The College of Stars

The College of Stars is the most prestigious of wizarding colleges in the Suneka, and easily one of the top five in the world. It is much-sought-after for its intimate connection with The Darzan University and it is a center for foreign knowledge and technology. 
Its original structure and culture was one of experimentation and diversity, encouraging more balanced study and more open exchanges of ideas. But now, that spirit is under attack: the student body is largely split between competitive and ambitious individuals with little time for community or experimentation and conservative elite students seeking power and prestige for their family cliques. Only the most ancient and crotchety of the old leaders holds onto the founding ideals.

Structure

At the top is the Scholar's Council- an oligarchy of 20 elite wizards and scholars. Beneath the Scholar's Council are the Department Elders, small cliques of department leaders that regularly sit in on the Scholar's Council and lesser research councils. Beneath the Department Elders are the research groups: cliques of professors that also act as research think tanks. 

Students spend their first year as "initiates"- randomly grouped into large "houses" of fellow first years. Initiates are the bottom of the barrel, given the most gruntwork and expected to take basic classes on all of the major subjects.
After their first year, students are expected to select a major and to group up in research communes, known as classes, of about 100 people. Classes are research groups and self-sufficient communities: they manage their own food, budgets, and social events. Within their class, students choose 4 other students to form up with into Studies. These Studies swap research, share ideas, and help each other with work. Research is published by Studies, not individuals. Multi-disciplinary Studies are seen as more prestigious and are incentivized by faculty.
Every year at new years, students can change Studies and Classes. Studies are encouraged to be consistent, but Classes are constantly shifting.

History

Pre-Darza

The College of Stars was founded Udrina the Small- a Stildanian Pearl Pangolin known for her small size, open mind, and restlessness. Udrina found the wizarding hierarchy of her homeland of Eketen to be restricting, and so wandered the continent for many years before retiring in the Suneka. She was intrigued by the flourishing possibilities and increasing equity of Akatlan, and moved herself and her entourage there in 1602. For years she negotiated with the local community leaders to get guarantees of autonomy, and in 1610 she had the agreements and funds necessary to open a school of her own. She combined the teaching methods and research of Eastern Eketen with the social structures of Akatlan to make what she hoped would be a more balanced and hollistic education.
The 1600s were essentially the small-time years of the College. Kimikal was a new town, and still growing in many ways, and the college was experimental in every way. But it proved successful, and both the town and college profited. By 1700, the College of Stars had outcompeted other attempted wizarding startups, and by 1800 became the premier wizard-training institution for the Sunekan heartlands. Fame and attention took away some of the experimental energy, but also brought funding, research, and prestige. 
The late 1700s and early 1800s saw an intermingling of College and Government, with political factions courting college administrators for support. When the country's politics shut down entirely in 1823, the College finally picked a side: the "Rationalists", an education-oriented military faction that believed that people needed to be trained into virtue. The early 1800s also saw the rise of the College's most accomplished alumni: Archmage Darza. Darza became a member of the Scholar's Council in 1860 but ultimately left the organization in 1878. 

Post-Darza

The foreign empire of Calazen invaded Akatlan in 1871 and took over most of the country by 1872. The College went underground, hiding and fighting until 1878. Calazen was annoyed at their resistance, but impressed- and ultimately had the scholars relocated to a new prison-college to continue their work for the empire. Many scholars slowly came to accept this new administration as not that different from the old, and the College exited prison to take its old place with the new occupied Akatlani government in 1882. 
In 1898, Akatlan was freed by a Sunekan coalition and the college flipped back to join the liberators. While most traitor-institutions were dissected and replaced by the liberators, Darza personally intervened to spare the College of this fate. Instead, the College was declared the heart of resistance and praised as heroes. They became a central institution in the new government and were crowned greatest of wizarding schools in all of Suneka. And as Darza went on to found her own Darzan University, the college of stars remained closely allied to it. 
This alliance with the Darzan University opened many doors, but came at a silent cost: the best and brightest of the college were now being drained into the Darzan institution, and the college of stars became increasingly dependent on Darzan research and tech-sharing. And as the College of Stars became famous as the easiest way for brilliant minds to be noticed by Darza, it was flooded by geniuses around the world- none of whom had any interest in actually helping the College of Stars itself. This has all made the College of Stars a de-facto vassal of the Darzan University, as students now aim to either transcend the college of stars or get a wizarding education just to join the Keepers of Olkum or some other Sunekan clique or cult.

"Explore Every Possibility"

Founding Date

1610

Type

Education, Magic

Location

Kimikal