Welcome first years. This has been quite the year, and you should feel proud of your accomplishments. Many of you have impressed us with your acumen and talent but now it is time for us to truly test what you have learned with us.
As you are all aware your admittance to this prestigious academy hangs on this one final...experience. We have assessed your forms and taken your preferred stream as well as overall grades and professor references into account to ensure you end up with the brightest future for you. Not all of you have successfully made it through to the assessment, but we are committed to helping you through the next stages of your life, you will find your names on the lists posted outside along with a guidance slot with a professor. For the successful candidates you have been assigned a complimentary partner and supervisory professor. These partnerships have also been posted outside also and I suggest you take the time to find each other and get to know them. Dossiers with your tasks will be delivered to your dorms tomorrow morning.
The rules are the same as ever. You are to research your topic, and write a small academic article about it. You will have six weeks to complete the practical side, and another two to finish your write up. With that I bid you good luck and happy researching.
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Welcome to The Arcanum.
This will be our thread to link to all world building, plot details and ooc chatter! As we build upon our world this can become our reference guide-especially if we continue on after the first adventure.
Last edited by Adora Bell; 09-16-2019 at 06:34 PM.
First things first I guess. Academy name! Or University xD
Here's some of my ideas:
Highland Academy
Voyflen Academy
Arcanum/Arcane Uni.
Seren Academy
Elysian Academy.
Taevalik Uni.
I'm going to keep adding my ideas as I think them up. I realized half way through that we probably need a world name too. Or at least a city name where this academy is located.
So here are some ideas for city/kingdom names as well.
Uni. of Genesis
Uni. of Pluvio
Prinwarths University
Uni. of Livion
Uni. of Penketh
Uni. of Gramsby
Uni. of Southwold
Uni of Hogsfeet (I had to)
Uni of Erith
Uni of North Warren
Uni of Fallborough
Uni of Aelfort
I really like just The Arcanum as a name for the university
I also like a number of the ones below because they sound like they could be named after someone famous. Like if we had an international university and it was named for Darwin or Einstein or Galileo...
Voyflen Academy
Seren Academy
Taevalik Uni.
Prinwarths University
Uni. of Livion
Uni. of Penketh
Uni. of Gramsby
Uni of Erith
Uni of Aelfort
As for the world, I was thinking of having it be just one continent (that they know of) like if it was based in Europe through Asia, but the Americas haven't been discovered yet etc. Maybe they have magical air craft and things but nothing that could make a long enough voyage to make it to another continent.
It gives us multiple bones from jungles and deserts and tundra. Also plenty of room for different ancient cultures to rise and fall before them.
I'm pulling a super blank on setting names, and I tried a couple of generators and hated all the suggestions... I'm probably not in the right mindset at work haha. But, I am keen this week to maybe start on a map outline? There's this neat method using dice I want to try of you're ok with it?
I did have a name come to me in my insomnia of Elysia or Lanafey; but they did also come from stress dreams at 2am so feel free to shoot them down ^^;
So you assign an attribute to different sides dice like, d4 are mountains, d6 is grasslands d8 is desert etc. Tne you gather up a whole bunch (I have so many dice) and roll them on like an A3 paper. Drawing around their grouping gives you the land shape, and the types of dice give you the land area type on each part of the continent. You can always edit for sense afterwards.
The continent of Elysia it is then. I'm imagining this school is the most prestigious? Like, their entrance exams are the hardest and everyone who wants to be someone tries to get in kind of thing?
Sure. It's something I could whip up probably tomorrow night. And now that I have a computer again I can see if I remember how to use GIMP to make it pretty digitally.
Yeahh, it's definitely the most prestigious one. People all over the continent kinda come to it, to try to get in because those that get in and finish their education get great jobs in their field.
I do have an idea for fleshing out the university a bit more (in terms of what majors they offer, how the campus looks, how the dorms look) but I'll touch on that when I get home, since I want to look some pictures up. My campus rn does not inspire me -.-
Also, I'm assuming that this world has a magical aspect to it, but should the people themselves have magical abilities? And, do you think there should be different creatures that co-exist with humans (say like elves for example).
My idea is that people do have varied magical abilities but it's more like talents then abilities. So students who go for the "research" major, are maybe talented linguists, or have more advanced physical abilities, better endurance, enhanced memory etc. They could also have a knack with flora or/and fauna. While those who are planning to become engineers, for example, are talented with electricity, programs, metals etc.
Does that kinda make sense? I'm just dumping all my ideas into one pile
Or of course, the world itself and the unique creatures could have the magical aspect while the humans don't. Or more detailed powers but those don’t really fit the whole exploring part i think.
Alsoooo. Will our characters live in the same dorm since they are partners?
Sorry for the late reply. I am kinda slow during the week with work and other commitments ^^;
Cool. Glad I'm on the same page. Not gonna lie my brain is only working at about half functionality today haha.
Oooh. I look forward to what you come up with! I'll try get the map outline up tonight. And I get the inspiration thing- my workplace isnt terribly inspiring either.
Yes, magic is a thing. I was thinking it's more in the world than in the denizens as much. I dunno, in my head people have like a knack with magic- some people are good at sensing emotions so make good sales people, counsellors or politicians. Some people are just good with animals or plants or an element and can sense when things are right or not right. Or with elements have minor control and resistance?
So a plant talent might be able to sense when a plant is sick, or get a sense of its properties. A strong one might even be able to encourage growth or train growth in say vines or bonsai and things.
A fire talent is never burnt by fire and can put out or start small fires. Maybe even raise or decrease the temperature of one for a time. But a single fire talent couldn't stop a house fire by themselves- but if a group of them got together they could.
I do like the idea of other humanoid races, but it opens up a whole cradle of world building questions. Like, was there one humanoid origin that has speciated similarly to how we have homo sapiens from Africa and that ancestor spread to areas and different settled areas have different racial characteristics of it's people- like hot sunny places having darker skin to protect against the sun whilst the colder less sunny places have paler skin to make the most of what little sunlight they get. In which case are humans the normal sort of plains people, while elves are from the mountains evolved/magically enhanced to be light of foot and have better sight and hearing for the snowy tundra and food that lives underneath it, whilst the anthropomorphic style races come from the forests and jungles, adapted to those niches? Just as a thought.
The concept of shared rooms is so foreign here, but I wondered if maybe the dorms were in suites with a shared common area? So maybe 5 rooms adjoining a common study/social area?
*drags a wheelbarrow full of papers into chat* Info dump time!! I did a bit of research and decided on some ideas that I really like. This is what I have for now~
But first, I guess I want to decide on the more basic stuff for the university. I'm terrible with numbers, but I was thinking that the school has around 12k students, and accepts about 2k first year's every year. The number of course fluctuates and changes. Pleaseeee correct my numbers if they're totally off.
Spoiler: dorm layout ideas
I have 2 different pictures that I found on google that I really like for the dorms themselves. Both house four people, and they are pretty functional and comfy.
Picture 1:
This one is my favorite personally. It's squared, and has bathrooms for every person (cuz who wants to share bathrooms amirite). That kitchen is pretty sweet too!
Picture 2:
This is a bit more detailed, but it's pretty much the same idea except there's only two bathrooms. Which isn't particularly bad or anything, but it may be a bit cheap for such a prestigious university.
Although most dorms are going to be pretty similar, I do like having something I can look at which is what the pictures are for, even if we only take bits and pieces from pictures.
Spoiler: outside of dorm building ideas
1: For the outside dorm, maybe something prettyyy. The dorms could be built in these big squares and the middle of each dorm building could have pools and a nice resting area. The dorm buildings would be in two or three big loops a distance away from the university.
2. Something more skyscraper like. This would consist of the first five or six floors being dedicated to gyms, practice areas, resting areas, food, and more food.
3. Cute little cabin like.
Big cabins that are split up into two “dorm areas” able to house 8-10 people. Two-three stories high with the bottom floor being the “common” area.
They would be in little communities spread out around the city and or outskirts all away from the university but not too far.
Spoiler: university layouts
The three dorm ideas go hand in hand with these.
1: The university would be based on a hill, with a road leading down. At the base of the hill, would be two loops with the dorm buildings and further out would be a more residential area for the upperclassmen who decided to get their own place to live closer to the school. The university would have gardens, pools, areas for practice, a library in it's own building all in one area. The university would be on the outskirts of the capital or whatever city it is based in.
2. The university would be based right in the capital/city. It would be a gorgeous skyscraper, with the dorm buildings being also skyscrapers that are all connected through glass tunnels.
3. (I love this idea) Totally out of this world, and more magical because why not. University is based on a floating island on the outskirts of town. The main campuses of the university, parking, office buildings etc are all on the main island while the dorms is on another one connected through flying aircraft that go hourly. And there is another one or two smaller islands for animal sanctuary, gardens, practice arena’s and residential area for upperclassmen.
I like both of your ideas for the magic and humanoid races. We could have the humans and the elves. I was also thinking "dwarves" but those still look like humans, are the same height as humans but they are more gruffy looking and well-built. They are more predisposed for heavy work, earth elements and such.
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