The Riverside Lycaeum

The Riverside Lycaeum serves Evenshade as both a schoolhouse and workshop: a place where children learn reading and song, adults master loom and lathe, and all may seek inspiration under one roof. Its central octagonal hall is devoted to performance and lectures, while radiating annexes house studios, workshops, and practice rooms.

History

• Founding (1122 DR): A joint endowment by the Evenshade family, notable merchants, and master artisans created Evenshade’s first public academy.
• Milil’s Blessing (1245 DR): Bards of the Canorous Chorus consecrated the Music Pavilion to Milil, establishing the institute’s song and poetry curriculum.
• Gond’s Workshops (1264 DR): The Forgewright Guild added the Technical Wing—iron-strut frames and large glass windows—to teach smithing, carpentry, and clockwork design.
• Expansion (1480 DR): Under Baron Edric Evenshade , stone-faced classrooms were added around the central hall, allowing for lecture series in history, oration, and natural philosophy.

Architecture

Central Hall

• Octagonal Plan: Red-brick walls rising to a domed lantern, flooding the interior with daylight.
• Raised Platform: Located at the center, used for musical recitals, public lectures, and town meetings.

Annex Wings

1. Music & Art Pavilion (North):
2. Timber framing with latticed windows; contains practice rooms, easels, and practice harps.
3. Adorned with carved reliefs of lyres, flutes, and painted murals depicting Milil’s blessings.
4. Technical Wing (East):
5. Iron-reinforced beams supporting high clerestory windows; benches equipped with vices, lathes, and forge hearths.
6. Walls lined with tool racks, blueprint scrolls, and early mechanical prototypes.
7. Study Chambers (South & West):
8. Stone-faced rooms for reading, writing, and small-group seminars; window seats overlook the Temple-Library gardens.
9. Each chamber bears an Oghma-inscribed keystone above its doorway.

Functions & Curriculum

Music & Fine Arts (Canorous Chorus)

• Vocal Training: Choral harmonies, solo performance, and Lyric Composition.
• Instrumental Study: Lutes, pipes, viols, and early harpsichords.
• Visual Arts: Drawing, painting, and illumination techniques for manuscripts.

Technical Crafts (Forgewright Guild)

• Metalworking: Basic smithing, tool-forging, and ornamental ironwork.
• Woodcraft: Carpentry, joinery, and furniture design.
• Mechanics: Clockwork fundamentals, water-wheel systems, and basic automata.

General Studies

• Literacy & Numeracy: Reading, writing, arithmetic, and calendar reckoning.
• Oratory & Debate: Public speaking, rhetoric, and ceremonial protocol.
• Philosophy & Natural History: Introduction to logic, herbalism, and local geography.

Personnel

• Headmaster Elyndra Seren (“Voice of the Lyre”): Halfling devotee of Milil, oversees arts curriculum.
• Master Artificer Tavren Ghurim: Dwarven Forgewright, leads technical workshops and apprenticeship assignments.
• Archivist-Instructor Lyra Tenebris: Former Temple-Library scribe, teaches paleography and codex care.
• Choir Conductor Arunel Starlight: Elf of the Canorous Chorus, directs the annual “Feast of Song” celebration.
• Guild Warden Brask Ironhand: Oversees equipment maintenance and workshop safety.