Scholar's Spire

Artistic rendering of the city of Scholar's Spire in 544 3E

**Scholar's Spire** is a city in the Maldoarvan Commonwealth, on the coastal island of Refuge, known for being the location of Strixhaven University. A towering city stands above the rest of the island, known for its bright white marble design, inspired by ancient elven architectures and supported by latent magics. It is populated by a vast myriad of species from across the world of Rosenwelt who come to either study at the local college, or act in one of the numerous jobs that support the college.

## Geography

Scholar's Spire is built upon the fairly large island of Refuge, with a multitude of different environments, primarily as a result of various latent magical currents that permeate the island. These diverse landscapes range from brilliantly sparkling marshes, to beautiful glass deserts, to mesas and forests.

The city itself establishes itself upon a tall rocky mountain, having almost entirely sheered off the top to make way for the ever-expanding city architecture. As a result, much of the city is made up of steps and ramps, allowing people to easily manuever through the city.

## Government

As a colony of the Maldoarvan Commonwealth, Scholar's Spire is controlled over a sort of psuedo-independent government. It is a direct democracy, in which each citizen votes for a Magistrate of the Colony, as well as a set of 13 Senators. The Magistrate acts as the colonial viceroy, engaging in communication with the Maldoarvan Council and enacting their will, where the Senators act as a more independent system which votes on laws for the city.

## Trade

Scholar's Spire maintains a regular trade network with other nations, both near and far, typically in an effort to increase their vast resevoirs of books, scrolls, and artifacts. Their docks are often full to the brim with new imports of books, paper, inks, quills, and all sorts of magical supplies. They export a number of research papers and art that the local college produces, as well as various potions from Witherbloom.

## Defenses

The city of Scholar's Spire is built upon a tall mountain, the city itself only accessible from various teleportation circles scattered around the lower docks and villages that surround it. These circles can easily be switched off to prevent the invasion of the city. Further, the city is also defended by a powerful forcefield that is powered by various magical generators inside and outside the city. Automaton guards are prepared to defend the city at all times, should this forcefield be breached.

## Culture

Scholar's Spire maintains a culture of education, but not quite of elequence. In direct contrast to the rest of the Commonwealth, due to the city being very much a college town, much of its residents are particularly young and immature. As a result, there's quite a number of parties, games, and other college recreational activities that go down on the city's grounds and across the island as a whole. Many of the college students from other nations bring along bits of their own culture, some of which have taken root as a whole in the city's culture as well - for example, jade elves from the Far East brought noodles to the shores of Refuge many years ago, and as of 700 3E the Spire is known for hosting some of the best noodle shops in Eukitia, even boasting its own kind of special ramen recipies.

## City Layout

### Strixhaven

The college of Strixhaven sits in the middle of Scholar's Spire, the main central campus sitting proudly with the rest of the city surrounding it. From this central campus split off the five different colleges of Strixhaven in five different directions like a pointed star, wherein the faculties of the city often intermingle with the faculties of the college. Storefronts and merchant stalls rub against classrooms, government installations and barracks rub against laboratories, and the difference between a city structure and a college structure become hard to discern.

### The Spire

The namesake of the city of Scholar's Spire is the massive spire that juts out from the city, near the southeast end. The spire itself is a thing of mystery; constructed by the earliest inhabitants of Refuge, ancient elves from the First Era, it towers above the rest of the city. Within the spire sits countless hundreds of floors stocked to the brim with various ancient texts and books, some more modern than others, staffed by various clockwork automatons. Strixhaven uses the spire as it's central library, hosting the vast majority of its books with storage for more, as well as where it stores the majority of its artifacts from overseas expeditions. While other libraries across the school grounds often maintain a number of books focused on certain subjects, the spire holds most of the general knowledge and much of the other obscure, miscellaneous knowledge one might find.

## Notable Inhabitants

* Austin Amadeus, a prodigious human sage
* Shamob, an orc fighter of the Rotgut tribe, spent some of his young life in Scholar's Spire
* Babbit, a spice goblin summoner