Gentik Academy Of The Arts

[JNAProductions]

Gentik Academy Of The Arts
A place for all who cast spells and work magic to further their education and power!

Gentik is located centrally on a small planar bubble, coexisting in several different realms at once. The exact center began as a demiplane, but constant teleportation and dimensional travel have weakened the boundaries. One can simply walk from the Prime Material to the Feywild, for instance, by entering through the Gates Of Materia, walking through Gentik, and leaving out the forest grounds. Gentik has entrances scattered across the Prime Material, a lesser amount on other planes, and is constantly working against governments, guilds, and other would-be traders to avoid having the academy turned into simply a trading route or, worse yet, a military route.

Founded by a Sorcerer, the great Genos, Gentik has since expanded from its arcane origins to help mages of all stripes. From the divine Clerics to the primordial Druids, to the ever-classic Sorcerers and Wizards, anyone who can cast, create, or otherwise impact magic is welcome to learn. And even those who can't be called mages are still welcome to learn, if unlikely to ever achieve that much fame within the halls. Warlocks are the least accepted among the halls of Gentik-they're still viewed by many as cheaters, who bypass noble birth (Sorcerers), hard work (Wizards), devotion (Clerics) or cleansing (Druids). They are still accepted, officially, though.

Spoiler: Notable Folk Of Gentik

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Ka-We, Cat
Not exactly a mascot, and not exactly a member of the staff, Ka-we resides where he will around the school. If he deigns he will speak. (He is a genius-level wizard of around 8th level, and can eloquently speak common, feline, draconic, and several human tongues.)
He appears to know just about everything going on at the school, but seldom in his last eighty years at the school has he been a part of it. Three times in those years he decided to befriend a student. These mentorships usually involved knowledge, moral support, and sympathy rather than magical aid. Each of these students were different enough to make the students wonder what qualities attract the cat, but there is no known quality they possessed in common. Feline whim is as likely the best answer.
Ka-we was once the familiar of a famed arch-wizard adventurer, but has apparently retired.
He is a large, (twenty-five pound,) male orange tabby with bright green eyes which glow in the dark.

The structures of Gentik are divided into several areas.

The Main Halls
The most populous area of Gentik, the Main Halls include living spaces, kitchens and dining spaces, libraries and labs, and many, many classrooms, conference rooms, and auditoriums. The Main Halls are where most students and professors spend the bulk of their time. There's always a hustle and bustle of people moving to and from in the Main Halls.

Spoiler: Notable Folk Of The Main Halls

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Professor Slivux
One of Genos' last surviving creations, Slivux is a pot of slime. A sentient, powerful, and eloquent pot of slime at that. Slivux offers both the lowest level courses, introductions to spell theory and theurgy, basic casting, and other similar courses; as well as the high-end courses, such as mana and artifice, moving ley lines, and genesis. Slivux is well-liked by most who go to Gentik, always being willing to lend a hand to those in need, be they students or fellow professors, and has a place of some prestige as hailing from the era of Genos.

Volgrazuth, The Former Arcanoloth
Volgrazuth was an Arcanaloth in ages past. A rival fiend destroyed her library and natural form, and she fled to the material plane in a mortal body. Now appearing as a dwarf, she teaches classes on summoning all sorts of creatures (not just fiends) and on general fiendish lore. She isn't generally trusted by the staff and isn't particularly liked by the students, but is also the lead expert in her preferred fields. There are rumors both that she is possessing her host body rather than reincarnated, and that she can facilitate dark pacts to some students on behalf of some dark master.

Madam LeSham, The Pyro
A master of fire in all its forms, LeSham is a half-elf evocation specialist. She knows how to get the best bang for your buck, and the best bang period. Very well-liked by the students, though the other professors consider her a touch... Reckless and destructive, and so aren't as likely to want to work with her. Her classes usually take place on the roof of the Main Halls, where there's lots of open space and durable structures.

Fimir, Artificer
A bugbear and a recent addition to Gentik, Fimir has rapidly ingratiated himself into the ranks of the professors of Gentik. He's a practical genius with creations of magical power, and mechanical contraptions as well. Not particularly well-liked by most students, owing to his strict policies and penchant for experimentation, his classes are still virtually always full due to the great knowledge he has.

Spoiler: Specific Locations

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Orrery
In the center of the school pentangle is a large pool encircled by a low, cut-stone wall. Meandering through the pool are six stone turtles, each of a different material.
A small yellow turtle is orbited by six white birds, and meanders more than the rest.
A large black turtle orbits the pool around its perimeter. On its back are four grey elephants which walk counter-clockwise on its back roughly once each day supporting a round stone slab with a detailed relief map on it.
One familiar with the mythology of the nearby dimensions will recognize the massive tree bearing crystal fruit, or the orbiting spheres with smaller spheres orbiting them or the concentric glass globes with gems embedded in them, or the massive grey cube riddled with wormholes.

The Gardens
The part of Gentik closest to the Feywild, and popular among the Druidic students. The Gardens nearer to the main hall are more organized, with greenhouses and rows of farmland, while the further out you get, the more vibrant, lively, and untamed they become. Like all other parts of Gentik, there are libraries, but unique to the Gardens are the Oaken Speakers. Named by Genos (inaccurately-they're redwood trees) these massive trees have been given minds able to store and process massive amounts of information, and are considerably useful for those researching matters pertaining to nature.

Spoiler: Notable Folk Of The Gardens

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Doctor Birch
Birch is the most clinical of those who work in the Gardens primarily. With an analytical mind, he can spend days at a time with the Oaken Speakers, delving into minutiae of magical tidbits to suss out arcane and other theories. He is also shockingly weak in terms of his own magical powers-while his immense understanding of theory allows him to use what little power he has much more efficiently than others, he's barely able to manage enough energy for second circle spells.

The Heights
Located in a well of planar gravity above the Main Halls, the Heights are the bridge to the celestial realms. There is only one proper egress into these holy places, but the one dorm located in the Heights is a sought-after place, owing to the general goodness suffusing the area. This is also where the main infirmary is located, as well as a few places of worship.

Spoiler: Notable Folk Of The Heights

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Healer Engle
Engle is an aasimar man, and a prodigious healer. His mundane skills in the healing arts surpass low-level magic, and his actual magical healings are second to none. He's a friend to everyone who comes by, save for the professors and occasional students who are the reason for a large number of his visitors. Still, Engle is a professional.

Linda, The Angel
Linda, or Auntie Linda as many refer to her, appears to be an angel from the celestial realms to most students. A select few know the truth-she's the academy's foremost expert in illusions, and uses semi-sentient illusions to do most of her classes. Not quite a majority of other faculty know Linda's true nature as well.

The Stadium And Ancillary Sports
The largest single building in Gentik, the Stadium is where events and sports occur. Technically part of the Main Halls, it's large and distinct enough to merit its own entry. It is one of the few destinations that outsiders are commonly allowed access to, who come to watch sporting events and displays of magical might, along with an occasional circus. The most popular sport of Gentik is capture the flag-with no holds barred.

Spoiler: Notable Folk Of The Stadium

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Strix, Stadium Manager
Strix is a genderfluid elf, and the descendant of one of Genos' students. They spend much of their time organizing and encouraging students to do events at the Stadium, and are always there to hype people up. Strix firmly believes in fair play. They hate bullies and cheaters, and conflate the two even if that's not ALWAYS accurate.

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WIP
Still adding stuff and things, but figured I'd post it now because I'm running low on brain juices. This is not designed to be super serious, more a semi-classic "Magic Academy" sorta thing. I would like to keep stuff consistent and sensible, but this isn't the kind of setting I expect to be anything other than used for fun romps.

[brian 333]

Ka-we, the school cat

Not exactly a mascot, and not exactly a member of the staff, Ka-we resides where he will around the school. If he deigns he will speak. (He is a genius-level wizard of around 8th level, and can eloquently speak common, felinoid, draconic, and several human tongues.)

He appears to know just about everything going on at the school, but seldom in his last eighty years at the school has he been a part of it. Three times in those years he decided to befriend a student. These mentorships usually involved knowledge, moral support, and sympathy rather than magical aid. Each of these students were different enough to make the students wonder what qualities attract the cat, but there is no known quality they possed in common. Feline whim is as likely the best answer.

Ka-we was once the familiar of a famed arch-wizard adventurer, but has apparently retired.
He is a large, (twenty-five pound,) male orange tabby with bright green eyes which glow in the dark.

[JNAProductions]

Ka-we, the school cat

Not exactly a mascot, and not exactly a member of the staff, Ka-we resides where he will around the school. If he deigns he will speak. (He is a genius-level wizard of around 8th level, and can eloquently speak common, felinoid, draconic, and several human tongues.)

He appears to know just about everything going on at the school, but seldom in his last eighty years at the school has he been a part of it. Three times in those years he decided to befriend a student. These mentorships usually involved knowledge, moral support, and sympathy rather than magical aid. Each of these students were different enough to make the students wonder what qualities attract the cat, but there is no known quality they possed in common. Feline whim is as likely the best answer.

Ka-we was once the familiar of a famed arch-wizard adventurer, but has apparently retired.
He is a large, (twenty-five pound,) male orange tabby with bright green eyes which glow in the dark.

Yoink! :P

I like this addition. Thanks!

Edit: Added some more of my own stuff, and added Ka-We to the main post.

[brian 333]

The Orrery

In the center of the school pentangle is a large pool encircled by a low, cut-stone wall. Meandering through the pool are six stone turtles, each of a different material.

A small yellow turtle is orbited by six white birds, and meanders more than the rest.

A large black turtle orbits the pool around its perimeter. On its back are four grey elephants which walk counter-clockwise on its back roughly once each day supporting a round stone slab with a detailed relief map on it.

One familiar with the mythology of the nearby dimensions will recognize the massive tree bearing crystal fruit, or the orbiting spheres with smaller spheres orbiting them or the concentric glass globes with gems embedded in them, or the massive grey cube riddled with wormholes.

[Catullus64]

I like to imagine Linda's ahead of the curve when it comes to teaching via illusions. When the school has to close its portals due to an epidemic of the Transmuter's Flu, pretty much everyone has to switch to teaching classes via illusions.

[sandmote]

Volgrazuth, the former Arcanoloth

Volgrazuth was an Arcanaloth in ages past. A rival fiend destroyed her library and natural form, and she fled to the material plane in a mortal body. Now appearing as a dwarf, she teaches classes on summoning all sorts of creatures (not just fiends) and on general fiendish lore. She isn't generally trusted by the staff and isn't particularly liked by the students, but is also the lead expert in her preferred fields. There are rumors both that she is possessing her host body rather than reincarnated, and that she can facilitate dark pacts to some students on behalf of some dark master.

[JNAProductions]

Added the Orrery and the Arcanoloth.

Thank you guys!

[brian 333]

The Library

One side of the school's five-sided central park (known as the pentangle, or the pent,) is the school library. Its exterior is classical design with collonades supporting massive lintels. Running the length of the first floor is an open arcade with benches and tables of various sizes and shapes, apparently intended to seat beings of every size and shape. From the outside the library appears to be three stories tall and each story appears to be twenty-five feet tall.

Within, the library appears to be a more modern design, filled with students and faculty going about their business in a single room of massive columns which bracket tall shelves filled with books. The layout is of ninteen smaller mazes in a relatively simple larger maze with multiple connections to the other sections.

Within these mazes are concealed portals to a library within the library. In this hidden library a highly polished black floor reflects deeply enough to mirror a person so that he appears to step onto the reflection of his own feet as he walks. The maze of shelves appears infinite, and each is crowded with books, scrolls, tablets, and other materials which contain written works.

Every so often a lounging or work area interrupts the infinity of shelves, illuminated brghtly enough to easily read. The light appears to have no source and it casts no shadows. The ceiling is an infinity of featureless darkness.


The Librarians

Wandering the aisles of this library are ghostly apparitions. They will ignore visitors unless addressed in a whisper, the visitor makes noise, or the visitor attempts to cast a non-divinition spell or otherwise engages in acts which may endanger one or more books.

Each apparition is a unique individual of a wide variety of races dressed, presumably, in the style he, she, or it wore in life. The one thing they all have in common is a book which is attached to a chain that is wrapped and locked around their waists or other convenient location. (The beholder librarian has its chain stapled to its body, for example.)

The librarians appear to be going around cleaning, sorting books, and monitoring the behavior of the visitors. If one is addressed in a whisper it will pay attention to the speaker, but will only respond by leading the whisperer to the requested book or to the area where works of the requested subject or author are stored. It will also lead the visitor to the nearest exit that will return him to the portal used to enter the library.

Speaking in converrational tones or louder or otherwise making noise will attract a librarian to shush the noisemaker.

If the visitor persists in making noise, is casting spells of a non divination type, or is endangering books, a librarian will appear to banish him from the library. Banished beings may not portal into the liarary for a period of time equal to the severity of the infraction.

The ability of the librarians to banish is an instantaneous casting time, no save attack which can affect any number of beings, all of whom are then prohibited reentry for the same amount of time.

The librarians appear as incorporeal undead, but they are not. They are the souls of the clerics of a demigod of knowledge and books which are enjoying their afterlife. The book-and-chain they each wear is the symbol of their cult.

(The cult is from my campaign, and needs no exposition for the library to fit in your world.)

Those students who know about the hidden library speak of it in hushed tones, though there is no compulsion to do so. Some say that the librarians are students who tried to steal a book, or those unfortunates who got lost and died in it.

But theft is impossible. A book may be copied, but only materials brought into the library can be brought out by any means. And as we know, the librarians are former clerics. Even if lost in the maze one need only ask a librarian and it will lead the asker to the nearest exit.

The Head Librarian

Somewhere in the center of the infinity of shelves is an open space in which a giant book stands. The book appears to be bound in common brown leather, and sits on a heavy bronze bookstand. The book is about twelve feet tall and eight feet wide, and is almost always closed.

Before the book is a walnut table upon which is placed a bowl of purple ink and an eight-foot long quill.

None of the items can be physically touched. The harder one tries, the stronger the repulsion effect.

If the book is closed, it will open to a pair of blank pages when a rare or valuable book is placed on the table as a gift to the library. The gift will be taken away by a librarian and the book will open. The quill will then rise, dip itself in the purple ink, and record what the visitor says in the language the visitor speaks. The quill will then move to the blank page and reply appropriately. It will not answer gags or frivolous questions, and may answer, "I do not know."

Questions about the future will always be answered with, "The paths of possibility are infinite, and even the limited range of the cast of a single die cannot be known until the die is cast." The book will never answer questions which seek knowledge of future or possible future events.

Interesting questions to which it does not know the answer may prompt it to flip a page and offer the location of a magic item in exchange for the answer when the visitor learns it. It will describe the item just enough to entice the questioner, and cannot be tricked into revealing its location until the terms of the bargain are kept.

(This book is the form of S'aman'dil, former half-elf adventurer who was transmuted into a demigod when he and a dozen others prevented the collapse of a large pocket dimension.

This exposition need not be a part of your world.)

On rare occasions the book will be open when a visitor arrives. The pages will detail the background needed for the visitor to undertake a quest. It will also detail the reward to be earned upon its completion. The quest will naturally focus on the aquisition or preservation of new knowledge or written works, or the unearthing of forgotten lore.

[Corey]

Some thoughts regarding the dining hall:

• The standard can be nutritious, basic "base" foods with a nice daily variety of bottled Prestidigitation-created flavorings.
• Unseen Servant technology and the like can get the right foods and flavorings to the right tables upon demand.
• The are various ways to exhibit the meal's menu.
• Varieties of seating will be needed. Tenser's Disk/Unseen Servant technology can help with that too.
• The whole thing could be arranged in three dimensions.

Flavoring bottles can contain liquids of various temperatures and viscosities (sauces) as well as dry flakes/powders (spices). Some can be left unflavored for students' personal Prestidigitations.

Of course, this need not all be confined to one large hall. But in some cases actual creature (or animated object) servants may be more suitable than unseen ones.

[Corey]

I'd also suggest a second outstanding illusionist, perhaps a gnome, who upcasts Major Illusion to give students models from which to practice their art. There can be one huge room with a number of rarely-changing models where they can practice individually, plus lecture halls -- perhaps ampitheatre-style -- where he or other faculty set up the illusion needed that day.

(Note that even illusions recognized as such remain visible.)

[brian 333]

The Black Pool
In the center of a small hedge maze there is a small pool of black water which appears to mirror the night sky even in daylight. It is always smooth, and ripples caused by the actions of the PCs quickly abate. One side of the pool is overhung by the hedges while the other has an exposed brown granite knob upon which a fluted white pedestal stands. On the pedestal is what appears to be a polished silver birdbath.

The water in the pool is harmless unless one attempts to bathe in it. Effects similar to a Feign Death spell will overwhelm anyone who tries, (no save,) and it will last for twelve hours after the character is removed. Upon waking the character will have vague recollections of nightmares which seem important but fade over time until the victim can recall discussing the nightmares upon waking, but cannot recall the actual nightmares.

If the PC(s) dip the bowl in the pool and replace it on the pedestal, the bowl begins to show random sequences of events past and future for the viewer. With a DC15 Will save, the viewer may use the bowl to scry. It can only be used a number of times per year equal to the PCs' level, so a level 6 character can use the device once every two months. No skills or feats are required to use the bowl, but such abilities may aid in controlling its use.

The exit from the area will only exist while the bowl is on the pedestal. Attempting to fly or dig ones' way out will only result in taller hedges or deeper roots. Attempts to hack through the hedges will result in thicker and thornier hedges growing in faster than they can be hacked. Attempts to damage the pool, pedestal, or bowl will awaken its guardian.

Cassandra, the Guardian of the Well
A shriveled old woman wearing what may have been a wedding dress that has faded to stained yellow emerges from the center of the pool. Her eye sockets are black and empty behind her veil, and she appears to be completely dry.

She is an epic diviner lich who teaches master-level students in her arts, but otherwise wishes to exist in a dream state experiencing the continuum of possibility. Students taught how may summon her for lessons, and she will faithfully perform her duties. If she is wakened due to damage done to her area she will be extremely angry, and unleash her epic rage upon those who did the deed.