Thornpassage

"Circling the Red Spire, there can always be found a host of red kite hawks, each surveying the university butresses for the day's meal. Below them scurry the Lordship's finest academics and most commited researchers, weaving past each other in a heaving mass upon the cobbles. Across the city, the call of bells marks the passage of time: stratified for lectures and meetings."

Thornpassage was of regional importance long before it became what it is now: it oversees the Thornpassage Veil- a key thoroughfare for goods and travellers hading north on the west side of Fellthorn. However, this regional power was overtaken during the reign of Gerwulf when the heir Gerwain came to Thornpassage and fell in love with the beautiful scenery. It was this visit that changed the course of Thornpassage's history as Gerwain spent years on end in the developing trade city, supervising the construction of many great buidlings, most of which still stand today. Not only this, but Gerwain commissioned several surveys of the surrounding landscape, building proper roads and bringing in people from the Northern Folds to settle in the region. This large influx did cause some local issues regarding land rights and local culture protection, but Gerwain made efforts to assimilate the two populations as best he could. So much so, that the creation of a New Thornpassage became Gerwain's life work, and the erection of the first university Tome's Keep University was bankrolled out of Gerwain's own finances. The small city grew three-fold during Gerwain's life, with huge migrations of aspiring academics and sages contributing a large part. Gerwain took care to curate a collection of teachers, sages, wizards and other wise people who could guide the next generations to the undiscovered secrets of the age. This drive gave growth to all the associated industries: paper stretching, ink distilling, book binding, wand making and others. The results took hold only after Gerwain's tragic death, but his contributions redefined the practise of academia in Gwendor for ever. After Gerwain's passing, the Lord Gerwain Univsersity was built to honour his ideals of curiousity and care.

However, the factionalism of Gerwain's gathered thinkers gave rise to different schools of thought in the decades after his death. The disagreements became more pronounced as each thinker drew a student following, and taught their priorities as they saw fit. Eventually, the main two approaches established their own places of study in the form of Windcall University and Fifth Spire University. Fifth Spire is the only of Thornpassage's Universities to be built beyond city limits, but its reliance on- and resulting interconnectedness with- the city's economic ecosystem leads it to be included on Thornpassage surveys and other official documentation. Windcall, on the other hand, is a central and prestigious insititution situated at the heart of Thornpassage. This placement is no coincidence, as the two schools saw differring levels of acceptance and support.

Nowadays, Thornpassage is a city of two parts: local and students- neither of which are divided harshly on an collegial loyalty. The local population is on the most part geared towards providing for the student population in their studies as the business of providing for academics is a lucrative one. Nevertheless, there are still bastions of truely local culture in the form of wicker weaving and the numerous festivals that dot the local calendar. There are many students who moved to study, but stayed after their studies, using their new skills to contribute to the city that took them in. In this vein, Thornpassage is home to the most administrative and academic institutions in the Lordship, barring Gwendor, Lord's Redoubt itself. In recent decades, the nature of institutions has diversified as places like the Fellsteel Institute were founded for the study of warfare, rather than peaceful academic pursuits. As according to Thornpassage's nature, the city evolved with the academia its masters prioritised; a section of the city became saturated with smiths, training grounds and tanners. This widening diaspora of traders and talents has led to an affluent mercentile population, which sustains itself on the flow of goods traffic passing through the Veil on its way to Dorróhaven, and the requirements of its caravans.

"Though the city's history is laiden in mediocrity, its scholastic institutions bare a quite different weight: that of innovation, nuance and bookish charm. It is this fact that redeems the city from an otherwise unsung existence." - exert from the Quillbeard Chronicle, an academic journal founded by an alumnus of Tome Keeper University.

Alternative Name(s)

Kitetown, Fourspire

Type

City

Population

~100,000

Included Locations

• Fellsteel Institute
• Fifth Spire University
• Lord Gerwain University
• Tome's Keep University
• Windcall University

Ruling/Owning Rank

Custodis Toemus