I like a lot of the concepts introduced in the Strixhaven and Secrets of Strixhaven stories, but the worldbuilding of everything surrounding the school itself is so perfunctory and flat. For all the history students at Lorehold College, and for how often they appear in the story just to exposition dump about the Blood Age, there doesn’t appear to be any particular reason why the world went through over 6000 years of senseless violence in the first place— and how one single school being founded brought all of that to a screeching halt. Am I really supposed to believe any of this?
Also, speaking of Lorehold, why is their curriculum so hung up on the Blood Age? Did history end Fukuyama-style after Strixhaven was founded and truly nothing happened in the last 800 or so years that was worth learning about?
I appreciate that they at least tried to expand the amount of locations we see in Secrets of Strixhaven, but it is truly the most half-hearted attempt ever. Does this world have states or government authorities, or is it just a smattering of research locations and magical terrain features on an otherwise empty map?
Does Omens of Chaos solve any of this? I’d love to know. This vagueness makes writing fanfiction in the Arcavios setting very difficult especially when it doesn’t just involve Strixhaven.
