The Scholomance

From the Print Copy

Cross Section image

School

***In Wisdom, Shelter*** - The official motto of the Scholomance.
The Scholomance is a school for magical children. Don't expect a "Harry Potter" type of school, because this school has no adults in it and the children never leave for four years, if they survive. From the time the students arrive until they "Graduate,” they are lucky to be the 1-in-4 that survive.

## History

Built in the late 1800’s by Sir Alfred Cooper Browning of the Manchester (England) Enclave to protect the children of the Enclaves. Before the school was built only 40% of the children in enclaves survived to adulthood without being eaten by Maleficaria (Mals). Sir Alfred Cooper Browning came up with the idea for the school. The school is attached to the real world by the graduation gate which is loaded down with magical wards and barriers. Some mals manage to get through the wards anyway but then they can only get to the graduation hall. The graduation hall is only connected to the rest of the school with a minimum of pipes and vents.

When the Scholomance first opened, there were several really complex multilayered spells on the gym to give students the illusion of being outside in nature, complete with trees and open skies above that would go from day to night. It was the masterpiece of a crack team of artificers from Kyoto.
But the illusions died out over 100 years ago and now it is a unrepaired ghost of what had been there.

The original plan for repairs and maintenance was that a group of adult wizards would go into the school every so often and make major repairs, but the first group went in and didn't come back out, nor were any repairs made.

Then the enclaves put together groups of wizards to enter the graduation hall from the outside and to repair the “*Mortal Flame*” cleansing machine. The repairs only lasted a short time and most of the teams never returned.

In 1888 a third trip lead by Sir Alfred was suppose to take care of a permanent fix, but he was absorbed by either Patience or Fortitude and only about half of his crew made it back out, the permanent fix lasted 3 years.

The school was originally built just for the enclave children, but after Sir Albert tried and failed to make a permanent fix to the Graduation hall, "Mortal Flames" engines there were a lot of turmoil in the wizardry community, a few groups of parents attempted to fix the machines but they just died and no fixes were completed. There were discussions to stop sending their children to the school, but then they would be back to the 40% of their children surviving. Among the termoil the London Enclave staged a coup and took over the school. They opened up the school to all wizard children including the independents and doubled the number of available openings.

Including the indy kids worked beautifully, they are the cannon fodder, the ones that don't have anyone to watch that backs or with powerful artifacts or much previous training. The indies are the ones that the Mals go after first. The Indies are also the maids and maintenance workers so the enclave children don't have to take a maintenance shift.

After the school opened to all magical children, the survival rate of the enclave children hover around 80%.

Each enclave has a set number of children that they can include on the list to be pulled in at Induction, that number includes the local Indy children. 1000 to 1600 children are Inducted with about 1/4 making it all of the way through to graduation.

The survival rate of the indy children that attend the school has also improved, just not by as much. Only 1 in 20 of the indie children that don’t get into the school survive.

## Physical Structure

The initial building was constructed in the real world and then nudged into the void, which is a *persuadable* space. The blueprints of the school are hanging everywhere within the school, so when the children look at the blueprints it reinforces the belief that there is enough air coming out of the vents for them to continue to breath and that water will come out of the faucets and their classrooms will be where the blue prints say they are and the same for the steps and all of the other areas of the school.

It's a huge round building with 5 floors plus the graduation hall. The center is a gigantic cork screw that rotates the resident rooms part of the building down one level, every graduation day.

The classrooms, library, cafeteria all stay in the same location in the center core.

* The top level or 5th floor is the library which has no ceiling but is open to the void which prevents Malls from dropping down on students heads. Books come and go from the library at will.
* The 4th floor is the Cafeteria and other class rooms.
* The 3rd floor is the language halls and main supply room.
* The 2nd floor is other classrooms,
* The 1st floor is shop work rooms, gym and smaller rooms for specialized senior classes.

(Ed. Note: The residents’ rooms may be offset between the core levels that don’t move, the images seem to suggest that as well as a few references in the book, but one image shows the Freshmen rooms on the same level as the cafeteria)

### Gallery

(**Click on any of the pictures (right click to open in new tab) which will open a larger version, click again to open Full size image.**)

(Ed. Note: Are the interior rooms open to the void in the ceilings? Chloe’s room and the Floor Plan image seems to suggest that)

### Senior Level

The senior level consists of their rooms in the outer ring and the inner ring of classrooms, work shops and the Gymnasium.

The Gymnasium is located on the senior level along with work shops and special classrooms. the largest area of the level is the gymnasium and it is where they train with their alliance teams in preparation of getting through *Graduation* and out the doors.
School wide activities for "*Field Day*" is also held in the gymnasium. When it was originally created it was a beautiful park like something from the real world, but over the years it has become worn and uninviting.

### Graduation Hall

Located underneath the school with the gate to the real world that only opens on graduation day for about a half-hour.

*The enormous central column of the school’s rotating axle actually looked small where it pierced the hall.* *Thin bronze columns ran up the outer walls and then spoked in over one another to make a ceiling like a bicycle wheel overhead.* *Big sliding walls on either side of the hall, which would open up when the senior dorm came down*.
The cleansing Equipment, engines that create the "Mortal Flames" build directly opposite from the Gate: *…huge cylinder shapes against the wall, armored, with pipes and cables coming out, and two large glass sections in the middle.*

### Library

The library is a vast area that is on the top floor and the safest area in the entire school, safer not guaranteed safe. The book shelves just keep going on up into the void so there isn’t a ceiling. There isn’t any plumbing either so mals can’t get in via that method and the air vents are small.

Even though the library is large there isn’t room for all of the students in the reading room. The enclaves have an area with seats and desks or tables staked out and no one else is allowed to sit there except by invitation, any hangers-on for that enclave usually sit on the floor in their area. Enclaves will fight each other and chase off students to defend their spots in the library. Students can also sit at study carols which are found in the stacks. The carols don't always stay in the same places. If you fall asleep at one, you might find yourself in a dimly-lit, unknown part of the library, with no way to orient yourself.

Sometimes the library will try to force students to stay in one row or area. In order to force the library to let them make progress, students can label read, which means they slow down and read the labels of each book they pass. Since they are paying attention, the school has to drag up more books from the void to make the shelves longer. Students will often then make progress since the library doesn't want to provide any rare and valuable books. Label reading also ensures that the lights won't blink out and leave students in the dark. Some shelves are filled with books in ancient languages that no one can read or speak. If a student at the scrolls and tablets with these languages to long, the school might decide said student is studying the language. Students can end up spell-choked--unable to learn new spells--if the school does this.

The students spend their spare time in the library whenever possible, to study, do their homework and socialize.

### Cafeteria

Food is provided magically, but it may be tainted with something that will either make a student sick or kill them, so each item has to be inspected before being eaten. Also, some mals hide out in the food lines so before retrieving a serving, the food line has to be inspected to ensure you aren’t attacked.

At the end of the day the kitchen is cleansed with Mortal fire.

### Rooms

The rooms are less than 7’ across and with minimal furniture. At the end of each term, the school removes the rooms that are not being used so some of the individual rooms gain in size such as Galadriel's room that doubled in height. One wall is open to the void and it is where new spells arrive from.

## Induction

Induction happens the evening of graduation because it is the safest time at the school as the Pest Control ran that morning.

The magical 14-year-olds are scooped up and transported into their room at the school, with only what they have on them. Most of the magical kids on the list know when it will happen but every so often a wizard from a non-magical family is included and they don’t have a clue.

They are only allowed to bring a limited amount of weight and if they try and bring in mana filled power-sinks, the sinks will be empty by the time they arrive at the school.

The kids are instructed by their parents that no matter how sick they are when they arrive the very first thing they must do is run to the cafeteria as the older students will be waiting for them and will help protect them.

Often the Freshmen will bring letters from home, especially for the enclavers. Some of the independent students will also bring small messages for older independent students if the families were able to make arrangements. Any messages or gifts are still part of the weight limits so they have to be small. The new students will give up a small amount of their weight allowance as it ensures that they have an older “friend” that will help them for at least their first year.

## Academic Studies

The school creates the class list and assigns the subjects; although a student can make changes the first day of the year, if they try and take too many easy classes, then they get assigned to the classes that no one wants to take. All of the students learn spells, but the spells are focused more towards their affinity or generalized spells. They all have to take at least some shop classes in Alchemy and Artifacts, but unless that is where their academic track is they don’t have as many classes or challenges in those areas.

There are three academic tracks in the school:

Incantations Track
Spellwork, the student can either study languages so they can learn a wider range of spells or they go for creative writing and write their own spells.
Alchemy Track
Creates magical potions.
Artifice Track
Creating magical objects such as shield-holders, power-sharers, musical instruments
### Maintenance Track

This is an unofficial academic track. All of the students are expected to do a weekly maintenance shift to keep the school in good repair and clean. Some students take on all of the maintenance work that the enclavers are expected to do, in return for a guaranteed place in the enclave’s graduation alliance.

The best of the maintenance workers may be offered a spot in an enclave after they leave the school, after all the enclaves need janitors and people to do the repairs. It means that the maintenance track kids that do make it into an enclave will keep doing the scut work, but their children will have a chance at being a true enclaver.

*Maintenance-track kids end up skipping around half their lessons, so they’re always on the razor’s edge of failing dangerously, and they miss out on a lot of theory and advanced spells.*

### Valedictorian Track

Another unofficial academic track at the school, as it takes extreme dedication to achieve class valedictorian. Being valedictorian usually guarantees a slot in one of the major enclaves and a place on their team, so it has become a cutthroat competition.

The senior rankings are posted in the cafeteria at the halfway point of the year.

## Maintenance shifts

Once a week each student has to take a maintenance shift, after all someone needs to keep repairs up and clean up the big messes.

But the enclavers won’t do theirs so they hire one of the Maintenance Track kids with a promise of a “Graduation Alliance” and / or a consideration to join their Enclave after they make it if they do the maintenance shift for about 10 of the enclavers.

If a maintenance shift isn’t done within the week it’s due then that person responsible for it won’t be allowed into the cafeteria until the shift is completed. The Enclaver’s included, so they keep a close eye on the person responsible for their maintenance shifts so they won’t miss out on any meals.

## Seniors

The seniors spend most of the year preparing for their dash through the graduation hall and for returning to the real world.

During the first quarter they start forming into Graduation Alliances so they can practice together. They only have about 15 to 30 minutes to dash through the hall and make it out of the gates into the real world.

The first half of the year they attend specialized seminar’s in the smaller class rooms on their level where they receive instructions in advance magic. The second half of the year they spend most of their time in the Gym, developing their lung capacity and stamina for the sprint and practicing with their alliance group.

Not all of the indy wizards will be accepted into any alliance and usually only half the seniors make it out of the school, but usually all or most of the enclavers do.

When the rankings are posted mid-year, the top three students including the Valedictorian are usually offered a powerful alliance and a guarantee spots in an enclave.

## Pest Control

*...twice a year the halls get a good scouring. A very loud warning bell goes, we all run for our dormitory cells, shut ourselves in, and barricade our doors as thoroughly as we can. Then massive cleansing walls of mortal flame get conjured up and sent running on their merry way throughout the whole building, from top to bottom, incinerating hordes of desperate fleeing mals. It also helps warm up the machinery at graduation time, just before the dorms all rotate down to their new places.*

*The walls of mortal flame start in pairs and sweep away from each other towards the next one down the corridor...*

## Graduation Hall

The same method of Pest Control that is used in the rest of the school, is supposed to run in the Graduation Hall just before the Seniors were dumped there, but it’s been broken since right after it was installed and none if the students will go down there to do maintenance. First, it is very difficult to get into before the seniors are dump there, except by using the paths that the Mals have created to get up and second it is just too dangerous for students

## End of Term

All of the supply rooms and containers in the shop workrooms are refilled immediately after the cleansing and the rooms settling down in their new locations. The students scramble to the work shops to stock up their supplies with the good stuff

## References

1. ↑ Novik, Naomi. The Last Graduate (The Scholomance) (p. 134). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
2. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 19). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 278). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
4. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education. (The Scholomance) (Time 3:20:30). Random House Publishing Group. Audiobook Edition.
5. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education. (The Scholomance) (Time 3:30:00). Random House Publishing Group. Audiobook Edition.
6. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 110). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
7. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 116). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
8. ↑ Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) (p. 291). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.