Background Help - Academae in Korvosa

[nickl_2000]

I'm still pretty new to the Pathfinder setting, so I'm trying to figure out the world. Is it at all realistic for a PC to have learned some knowledge from sneaking into the Acadamae and sat outside of a window watching classes in the Hall of Lies? Or would it be flat out to well protected?

I'm looking at a backstory, and I thought it would be a fun element. However, I'm trying to be realistic.

[Lestrange]

What if you didn't sneak in but instead had a job sweeping floors or pulling weeds?
Whether it was an interest in magic that led you to try and get closer, or maybe you grew up as the child of a butler, living in the college like the kids in the Golden Compass.

[Ssalarn]

It's fairly well protected from casual observation.

"Visitors are not welcome, and messengers and repairs are watched carefully, for fear that the secrets of the school might leave its grounds or that the many wards protecting the outside world from their magic might be damaged." (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Acadamae)

Would something like the idea that your character was a full enrolled student who simply didn't have any magical talent work though (assuming you're a noncaster or a martial multiclassed with limited casting)? It's not uncommon for nobles to pay their way in, and one of the more famous characters from Pathfinder Lore, Count Varian Jeggare, is canonically a dropout from the Acadamae.

[nickl_2000]

It's fairly well protected from casual observation.

"Visitors are not welcome, and messengers and repairs are watched carefully, for fear that the secrets of the school might leave its grounds or that the many wards protecting the outside world from their magic might be damaged." (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Acadamae)

Would something like the idea that your character was a full enrolled student who simply didn't have any magical talent work though (assuming you're a noncaster or a martial multiclassed with limited casting)? It's not uncommon for nobles to pay their way in, and one of the more famous characters from Pathfinder Lore, Count Varian Jeggare, is canonically a dropout from the Acadamae.

Not with how I imagine this character right now. My plan for him is that he is an urchin, someone who spent his entire life in the city and poor. His ultimate goal is to enter and win the contest to break into the hall of wards.

[Psyren]

Are you going for Acadamae Graduate but without the school part?


What if you didn't sneak in but instead had a job sweeping floors or pulling weeds?
Whether it was an interest in magic that led you to try and get closer, or maybe you grew up as the child of a butler, living in the college like the kids in the Golden Compass.

You mean His Dark Materials right? :smallamused:

[nickl_2000]

Are you going for Acadamae Graduate but without the school part?


So, a longer description of where I'm going.

We will be playing Curse of the Crimson Throne. My goal on the character is someone from the Bridgefront area of Old Korvosa, living mostly on his own, poor and scraping by. He is highly intelligent, but his education comes from the street and from what he could glean from the community around him. He has learned multiple local languages. He has some magic talent, learned from overseeing others doing the magic and copying it on his own, but no formal education. So, his arcane knowledge is spotty at best.

As a long term goal, he has seen the rewards of the breaching festival and knows he can figure out a way to win, using the money help other children in the Bridgefront have a decent life. So, he will likely be looking to find an in with the Cerulean Society.

[Psyren]

Well ultimately this is up to your GM, but the thing about arcane magic is that it's like math - formal schooling definitely helps, but it's also the kind of thing you can figure out on your own if you're particularly gifted. So if Ssalarn's judgement is more where your GM is leaning, and they believe that spying on the school's proceedings at low levels wouldn't be realistic, you can simply have your savant character puzzle things out themselves and then glean any Acadamae-specific knowledge like information on their tests from borrowed or stolen books, or eavesdropped conversation.

Another angle is that you could have a mentor or older family member who was themselves at the Acadamae instead of having your character view anything firsthand. Such a person might have seen your potential and began laying the foundation for your studies, with the aim of you taking whichever test you had in mind at some point in the future. This could also be a useful NPC for the DM to make use of if you want to sweeten the pot from their perspective - whether your relationship with that individual was friendly or antagonistic, they could still be a good source of plothooks, information, or motivation for your character.