University of Zarun
The University of Zarun is famous for its school of classical hermetic wizardry and for school of military science, but the university is dedicated to all forms of including. It more or less monopolizes all higher learning in the Colassian Confederacy and is the main source of power and influence for the kingdom of Jamey'ard, more commonly known by its colloquial nickname Magicland.by me with Hero ForgePah! A group of humans boasting that they are the most learned and wise humans in all of East Colassia is like a group of goblins boasting that they are the most well-mannered and hygenic goblins in all of East Colassia. -Reylis Ardreth, governor of the City of Light
While the university founders and all their generations of successors valued learning for the sake of learning, for most of the university's history, the land was embroiled in war and turmoil which required the university to skew towards martial lore including but not limited to alchemy, engineering, and combat magic. The relatively recent armistice with Kahdisteria allows us to finally dive deeper into peace time academic pursuits, but we cannot let our metaphorical blades grow dull."-Akeem of Magicland, professor emeritus of historyby Eron12 with Hero Forge"The wizard alumni from the University of Zarun are so well-known that many foreigners assume the University is solely a magical and are unaware that well less than half our our students actually study magic there. Of course there is overlap. A sage can learn a bit of wizarding and more than a few wizards are sages in their own right.
Structure
"On paper, Jamey'ard (Jah-meh-ARD) feudal monarchy many others, but very few people call it Jamey'ard, they call it 'Magicland'. They dont just call it Magicland because 'Jamey'ard' is hard to pronounce correctly. For all intents and purposes, the wizards are in charge of everythingIn theory, Magicland has a hereditary monarch who has several hereditary Counts below. But the king and his vassals are figureheads. When Emerald Springs Coven makes a 'suggestion' to the king and his men always do as they are told. When the University of Zara leaders make a 'suggestion', the Emerald Springs Coven always does as they are told. Basically the king knows that his army is not strong enough to protect the people and maintainordwithout the Emerald Spring Coven wizards backing them up. The Emerald Spring Coven cannot train their own members or recruit new members without the blessing of the University of Zara. You'll note that while that the three supposedly separate entities of the kingdom, coven, and university all use an elephant as their heraldic animal, and they all feature yellow predominantly."Magicland is a land of marionettes. It's a miracle their strings don't get tangled and bring them all down. The peasants are kept low not by elitist hereditary nobles, but by elitist academics.by me with Midjourney
The system of interdependence works in Magicland and the influential sages do not oppress the peasants, far from it. The peasants in Jamey'ard have full bellies, low taxes, and sleep confidently knowing that they don't have anything to fear from foreign invaders nor their own soldiery abusing their power. That is something few other nations in the Colassian Confederacy can claim. There is well-known a stereotype that academics can get too cloistered and forget to 'touch grass' as the vernacular expression goes. There is a lesser known stereotype that nobles and politicians miss the forest for the trees getting stuck on small short-term objectives to the detriment of their people's long-term security. The king and his vassals see to the day-to-day concerns of the realm. They make sure regular patrols are organized and well-equipped. They make sure that every farm has enough workers and tools to collect their harvests efficiently. They make sure the granaries and secured and rotated appropriately and that fortifications are well maintained. These are things that academics find tedious or even beneath them despite how necessary they are. The university makes sure that history is preserved and broad trends are monitored. They make sure that the next generation of peasants and princes alike is well educated. By helping train the heirs of the leaders of the nations the Confederacy we strengthen our ties of friendship with our allies. For without unity, the dark elves and dabeshi would eat us alive, literally in the latter's case. Finally the Emerald Streams Coven (trained by the university and supervised by the nobility) provides the raw magical power to help the university, nobility, soldiers, and peasants in times of war and peace."-Harun, Chief Abjurer of Magicaland and alumnus of the University of Zaranby me with Heroforge"The gold coloration is to honor the goddess Khemra who is the patron deity of the kingdom of Jamey'ard, the Emerald Springs Coven, the the University of Zarun. Elephants are a symbol of strength, unity, and wisdom. These are traits valued by the kingdom, coven, and university. But I digress. It's not a matter of puppets and puppet masters, it's a matter of interdepedence. Each party does what they are best at and each is stronger for it.
Public Agenda
To further all forms of learning in East Colassia and beyond.
Assets
-Eknok of Mooringsland, tengku merchantTengku #5 by Zeta Gardner"I once had a peak at the ledgers for the University of Zarun. The scrollheads barely make half of their operating funds from actual tuition fees (which are fairly high). They get about a quarter of their funds from 'donations'. Though in truth these donations are better called 'payment' or 'bribes'. I sponsored a niece to train as a physician and I sponsored a nephew to train as an alchemist. I had to make a donation to grease the wheels to let two non-humans in.Not all the donation/bribes are to get students admitted in. Some people make a donation in order to borrow an expert sage to solve a problem of theirs or pay a fee to access their libraries. I've done this myself once or twice. The remaining 25% of their operating funds comes from selling things on the open market. The most valuable asset owned by the university is their collection of rare tomes. A lot of their lower staff (and more than a few unlucky students) spend much of their time making copies of books. The University of Zarun makes a lot of money selling books. They also sell alchemical mixtures, magical potions, and for the right price, durable magical items."That said, because my niece and nephew scored very high on their entrance exams, I only had to pay a relatively small bribe, but if a human had their exam scores, they would have got a hefty scholarship but because they were tengku, they charged us full price. Irksome, but still worth it because my kin did not waste their educations and went on to respectable careers afterwards, repaying their debts to me quickly.by Me with Midjourney
History
by me with Midjourney
The predecessor to the Univeristy of Zarun was an informal alliance between a coven of wizards and a temple of academic minded Keepers, most famous was Tapukeah Zarun who posthumously became the namesake of the institution he helped build.
by me with Hero Forge
Zarun was a historical Khemra priest who was posthumously made a Tapukeah. He married a Eclipse-Touched Khemra priestess named Nifarri. Zarun was a powerful classical hermetic wizard, a rarity among the Keepers. Like most @eclip, Nifarri was a powerful theurgist.
When leading troops in battle, Zarun usually concocted the strategies and the more charismatic Nifarri energized the troops. In life In life he was overshadowed by his wife being viewed as "the husband of the mighty Eclipsed-Touched general" because Nefarri was a lot more visible. In death, their relative status reversed because Zarun had penned far more books than Nefarri, so Nifarri was often viewed as "the wife of the wise and learned Tapukeah".
by me with Hero Forge
Demography and Population
"The university takes all applications seriously from anyone who can read and write, but all applicants must pass an entrance exam. Those who do especially well on the entrance exam can receive a scholarship to reduce or even eliminate their tuition costs. Beyond the entrance exam, we consider a potential student's background. A letter of recommendation and a donation to the university from a sponsor helps a lot, especially if the sponsor is an alumnus."About 19 in 20 of the students and faculty are human. This has down river effects on the library. Books penned by non-humans are harder to find and this includes transcribed copies of Second Age books, though wise Akeem has helped mitigate this somewhat. Elsewhere in Scarterra, gnome scholars make up a disproportionately large number of sages and academics, but not so in Zarun. The Colassian Confederacy is still more than a little bitter about the The Treaty of Delas, and they are less welcoming to gnomes than most other humans. The sages of Zarun claim to be too enlightened to be affected by base prejudices but this is simply untrue. Half-elves have to work extra hard to prove themselves because a sizeable minority of the local humans believe that they have tainted blood. Half-elves and gnomes alike willing to tough it out in Zarun have to adapt to human educational practices which involves a lot of rote memorization whereas gnomes and half-elves tend to respond better to the Socratic method. Tengku students are unfairly cast as being short-sighted and greedy. This is unfair, for starters, tengku are actually far-sighted...literally. Okay, I'm not the best at making jokes. But tengku scholars have my respect. Very few tengku choose the sagely but those who do take up that mantle wear it well. Even better for Zarun, tengku absolute excel at learning from rote memorization. They can complete what would be a three-year study program for humans in two years. Satyr students are unfairly cast as being lazy, unfocused and hedonistic. Anyone who has spent time among satyrs knows that they are far from lazy. They work hard, and they play hard. If you have ever seen a gathering of human students in a tavern after hours, they are hardly different from a herd of satyrs. Even with the armistice in place, no dark elf would be allowed within fifty miles of the University of Zarun. While more than a few Confederate humans would love to make alliances with the wood elves and grey elves, but you are unlikely to see an elf apply to join the university. The best you can hope for is some kind of book swap with visiting elven sages, but even those events are few far between. You can probably count the number dwarves in Magicland on one hand, and maybe half of them are affiliated with the university. They are probably treated well. When your numbers are that small, you are a novelty not a threat.Blapur, Gnome Sage (not affiliated with unversity of Zarun)by me with Hero ForgeOn paper, all seekers of knowledge are welcome in the Unversity of Zarun, in practice, the university is very human-centric. This is ironic as the Confederate humans try to distance themselves from elven culture, but they have adopted elven prejudices. Their academics are very elf-centric. A true sage will seek and accept wisdom from any source.
Military
The University has a cadre of well-trained guards, but they are not sufficient to guard the full campus during times of woe in which case reinforcements are called in from the king's men and/or the Emerald Springs Coven.
Religion
Officially, the University of Zarun is a secular institution, not a religious institution. Otherwise it would be the "University of Tapukeah Zarun". Deemphisizing Zarun's blessed status was a political statement for the university.
That said, the university is ubiquitiously filled with iconography of Khemra. Because Zarun and his wife were very eucumenical Keepers, it's not hard to find icons and shrines to the rest of the Nine, not just the Lady of Light.
Students are faculty are encouraged to take time from their studies for prayer and when it comes to applications for acceptance to the university, priests and priestesses often find themselves standing at the front of the line.
Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake
Trade & Transport
They have a fair few gardens and fruit orchards, but they have buy the vast majority of their foodstuffs from the people of Magicland.
They have an arrangement with the Paladins in Meraland to supply fish to the university.
Naturally, the University spends a lot of money importing reagents, fuel, ink, paper, candles, and most other mundane supplies you can name.
Education
The University is Zarun is best known for its school of classical hermetic wizardry. Wizarding students attend small classrooms as different instructors lecture about their magical specialty, but students rely heavily on their personal mentors. At any given time, the hermetic faculty tend to have between two and six personal proteges.
In the nonmagical fields, more emphasis is placed on classrooms and less emphasis is placed on one-on-one mentor-apprentice relationships though to get the full educational experience of the University of Zarun, a student should try to obtain a personal mentor with a stake in their success as soon as possible.
After hermetic wizardry, the school of alchemy and martial arts are the most well-known as prestigious. But students can study horticulture, history, philosophy, politics, mathematics, architecture, and engineering among other things.
Infrastructure
The University is sprawling and somewhat chaotic mass of buildings of various sizes including but not limited to dormitories, laboratories, libraries, kitchens, banquet halls, storehouses, and outdoor privys.
All the university buildings are in a walled enclosure. Magicland is no longer in a state of war so the walls are not as thoroughly manned as they once were but the university staff make sure the walls are well maintained and that if a state of resumes, they will be ready.
There is a small town of that developed near the city with an economy that caters to the students, faculty, and visitors to the university. The town is nicknamed "the Ink Well" with a variety of crude puns involving students propensity to go to the Ink Well seeking alcohol or a chance to "dip their quills".
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me with Midjourney
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me with Midjourney
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