#askworldathenaeum

[loominggaia]

How does languages work in Looming Gaia?

There is actually a language tag with lots more information about this!

Here is an overview of some of the languages.

Universa is the language that most people on Gaia speak in modern times. The World Athenaeum created a campaign to teach this language to people all over the world long ago in order to unite them, and now it is the official language of all Great Kingdoms. Older languages are still spoken as secondary and tertiary languages (Galsungi is popular in Matuzu Kingdom, for example)

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[loominggaia]

Does the World Athenaeum college have fancy school uniforms? Also how common are school uniforms in different places in general, we know that Damijana and Folkvar have them in some plaves at least

That's a good question, and one that I wish I could answer with a picture! I'm not able to scribble one up right now, but I will say that uniforms are standard in Damijani public schools. The rules and uniforms may be different for private schools, but I think uniforms are more common than not in this empire.

As for Folkvar Kingdom, I imagine only certain private schools require uniforms, and only the fancier ones.

The World Athenaeum College doesn't require students to wear uniforms during lectures, but it does have unique uniforms for its competitive chess team. Go Bookworms! 🐛

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[loominggaia]

When is the earliest age any species can enroll at the World Athenaeum? Just a question, also gonna help me determine the best time for Amber and Skylie to enter in when my newest fic, due to drop not too long after I ask this, go to the Athenaeum

Sorry for the late reply, I'm super backlogged! I've been really enjoying your fic about Amber!

Initially I imagined the World Athenaeum only accepts college-aged students, but it's possible that they also have some kind of "early start" program for gifted children and toddlers. It would be very expensive just like their college, but it does get results.

A sirene would probably be eligible by age 4-5 or so.

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[loominggaia]

Are there any controversial schools in looming gaia

Most of these schools operate in secrecy, like the slave-schools in Evangeline Kingdom that teach magic to fae and gaian slaves.

But there are also legitimate schools, the most famous being the Unseelie Court's University of Necromancy. This is the only school on Looming Gaia that (legally) teaches necromancy spells.

The university faces a lot of opposition from foreigners, as necromancy is considered taboo everywhere else in the world. But the Unseelie people embrace this type of magic, as it's integral to their culture. Any professor who teaches at this school is blacklisted from teaching in other Great Kingdoms. These teachers are highly respected in Unseelie culture, but hated everywhere else.

The World College is a school run by the World Athenaeum. They don't teach anything controversial, the controversy comes from the enrollment requirements. Many people believe the school discriminates against certain species. Gaians have an especially hard time getting into this school, even if they meet the same qualifications as their commoner and fae peers.

Given the college's heavy involvement with the Gaian Exodus, it isn't too surprising that there would be holdover discrimination from those days.

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[loominggaia]

Is there something like an adventures guild

I don't imagine there is one big central guild, but rather, a bunch of smaller ones all over the globe. The Peoples Protection League is the largest one, but they specifically deal with monster hunting and containment.

The World Athenaeum has tried their hand at forming guilds in the past. Some were successful, like magic guilds, academic guilds, and sporting guilds. And some were failures, like the Guild of Mercenaries. This was the closest thing to an official "adventurer's guild" on Looming Gaia.

The reason it failed was because...well, quite frankly, mercenary work does not attract society's best and brightest. Mercenaries have a bad reputation for drunkenness, rowdiness, violence, and corruption. The Guild of Mercenaries was formed to address these problems by holding their members to a high standard of ethics. They were meant to be a reliable, vetted pool of soldiers that clients could hire without worrying about being blackmailed, robbed, or otherwise.

As it turned out, they simply couldn't find enough qualified people to join. Mercenary work is very dangerous, so it's the type of thing people fall into as a last resort. That's why it attracts so many drunks, criminals, and sketchy weirdos who burned all their bridges elsewhere.

In some cases, people join because they love adventure and helping people (Evan is an example), but there were not enough of them to justify the guild's existence. It was disbanded and no one has been able to successfully revive it since.

The Freelance Good Guys are basically what the World Athenaeum was trying to achieve, just on a much smaller scale. The FGG has been around for like 20 years, yet it's only managed to collect ~14 crewmen during that whole time. That's because most mercenaries are in it for the money, but gold is secondary to adventure and ethics for the FGG.

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[loominggaia]

You say in an old post that the World Athenaeum was originally gonna be located in Yerim-nor or Zareen but passed them over in favor of Matuzu? While I can see why the first two where optimal what made them ultimately not pick them?

In truth, many different locations were considered. Yerim-Mor Capital and Zareen Capital were just the top contenders because of their high wealth, accommodating cultures, and relative stability.

The Divine of Hate is what ultimately knocked Yerim-Mor out of the race. If it weren't for his constant bullshit and terrorist cults infesting that region, then this kingdom likely would have been chosen over Matuzu. But it was decided that this location was just too risky.

Zareen was considered because of its cultural impact on the world and impressive technological capabilities. In the end, that region was deemed too unstable due to its frequent nymph attacks, the war with the Aquarian Alliance + tension with Damijana and Mogdir, and worsening pollution issues.

So, the council settled on Matuzu Kingdom. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best option at the time and probably remains so today. The addition of the World Athenaeum has only boosted the kingdom's wealth, securing its place as the wealthiest of the Greats.

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[loominggaia]

regarding universa: since it was constructed by the WA for everyone to use, how did they go about actually spreading it to the people? mass lessons, magic (telepathy??), etc? and how long did it take for the language to solidify as *the* common tongue?

Good question! They did this a few different ways.

First, the World Athenaeum sent representatives to all of the Great Kingdoms to make a deal: you start teaching Universa as regular curriculum in schools and we will help fund those schools. Naturally, the kingdoms were eager to accept the deal for that sweet $$$.

Then, the Athenaeum sent "missionaries" all over the world to teach Universa to independent tribes. They were pretty aggressive in their approach, and there are many controversial accounts of abuse on the Athenaeum's part. But enough $$$ keeps people quiet.

It took a few centuries, but eventually they got most of the globe speaking Universa, either as a first, second, or at least tertiary language. Nymphs were invaluable in this process since they can naturally understand any spoken language, so many nymphs volunteered for this effort, believing it would bring more peace between peoples. After all, it was a great war which caused Gaia's continent to split in the first place.

While uniting the world under one language didn't exactly bring peace, it did bring many new opportunities to peoples who wouldn't have had them otherwise. It helped to connect the peoples of Looming Gaia both socially and economically.

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[loominggaia]

Couldn’t Glenvar pawn the infinity wing box off to the world atheneum, maybe have them crack the code to magically generating infinite food? As a side note can magic even create food? And is their spells that can create infinite food already available?

Sure he could! The thing is though, there are countless enchanted items all over Looming Gaia that do all kinds of wacky shit not unlike the unlimited wing box. Typically these enchanted items are forged by master mages and they have some kind of stipulation attached to them; like a limited number of uses, or they can only be used by a certain person, that sort of thing. The Edge of Second Chances is one of those objects, for example. They are everywhere, so unless they have a particularly unique power or origin (like the Divine Executioner) then the World Athenaeum probably wouldn't be interested.

Similar to the infinite wing box, every maenad manifests with an "everlasting amphora". These have been featured in multiple stories, but basically it's a magical amphora with an infinite supply of wine, but it'll only pour out under these conditions:

A) The maenad's hands are touching the amphora.

B) The maenad wants it to.

So if you think you're just going to steal a maenad's magic amphora and have yourself an infinite supply of booze, think again. Also, magic never just materializes something from nothing. It has to take energy from some other source--and that source can be literally anything, including objects and people. Usually it takes energy from whichever mage casted the spell. Or a crystal battery, which are charged by mages using their own energy, so in a roundabout way it's still taking energy from mages even when it's drawing from a battery.

So, by this logic, a mage could forge an object that creates infinite food. But this objects would have to steal energy from some other source and convert it into food, it couldn't just make the food from thin air. Maybe it would convert tree bark into meat, or sap energy from a battery to create grain.

The point is, you'd have to make some kind of sacrifice to the almighty infinite wing box to get your wings.

On top of that, magic has a mind of its own and it really doesn't like being exploited by people, especially if that exploitation creates unbalance on Gaia. This is why spells sometimes backfire or don't work for what seems like no apparent reason.

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