supper and is dreaded by most students, for there is always a chance they will have to sit with a teacher or (goddess forbid) the Headmistress. The purpose of the supper is to foster good manners and social conduct by forcing students to eat under the supervision of their teachers. Skipping formal supper results in detention. Ninth and tenth year students, whose suppers fall on the weekly days off, are especially unlucky, but are obligated to attend nonetheless.

Students are held to a strict curfew when they first arrive at the school. Until fourth year, the curfew is 28 o'clock (generally considered to be nightfall), and it is extended to 30 o'clock (midnight) until sixth year. After turning 16, students have no curfew.

Terms and Breaks

There are two terms in the year. The first term ends at the beginning of Roalis, and a second begins in the middle of Roalis, with a short summer break in between. There are usually exams at the end of both terms.

Brunnhold has small, one-or-two-week vacations scattered throughout the year, usually coinciding with major holidays but often happening at the discretion of teachers. During the Gala of Physics, for example, students get twelve days off. The longest vacation is Winter Holiday, which lasts the entire month of Ophus, beginning on Dally Day. The initiation tests are done during the vacation, and school officially begins the day after Clock's Eve, though most students begin to move back in around the 25th. Usual vacation dates are as follows:

Winter Holiday - month of Ophus; this break concludes the previous school year and heralds in a new one
Feast of St. Grumble - 1 week off starting Loshis 1 and ending Loshis 10
Cartographer's Convention - 5 days off starting Hamis 10th and ending on the 15th during which interested students may travel to Plugit to attend the conference
Summer mid-term break - Roalis 15th through 30th, wherein students settle their autumn classes and teachers prepare to implement new lesson plans
Gala of Physics - 12 days off Yaris 1st-12th during which most students remain at school for the Gala
Vortas break - Vortas 15th-25th off, the last break before winter holiday

Living Arrangements

There are no less than 42 student dormitory buildings, segregated by form and gender. Each floor has a single adult in charge; the girls answer to Matrons and the boys have Patrons. The lower form dormitories have common sleeping rooms where students live with ten roommates; there are many rooms like these on each floor, as well as a common study, lounge and washroom. The upper form dormitories have individual rooms for each student. Although the rooms are small, the students appreciate the increased privacy that comes with age, and sixth year is a highly anticipated year. Due to the large number of students, these buildings are quite large and exist in their own neighborhood inside the school.

Teachers and other faculty usually reside in one of the many residential neighborhoods inside Brunnhold, either on the main campus (usually reserved for resident or tenured professors) or in the Stacks, which has many areas reserved for faculty housing. Visitors tend to stay in the Stacks as well for the large number of taverns and hotels available.

Culture

Brunnhold has its own unique culture, different from that of the rest of Anaxas. Many galdori children find it difficult to get along outside of the school once they leave, for they are so used to the University's language, code of conduct and other social constructs.

Ironic humor is valued highly at the school. Elaborate and sometimes risky pranks are commonplace among both the students and the often eccentric teachers, and dry wit is considered a prerequisite for conversation. The students delight in one-upping each other, a practice which carries over quite well into the world of politics.

The students have an intricate social structure of their own. The hierarchy is based on magical skill, with the most talented galdori heading up the bunch. Less popular students tend to be the slower ones, and they are ruthlessly bullied. Some teachers encourage this practice as, in their opinion, it breeds a healthy competitive spirit. Many students have active night lives, spending much of their free time in the Stacks, getting drunk at various bars or playing games in the streets. The residents of the Stacks are often annoyed at the rowdy students.

Because the professors at Brunnhold rarely leave the university, they are quite close with one another. When not competing for a promotion or gossiping, many professors engage in steamy forbidden romances with each other - sometimes even with the adult students. This is the subject of whispered ridicule in other countries, despite Brunnhold's solid reputation as a place of learning.

Servants and Working Staff

Passive Servants

Brunnhold contains a great number of workers culled from the small population of passives. They are referred to by the administration as servants, but do not receive pay and are not allowed to leave campus. Most of these passive slaves begin their work as children when they are discovered to be passives; their parents leave them in the care of the school, and the school puts them to work. Sometimes, these slaves are gathered through the courts; passives are often brought up on invented or inconsequential charges and, whenever there is a need for more hands at the school, they are sentenced to slavery (or "indentured servitude") to pay off their debt to society.

There are galdori who oppose this practice, mostly students, but since they benefit greatly from this arrangement it remains in practice. The slaves prepare the food and clean up the University, and sometimes perform other services, such as butlers or doormen or couriers between departments. There are approximately 2,400 passive slaves at the school.

Human Servants

Some humans are employed as gardening or groundskeeping staff. They are not allowed into the inner part of Brunnhold; they cannot walk the University streets or enter any of the buildings, but are tasked with the upkeep of the Lawn and several other parts of the school. There are fewer human staff than there are passive staff, but they are paid fair wages by the University. All humans who work on University grounds are subject to a thorough background check.

There are absolutely no wicks allowed within the University proper, even on the grounds.