Scholomance

The Black School of Magic & The First Academy of the Arcane Arts

The First Academy of the Arcane Arts. The Black School of Magic. A fabled university\* whose legacy has reached even the periphery of esoterically obsessed nulls. Said to be founded and run by Lucifer Morning star himself, sparingly few truths about the academy have escaped the tight grasp of the Segmentus Obscura. Aside from the school's proper name, it is also rumored that the school was built underground in the territory of Romania and even counts the infamous Vlad Dracula Tepes among its alumni.

### **History**

Scholomance was built in the forested Carpathian mountains of central Transylvania by unknown architects long before any records exist. Even more strangely yet, the architectural stylings of the buildings appear to be impossibly out of place for when they were built. The gothic stylings even then were more than a millennium ahead of their time, as older school records indicate that Scholomance supplied aid to the Dacian and the Visigoths against the Roman Empire as early as 100 C.E. and had, at that time, already been in operation for longer than anyone could remember, leading many to speculate that the school was built at least four centuries before the common era. Attempts at utilizing carbon-dating technology on school materials have never yielded conclusive results.

The formation of the Concordance occurred within the grand meeting rooms of Scholomance, and for many years they conducted the majority of their clerical affairs within the academy, only finally establishing their own base of operations in London during the late 8th century after losing a duel for ownership with the patrons of the school in an event now known as Rindall's Folly.

## **The Great Houses**

The four great houses are a staple feature of the Scholomance experience. Students are sorted into one of four houses based on their personal attributes. The houses then compete against one another throughout the year to earn house-points contributing towards the Feud of Four. The great houses also often determine what official sports or otherwise competitive teams students will be a part of should they join an official school activity. It is often assumed that the focus on personality traits and mentalities when sorting students is derived from older alchemical philosophies regarding willpower and reification. However, the most common philosophy regarding the methods of sorting are simply that more like-minded students will be more likely to work collaboratively and develop meaningful bonds. The sorting itself is completed through the invocation of a ritual known as The Choosing during opening ceremonies. In addition to the personality attributes, each of the houses is represented by the icon of one of the House Patrons.

### House Abyssilyn

Members of House Abyssilyn are recognizable by the dark green accents of their uniforms. The house itself is known for the virtues of Traditionalism, Secrecy, and Resolve. Often they are seen as the most infamous and notorious house, prone to bend the rules and stack the deck in their favor. They hold a historical feud with House Valcrest. They also often see House Wyrmhart as a self-righteous nuisance due to it's generally more judicially upstanding nature. The patron of House Abyssilyn is the icon of a foreboding kraken. If House Abyssilyn actually has a living patron is largely a mystery to even the most senior faculty and scholars of Scholomance.

### House Emberwing

Members of House Emberwing are recognizable by the orange accents of their uniforms. The house itself is known for the virtues of Nurturing, Empathy, and Protectiveness. Often they are seen as sparky and excitable, or even shy and unassuming. They are known to typically prefer the company of the studious House Valcrest, as House Wyrmhart can be loud and boisterous while House Abyssilyn tend to be just outright freighting. The patron of house Emberwing is an iridescent phoenix named Adere, who after in incident in 1942 has become a well known figure around the campus.

### House Valcrest

Members of House Valcrest are recognizable by the dark blue accents of their uniforms. The house itself is known for the virtues of Curiosity, Criticality, and Contemplativeness. Often they are seen as the most serious natured and academically driven of the houses. They have a historical feud with House Abyssilyn. They also often have disagreements with the approaches and methods used by House Wyrmhart. The patron of House Valcrest is a mysterious Valraven named Gwyndolin who is largely unknown to the school's population.

### House Wyrmhart

Members of House Wyrmhart are recognizable by the crimson accents of their uniforms. The house itself is known for the virtues of Courage, Boldness, and Honor. Often they are seen as upstanding, at least as far as the school rules are concerned, though Wyrmhart have been known to produce bullies. They are known for being loud and boisterous, often to the annoyance of House Valcrest. They also often find themselves in confrontations with House Abyssilyn when the rules get in the way of success. The patron of house Wyrmhart is a great dragon named Völdrekkr who makes the occasional appearance as they sore across the sky between mountains. While it is speculated that the dragon may be the house patron, Völdrekkr is not the only dragon to be seen around Scholomance which complicates matters of association.

## **Student Life**

Scholomance, as the first of the Academies of the Arcane Arts, both developed and follows the standard academic Curriculum which has remained unchanged in structure for countless years, adapting and changing the individual class lesson plans as seen fit by the professors, but never veering from the original curricular format. Outside classes, students are engaged with a wide variety of entertainment, social, and extra-curricular opportunities. In addition to these, there are countless mysteries and myths to discover about the ancient school of magic for those with a sense of adventure or a streak of interesting luck.

### The Academic Year

Students arrive at Scholomance in early September, and leave by the end of May, making the academic year nine months in length. During the remaining three months, students are given the option to return home, utilizing one of several methods of transportation including the a mystical train known as The Orient Express, or via one of two mysterious ships known as The Marywind and The Kingsmoore. Students are even provided stipends to aid in their travel costs after departing from their available transportation option. A final mode of transportation is through translative magic, however, this is often only usable when vacating the academy grounds as the school itself is largely resilient against translocation being performed from outside to enter into it.

Students may also choose to remain at the school during the summer months, where no classes will be conducted, nor will points be gained contributing to the Feud of Four. However, many clubs will remain in operation, and the prior years winning House will continue to bare its colors within the commons. Many students who do choose to stay over the summer use the time to get better acquainted with the grounds, fraternize with friends, or safely practice their magic. The academy even hosts several summertime events, for which some students and professors will temporarily return to the school to partake in, such as the Mid-Summer's Festival.

The academic year is filled with monthly festivities, outlined within the Academic Calendar.

### Classes

Students are required to participate in four classes per semester as outlined within the Curriculum, for the first two years of study students have a highly structured class requirement with variability only existing between the time of day their classes occur during. Many of the fundamental classes during this time have an average class size of approximately 40 students. Classes are co-ed and with the acceptation of first year Introduction to the Arcane and Conduct & Concordance which are taught house specific, all classes intermix student houses.

By the third year, students gain more class freedom and are able to began picking electives in order to construct a Competency (a focus area of study). Elective courses unlike the academy requirements have an average class size around 15-20 students, however some acceptations exist, such as Aeromancy which usually boasts attendances in the 40s to 60s. The run time of classes, recesses, and curfews can be found in the Student Day Planner.

### Castes

While students are more encouraged to bond with their house mates then their graduating class, a students year of enrollment plays an important role in determining their caste. Each student ascends up the castes of seniority as they progress through their studies. The youngest students are referred to as a **Neophyte** and have the most limited rights of the castes. This is to help foster a sense of community among younger students, as well as to increase their interdependence and thereby connection to their house, thus building a sense of communal identity. More senior students hold additional rights, and often more well nurtured house pride. By time a magician enters their third year they gain the title of **Novitiate** as well as numerous new Seniority Rights such as the right to become a member of their House Dignitary. A student of their fifth year gains the title of **Acolyte**, as well as new rights. Lastly, students in their seventh and final year are deigned **Adept** and gain exclusive rights such as apprenticeship and the potential to be appointed head of the House Dignitary.

### Technology

One of the most jarring and life-altering realities within the academy for many students is the concept of discordance, that being the incompatibility of electric technology and magic, as it necessitates an adaptation of a wholly unique way of life originally defined within the act of the Concordant Compromise. In order to address the issue of discordance, students are forbidden from bringing any technological products into the school grounds. Additionally, many modern commodities are even outright banned as defined within the Academy Analog of Accountancy. Following the guidelines of permissible belongings and dress code results in fashions, technology and artistry being temporally locked to the 1800s within the school grounds.

The school itself also utilizes archaic technology in exclusivity. Heat is produced using copper steam pipes, and furnaces roar within a sub-level engineering rooms powering steam engines whose manifested pressure operates the printing presses, plumbing and other technological machineries within the school. Despite being an Academy of Arcane proportions, much of the day-to-day mechanisms are mundane in property.

Yet, illusory doorways, the occasional haunted painting, and spatially locked candles each act as continous reminders that the blackstone university is anything but a mundane work of art. Braziers and torch sconces self ignite as the sun sets, and the fire therein burns a luminous golden red, fading into a dim crackling blue as night grows and curfew is surpassed. The hearths within the house dormitories even display at their flame's heart rippling illuminations of their patron colors. Countless floating candles ever-burn within the grand dining halls occupying the enormous space above, and twinkling stars blanket the ceilings with misty illusion by night. On holidays the colors of the arcane lights warp and alter to match the festive mood. No groundskeepers are needed to lighten the countless halls, nor to pluck weeds from the gardens, the soil itself enchanted and hostile to unwanted blooms.

### Organizations

In addition to student organized public and even secret groups, the school also officially operates several clubs and activities within the campus. Some organizations even engage in competitive games with the other academies, the most well known and popularized such organization is varsity dragon jousting. In addition to this organization the academy also hosts organizations for:

* Arcane Dueling (The Hexseract Club)
* Saber Fencing (The Fence & Foil Club)
* History & Mythology (The Order: Majestic)
* The Student Government

Outside of the officially recognized organizations, Scholomance has also been a host to several longstanding campus based secret societies, known collectively as The Book Clubs, after the first such secret society to become a well known concept; despite remaining highly elusive.

### Rumors & Mysteries

There are a number of strange rumors and mysteries about the black school of magic which each year students inevitably become interested in. While many are mere conjurations of the overactive minds of bewildered students, many more hold some semblance of truth. The most well known and sought after of the Scholomani myths and legends are the following:

* Who are The Founders?
* What is the legacy of Dracula?
* Did the Devil really found the school?

### Traditions & Ceremonies

Scholomance officially hosts several annual traditions and ceremonies throughout the academic year. In addition to the official traditions, each of the four houses also hosts their own traditions specially for the members there within. The feud of four between the houses even plays a role within several of the official Scholomani traditions. Per the Academic Calendar, provided alongside the Academy Analog of Accountancy, the school officially lists the following events:

* Opening Ceremonies
* The Magicians Ball
* The Dragon's Cup
* Halloween
* The Gauntlet
* Yuletide
* The
* Springveil
* Closing Ceremonies

### Dormitories

Scholomance provides housing for all of its students. The specific dormitory they will live in, however, is dependent upon the Great House they are a part of. Furthermore the details of what each dormitory is like, and even where it is often secreted knowledge privy only to it's residents. However, all four of the dormitories share a set of standard features such as being co-ed, and having individual and shared bedrooms, as well as common rooms, washrooms, and smaller libraries and reliquaries for housing House awards and accolades. Novitiate and more senior students are often housed in separate hallways or floors then their Neophyte peers. New students universally spend their first few years in a shared bed space before gaining the ability to pick a private dorm room with between one and four beds. Washrooms are gender specific, yet each dormitory also has a bath house which, depending on the present House Master may or may not follow the same restrictions.

### Dining

As defined within the Student Day Planner, Scholomance serves three meals a day within the Dinning Commons, additional food is also occasionally available at booths during festivals or shows, or otherwise may be personally owned and kept in dry storage within one's personal dorm room. The cuisine of Scholomance is largely reminiscent of Germanic dishes, with influence from Austria and Belgium. On average the quality of meals served might be considered equivalent to what would be served in a restaurant as opposed to a cafeteria, despite the long-table mass dining experience provided. To select their desired meals, students receive a weekly meal card upon their bedside table each Sunday morning and define upon it from the available selections for the upcoming week what they would like to be served each day.

## Architecture

### The Castle Proper

The castle proper is itself a grand space large enough to house a village in its own right. Countless classrooms and commons overlooked by lofted studies, ten story libraries, and high tower observatories are connected by vaulted hallways and separated by luscious gardens. It is not uncommon for new and even returning students to become lost and turned around within the black stone halls.

### The Dungeons

A seemingly endless labyrinth, The Dungeons beyond the third level are forbidden for students to venture to; the grand depth of the dungeons is unknown with rumors ranging wildly between a modest ten floors to hundreds. It is speculated that a number of strange things lie below, however the official answer is that the deeper dungeons consist of several archives and storehouses. Rumors hold however, that brave and foolish students who have ventured below have found the remains of an old prison, proper labyrinths, and even access-ways to the complex system of caves known as the Unseen Caverns which crawl throughout the Carpathian mountains unbeknownst to the mundane world.

### The Gardens

Several gardens exist within the confines of the outer walls of Scholomance, most of the larger gardens are decorated with stone benches and cobblestone pathways which wind and divide the verdant floral life. Deep green and even violet leaves hidden away beneath tall white trees make the Central Garden unforgettable. Bioluminescent mushrooms canopy the groves of another where adorable slime molds sway gently in the wind as they hang down from the fascia of the garden patio within the Undergarden located upon the second floor of the dungeons. The herb gardens are no less grand than their flowered sisters as they grow beneath wrought iron laden and filigreed tinted glass roofs. Misty with warmth and verdance, they are host to many of the herbology classes held within the school.

### The Wharf

A layered pier of thick wooden docks and even several warehouses attaching to the rear side of the black stone academy, set upon the strange glowing pond. The wharf rarely sees use, making it a favorite place for upper classmen to sneak off to for privacy. Strangely enough, tales would tell of great galleons finding mooring at the docks as they seemingly just appear, sailing out from mist cloaked mountains. The most famous of all the ships to moor at the docks comes annually amidst the school year, The Christabel. Its means of arrival is not as confounding as some other ships as it is indeed a ghost ship! The ragged crew of spectral pirates set up camp upon their ship and the docks and remain throughout the week of Samhain; Halloween, slowly growing increasingly corporeal.

Yet tangible ships do make use of the docks on occasion to carry goods and people from afar to the school, a rather paradoxical phenomenon given Scholomance's land locked geographic positioning. Two staple ships within the harbor even routinely leave from the docks to take students to North America and England, known respectively as The Marywind and The Kingsmoore, connecting the school to far and remote lands where they dock to transfer students too and from the school at the beginning and ending of each academic year.

## Geography

### The Grand Illusion

One of the most remarkable and strange features of Scholomance is what is known as the grand illusion. The null myths suggest that the devil's school was built underground, a rumor likely formed from a miscommunicated about the true place wherein the school was build. Anyone who tries to find the academy would instead find a mountain where it should rest, a mountain seemingly mundane and recorded on null's maps, climbed, and mined. Yet it is inside this mountain that Scholomance was built, and from within it there is no stone chasm to be seen, only misty skies and clouds, for the mountain is but an illusion of unmatchable proportions, visible only to those unattuned to the arcane, yet tangible and real nonetheless. The grand illusion was built by the same architects who laid the black stone of the school itself, making it's properties yet another mystery of the Black School of Magic.

### Weather

The weather within the grounds of Scholomance is generally mild, leaning chilly. In the summer the weather rarely surpasses 23.5°C, while the winters often find pause around -10°C. Overall the temperature likes to rest at a calm 18°C. There are rarely any great storms on the grounds, though it is not uncommon for light rain to bless the gardens in the twilight hours of spring. Most common of all, however, is a morning fog that lingers until the noontime sun scares it away before running its course with misty skies until once more giving way to the damp night air.

### The Veiled Forest

A gloomy forest shrouded in more mystery than mist. The veiled forest is home to many strange creatures and covers nearly half of the space under the illusory mountain, crawling up the mountainous boundaries of the grounds. It is said that the forest is protected by a curse which causes the forest itself to twist and turn so that people within it become lost and turned around. Reports from people who have ventured into the forest claim that it is in large part hilly and uneven with many sudden drops and even cavernous holes.

### The Glowing Pond

The Glowing Pond borders one side of the school and stretches into the veiled forest where it ultimately ends as a mountain side pond. The waters are slow moving and fed by a number of mountain streams. Students have been known to fish in the waters, as they are far from devoid of life occasionally finding larger then expected things hooks to their lines. The pond is named after it's tendency to glow in the dead of night, as it is a host to a colony of bioluminescent microbes.

### The Unseen Caverns

The Unseen Caverns are a strange network of caves which have never been discovered by null surveyors, yet they branch and connect to the surface in several places as the adventurous will tell. The caverns are rumored to be full of strange and alien life, both magical and mundane.

### Flora & Fauna

No birds pass through the grand illusion, save for the strange ravens used by wixen to send messages which seemingly slip from existence as they ascend into the sky. On the grounds there is a wide variety of strange plant and animal life. Much of the flora contained within the misty grounds of Scholomance is limited to the veiled forest and the numerous gardens, while it is known that there are many magical creatures hiding within the confines of the grand illusion, many of whom have also made the forest their home, and even occupy the pond and caverns. Scholomance is accordingly regarded as one of the most magical places on earth, a haven for the unseen.

### The Carpathians

A legendary expanse of mossy and snow capped mountains, dressed in forests and said to be home to ghastly spirits and trickster sprites. The Carpathians are indeed a place of myth and magic. For once null myths would not be entirely inaccurate, for it is said even among the wixen that the Carpathians are home to the Fey Courts, the denizens of the wilds making their homes within the burrows and unseen caverns. Every year students report encounters with fey beings, only giving further credit to these speculations and even making the fey a suspect as one of the possible identities of the founders.

## Innumbera

Nestled in the shadows north of Scholomance, is the greatest of arcanist cities Innumbera, meaning *The City in the Shadows*. The tightly built and bustling streets make up the center of arcanist society, while also providing students with an exciting locale to explore in their time between classes. Every new student of Scholomance takes there first steps within the

## Additional Content

Much of the World of Witchcraft lore centers around the happenings of Scholomance as the supposed original Academy of the Arcane Arts. As such, much of the lore and wiki's exploration can be based out of this page. To ease in one's exploration, several Page Suggestions have been made below. The Suggested Pages for Site Navigation are "Hub" Style pages containing many hyperlinks to in universe topics, while also providing at-a-glance information.

#### Suggested Pages for Site Navigation

* Lexicon
* Timeline
* Curriculum
* Notable Figures
* Academy Registry
* Morrigan's Grimoire

#### The Roleplayer's Guide

A unique page intended to help readers gain an understanding of what it is like to become integrated into the culture of Scholomance. This page will direct you through the essential readings required to gain an understanding of the school as would be necessary from the perspective of an incoming first-year student.

* The Roleplayer's Guide