Skyhold

Skyhold is a magical academy with its own political domain and a city carved into a mountain, which serves as the primary location of the events of the Mage Errant books. People from all over the world with magical affinities may attend Skyhold to learn magic. Based in the Skyreach Mountains, it is built over the biggest Labyrinth on the continent of Ithos. The school is built into a mountain and people just carve out rooms and spaces as they need. The Academy is headed by a thirteen member council composed of powerful mages, currently headed by the last known living founder of the academy Kanderon Crux. There are tens of thousands of people within the city/school of Skyhold. Skyhold is riddled with extra-planar spaces and tunnels, allowing Kanderon to easily move around and store things anywhere.

## Teaching Process and Curriculum

Students enter their first year at Shyhold at the age of 16 and spend their first semester in introductory classes. At Midwinter, the Academy performs the Choosing Ceremony, where mages ranging from famous ones to the academy's own staff pick students as their apprentices. The process of the Choosing is an important one, as a student's new Master is mostly responsible for their education, either teaching them personally, selecting their courses or both.

Students graduating from the Academy may embark on a journey to further develop their magic, earning the rank of journeyman. Journeymen are eligible to participate in advanced classes at Skyhold during this period, sometimes alongside apprentices.

## Governance

The academy is headed by a thirteen member council of powerful mages who also serve in different administrative positions within the school. While the council appears to have no official head, it is strongly implied in *A Traitor in Skyhold* that Kanderon Crux, the Head Librarian and last known living founder, is its de facto leader, manipulating events behind the scenes to lead the school in the direction she sees fit.

Known members of the council include:

* Kanderon Crux, Head Librarian of the Grand Library of Skyhold, the Sphinx of Living Crystal.
* Tarik, a stone mage, Headmistress of Skyhold.
* Rutliss the Red, a salt and water mage, former Bursar of Skyhold, deceased (officially presumed missing), devoured by Kanderon Crux for his cowardice and opposition to her.
* Anders vel Siraf, a silk mage, Dean of Students, sells Skyhold secrets.
* Abyla Ceutas of Yldive, a magma mage, former Chair of Student Admissions, considered one of the most dangerous mages alive, deceased during Bakori's raid against the Council Chamber.
* Dyne Sul, a lightning, venom and gravity mage, Head of Internal Security.
* Yves Heliotrope, in charge of the Shyhold Docks, force mage.

Based on the revelations in *A Traitor in Skyhold*, the Council seems to have three main functions:

1. School Administration: this seems to happen in a manner equivalent to modern universities, with committees and sub-committees being formed on various issues, such as the Academic Committee that discussed changing the end of year test venue for Hugh, Sabae, Talia and Godrick at the beginning of the book,
2. Political Leadership: Shyhold rules its own domain around the Academy and Councillors act as a form of representatives, as in the case of receiving officially Ilinia Kaen Das during her visit to the school.
3. Vault Protection: the Council Members protect the vault Kanderon built at the top of the Shyhold mountain during the founding days of the Academy to store dangerous artifacts that could not be otherwise destroyed.

## Known Locations

### The Grand Library

The Grand Library is an extraplanar space inside the mountain that serves as the domain of Kanderon Crux, the Head Librarian of Skyhold. It houses an enormous collection of books, not all of them indexed. During the events of Into the Labyrinth, the Index informs Hugh that 12,400,762 books have been indexed, while the number kept increasing seconds after that.

## Teaching Staff

The following list includes professors at Skyhold that taught once or kept teaching classes at Skyhold:

* Emmenson Drees, sound mage