The Academy of Magic is a venerable institution of learning and knowledge, both mystical and mundane.

• In the Academy, characters receive experience points for achieving story milestones, rather than for defeating monsters.
• Students can develop Friends, Beloveds, and Rivals; NPCs that have their own benefits for advancing their track, so to speak.
• All students begin with the Magic Initiate feat free of charge; this allows:
  • Two cantrips of any of the following classes: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You also gain one 1st-level spell from said classes’ spell lists. You can only cast this spell at 1st-level, and you must take a long rest before casting it again.
  • Your spellcasting modifier for any spells cast from this feat corresponds to the spellcasting modifier for the class you chose (e.g., if you picked the cleric spell list, your modifier is Wisdom).
• All students also get to have a Minor – a secondary character class that develops at half the rate of the main class. For example, an artificer who also moonlights as a rogue.

The ArchDean, identity currently unknown.

The Board of Trustees, also currently unknown, though suspected to include several deities and champions.

The Oracle, Tavia, occasionally found in the Hall of Oracles at the Great Library.

• School of Technical Engineering, Crafting and Industry (TECI): Technology and artifice. Dean: Natasha Tinkerfingers, wanderkin genius.
• College of Obscure and Shadowy Talents (COST): Rogues and spies. And marketers. Dean: George Fucking Gable, human Shadow.
• College of Unnecessary Time-Space Shenanigans (CUTS): Time and dimensional travel. Dean: Altair Legarro, human cleric.
• College of Warfare, Combat, and Academia (CWCA): The home of fighters, barbarians, monks, and other major combatants. Dean: Alex Colby, human monk.
• College of Metaphysical Practices (COMP): Magic in its many forms. Dean: Phred the Demon Overlord.
• School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA): There's no business like the oldest business. Bards and performers. Dean: Alissa Uth'Malin, dark elven dancer of Shayassa.
• College of Communications (CoC): Mass media and its effects on the populace. Dean: Indigo Phee, dragonborn warlord.
• College of Deitific Studies (CDS): The home of clerics and druids, and others who draw their magic from the divine powers that be. Rumored to also teach up-and-coming demigods their craft.
• School of Business Arts (SBA): Business school. Popular among Mundanes. Dean: Roger Shrubber, elven accountant.
• School of Anti-Social Sciences (SASS): The other home of mundanes, devoted to pure art and research. Dean: Dr. Gregory Forrest, human scientist.

Other known faculty:

Guidance counselor: Lucinda (Lucy) Bennett. Also happens to be an earth sciences professor. Descended from ancient vampires. Has a blue tinge to her brown hair.

Potentials for Mystical Achievement: A scholarship for the best and brightest, deemed most suitable to be mages, and occasionally perfectly ordinary-looking people. As scholarships tend to be presented to those most likely to provide returns on the Academy's investment, this should be mildly concerning to the ordinary people.

While the Academy tends to refer to students by their year (freshthings, sophthings, juniorthings, seniorthings, and gradthings for students continuing their education beyond a four-year curriculum), certain colleges (particularly the College of Metaphysical Practices) instead prefer to refer to students as first-years, apprentices (second-years), and pledgemages (third-years and beyond).

• Central Campus
• Lorehold Campus
• Prismari Campus
• Quandrix Campus
• Silverquill Campus
• Witherbloom Campus

Courses tend to provide one of four things once the course completes:

• An ability that relies on an attribute (knowledge of a particular esoteric skill, for example).
• A bonus to a particular skill (+1 to skill when course completes).
• A bonus d4 to roll once per day on a skill (+1d4 to skill when course completes).
• A feat that can be used once the course completes.

These courses are mandatory during one's curriculum at the Academy regardless of what college one is attending. Most of them involve learning specific esoteric skills that are not explicitly defined elsewhere.

Common Tongues: Improvement of one's Common Basic skills, as well as familiarity (though not skill) in other languages such as elvish, dwarven, thieves' cant, druidic, and the like (Int check to identify).

Party Dynamics I: Learning to function as a party, basic adventuring, and other essentials of surviving as a group. (Wis check to know what your party members are going to do in an initiative round without extensive discussion).

Party Dynamics II: Enhances teamwork and provides education on various creatures. (Int check to identify a creature or roughly estimate its identity.)

These courses allow a student to gain proficiency in a skill.

Remedial Stealth: Provides Proficiency in Stealth.

Alchemy and You: Provides Proficiency in Alchemist's Tools.

Remedial Technology: Provides Proficiency in Technology.

Taxidermy for Taxidermists: Proficiency in Taxidermy Kit when course completes.

Basics of Intimidation: Provides Proficiency in Intimidation.

These courses allow a student to gain a Training bonus to a skill, or to a specific aspect of a skill.

Introduction to World History: A concise summary of Arcydea's extensive history. (+1 to History skill)

Healing without Magic: Familiarity with basic first aid, qualified physician care, diagnosis, emergency trauma care, and other nonmagical methods of wound care. (+1 to Medicine skill)

Proper Preparedness: Survival in all aspects of life, including on campus (+1 to Survival skill).

The Divine Comedy: A study of the gods and goddesses of Arcydea and other worlds (+1 to Religion skill).

Using My Religion: Allows you to expand your knowledge of your god and the other Arcydean deities, as well as covering some common interdimensional deities you might run across. (+1 Religion after class is complete.)

Arcane Overview: A class for broadening your familiarity with the magical arts (+1 to Arcana skill).

Studying Your Environment: A class devoted to analyzing your environment (+1 to Investigation skill).

Making Friends: A class focused on making friends and influencing people. (+1 to Persuasion skill).

Sneaking Around: A class devoted to stealth. (+1 to Stealth skill).

Technology Today: A class for expanding your Technology knowledge (+1 to Technology skill).

Carpentry and You: Overview of Carpentry (+1 to Carpenter's Supplies proficiency when complete.)

Business Matters: An overview of Persuasion as it relates to business. (+2 to Persuasion during business dealings after course is complete.)

Value Assessment: An overview of Perception as it relates to assessment of value. (+2 to Perception to identify value of objects.)

Performing Tricks: Overview of Sleight of Hand (+1 to Sleight of Hand when course completes.)

Acrobatics for Experts: +1 to Acrobatics when course completes.

Handling Exotic Animals: Provides +1 to Animal Handling.

Using My Religion: Allows you to expand your knowledge of your god and the other Arcydean deities, as well as covering some common interdimensional deities you might run across. (+1 Religion after class is complete.)

Advances in Technology: Intermediate Technology course (+1 to Technology once course completes).

Musical Composition: Intermediate lessons on musical composition and playing styles. (+1 to Performance when creating new songs.)

Athletic Support: Basic Athletics course (+1 to Athletics once course completes).

World Cultures: An overview of various foreign cultures. (+2 to History to describe a particular culture after course is completed.)

Backwater Preservation: A general course on Backwaters and how to keep them stable. (+1 to History check to deduce the appropriate actions needed to preserve or destabilize a particular Backwater.)

These allow you to gain a Study die (d4) that you can roll once per day (per course) to supplement a particular skill, often under a particular circumstance.

Building Your Own Fiefdom: A course usually reserved for juniors and seniors, covers the basics of building a fiefdom from construction to recruiting to getting citizens to move in. (+1d4 once a day to History check to take appropriate actions or estimate what might be necessary.)

These increase the DC of a particular type of check or a specific check, or resistance to a particular type of check or specific check, or have other effects not described elsewhere.

Healing the Masses: +1 point to the effect of all healing spells.

Expanded Healing: Add 5 to Lay On Hands pool after course completes.

Evocative Energy: +1 to DC of Evocation spells, opportunities to add Evocation spells to spell list.

Rapier Wit: +2 to DC of Vicious Mockery when course completes.

These provide access to a feat at the end of the class.

Extracurriculars allow you to add an additional d4 related to the skills of your Extracurricular once per check (for instance, if you have two Extracurriculars that both have Arcana as a skill, you can only add one d4 to an Arcana check.) This lasts as long as you remain an active participant in the Extracurricular.

• Skills: Arcana, Medicine

• Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics

• Skills: Athletics, History
• Members: Drazhomir Yarnask, Quentillius A. Melentor III

These linguistics lovers take advantage of the Academy's deep repository of tomes written in ancient and near-extinct languages, teaching themselves these tongues and often translating their favorite works.

• Skills: Performance, Sleight of Hand
• Members: Cadoras Damellawar, Nora Ann Wu

These painters, sculptors, printmakers, and mosaic artists gather to create fine works and to discuss the latest techniques and trends in the world of art.

• Skills: Deception, Investigation
• Members: Bhedum “Rampart” Sooviij, Tilana Kapule

These experts in the game of dragonchess discuss the latest in strategy, compete against one another, and test out homemade variations of game rules.

• Skills: Arcana, History
• Member: Bhedum “Rampart” Sooviij

These historians are fascinated by all time periods, and they regularly meet to discuss, debate, and deep dive into members' favorite topics.

• Skills: Nature, Survival
• Member: Urzmaktok Grojsh

These green-thumbed experts love mixing magic and gardening to create new strains of vegetation, many of which they cultivate on campus.

• Skills: Insight, Persuasion
• Member: Grayson Wildemere

These enterprising students discuss business theories. They often create small start-ups to sell wares and services appealing to students. The funds they generate fuel the club's activities.

• Skills: Acrobatics, Performance
• Member: Zanther Bowen

These graceful gymnasts work to hone their craft, and they compete against each other in dazzling floor routines.

• Skills: Athletics, Intimidation
• Member: Javenesh Stoutclaw, Melwythorne, Tilana Kapule

These hardy athletes train together and compete in the rough-and-tumble Academy game of wanderball, which is played in muddy fields with a living wanderball.

• Skills: Athletics, Performance
• Member: Larine Arneza

These swimming enthusiasts combine their athletic skills with the finesse of artists as they choreograph water dances to the latest popular songs.

• Skills: Animal Handling, Performance
• Member: Cadoras Damellawar, Rosimyffenbip “Rosie” Wuzfeddlims

These storytelling enthusiasts engage in a mix of strategy and playacting—often involving mascots—when they enact fantastical narratives that they resolve with special rules.

• Skills: Perception, Persuasion
• Member: Zanther Bowen

With their coordinated cheers, outfits, and school spirit, these cheerleaders inspire pride in the official Academy Mage Tower teams.

• Skills: Arcana, Deception
• Members: Quentillius A. Melentor III, Rubina Larkingdale

These actors work together to create productions of brilliant stagecraft, often involving new spins on old classics as well as displays of magic and music.

• Skills: Athletics, Medicine
• Member: Greta Gorunn

These bodybuilders support each other in developing strong muscles and even stronger friendships.

• Skills: Deception, Stealth

• Skills: Sleight of Hand, Performance
• Members: Aurora Luna Wynterstarr, Rubina Larkingdale

These music enthusiasts play instruments such as hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes, flutes, and drums, and they regularly perform rousing concerts.

• Skills: Investigation, Insight
• Members: Grayson Wildemere, Mina Lee

These truth seekers and wordsmiths report on campus news, regularly interviewing important figures and producing the monthly Sorcerer's Star newspaper, which is distributed across the campus.

• Skills: Insight, Religion
• Members: Melwythorne, Shuvadri Glintmantle

These pious students of many faiths gather to share prayers and theological debates and to celebrate one another’s high holidays.

• Jobs: Book clerk, book shelver, cafe worker, cleanup crew member, garden tender, store worker
• Coworker: Drazhomir Yarnask

• Jobs: Cleanup crew member, entertainment assistant, equipment assistant, groundskeeper, refreshments expert, ticket taker, usher
• Coworker: Aurora Luna Wynterstarr, Greta Gorunn

• Jobs: Assistant manager, cleanup crew member, cook, host, server
• Coworker: Javenesh Stoutclaw

• Jobs: Graffiti eraser, lawn manicurist, litter retriever, sidewalk sweeper, statuary repairer, trash collector
• Coworker: Shuvadri Glintmantle

• Jobs: Cleanup crew member, specimen preparer, volunteer lab partner
• Coworker: Urzmaktok Grojsh

• Jobs: Cleanup crew member, events assistant, frontdesk worker, resident assistant
• Coworker: Nora Ann Wu

• Jobs: Barista, cashier, cleanup crew member, server
• Coworker: Mina Lee

• Jobs: Cleanup crew member, crowd manager, equipment assistant, groundskeeper, referee
• Coworker: Rosimyffenbip “Rosie” Wuzfeddlims

• Jobs: Cleanup crew member, general assistant, refreshments expert, stagehand, ticket taker, usher
• Coworker: Larine Arneza

• Low-Quality: Students living here are granted a Poor Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Party Dorm: Students living here occasionally have to deal with (or enjoy) wild parties that make studying harder.
• Comfortable: The dorms are reasonably comfortable, making for less frequent negative dorm events.
• Penny Pincher: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 100 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 450 gold pieces per semester.

• Low-Quality: Students living here are granted a Poor Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Noisy: Students living here often have to deal with noisy conditions, making studying more difficult.
• Arena: This Hall has its own Arena for hand-to-hand combat competitions. Students can train Tavern Brawler during their stay if they sacrifice one Extracurricular.
• Cramped: The dorms are small and cramped, causing frequent negative dorm events.
• Penny Pincher: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 100 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 450 gold pieces per semester.

• Low-Quality: Students living here are granted a Poor Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Noisy: Students living here often have to deal with noisy conditions, making studying more difficult.
• Cramped: The dorms are small and cramped, causing frequent negative dorm events.
• Penny Pincher: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 100 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 450 gold pieces per semester.

• High-Quality: Students living here are granted a Comfortable Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Noisy: Students living here often have to deal with noisy conditions, making studying more difficult.
• Cramped: Most students living here are Tiny in size, so the accommodations are Comfortable to them.
• Penny Pincher: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 100 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 450 gold pieces per semester.

• Normal-Quality: Students living here are granted a Modest Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Calm: Students living here do not have to deal with noisy conditions, making studying easier.
• Comfortable: The dorms are reasonably comfortable, making for less frequent negative dorm events.
• Standard Finances: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 50 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 500 gold pieces per semester.

• Normal-Quality: Students living here are granted a Modest Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Party Dorm: Students living here occasionally have to deal with (or enjoy) wild parties that make studying harder.
• Comfortable: The dorms are reasonably comfortable, making for less frequent negative dorm events.
• Standard Finances: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 50 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 500 gold pieces per semester.

• High-Quality: Students living here are granted a Comfortable Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Party Dorm: Students living here occasionally have to deal with (or enjoy) wild parties that make studying harder.
• On-Site Library: There is a quiet library setting on-site that makes studying easier.
• Comfortable: The dorms are reasonably comfortable, making for less frequent negative dorm events.
• Standard Finances: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship receive 50 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 500 gold pieces per semester.

• Rich-Quality: Students living here are granted a Wealthy Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Party Dorm: Students living here occasionally have to deal with (or enjoy) wild parties that make studying harder.
• On-Site Chef: The dorm cafeteria is excellent. Students gain Advantage on Constitution saves against exhaustion due to excellent diet and nutrition.
• Sumptuous: The dorms are exceptionally comfortable, making for minimal negative dorm events.
• Expensive: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship pay 150 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 700 gold pieces per semester.

• Noble-Quality: Students living here are granted an Aristocratic Lifestyle throughout their stay.
• Party Dorm: Students living here occasionally have to deal with (or enjoy) wild parties that make studying harder.
• On-Site Chef: The dorm cafeteria is excellent. Students gain Advantage on Constitution saves against exhaustion due to excellent diet and nutrition.
• On-Site Fraternity: Emperor Hall is home to the exclusive Gamma Iota Lambda fraternity, also known as Guilds in League, GIL, or 'those fancy rich fuckers'.
• Sumptuous: The dorms are exceptionally comfortable, making for minimal negative dorm events.
• Expensive: Students who stay here on scholarship or sponsorship pay 900 gold pieces at the start of each semester. Other students must pay 1400 gold pieces per semester.

The first official week of Academy studies coincides with Rush Week – a time for all of the fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations to attempt to indoctrinate - er, coerce - sorry, convince - prospective members to sign up. In addition to activities more well known as Extracurriculars and Jobs, the following additional opportunities are available. They provide no mechanical advantage, aside from that they are another way to make student and faculty contacts and receive funding from the Academy for their personal interests…

Gamma Iota Lambda: The 'rich bastards who likely own everything' fraternity; prospective members are expected to stay at Emperor Hall and have annual earnings of 20000 Shirans or more, of which a healthy chunk goes to the fraternity as 'member dues' (and a healthy chunk is kicked back to the Academy as 'organization dues'. The Academy always takes 10%. No exceptions.)

Sigma Iota Nu: The 'lovelies' sorority, with an impressive marble-walled hall that is sumptuous and decadent in nature. Suspected to be a temple to Shayassa, although it doesn't actually perform church services as such. Always on the prowl for new friends, or new members.

Alpha Zappa Zappa: The 'annoying' fraternity, full of the kind of frat bros that would make any Animal House proud, only these range wildly in species, united mostly by the fight for the right to par-tay!

Beta Chi Nu: Called the 'Bitchin' Bitches' by non-sisters, this sorority is devoted to those upper class Mundanes who simply must belong to be anybody. On campus, they often fill the important ecological niche of 'victim' - usually with the onlooker rooting for the Monster of the Week… Those that don't fit this niche are often dangerous exceptions.

Delta Upsilon Delta: Also known as the “DUDes” or “Deltoids”, effectively the male counterpart to Beta Chi Nu. Many are members of the Wanderball Team, or at least Phys. Ed. majors.

Alpha Omega Pi: Most popular amongst technologists of both genders, Alpha Omega Pi folk are reclusive, with common interests such as creating and destroying universes in their basement. Most of their members are artificers, although anyone with a high Intelligence and Technology skill may join.

Tau Epsilon Alpha: The 'political activists' who plot to conquer sections of the Backwaters, or at their most adventurous, major countries throughout Arcydea. There are rumors (strongly denied) that they are connected to the Student Liberation Organization, as the Academy is an active threat to their ongoing ambitions.

Psi Zappa Nu: This 'leather and lace' fraternity, like many others, is co-ed and caters primarily to the 'adventuring rogue' crowd (some less polite individuals assume it to be an assassin's guild in all but name). Despite the reputation hit, members seem to communicate on another level, and often help each other on difficult projects.

The part of the Academy concerned with day-to-day operations like taking out the garbage, collecting fees, repairing blast craters, and disposing of snooping government agents is collectively known as The Administration. Under this title live and lurk a variety of useful organizations, along with countless paper-pushers and other bureaucratic middlethings.

It is Campus Security's job to keep all mayhem that occurs on campus under control, protect the paying students, and protect the paying faculty and staff. Security guards wear bright red uniforms, and usually carry low-powered laser pistols, although they do have access to more destructive stuff. Their hobbies are staying alive and avoiding student researchers looking for experimental subjects.

Except for issuing parking tickets, Campus Security is mostly ineffective, possibly because nobody with any sense or competence wants the job. When faced with serious threats against the Academy, Security's tactics are usually:

• 1. Dig out the heavy weapons and travel in packs.
• 2. Lay down a lot of fire and hope the resulting collateral damage serendipitously destroys the problem.
• 3. Find a good hiding place and hope one of the other guards gets eaten instead.

The largest known repository of information in Arcydea, due in part to its excellent efforts in computerization and vast sections of multimedia from cuneiform tablets and parchment scrolls to holographic media on datachips. Besides having one of the largest buildings on campus - and under it - the Great Library is home to a large number of courteous and helpful staffthings, headed by the Librarian. It is also a major profit-making activity, both through fees charged to off-campus scholars for access to the restricted archives, and more importantly, fines for overdue books.

Students and faculty may borrow books for one week by showing their library cards. (Of course, for safety reasons some books must stay in the library and do not circulate.) After precisely one week, zero hours, and zero seconds, the alert library staff dispatches a COST hit team to collect the overdue book, the substantial fine (1 Shiran per hour overdue, the hit squad's salary, and a 2 Shiran contribution to the Old Librarian's Home), and perhaps a few assorted body parts, if the student or professor is a chronic offender.

Of course, sometimes the culprit isn't really at fault, having fallen into a timewarp, been kidnapped by extradimensional entities, or the like. In such hardship cases, the librarians will make allowances and sympathetically waive the contribution to the Old Librarians' Home. Groveling, whining, and pleading to the Head Librarian might get a slight reduction in the fine, if the student is especially entertaining. (A Performance check may be helpful.)

On occasion, students, professors, or outsiders will attempt to steal books. The lucky ones (tuition-paying students, mostly) wake up the next morning in the Uth'Malin Health Center. Unlucky ones are found chained to book carts in the sub-basements, where they're forced to reshelve some of the more… active… books. A lucky few with research skills are chained to the Reference desk and forced to help students with inane research questions.

The avowed primary purpose of the Great Library is to help students and faculty with research. To this end, the Library employs a large staff of research librarians, who will happily assist questioners. (Add a bonus to Persuasion checks with a proper contribution to the Old Librarian's Home.)

Some materials are in special collections in the restricted stacks in the main library, or in the specialized branch libraries attached to the various schools and colleges. Access to these is only permitted to faculty, although a substantial bribe can buy an hour or two of admittance for others. In such cases, the invitation into the special area is accompanied by a lecture on the hazards. (“You realize that you enter at your own risk, right? And be sure not to stay after midnight. And whatever you do, don't spill any blood on the books!”)

For a lesser fee (“hazard pay”) students can get the research librarians to photocopy a few pages from books in the restricted stacks - if the student has the necessary clearance, or a note from a professor. Even so, some books resist being photocopied. This is especially true for the tomes in the branch libraries of the magic colleges, although a few of the more radioactive texts in the TECI branch library have been known to do odd things to the copying machines…

Students lacking bribe money, or Intimidation skill, may be forced to use the convenient access to the Library's card catalog, or its computerized equivalent. People who abuse the terminals or the staff often find that every book they're looking for has been checked out for the last century, and the name of the person holding them is restricted information. Or the books are in the Archdean's office library…

If you want a message to get someone, text or email is usually the way to go. But sometimes people want to send physical paper and ink, clay tablets, or letter bombs, and that means the letter or parcel winds up in the hands of the Campus Mailthings.

Getting a job with Campus Mail is a great opportunity for blackmail material - er, insight into one's fellow students, in addition to supplementing one's diet and wallet by pilfering 'care packages' sent from home. On the other manipulator, it's also rife with hazards from paper cuts to aforementioned letter bombs.

Technically, the Archdean isn't the final authority on campus - the Academy is ultimately ruled by the Board of Trustees. However, the fact that the Archdean owns 87% of the Academy stock and 100% of the Academy land lets her overrule them if necessary, and her archives have plenty of blackmail material to keep them in line.

The primary purpose of the Board is to set Academy policy, and to review any appeals of the Archdean's decisions. (There won't be any of those if the potential appellants know what's good for them…) The Board also sets the Archdean's salary, and members draw a substantial stipend for attending meetings (and a bonus for sleeping through the budget reviews.)

The Trustees are not personally known to most faculty, let alone most students, but rumor has it that several deities and champions are amongst the nine members.

Like any good university, the Academy of Magic gets much of its funding by extort… er, soliciting contributions from its graduates. The Alumni Association is an important part of such operations. In particular, the feeling of still belonging to the Academy helps pry money loose.

Of course, some students with outstanding student loans may find themselves literally belonging to the Academy, demonstrating the hazards of not reading the fine print. Even those who succeed in making payments are surprised by the sudden jump in interest rates once the Archdean signs that sheepskin.

The Alumni Association offers benefits to its members, of course (which helps justify the fees). Members can get a low-interest gold card (with a rake-off from the credit card company to the Academy), participate in social events such as cruises to Avylyss (smuggling assistance available at extra cost), obtain job referrals (ensuring a high placement rate as bait for potential freshthings), and buy overpriced Academy mementos such as bumper stickers, T-shirts, desk sets, baseball caps, and video tapes of their amusing antics as students.

The Career Planning Center is a service provided to students that helps them plan for a career, helps place them in jobs, and even refers them to counsel when they subsequently need legal services. The Center is proud of its 100% placement rate. Of course, with all of space, time and dimensions to choose from, there's always someone, somewhen, who can use a graduate with otherwise useless skills. Galley slaves, anyone?

A large pool near the Student Services building, the Vehicle Pool contains the various ferries, buses, shuttles, and other flying, driving, and sailing objects that convey students from location to location. Thanks to alchemical contributions from the Alchemists' Guild, all vehicles (and anyone who dares swim) within are kept free of rust and deterioration, and coated in a paste-wax buffed finish for several days after leaving the pool.

Proving there's one matriculating every minute, the Student Investment Services office helps students properly invest their hard-earned Shirans in a number of opportunities, from pitches of the Future Entrepreneurs Extracurricular to Academy projects to the best and brightest Nexican opportunities of a lifetime. The Administration allows this to continue due to the healthy number of fees it incurs for the Academy, as well as for the fund managers and the Sharks, the trio of voracious vetters of projects that take the first bite out of failing ventures.

Some staff in The Administration actually have to deal with live (or undead) students, rather than just processing their paperwork or spying on them. These hapless bureaucrats are usually those who've annoyed the deans enough to be sentenced to a semester or two of 'serving' the students. This fact may go a long way towards explaining their general attitude towards students who need a 'tiny little favor'…

Student Services handles two main student needs: food and housing. Food Services is nominally run by this organization, though in practice the bureaucrats are afraid of the cooks, and tend to leave them alone. This division also facilitates handling complaints - the cafeteria staff send complaining students to the Student Services office, while the office points complaining students at the cooking staff. (The ArchDean allows this, feeling that depriving the staff of all their fun would impact morale too much.)

This administrative department also operates all the on-campus student housing, as well as providing a locator service for off-campus housing (which has much better cash flow, since landlords usually have a lot more money for bribes than students). Student Services has excellent accountants on staff - they are experts at insuring that living on-campus is marginally cheaper than off-campus. And the large staff of quality assurance experts ensures that on-campus living conditions are only marginally worse…

Generally staffed by COST students who have the bad habit of practicing whatever they've just learned on their vict– er, patients, in addition to more conventional doctors and clerics. Resurrections are common and inexpensive as part of the Student Health Insurance Treatment plan, which all students have as part of their student fees. Students would rather die than go to the Health Center, if they can avoid it, which explains the brisk service in resurrections…

Although students are notoriously disorganized, there are some Academy-supported student organizations. (Most students will develop some organization, if they can get free money for it.) Funding for these groups is taken from the 'Student Activity Fee' collected every semester. The Administration manages to spend about three quarters of this fee on 'overhead and administrative expenses', with the remaining money being allocated to student groups.

Half of the budget is determined by the Student Senate, with the other half set by a student vote every year. Needless to say, there's a lot of activity just before voting day, and the society political machines employ many students to 'get out the vote'. (Translation: the various societies send out press-gangs of COST thugs to snag passing students and make them vote - the right way.)

Listed here are some of the more prominent student organizations on campus. There are hundreds of others, ranging from groups of fanatic gamers to religious cults to secret societies of every stripe and purpose. Sometimes it's hard to wander the campus at night without tripping over a dozen secret meetings.

In order to convince students that the Academy actually cares about the opinions of the student population, and also to give budding demagogues and other PoliSci students an outlet for their ambitions, the Academy has a 'democratically-elected' student government. Other than providing a platform for the politically ambitious to strut on, the council has no real purpose beyond funnelling money to student organizations, nor any significant power. It does elect a non-voting student delegate to sit on the Board of Trustees. Being the student president looks good on a resume, though, so positions are often hotly contested.

This organization produces the campus newspaper. It comes out approximately every other day or so. Like most campus newspapers, it is free for anyone who happens to wander by campus, or an off-campus alumni can subscribe for a modest sum (10 Shircents an issue, but it will be delivered to the alumni's home.) The Sorcerer's Star is entirely student-run, which gives it an eclectic sort of charm. It is printed on-campus using an offset printing press and standard recycled newspaper stock. The Sorcerer's Star covers publishing costs by advertising for local businesses and organizational events; it also charges reasonable rates not to print something, or run an audio-tape on the campus loudspeakers. However, it is rarely very profitable, and most of the students who work there are doing it for the experience and opportunity for personal gain, rather than as a paying job.

No campus would be complete without a student-run radio station playing a combination of the latest hits and anti-establishment comedy. The Academy boasts two, both on the same frequency, thanks to some interesting innovations in radio technology.

Like any patriotic university, especially those interested in free government money), the Academy has a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. Students get their tuition paid by the government they hail from, and get to wander around campus in snappy uniforms, play with heavy weaponry, and do push-ups. Most ROTC students are majors in TECI's Department of Military Science and Cost Overruns.

The SUA is composed entirely of Mundanes and mundanes, who get together on weekends and talk about the latest historical movie they watched that had knights wearing wristwatches in it. Sometimes they perform Shakespeare plays in someone's living room, dropping 'poison' in Hamlet's Kool-Aid, or discuss hypothetical wanderball games between current stars and retired (or dead) old pros. They also study together, and write out first drafts longhand with fountain pens.

Surprisingly, the SUA seems to be a stable organization - perhaps since Mundanes sense that the rest of the Academy has a different worldview from them, and it's nice to relax with like-minded people for a change.

The Student Overground is the 'resist authority' group behind most counter-culture events on campus. They publish illicit newsflyers, organize sit-ins and other protest activities, and try to tell 'the real truth' to prospective students and first semester freshthings, any way they can.

There is surprisingly little retaliation from the upper ranks of the Academy's Administration, perhaps because Overground members are still paying students and it would be far too much paperwork to expel them, but known members will have a penalty to reactions from most faculty and administrators. (Despite this, it is an open secret that the Student Overground is funded out of the Student Activity Fees - they appear on the ballot to vote for funding.)

The Student Overground has a policy of non-violence and are anti-vandalism. Members will festoon vehicles with their flyers, but not glue them on, for example. They go peacefully if escorted away by Campus Security, at most refusing to walk or grabbing furniture when dragged. They have been known to be involved in altercations with other students, either in self-defense or because a member lost their temper, but the group will send public apologies to the Sorcerer's Star after the incident.

The home for people who see the Student Overground as far too wimpy, this secret society is responsible for acts of violence and terrorism above and beyond usual campus life. They vandalize buildings and administrators' vehicles or homes, sabotage research projects and try to destroy landmarks. They have even taken anonymous credit for some assassination attempts on professors. They are not funded by the Academy!

The SLO has been known to kidnap first-semester freshthings, or any student attending the Academy on a scholarship (on the grounds that if the Academy is teaching this person 'for free', it must expect to make major use of them later), and forge Drop forms for all that student's classes while they attempt to 'deprogram' them. They particularly like to create major incidents when prospective frosh are visiting with their parents.

Despite intensive security sweeps and the expulsion of members (usually with extreme prejudice), the SLO persists - apparently the leaders of this malicious group have never been caught, and are perhaps even grad students or faculty! They certainly have enough skill that they are able to evade psionic, magical, and high-tech detection methods, for many of the things they take credit for could not have been accomplished by Mundanes. One theory is that the SLO is actually a COST project that discovers the truly vicious students, sucks them in, and gains enough blackmail material on them to control them; instead of being expelled, 'discovered' members graduate (or maybe flunk out for getting discovered.)

Whatever the Student Liberation Organization really is, everyone else thinks it's a pain in the neck. Campus Security has standing orders to take SLO members into custody by whatever means necessary. The Student Overground denies any connection - with enough energy to place them out of Intermediate Hysteria 302. Even the ArchDean has been known to display public irritation when viewing the latest depredation perpetrated by the SLO.

The Academy Wanderball Team is the premier sports team of the Academy of Magic, renowned worldwide as champion wanderball players. Wanderball is a full-contact sport played with a living, flying ball that does not wish to be caught, let alone hurled into a goal net. Players may use any means necessary to acquire the ball, but only goals scored by hitting the ball with one's own body into the net count. The Academy is heavily into sports (and sport betting), and wanderball in particular, as it's the sport that gets Alumni to contribute great sacks of cold hard coin above all others. Like any sport, wanderball sounds totally inane to the non-fan; if you really want to know, find an old Alumnus - he'll be happy to discourse for hours on the relative merits of the Flying Wing Shredder offense versus the Stealth Draconic defense, the vital (and deceased) statistics of every wanderball player for the past two hundred years, and the gall of the officials these days in wearing powered combat armor while on the field. Why, in the old days, officials took their chances like real men, or maybe real roadkill…

Besides wanderball, there are other, wimpier sports available, such as water polo, rugby, combat football, gladiatorial arena combat, and global international war. Since these don't have the same 'draw' as wanderball, their coaches are usually overworked and underpaid, and often looking for under-the-table sponsors for their better athletes.

The Academy Wanderball Team - known more colloquially as The Team - is composed of large, hulking students. Most of them are male, and they would make excellent barbarian swordsthings in primitive settings, or any other setting one would care to imagine, for that matter. They aren't known for their brilliance in classes. Their lives consist of barely passing academic courses, training for their sports of choice, harassing non-Team undergrads, and partying. Sleep is optional.

Members of the Team all live on campus, have a minimum Strength and Dexterity of 13, and minimum Constitution of 12. Intelligence is at least 4, and often as high as 8. They are allegedly Physical Education or Common majors. They normally play wanderball, but have at least a passing knowledge of every other sport known to sentient species. (Including how to cheat at them…)

• Artifacts and Crafts: A haven of Nexus technology.
• Campus Store: Souvenirs of Academy life as well as standard adventuring equipment.
• Library Store: Student gifts and study materials.
• Future Entrepreneurs Store Network: Goods bought and sold by the Future Entrepreneurs. Selection changes often.

• Sheila Donovan: An elven cleric of great beauty, who worships the goddess Shydi.
• Heck Vargas: A human of budding necromantic talents who frequently consults with the decorated skull of his abuela.
• Erika Lancaster: A human artificer of great force of will.
• Albena Greenleaf: An elven spellcaster with a winter theme.
• Thomas deFrank: A wanderkin monk and Colbite worshipper.
• Hawthorne "Thorne" Nightblade: An elven rogue (“that's gentleman adventurer to you”).
  • Party Loot
  • Domestic Advisor: Provides advice on improving the quality of life in your territory, with the exception of financial matters.
  • Financial Advisor: Provides advice on improving the income of your treasury, and developing the economy of your territory.
  • Civics Advisor: Provides advice on policies related to ruling over your territory.
  • Foreign Advisor: Provides advice on foreign policy, diplomatic status, espionage, and other information on other territories and nations.
  • Military Advisor: Provides advice on developing military power for your territory for offensive and defensive purposes.
  • Technology Advisor: Provides advice on technological developments within your territory, and suggestions on where to improve.
  • Religion Advisor: Provides advice on the various religions followed in your territory.
  • Land Holdings Status: A general overview of the territory you hold, including size, cities, and businesses within the cities.
  • Demographics: Information about the demographics of the various cities you have an interest in.
  • Capital City: Detailed information about your home city, Vargas, and its affairs.
  • Downtime Activities

• Connor Cayle: Male Tiefling Cleric of Phred.
• London Carrick: Male Elf Wizard.
• Oliver Davis: Male Human Fighter.
• Artemis Tameron: Female Half-Elf Monk.
• Karlos Reeve: Male Dwarven Thief.
• Steven Michael: Male Human Warlock.

• Ebony of the Travelling Folk: Female Human Bard.
• Rinaldo of the Travelling Folk: Male Human Bard.
• Diego: Male Human Rogue.
• Uevareth Aejor: Male Elven Fighter. Pronounced 'Yev'.
• Gurtle: Male Kobold Rogue.
• Katherine Clement: Female Human Cleric.
• Oceanus: Male Sea Elf Fighter.
  • Party Loot
  • Properties

Before arriving, Aurora changed her name and appearance to that of her on-stage persona: Aurora Luna Wynterstarr, the brilliant singer and songwriter. Aurora was born a dhampir (a partial vampire), which she’s taken as a cosmic sign that she is meant for greatness.

An accomplished musician on several instruments, Aurora is often found at Bow's End Tavern performing beautiful dirges on the hurdy-gurdy for the assembled patrons. Aurora is also a member of the Show Band Association, though she believes the music they play lacks the raw emotion of her original compositions.

She works as a groundskeeper at the Academy Stadium, where she takes great pleasure in using magic to blight undesirable vegetation on the field.

Extracurriculars: Show Band Association

Job: Academy Stadium groundskeeper

Cadoras is a jolly soul, and anyone who spends time with him ends up chuckling at whatever nonsense he is currently sporting. He is a passionate member of the Live-Action Roleplaying Guild and loves playing out all sorts of fantastical adventures. He always roleplays archers, entirely because he's recently spent a lot of money on a prop-bow and can't afford anything else. He is also a member of the university's Distinguished Society of Fine Artists, where he uses magic to sculpt beautiful statuary of complex fractal patterns. The fact that he is self-taught makes the quality of his work that much more impressive.

Cadoras does have some strange eating habits; he sometimes eats an entire jar of pickled onions in a single sitting and then drinks the vinegar.

Extracurriculars: Distinguished Society of Fine Artists, Live-Action Roleplaying Guild

Job: None

Grayson comes from an old, moneyed, and influential family. To him, studying is a means to an end. Learning business acumen is just as important to Grayson as his classes, so he has joined the Future Entrepreneurs. Grayson makes a point to know as much about everyone as possible, gathering information until he finds the best circumstance to use it. Having learned to pick locks, he often accesses places where he’s unauthorized, searching for secrets.

Grayson has become a writer for the Sorcerer's Star, where he’s responsible for the gossip column. His writing style is biting, and he uses this platform to expose bullies and mock ignorance. Many of his peers are leery of him, but some have witnessed him paying for poorer students’ books and other supplies—a fact he tries to keep secret.

Extracurriculars: Future Entrepreneurs, Sorcerer's Star

Job: None

Greta is often heard long before she is seen, as her raucous laughter echoes through the university’s halls. Enjoying a reputation as a golden-hearted troublemaker, Greta hates studying and grumbles about it at length. This has led to numerous warnings from the librarians for unnecessarily loud behavior. much to Greta's amusement.

A fervent member of the Iron-Lifters Society, she has already started to break long-held records in both powerlifting and weightlifting. When not training or competing (or occasionally studying), Greta spends her time in Bow’s End Tavern carousing. As beer isn’t free, she helps out at Academy Stadium, setting up and putting away heavy equipment. Most people would begrudge the hard labor, but Greta happily does it. reasoning that she is being paid to work out.

Greta makes a point to write regularly to her older brother, Grog, whom she misses terribly.

Extracurriculars: Iron-Lifters Society

Job: Academy Stadium equipment assistant

Some think Larine is aloof to the point of being rude, but her friends say that nothing is further from the truth. She is a delightful presence and doesn't ignore social obligations so much as get distracted easily. Larine is a member of the Intramural Water-Dancing Club, where she performs underwater balletic movements effortlessly. Despite her swimming ability, her tendency to lose focus means learning group choreography takes her more time and effort. Larine has a natural affinity with animals, especially aquatic species, and she's working on a solo synchronized swimming routine that replaces the other students with a shoal of fish. Rehearsals aren't going well. As an employee of the Strixhaven Performing Arts Society, Larine is a ticket taker, a job she’s recently switched to as a result of struggling to give correct change while working at the box office.

Extracurriculars: Intramural Water-Dancing Club

Job: Performing Arts Society ticket taker

Towering over most students, Melwythorne strikes an imposing figure, especially given the branches that grow from his head like antlers. Calm in demeanor, he’s often confused by the people rushing around him, as their haste won’t lengthen their brief lifespans. Melwythorne had never been away from his grove before coming here and has found the transition to university life difficult. However, since he joined the Intramural Wanderball Club, this close-knit surrogate family has helped him deal with his homesickness.

He is also a member of the Student-Mages of Faith. He enjoys helping his fellow students celebrate their high holidays and discussing theology and spirituality. For him, the natural world and all living beings form a vast consciousness across all planes of existence, transcending the power and reach of any one deity.

Extracurriculars: Intramural Wanderball Club, Student-Mages of Faith

Job: None

Meriwether may look sort of dweebish, but he's taking Junior-level classes on Assassination and High Explosives, among other things. It looks like he's a fan of tech too – he has pictures of a homemade drone on his page, called the Exterminator 1.6.

There are a couple of tests of the drone available online too - it basically is meant to attach explosives to a target and then fly away out of the blast range. The fact that it's 1.6 suggests that it's exploded a few times already.

Extracurriculars: Dragonchess Club, Dragonsguard Historical Society

Quentillius approaches all his endeavors with the utmost seriousness. He believes one should either do something correctly or not at all. Quentillius is a member of the Academy’s Playactors Drama Guild, where his dedication to what he calls “the craft” is absolute. He looks down on other actors who are slow to memorize lines or who miss cues. Backstage crew members fare better, as Quentillius regards them as crucial and often brings them and the director flowers or notes of thanks. While Quentillius is a powerful presence on stage—especially in romantic roles—critics have called his performances histrionic. To better perform his future roles in ancient plays, Quentillius has joined the Dead Languages Society. He plans to perform his roles in the plays’ original languages, regardless of whether the rest of the production is translated.

Extracurriculars: Dead Languages Society, Playactors Drama Guild

Job: None

Excitable and impish, Rosimyffenbip is proud of her name; she insists you can call her “Rosie” only if you are her friend. Or a teacher. Or a student. Or any other member of the university staff. Rosie speaks quickly and with so much energy that it often takes a moment to recover from a conversation with her. She moves far faster than one would expect; it’s unclear whether this is due to magic, a gnomish technological contraption, or just the laws of physics bending to Rosie’s force of personality.

Rosie referees wanderball and takes fair play very seriously. Woe betide any participant who feels the wrath of her whistle. Rosie is also an enthusiastic participant in the Live-Action Roleplaying Guild. She insists on roleplaying only “monsters” and delights in chasing down participants to “eat” them. Many a participant has heard giggling approaching them at high speed before their character’s death.

Extracurriculars: Live-Action Roleplaying Guild

Job: Intramural Fields referee

When Rubina walks into a room, people take notice. A measured performer with gravitas beyond her years, Rubina is a valued member of the Playactors Drama Guild who can handle weightier roles that more melodramatic actors can’t. This has caused friction within the guild as members vie for parts. Rubina’s stage presence extends to delivering presentations in class. When she orates, one can almost imagine a hardened general marshaling her bloodied and exhausted troops for a final push against a far superior foe.

Rubina is part of the Show Band Association and has moved from playing to conducting. No previous student conductor has demanded and received such unwavering respect as Rubina. With merely a look and a raised eyebrow, she can quiet even the most raucous orchestra sections.

Extracurriculars: Playactors Drama Guild, Show Band Association

Job: None

Shuvadri exhibits an air of absolute serenity. Anything that might frustrate or delight another student, whether it's a poor test score or success at a competition, elicits little outward response from Shuvadri. A deep thinker, Shuvadri is rarely surprised by such an outcome, and she enjoys being a centering presence for her peers.

Also a member of the Student-Mages of Faith, Shuvadri is happy to talk about her appreciation of deities who are devoted to service and community. Many of her peers think she is destined to hold high rank in a temple.

Shuvadri works on the campus grounds to erase graffiti, wearing a content smile on her face.

Extracurriculars: Student-Mages of Faith

Job: Campus Grounds graffiti eraser

Tilana's poised demeanor and steady gaze are remarkable. An excellent judge of character, she doesn’t associate with those she deems mean-spirited. Her exacting judgment has led her to join the Dragonchess Club, and while she is still honing her skill at the game itself, she compensates by reading her opponent instead of the board. Many a foe has struggled to sit in silence as she gives them her full attention, probing for weaknesses, the pieces seemingly incidental.

Surprising to some, Tilana has also joined the Intramural Wanderball Club. During matches, she focuses on trying to understand and preempt the opposing sides’ strategies. More than once she has suggested new plays mid-game that have caught the opposing team off guard. The faculty are convinced that, if she wished, one day Tilana would make an excellent professor.

Extracurriculars: Dragonchess Club, Intramural Wanderball Club

Job: None

One of the most popular students on campus, Zanther is a member of the Mage Tower Cheer Squad, and his exceptional athleticism has earned him the position as the squad's primary flyer. As such, Zanther is launched into the air in elaborate cheering routines, much to the crowd’s delight.

Zanther has also joined the Intramural Gymnastics Club. Here he completes at rhythmic gymnastics in both ribbon as well as hoop. To further test himself and impress the judges, Zanther conducts his routines to a vast array of different musical styles and arrangements. When traveling around campus between classes, he shouts random affirmations of school spirit to everyone at large. Despite his peppy nature, Zanther is genuinely encouraging and in no way acts superior. If anything, he seems somewhat oblivious to his own popularity.

Extracurriculars: Intramural Gymnastics Club, Mage Tower Cheer Squad

Job: None

Since their name is difficult to pronounce without a trunk, Bhedum has taken to referring to themself as “Rampart,” the closest translation of their name in Common. They are often found poring over ancient texts detailing battles, seeking to better understand the tactical decisions that result in victory and defeat. Rampart is happy to discuss their knowledge with fellow members of the Dragonsguard Historical Society, often doing so late into the night.

Rampart's opponents at the Dragonchess Club find themselves outmatched time and again by the loxodon's technique, though Rampart is a gracious winner. They attend all their classes clad in gilded, centuries-old plate armor, with an immense and similarly decorated sword strapped to their back. Rampart explains that doing so better simulates the battlefield conditions they study.

Extracurriculars: Dragonchess Club, Dragonsguard Historical Society

Job: None

Drazhomir is so soft-spoken that many of his peers must ask him to speak up to be understood. He is over seven feet tall, yet he continuously stoops, as if trying to occupy as little space as possible. Several activities and clubs that involve feats of strength and size continuously try to recruit him—to no avail. Drazhomir prefers spending his time in the Great Library, where he works as a book clerk, assisting students in finding required texts and shelving returns. He moves silently through the stacks, and he has given more than one student a scare when they’ve turned around to suddenly find him there.

Drazhomir’s greatest love is poetry. As a member of the university’s Dead Languages Society, he scours ancient literature for stirring poems written in old tongues, reading them to the rest of the group in a soft, resonant voice that comes directly from his soul.

Extracurriculars: Dead Languages Society

Job: Great Library book clerk

Javenesh is an imposing and powerfully built owlin who looks permanently scruffy despite his best efforts. Contributing to his dishevelment are tufts of juvenile plumage that refuse to smooth down, a handful of scars whose origin he’s not sure of, and at least one hole in whatever clothing he’s wearing.

Contrary to what people initially assume, Javenesh is a friendly sort. To make ends meet, he works at Bow's End Tavern, managing servers and keeping the peace, relying on his rough appearance to dissuade those intent on making trouble. When not attending classes, Javenesh is an intimidating presence at the Intramural Wanderball Club, where few people want to see him barreling toward them. He wishes more people would take the effort to get to know him, rather than be put off by his size and rough exterior.

Extracurriculars: Intramural Wanderball Club

Job: Bow’s End Tavern assistant manager

Mina’s greatest love is the use of language; she adores how subtle differences in intonation and vocabulary can shape one’s perception of reality. Her fascination with language extends to spells and verbal components. After graduation, she plans to conduct research on the variance of language in spells and how one might tweak verbal components that the greater magical community considers immutable.

Mina’s love of language and nuance has led her to join the Sorcerer's Star as an investigative journalist. Here, she reveals truth, corrects misconceptions, and combats injustice. She has also taken a job as a server at Firejolt Cafe, which not only provides some cash but also puts her in a position to overhear snippets of conversation that might provide leads for her journalistic investigations.

Extracurriculars: Strixhaven Star

Job: Firejolt Cafe server

Rarely without a smile on her face, Nora is a kind person who is generous with her time and attention. This has led her to gain employment within the university’s dormitories, where she acts as a resident assistant. Nora offers confidential support to any student and is especially passionate about counseling other transgender students. She thoughtfully handles concerns ranging from students’ homesickness to matters that require her to act as an advocate for another student.

Nora is a passionate member of the Distinguished Society of Fine Artists. As such, she spends hours on the potter's wheel throwing clay. Despite her enthusiasm, her technical skill is lacking. Her tutors, in attempts to be encouraging, often describe Nora’s work as rustic or naive. Undeterred, Nora continues to produce terrible mug after terrible mug, which she gives as gifts to her friends.

Extracurriculars: Distinguished Society of Fine Artists

Job: Dormitories resident assistant

First to class, last to leave, and always asking for additional homework, Urzmaktok is a meticulous student. Despite his consistently high marks, Urzmaktok makes no attempt to show off, although his studies seem rudimentary to him. Rumor has it that he is completing enough credits to earn multiple degrees when he graduates.

Urzmaktok works for the Campus Magic Labs as a specimen preparer. This additional access to the labs also allows him to run his personal experiments in peace. Unsurprisingly, he is also a member of the Fantastical Horticulture Club. There, he looks to develop new species of plants that might yield new ingredients for potions.

Urzmaktok makes it clear he wants everyone to use his full first name. Should anyone use a nickname, he won’t acknowledge the address.

Extracurriculars: Fantastical Horticulture Club

Job: Campus Magic Labs specimen preparer

Walter Mitchell has as his hobbies hoverbiking and skydiving, and does tattoo artistry. In fact he does magical tattoos. He's a member of the Intramural Gymnastics Club, oddly enough – or maybe that's how he stays so limber and fit.

He has pictures and humblebrags about the quality of his tattoo art, and has a small but dedicated NexBook following telling him his work is awesome. It isn't literally awe-inspiring, but it is pretty good.

Extracurriculars: Intramural Gymnastics Club

Job: Mitchell Tattoos, owner

None known!

None known!

None known!

Anyone who thinks a troll can't be a great chef has never met Gyome (neutral troll). He combines local ingredients with flavors from his homeland into an ever-changing menu of delicacies. Students from every college trek through Sedgemoor in droves for his food. The only complaint he ever receives is that he gives out unreasonably large portions.

Arkin (lawful good human) is a newly hired instructor teaching a few courses in choreography and dance ensembles. He recently graduated from the Academy himself, and he bubbles with excitement at the prospect of guiding a new generation of students on the course of study he so greatly enjoyed. He particularly delights in finding new ways to help students work collaboratively to unlock the heights of their creative potential.

Losheel (chaotic good loxodon) proudly admits that she is willing to work hard to be as lazy as possible. She turns her brilliant mind to constructing increasingly efficient mechanical helpers, with the goal of one day being able to do anything she wants without standing up.

“Have you met Golwanda yet?” is a question that older students love to ask second-year students. Sooner or later, one professor or another summons this spirit of a notorious stone giant warmonger, ostensibly as a cautionary tale about the dire fate that befalls a society that loses control of its aggressive impulses. Golwanda plays her role with relish, doing her best to strike terror into the students with her bloodcurdling screams and howls of rage.

Mavinda Sharpbeak (chaotic good owlin) is responsible for the Party Dynamics series of classes, which emphasizes party teamwork as well as teaching about various sorts of creatures in the Arcydean realm.

It's tough to study the secrets of life and death without getting your hands dirty—which is the first thing Tivash (neutral human) teaches Witherbloom campus students. Some call the forces he manipulates evil, but he asserts that power is only as good or evil as how you use it.

Lost an important textbook? Craving some rare delicacy from home? Need something inconveniently forbidden? Enter Fain (neutral human). He has an extensive network of connections on and off campus, and he can procure just about anything—so long as you can afford his price.

Brenneth Blackstone (neutral good dhampir) is a rising star in the study of magical writing and symbols. With a dynamic lecturing style, this dhampir—a partial vampire—attracts students from across the Academy purely for his lessons' value as performance art. He teaches a course in scrivening and scriptology that is required for second-year students.

Breena (neutral good owlin) has a talent for getting her way. If she wants you to do something, you won't just do it—you'll be sure it was your idea all along. Her students and colleagues alike hang on her every word, and in front of a crowd, she's a powerhouse of charisma, enhancing her speeches with elegant swirls of ink magic. Though she's an elite mage who can easily hold her own in a fight, Breena prefers to defeat her foes with words alone.

An Oriq agent once trapped and attempted to recruit her, threatening her students' lives if she didn't comply. Within an hour, she convinced him to free her, abandon his wicked ways, and seek wisdom from the archaics.

Nils (lawful neutral human) is an optimist, as he believes in every student's potential for greatness. However, this outlook also means he's constantly disappointed by their suboptimal choices, and he is well known for his strictness and abrupt scoldings.

The twins Adrix (neutral good triton) and Nev (neutral good triton) grew up literally swimming in magic, in an ocean region near a powerful magical snarl. At an early age, they began to see patterns in the tides and currents that eluded even the most esteemed scholars of their society. Once, they saved a hundred lives by predicting the sudden arrival of a tsunami, despite the deceptively calm seas—washing away any doubts in their prowess.

Adrix and Nev now teach as a duo, blending mastery of magical philosophical perspectives. They constantly debate the merits of various esoteric mathematical principles, but if one of their students is in danger, they leap into action in perfect harmony.

Deekah (lawful neutral human) sees the world as an endless sequence of interconnected equations, which to her is the most beautiful thing imaginable. She explores new theorems by giving them physical form, and her exquisite geometric creations are thrilling sights on campus.

Ruxa (neutral good brown bear) knows that wild new theories, though exciting, are worthless without a deep understanding of the basics. He teaches students of all levels, and even his most experienced pupils benefit from a much deeper understanding of the fundamental building blocks of the world.

In addition to being an accomplished elementalist, Veyran (chaotic good genasi) serves as a mentor to many Prismari pledge-mages. She advocates enthusiastically for the importance of both passion and disciplined technique in any artistic pursuit. If a new student is upset or overwhelmed, she eagerly calls forth playful, beautiful elemental creatures to cheer up the student.

As soon as Zaffai (chaotic neutral human) came of age, his parents sent him to the Academy, assuring him his budding musical genius deserved the finest instruction in the world. (In truth, though he did possess prodigious talent, they were also growing tired of their house being randomly struck by lightning or engulfed in cyclones whenever he practiced.) Even as he flourished as both mage and musician, he discovered a new aptitude: conducting.

In addition to teaching, he serves as Grand Maestro of the Academy's Orchestra of the Arcane, an elite extracurricular activity for top SCPA students. They practice only outdoors, and their concerts fill the sky with beautiful explosions of elemental magic.

Even by Lorehold campus standards, Osgir (neutral stone giant) is obsessed with relics of the past. A professor of order, he treasures every connection to old civilizations, whether it's a magnificent jeweled crown or an old shovel. As a student, he constantly spent time in detention for hoarding the best finds from Lorehold dig sites in his room; he lost count of how many times he was sternly told. “History belongs to us all!” So, naturally, he mastered the magical art of duplicative restoration. Not only can he perfectly recreate an ancient object or device from the smallest scrap, but he can also produce a second, identical version for his personal collection. He displays something different every week in his Lorehold office, from a mighty sword of demon-slaying to a delicate elven music box.

When Hofri (neutral good dwarf) first enrolled in the Academy, he believed his future lay with the SCPA. A diligent student, he quickly mastered the technical skills of art, but his magic left something to be desired. After talking with the Academy's counselor, Lucinda Bennett, Hofri decided to try his luck with Lorehold. It turned out he had a natural talent for spirit magic. His time on Prismari Campus was hardly wasted, however.

Combining his artistic skill with his keen spiritual sense, Hofri could visualize a spirit's mortal appearance and construct a viable statue form for them inhabit. No one in Lorehold's history had previously created a spirit statue from scratch, and Hofri was offered a professorial position after graduation, which he happily accepted.

Johenne (neutral human) is a member in good standing of COST, and her ability to not only devise devious tricks and traps, but to counteract those of others, is what has her known as the Trick Taker. She teaches a variety of courses on subterfuge and counterintelligence, which are generally well attended.

Verelda Lang (chaotic neutral dryad) is a respected professor who teaches introductory courses in magical physiologies, helping students in every college learn about the many unusual creatures they're likely to encounter, whatever the students' field of study. Her research extends to the vital functions of fractal creatures and other artificial life-forms, leading her to teach courses at Quandrix Campus as well as Witherbloom Campus.

No one knows how old Willowdusk (neutral good treant) really is. This professor claims to be older than the Academy itself, and although many suspect that she exaggerates, no one else who has lived long enough to refute her cares to do so. Many years ago, a group of rebellious students got lost in Detention Bog and took shelter in what turned out to be Willowdusk's roots. She protected them from a pack of hungry groffs and shepherded them back to Widdershins Hall, offering a lecture on proper herb-gathering practices during the journey. Her lessons proved so effective that she was asked to stay as a professor. She loves passing on her knowledge of medicinal herbs, pest mascot cultivation, and dissection techniques to generations of new students, and she almost always has a pot of tea brewing.

Dean Valentin (neutral vampire) is ancient and drinks the blood of living creatures throughout the bayou. Valentin is a kind of sangromancer—he receives visions from the blood he consumes, which he uses to learn things about a creature or place. He has no qualms about exploiting the bayou's creatures for personal gain.

Valentin's classes focus on dissection and decay. He and Lisette often clash over his cavalier treatment of animals, but that hasn't stopped her from using his discoveries for her research.

Lissette (neutral good human) is a world-class healer and herbalist; it's even said she once cured one of the Academy founders of a secret illness. Lisette's classes lean more toward demonstration and hands-on experience than lectures. When Lisette speaks, her words are soft and full of colorful metaphors. Lisette believes in preserving nature and life, and she instills in her students a respect for all living things. While Valentin's exploitation of living creatures disgusts her, she also knows she can use the results of his cruelty to help future lives.

Dean Shaile Talonrook (lawful good owlin) is a perennially optimistic orator. A master of literature, she often quotes obscure passages from famous texts. Her soul-filling advice and educated references have been known to make people literally glow. Shaile believes that all people have the potential for good and wishes to teach her students how to make the world a better place. She and Lu often clash over the College of Communications's curriculum, but the balance found between them is far more eloquent than even their words can describe.

Embrose Lu (lawful neutral human) is a master poet whose ink magic is merciless. Scant with praise and quick with a cutting remark, Lu has seen many mage-students scrub out of the Academy and has nothing good to say about those who can't hack it. A cynic, Embrose believes that most people are in it for themselves. He demands his students learn how to use language-based magic to “get what they deserve.” While he often argues with Talonrook, he holds a deep (if begrudging) respect for the owlin.

Brilliant and eccentric, Dean Kianne (neutral elf) is one of the preeminent mana scholars of the world. She has visited and studied countless bizarre magical phenomena, from snarls to star arches to ancient shrines. She loves to share her wild theories with anyone who will listen.

Kianne believes in using mathematics to better understand nature. She places an emphasis on practical magic that improves daily life through applied calculations. She rolls her eyes at Imbraham's theories, dismissing them as evidence that her fellow professor lives in an imaginary world.

Imbraham (neutral owlin Quandrix professor of theory) is stern and shrewd, with a mind as piercing as his curved beak. He is known for the unnerving habit of fully rotating his head around to address his students, while still rapidly chalking up complex theorems and equations on a chalkboard. Imbraham loves numbers more than people or the out-of-doors; some say he hasn't gone outside certain chambers of the Quandrix campus in years. Imbraham wants nothing more than to crack the mysteries of the world through dauntingly complex theories. He offers his students standing bounties on any of his unsolved equations.

Augusta Tullus (lawful neutral human) is a professor of spirit studies; she has been called the college's most talented pastraiser. She can conjure entire legions of ghostly apparitions to reenact historical events for her lectures. Augusta believes that history repeats itself as an orderly progression toward an ideal. In her view, the mistakes of the past can inform the choices of the present, creating a world of peace and order. She plays things by the book and frowns on students who embark on Plargg's dangerous field trips.

Plargg (chaotic good orc) specializes in military history, Plargg is known for his perfect recall of historical stories, as well as his potent scroll magic. Blind himself, he invented a form of magical embossing called heat lettering, which provides a tactile way to read texts.

Plargg believes that history is full of unpredictable, war-filled chaos and that his students must be ready for anything. He teaches that no rewards come without risk, and his excursions typically end with students heading to the infirmary. He pays little attention to Tullus's work, usually dismissing her attempts to find order in chaos as foolhardy.

Uvilda Mistcoiler (neutral good genasi) is a master of artistic technique. Uvilda trains with a range of elements whenever she isn't focused on her teaching. She is known for giving students profoundly insightful feedback, which she tailors to each individual. After a review, she often offers a small piece of advice that alters the student's point of view and work forever—for the better.

Uvilda believes that good art comes from the head. To her, carefully measured strokes and deliberate object placement make the difference between fully realized art and a total mess. If Nassari interrupts her careful work with bombastic expressions one more time, Uvilda is prepared to enroll in COMP to learn how to shrink Nassari.

Nassari (chaotic good genasi) is the current Dean of Expression. Nazzari always want to see art that is bigger, more radical in concept, and more emotionally powerful. For their final project as a mage-student, Nassari famously “turned in” an earthquake, which almost destroyed three campus buildings. The piece received a standing ovation from the mage-student body—and a grumpy thumbs down from the campus construction golems.

Nassari believes that true expression comes from the heart. They encourage their students to treat the entire world as a canvas on which to spread emotion and excitement. Nassari takes little heed of Mistcoiler's quiet masterpieces and often feigns forgetfulness about Mistcoiler's very existence.

Ycdora (neutral treant) is the head groundskeeper and unofficial undertaker of the Academy. Students and graduates often wish to spend their afterlife at their beloved university, and she honors that wish. Each tree she plants represents the essence of a fallen mage, and she remembers them all by name.

In every century, there is an Oracle chosen by the gods to represent their interests on the mortal realm… currently, that oracle is Tavia, a human woman of low birth who shows great skill in prophecy and great wisdom.

The identity of the Archdean is a closely guarded secret. The most persistent rumor is that she is an avatar of one of the goddesses, with most bets going towards Shydi, but Shydi has denied this when in the mood to answer questions on the subject, although she has coyly refused to reveal any further information. In fact, no deity, not even the more gregarious ones, sees fit to broach the secret, nor any demon, and neither does any form of divination. Even attempts to check in alternate dimensions or timelines don't help!

She appears human, although people have claimed to see a halo glowing around her at times, or a hint of a horn seen in shadows, but seems to command some level of respect from both sides of the cosmos. The fact that she seems to maintain a healthy collection of blackmail material might be a factor in this, or all parties concerned may take it as a grand joke that they are an active participant in. Hard to tell, really.

What is known is that the Archdean (and that is the only name she goes by, and it is always pronounced in the capital sense) has enough power to rate as a deity incarnate, defenses and wards that transcend most known forms of magic, psi, and technology, and almost insurmountable levels of luck. The only thing that truly seems to vex her is Mundanes (although anything that threatens her profits is in danger), although they have never been seen in proximity to her for some reason or another.