Arcania Tempestus Sanctum

A gnarled and twisted redwood, the thickest and mightiest heart-tree within the city of Kelethan. Its trunk a size untold, seeming as if the trunk of five trees, and with many a natural opening, windows to within, the trunk clearly housing a structure, stairs and more. Above the canopy twisted and grown strangely, with walkways and entire woven roadways of layered branches seeming to flow forth under the shade of its mighty canopy. Flowing out in eight direction, connecting to eight other treetops, each very unique indeed, many of them seeming to defy the environmental requirements of their species to live in this boreal and temperate climate. A thick acacia, the thorny tree much larger than these desert cacti/tree hybrids would grow in their normal climates, to the south, as but one example that you see. These trees contain many a bulbous bump in their trunk, showing windows to a tower like structure, and their canopies have many chambers, rooms, and entire facilities woven within, encapsulated and encompassed by the canopy. The magick of this facility, kept separate by great distance, yet surrounded by the heart of the city itself stands unique. It is a temple, a house of learning, and in some ways the birthplace of Valerick as you know it. The mighty redwood Talia's sacred hall, the surrounding land thick with a small slice of wilderness within such an urban environment. The Arcania Tempestus Sanctum, the birthplace of the Magisterium, the eight heart-trees that ring the central redwood the first collegiate ever opened for each of the eight fields of study for Magisters. The redwood is the Tempestus Sanctum, or better referred to as the Natural Sanctuary, the grand cathedral and center of power for the Treestriders, the religion that worship Talia, the Lady of the Leaves. You stand before the birthplace of the arcane arts, and the facility that was the blue print in its construction of combining the powers of magick and faith with skilled workers to provide a sanctum, a place of safety and shielding, for the educating of those with the Touch of Arcanis to learn and master their abilities. A place meant to provide them with a home, a place to practice and learn and grow, whilst having all manner of defensive measures in place to insure the safety of regular folk whom live and work all around such facilities. You stand before a facility with history that dates back to the end of the Arcanis Purgings, to the dark days at the end of the Sundering, and those first dark decades as we stepped back forth to enlightenment and understanding.

The Arcania Tempestus Sanctum, the first and oldest of any such facilities, stands as fortress and temple to the Faith of the Leaves, the belief of the Magisterium, and the power of the Child races of the Ascended. The facility is massive, and though the arcane arts are very dangerous, the structures and various safeties in place, both personal and interwoven magicks and divine power keep those inside safe from those meaning harm from without, for deep taboos still exist about the arcane arts. They also serve the secondary, and arguably more important purpose of keeping the city of Kelethan writ large safe from what happens within. The sheer number of multiple layers of divine warding, arcane enchantments, uniqued mixed shielding circles and dampening runes and wards woven into very grove surrounding the Heartwood structure itself, in every tree and in the soil and walls of and gates of the premises itself, combined with the those more powerful such protections woven into the heartwood structures themselves, all keyed carefully and with great consideration upon their formation centuries upon centuries ago, their magicks imbued with such spellwork, prayer work, and power by teams of dozens upon dozens that they are enternal, never faltering, never failing, fed by the very practices of prayer and magick education within these facilities, are truly a marvel. All this is to insure when the rare cases of an apprentice faltering, losing control in their magickal education, perhaps even rifting open a small hole in reality, even should Voidling creatures spill forth from such an incident, are contained within the bounds of the facility itself, the magisters and the Magis Templaris having time to respond to the situation appropriately and wholly, without worry of the incident spreading beyond the bounds of the Collegiate.

The number of things that would need to go completely wrong are easily within the double digits to even begin having a risk of any such incident spilling forth into the streets of Kelethan writ large, and to date thankfully, though their have been some twenty or so incidents of such extreme recorded, with creatures of the Void breaching into the Material realm from the mistakes or illicit actions of foolhardy apprentices (or secret cultists) they've never come close to breaching beyond those protections. As such the Arcania Tempestus Sanctum is the blueprint, the model, the base template that any collegiate in any city across all of Valerick is based off of. It is why such facilities are not in every major city, and generally only can be found of a similar size in one, perhaps two, cities at most in any nation. Smaller sorts also exist of course, with less of the Orders represented, and these are far more common, as the Magisterium has learned which touches are more common in various regions. However the principle design philosophy remains the same for all such facilities as the Arcania Tempestus Sanctum. Keep the world out to keep the world writ large safe from our charges, whilst they learn discipline, control and skill.