Learned Pig
The Wise Quarter’s thriving student populace fuels scores of neighborhood pubs. Most of these establishments affiliate themselves with a single nearby academy, favoring students and faculty of that institution over those from other schools. Daltus Academy has the Owl & the Ass, the Absalom Academy of Law has the Three Gavels, and the Arcanamirium’s campus is ringed by no fewer than a half-dozen noteworthy watering holes like Cups & Wands, the Sky Chariot, and Beldrin’s Brews. Even Withrun House, whose Kalistocratic students must abstain from alcohol, has a few such establishments, including the Feast of Druma, which caters to the bizarre dietary prohibitions of the increasingly popular economic cult. By far the most prestigious of the Wise Quarter’s taverns, the Learned Pig, remains brazenly neutral in its affiliation, welcoming academics from all the district’s colleges and serving as an unaligned space for congregation, competition, debate, and some of the strongest pours in Absalom.
Located roughly between the Arcanamirium and the Forae Logos, the Learned Pig is a squat, sturdy structure in the Kortos Revival style. Numerous pennants and ribbons in the bright colors of Wise Quarter schools are festooned to the structure’s eaves and pillars, rippling with the wind and beckoning customers to explore within. The Pig’s interior is just as chaotic, with each of its walls stacked with shelves packed tight with academic books deposited by the tavern’s customers over the four centuries since it was founded. Tavern talk suggests that the stacks—sometimes packed three volumes deep—contain several tomes not found in the collection of the Forae Logos, as well as old textbooks lined with margin notes said to contain the answers to several important long-running tests at all of the district’s schools (including several that no longer exist).
Students from all over the Wise Quarter (and indeed from all parts of Absalom) flock to the Learned Pig to study in cozy camaraderie and to argue with one another in congenial (but no less spirited) weekend debates. Several ancient plaques tacked between bookshelves list the reigning house champions in a variety of subjects, with crowd approval determining winners and losers. Speakers address their eponymous host, the Learned Pig, a fattened swine usually kept in a comfy pen behind the tavern, and the debates are staged as an effort to gain the creature’s favor. The staff ushers the enormous beast—bedecked in a ceremonial wig and mortarboard—to a place of honor between two special podiums. When crowd reaction is insufficient to declare a winner, all eyes turn to the Learned Pig for some sign of which speaker it favors most. These debates feature at least a half-dozen subjects at a time, and crowds often spill out into the street. When the Learned Pig grows too fat to sit on its throne, the staff butchers it in a huge celebration of the house’s academic champions and an inauguration of a new Learned Pig that likewise draws hundreds of revelers.
The tavern’s upper floor features a dozen cozy rooms, most often occupied by visiting academics or the foreign families of district students. Alas, the establishment’s thin walls do little to block the common room chatter that often trails into the early morning hours, making a good night’s sleep a difficult prospect. NPCs Clufton Kline (proprietor), Haligander (preparing to make a go at the tavern’s Political Theory championship), Korhül (sneaking into the pen with allies to cast awaken animal on the Learned Pig)
Located roughly between the Arcanamirium and the Forae Logos, the Learned Pig is a squat, sturdy structure in the Kortos Revival style. Numerous pennants and ribbons in the bright colors of Wise Quarter schools are festooned to the structure’s eaves and pillars, rippling with the wind and beckoning customers to explore within. The Pig’s interior is just as chaotic, with each of its walls stacked with shelves packed tight with academic books deposited by the tavern’s customers over the four centuries since it was founded. Tavern talk suggests that the stacks—sometimes packed three volumes deep—contain several tomes not found in the collection of the Forae Logos, as well as old textbooks lined with margin notes said to contain the answers to several important long-running tests at all of the district’s schools (including several that no longer exist).
Students from all over the Wise Quarter (and indeed from all parts of Absalom) flock to the Learned Pig to study in cozy camaraderie and to argue with one another in congenial (but no less spirited) weekend debates. Several ancient plaques tacked between bookshelves list the reigning house champions in a variety of subjects, with crowd approval determining winners and losers. Speakers address their eponymous host, the Learned Pig, a fattened swine usually kept in a comfy pen behind the tavern, and the debates are staged as an effort to gain the creature’s favor. The staff ushers the enormous beast—bedecked in a ceremonial wig and mortarboard—to a place of honor between two special podiums. When crowd reaction is insufficient to declare a winner, all eyes turn to the Learned Pig for some sign of which speaker it favors most. These debates feature at least a half-dozen subjects at a time, and crowds often spill out into the street. When the Learned Pig grows too fat to sit on its throne, the staff butchers it in a huge celebration of the house’s academic champions and an inauguration of a new Learned Pig that likewise draws hundreds of revelers.
The tavern’s upper floor features a dozen cozy rooms, most often occupied by visiting academics or the foreign families of district students. Alas, the establishment’s thin walls do little to block the common room chatter that often trails into the early morning hours, making a good night’s sleep a difficult prospect. NPCs Clufton Kline (proprietor), Haligander (preparing to make a go at the tavern’s Political Theory championship), Korhül (sneaking into the pen with allies to cast awaken animal on the Learned Pig)
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