Clan Brilliant Sky

The Brilliant Sky Clan and Research University is a first-class academic institution located deep within the heart of the Starfall Isles. The University is dedicated to the study of the Starwood Strand: the creatures that inhabit it, the magic that sustains it, and the strange things that have been known to happen there. Our clan's scholars understand that they will never learn everything about this mysterious forest, but that doesn't stop them from being curious.

## About

### Location

Our entrance is located on the edge of the Starwood Strand, where it starts to thin out into the Crystalspine reaches.

## History

Before it was an academic institution, the Brilliant Sky Research University was the Brilliant Sky clan, founded when the guardian Adara discovered Moth: a lonely, lost, and sickly mirror dragon carrying an abundance of scrolls and writings about the Starwood Strand. Adara, immediately took him back to her lair just outside the forest, in order to provide a place where he could start to regain his health. There, she began to read over the writings he had carried with him. Adara was a native to the Strand, and had long ago taken the woods as her Charge, and so she spent long hours sitting with Moth, who got sicker and sicker by the day, talking about the woods she had chosen to protect for life.

Even though Adara was an accomplished mage, healing magic was never her strong suit. The more she grew to love Moth, the more he grew weaker and weaker, until one day, he could barely stand up and open his eyes enough to read his writing.

Sealing the door of her tiny cavern lair with a powerful magic ward, Adara ventured off into the woods to find a dragon that might help Moth regain his strength. She called upon her old childhood friend Zephyr, an accomplished scout, and together they set off into the woods, to find a healer.

How fortunate it was that they ran into Illsente and Augnentia.

A Light medic, and his Shadow wife, the two dragons had just left their old clan in search of a new adventure, and for Illsente, who had spent months caring for the health of newborn hatchlings, healing Moth sounded like a grand adventure. His wife, Augnentia, was curious about Moth's collection of scrolls, and so the four set a course back for Adara's lair, where Illsente would examine Moth, and hopefully be able to heal him.

When they came back, however, something had changed.

No more was there that gray-blue lump in the corner where Moth had lain. No more did the lair smell of the week-old meat he couldn't eat, no more was his labored breathing audible from the entrance, no more did the air hang thick with magic sickness.

Out of the corner, fluttered a small Fae with the same colors that Moth had once worn.

"Hello," he muttered. "I think I changed. This feels much better."

It was the most curious thing any of the dragons had ever seen. Yes, sometimes dragons changed breed due to some strange magic ritual, but never had it simply occurred naturally, without any forewarning other than a vague sickness.

Zephyr wanted to find more dragons like him. Were they out there, in the Strand, changing into Faes of their own accord, or perhaps due to the magic of the forest? He wanted to find them. Adara wanted to understand: had the woods done this to Moth? What else was her mysterious Charge hiding within its borders? Moth was happier than he had ever been in his new body, but why? What had caused this change? Augnentia wanted to read what Moth had written, and Illsente wanted to hone his medicine skills, but either way, the five dragons agreed that the Starwood Strand contained far more mystery and magic than any of them could comprehend. So, they decided they would start a new clan, in the cavern where Moth had turned into a Fae.

They'd spend their lives dedicated to it: never stop searching, never stop questioning, never stop finding answers and questions, and new problems to solve. There would be no truth in this search, for in a place that is constantly changing, there often are no absolutes. But, slowly by surely, they'd find out how this strange place worked. They'd uncover the mysteries of the Starwood Strand.

### Founding of the University

For many moons, and even years, the clan was merely that. Although the vast majority of its inhabitants were scholars of some sort, the lair was simply a place for dragons to get a good night's sleep on their way to see another clan, or perhaps even make a pilgrimage to the Arcanist inside the Observatory.

However, as time twirled on, the dragons that ended up staying were nearly always scholars, and nearly always interested in the forest that the leader had taken as her Charge.

One turn of the earth after the official founding of the clan, a charter was drafted, and what was once simply a living space had now become an officially accredited academic institution. Applications began to accrue, from dragons who wished to study the mysteries of the Starwood Strand.

## Structure of the university

At its founding, Adara was appointed University President, with Moth being appointed as Provost. Zephyr was the official Deputy President (a term that he preferred over "Vice President"), Augnentia was delegated the title of Head Librarian, and Kefka the school groundskeeper, as well as head of maintenance and Security. Aventurine is the school record-keeper, and Pansy the Dean of Student life.

The school's official colors (taken from the new, expanded FR color wheel) are Wine and Spruce. The school mascot is the Crystalspines. Enrollment is capped at (45 lair spaces, minus the teachers, forget how many students that is).

The school has very little required curriculum or classes. When each student applies to the University, they include in their application an intended field of study. When they arrive at the school, they are assigned a research mentor that can help them pursue that field.

The first required class is Research Methods and Statistics 101. In this class, students learn about how to conduct effective research, as well as how to write an effective research paper. They learn the basics of higher-level statistics, in order to help them better understand how to interpret data.

The second required class is The Mysteries of the Starwood Strand. Taught by none other than Adara, this class is a basic primer on the forest all students are studying, and allows foreigners to acquire a basic familiarity for the language, folklore, and magiscientific properties of the Starwood Strand.

## Relationships

### With other clans

The Brilliant Sky Clan will extend diplomatic relationships with any other clan in Sornieth, as long as their intentions are benign. In particular, we love partnering with other studious and academic clans, in order to exchange knowledge. We primarily form relationships in order to exchange knowledge with other clans.

If your dragon wishes to study the Starwood Strand, or any form of magic, flora, or fauna that might inhabit it, they are welcome to stay at our clan in order to learn.

## Dragons

* Adara: Leader, founder, researcher, protector, and powerful mage.
* Moth: Founder of the Library, keeper of all maps and documents, reader, collector of knowledge
* Zephyr: Diplomat, scout, clan second in command. Organizational whiz, great communication skills. Adara's oldest childhood friend.
* Augnentia: Head librarian, researcher, knows where pretty much all the books are.
* Illsente: Healer, doctor, herb expert. Trained in natural, biological, and magical medicine.
* Iolanthe: Nest-keeper, babysitter of hatchlings.
* Tomer: Clan cook/chef, tells the best jokes
* Iris: scout, prankster, fisher, gatherer of information and just about everything else.
* Indigo: Head mage, fisher, specializes in magic of animation andmovement
* Elektra: Scientist and sorceress who specializes in combining machines and magic.Rescued from the Starwood Strand as a hatchling, along with Aventurine.
* Aventurine: Head scribe, quiet observer
* Phoenix: Clan announcer, alerter, and general doer of things that require the clan's full attention.
* Dalia: Mage who specializes in magic of flesh, and changing flesh. Creator of all breed/gene/scatter scrolls.
* Kefka: Lair organizer, upkeeper, and cleaner. Cannot stand to see that bookshelf 4cm too far to the left.
* Seabiscuit: Lair architect and builder, creator of nearly all the tunnels.
* Nephele: Mage, head of spirituality and religious life. Specializes in magic of light and color.
* Idlip: Mage, specializes in magic of impermanence, disappearance, and reappearance
* Jasper: Clan hoard keeper.
* Linux: Messenger, scout, researcher who specializes in magic theory (but can't cast a single spell himself).
* Alethea: Sees the future inside her Pearl.
* Seasons quartet: A group of four Imperial ladies who each study the magic of a particular season. They help the clan study and brave all sorts of weather.
* Harkoa: An old tundra with a mysterious past who is the keeper of all forbidden/dangerous knowledge that the clan has accidentally stumbled across.
* Isra: Only known child of clan leaders/founders Moth and Adara, she was a lazy bum for a while, but now fights creatures in the forest in order to bring them for study purposes, or eating purposes (or both).
* Sylvius: Isra's exceedingly fat mate who used to lay around and do nothing, but now kind of helps Isra bring back creatures from the Starwood Strand. Still pretty lazy, though.
* Rune: Scribe, and researcher/expert in many languages and magical rune systems.
* Elbaite: a dragon crippled by her powerful magic who came to seek help from Adara. Has started to study how different amounts of magic can be harmful or helpful.
* Clad: Elbaite's Charge, who is very good at absorbing magic with his fur.
* Walrus: Librarian, historian, Whippersnapper's tired older cousin.
* Whippersnapper: explorer, mapmaker, continuously moving.
* Ameria: Keeper of the Greenhouse who also studies the magic of plants and the flora of the Starwood Strand.
* Rosaline: Peacemaker, particularly with the Beastclans, studies the migration patterns of Harpies.
* Diluted: Clan water-keeper, who ensures that the clan has a constant supply of clean, non-magically contaminated water.
* Piper: Bard, musician, free spirit.
* Khan: An ancient water spirit discovered in one of the clan's deepest tunnels. He must have once been a dragon, but now his physical body has faded away, leaving behind only a spirit, and memories that stretch back for eons...
* Unnamed: familiar keeper, studies the wildlife of the Starwood Strand.

## Lair

### Location

The main entrance to the lair is currently located at the base of one of the easternmost Crystalspine reaches, where the mountains start to flatten out into the Starwood Strand. The lair itself is located in a complex network of tunnels and caverns stretching throughout multiple mountains, and a significant portion of the Starwood Strand. There are multiple entrances all throughout the Reaches and the Strand, some of which lead to small, aboveground portions of the lair.

### Architecture

The lair is made up of a vast network of tunnels that stretch throughout the Crystalspine reaches and the Starwood Strand. The main entrance to the lair is located low on a mountainside, where the Starwood Strand begins to thin out into the Crystalspine reaches, but there are a variety of small entrances and exits all over the Starfall Isles. The layout of the tunnels is constantly changing, as new dragons enter the clan and the needs of the clan change.

A more detailed article about specific rooms, entrances, and features in the lair can be found here.