Farsight Grand University
The Farsight Grand University is a mega-university that takes up an entire district in Farsight, a cultural center for mages, and the pinnacle of academics and magecraft in the West. It is also the Magocratos' greatest monument to hubris.
Structure
FGU is structured like a modern Earth university, with departments and chairs and deans, just scaled up massively. A given department might consist of several hundred faculty and TAs, and a department chair may have many administrative assistants, magical and mundane. Some classes may have hundreds of students, while many have only a dozen or fewer. The college also offers apprenticeships for promising graduates.
There are two main wings of FGU; the Magical college, which studies and teaches control of the fields of magic, and the Mundane college, which is more like a normal university. Each of these wings have multiple sub-schools, such as:
the Magical College of Divination,
the Mundane College of Physical Sciences and Design,
the Magical College of Arts and Crafts,
the Mundane College of Society (which includes the fields of history, writing, psychology, and politics), and many more!
There are also some Mixed colleges, such as the Mixed College of Medicine and the Mixed College of Law.
The wings are categorizations; the actual campus mixes all of these college buildings together.
The whole organization, given it's size, runs pretty smoothly thanks to the efforts of the Piermans, a group of hundreds of simulacrums of an administration-minded wizard. Each department in each college has at least a few Piermans who handle the high-level and/or inter-department administration.
Culture
FGU is so large that it would be difficult to describe a single culture to it, but there are some through-lines. Students and faculty at FGU vary wildly by socioeconomic status and ethnicity, but the culture is generally cosmopolitan, urban, and casual.
Because there isn't a direct line from high school to university like on Earth, the average age of these students varies quite a bit. Many social and law students are adults in their late 20s or 30s, while some magical prodigies and mathematicians are in their mid teens.
Public Agenda
The professed goal of FGU is Eradicating Ignorance, which is does pretty well. This is mostly true! FGU is responsible for many of the major scientific and magical breakthroughs and projects of the last millenia, and the alma mater of some of the most important figures on Vorago.
The organization does also have some other priorities, though. It tries to engender a loyalty to Farsight, and both wings used to be big recruitment pools for the Magocratic military. Ultimately, the organization is closer to true neutral than lawful good...
Assets
FGU owns the largest library in western Vorago, state-of-the-art laboratories for both magical and mundane experimentation, thousands of magical artifacts of varying power, thousands of acres of land, and of course a massive amount of liquid wealth from its many alumni. It is one of the most powerful institutions in Farsight, on par with the Farsire senate itself, and more influential than many Magocratic remnant kingdoms.
However, it is much less powerful than it used to be. The size of its magical wing has diminished substantially since The Destabilization - it's hard to teach magic when it's inconsistent and many of the professors have lost their own ability.
History
The Farsight Grand University was originally a small university in early Farsight, when it went by a different name, and grew steadily over the centuries. It only became FGU in 1477 when the newly-born Magocratos funnelled a substanial portion of the city's revenue (and war spoils) into remaking and growing the university, wherein it exploded in size and power. It remained the largest magical institution on Vorago until the Destabilization.
The Ruin:s
During the Golden Age, a large portion of the campus of the magical wing of the university was lifted and suspended in the air as a show of power. For over 100 years, a large piece of campus floated hundreds of feet in the air and became one of the most iconic symbols of Cratic power, depicted in countless paintings.
Of course, during the Destabilization, it all came crashing down.
Now the former magical college and the unfortunate sections of the mundane college it landed on are known as the Ruins District, and are cordoned off as a magical hazard zone. Numerous potent magics lie trapped in the rubble, guarded by the spirits of desperate scholars and magical aberrations, a glowing wound in the heart of Farsight and the tombstone of the Magocratos.
The university recovered its strength, but is still severely weakened and embarrassed. It is still one of the best places for an education in the west, but magic's nearly impossible to teach now.
"vincula praevaricator ignorantiae" (draconic) / break the chains of ignorance (common)
Founding Date
1000 PE
Type
Educational, University
Leader
Parent Organization
Location
Related Ethnicities
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