Revision as of 00:56, 10 September 2005

The Solar Collegium - Salvation through knowledge

The Role

The primary purpose of the The Solar Collegium is to herald in a second age of glory by restoring the lost lore and infrastructure of he first age. To that end it gathers up the builders, scholars, and innovators among the solars, gives them the resources and support network ( as well as supervision) needed to not only restore lost lore and knowledge, but to create new artifacts, methods, and knowledge.

In addition to learning and study, the students are expected to help supply the tools and materials needed to begin the process of uplifting the world. For early students that generally means creating simple devices such as hearthstone amulets, and diagnostic tools. Intermediate students often create useful items intended for use by either traveling solars form their own camp or as barter with he other camps, exchanging common, student made daiklaves for obscure first age artifacts found by Kether rock is quite common. Advanced students are expected to either restore lost items, such as repairing a damaged war strider or airship, or to create new spells or artifacts of their own design.

Geography

The Solar Collegium is located inside the cliffs of an inhospitable island in the northwestern sea. it is about 3 miles in size and he north has a small rocky beach where is is possible to land a boat . the southern face of the island is simply an imposing cliff that towers above the violent sea. On the island are a small number of hardy natives who fish and gather seaweed for the camp in exchange for tools.

The Solar Collegium escapes detection through a mixture of arcane lore and the fact that no sane person would ever go to such an unpleasant locale. While the remote location provides protection, the primary reason for choosing it is that the island has mostly intact first age factory cathedral (currently equivalent to a shogunate factory)hidden within it's stony depths.

This unique location provides excellent support for the students in their learning, but provides a rather low overall standard of living as most supplies must be carefully imported and he majority of the camps' funds are spent buying materials for he classes. Meals involve large quantities of fish and seaweed supplemented with rice for a more balanced diet with desalinized water to drink and other, more flavorful foods being quite rare outside of feast days.

Training

Training is conducted in a classroom format, with the staff of the camp acting as "professors" who teach such subjects as linguistics, craftsmanship, obscure lore, the occult, and self defense. Students are known as first, second, and third years, and are granted increasing amounts of lab space, library time, and even a few rare luxuries based on the quality of their grades and seniority.

The first year

The first year in The Solar Collegium is one of adjustment for most young solars, often difficult adjustment as they are surrounded by numerous people who are similarly bright and talented, all of whom are competing for the favor of the professors. Worse still, they are at the bottom of he pecking order and must earn recognition or live a very difficult and spartan life as an ascetic scholar.

In the first year they are taught "the true history" of creation ( a relatively accurate if somewhat biased account intended to help them to resist the "lies" of outsiders), as well as a number of classes focused on theory. At the end of the year, they are tested for their interests and aptitudes and are also tracked into one of three educational callings, that of the scholar, the builder, and the archaeologist.

The Second Year

The second year is one of dedicated study. it is in the second year hat the students finish their studies cf common subject matter and begin to study specialized skills of their particular calling, such as advanced linguistics for scholars, etc.

It is in the second year that the students are taught sorcery, but only theory, no actual spells that can yet be cast, although work on learning charms begins in the second half of the second year, done primarily in small study groups supervised b the professors.

The Final Year

The final year is a frantic one, where the students have more freedom and less time. They are generally rushing about trying to finish dozens of projects prior o graduation, hoping to receive the grades needed for the plum positions, be they involve teaching and advanced study within the camp, work in the archives, being given a lab of their own, or simply being sent on interesting archaeological digs.

Callings:

Scholar: a pure researcher, scholars focus entirely on learning,e specially academic endeavors, such as translation and theoretical research.

Calling abilities: lore, occult, linguistics, medicine, investigation

Builders: Builders are engineers, not only of devices, but of societies. They are trained most extensively in politics so that they can understand the impact that their inventions have on others. While an archaeologist may unearth a powerful first age bomb and a scholar might design a way to create a similar device, only a builder ( to their eyes) has the balanced wisdom needed to decide what to do with such a thing.

Calling abilities: Lore, occult, craft, bureaucracy, socialize

Archaeologist: The most 'adventurous' of the three callings, archaeologists are still definitely scholars. They are the doers of the community,and are the solars who are expected to leave the school after graduation, and perform field work, so that they might acquire more lore.

There is a degree of rivalry between the archaeologists and the scholars, with the former considering the later to be too disconnected form the world to help it, and he latter claiming that the archaeologists hands on approach stems from (what they claim is) a lower aptitude for intellectual arts.

Callings: Occult, lore, dodge, craft, awareness

Crunch

students must have the following abilities: Lore: 3 Occult : 2 craft : 2 linguistics 2 ( one must be old realm) investigation or medicine: 1

They get the following charms free: Terrestrial circle sorcery(occult); flawless handiwork method (craft); ox body technique

One of he following: integrity protecting prana ; 10 magistrate eyes; celestial circle sorcery ; reed in the wind

Calling charms: (incomplete)

scholar: celestial circle sorcery(occult) ; flawless diagnosis technique(medicine); whirling brush method (linguistics) archaeologist: builder: object strengthening touch(craft)

Comments

I did something about the formatting - it was practically unreadable before. I hope, you don't mind. --Dakkareth