I wanted to ask you a couple questions about the school structure for the Veil if you can talk about it. It seems like the academy and university are fairly closely linked but do they operate basically the same as our hs/uni do? Like picking a major/trade kind of thing. I think I saw that Audric was listed as a post grad but still a trainee so is there reaper uni classes then a sort of practicum afterwards? I hope this makes sense. I’ve tried to write this ask 5 times now
So, I spent some time rooting around my files, because a long while back I drew a map of the campus grounds for the spire...but now I can't find it, so i wonder if it's one of the unfortunate victims that got jumbled when I moved to my new machine. Ah well. But yes! They're quite literally linked, since that's why I even went looking for the file. The two campuses are side by side and share certain amenities.
so these are some super rough unfinished concept things from my files, but this ought to at least show the physical setup. There's a primary school within the spire as well. Somewhere in there. I haven't decided yet, not that it ultra matters, so let's just say it's somewhere in the middle. As for how they operate-- You got it already, more or less! The schools themselves are famous for their reaper program, having been founded by the same scholar who founded the organization itself. Of course, with Veil attuned students being one of the rarer attunements, the island's --uh, resources , to put it kindly, and the focused study needed to train those who would take on the veil's blight, the schools have a bounty of academic wealth to impart on hopeful magi graduates as well as those seeking to become eidolons. So there's several fields here that will gain a shining education in their field if they put in the hard work (... And, strangely enough, they have a pretty good classic lit department.) Using reapers as an example, the path would be as follows: Enrollment to secondary school and all basic curriculum classes as normal > attunement > undergrad prep courses for the reaper program if it's accepted (most do) > first stage of graduation undertakes the Eidolic Aperature (Uncap Ceremony, breaking the limits of magi's natural magic limit) > If successful, second stage will complete the full graduation ceremony and go on to university > training /studying intensifies, focusing more on study (the nature of liminal tears, wraith winds, corruptions, and the tools reapers operate) and choosing which field they will pursue in the program, while all are given a basic training course in specific magics and hunting techniques that ramps up until > completing the four year program, grad students engage in full trade training, working as the island's main service of hunters, scouts and sentries. Audric is currently in the final stage of this, hence the gossip quoting him as "Just a student, but practically the real deal." Primary school is fairly standard as can be, but it's a bit more fun to learn those classic subjects when you have the fun of enchanted textbooks and a kind, quirky siren for a teacher who plans fun aquatic fieldtrips. At least she tends to be everyone's favorite (She's also a grad level professor who works specifically with Aetherbiology majors and Reapers in their first years of university. She's one of Audric's favorite professors-- if not his top favorite.) Lichgate in general is something of an outlier for how its schools operate, though. It isn't exactly standard practice to smash them together at the very top of a spire, or to offer such an exacting focus from the moment of enrollment (on in some certain cases, attunement) until you've essentially gained your equivalent of a doctoral/masters. The location sitting right on the Veil's most unstable liminal tear is to thank for that-- and of course, even if you don't care as much about your education, it somehow manages to be the safest campus. As long as you follow the rules, obey curfew, don't wander off, and do exactly as your professors say during any off-spire excursions, especially.
