Mautsmiths Academy of the Arcane

Mautsmiths is headed by the headmaster/headmistress, an archmage that is elected from the Deans of the various schools of magic. The headmaster is the chief executive of the academy and has charge of hiring, discipline, and firing staff. Below the headmaster are the four provosts of the residence houses. The provosts oversee the students in their houses, including giving both guidance and discipline when appropriate. The provosts also manage the duty rotation schedule for all students, which determines which students will perform what tasks for the university on any given day. These tasks mostly rotate on a fixed schedule, but certain odious duties are meted out as punishment for infractions.   Each specific school of magic is led by a dean, who act as leaders in their chosen magical specialty. Each school of magic can have several instructors, who teach the enrolled students. Finally, the Great Library employs a corps of researchers and indexers, who report to the Head Librarian, a no-nonsense Elven archmage named Miris Thorne.   Mautsmiths does not have non-magical staff; students learn quickly that they are expected to cook, clean, and maintain the grounds of the school on a rotating basis.   The officer of the Academy that all students meet (hopefully only once, during orientation) is the Brander. The Brander is a former mage that has been cursed to experience and cast no magic. The curse prevents the Brander from performing even the smallest of magical cantrips, but also protects the Brander from magical attacks, which fail against them. The Brander carries the HellIron Brand, a mystical branding iron forged from tartarite, believed to be a metal only found in the pits of hell. If branded by the HellIron Brand, a user of magic loses the ability to wield magic permanently. It is explained to young students that should they use magic to commit serious crimes, they will be Branded.   While a member of the faculty, the Brander will often leave Mautsmiths to hunt down and Brand those who misuse magic.

Mautsmiths' core philosophy is that magic should be taught to be used responsibly. The academy only accepts students that show powerful aptitude for magic and can pass the entrance examination. Once at academy, students are treated well, but are expected to work hard in all aspects of college life. Outside of the classrooms, instructors and students mingle freely and are collegial. Inside the classroom, strict discipline and concentration is expected and required.   Mautsmiths is divided into four houses, each emphasizing an enduring trait of magic:                    

	Gianteye Gianteye House emphasizes the strength of magic. House colors are blue and gray. Their common room and dormitories are located in Armory Hall. Members of Gianteye typically practice force and battle magics, and also train with more conventional weapons. The current Provost of Gianteye House is Sir Brontes the Bold, a seasoned archmage and retired Tempest Knight.
	Meramaid   This house emphasizes and values the beauty of magic. Meramaid House colors are green and white. Their common rooms and dormitories can be found surrounding the Fountain Court. Meramaid students often practice flashy magics, like illusions and light schools of power. Meramaid's current Provost is Nerida Darya, a Salimar sorceress known for painting animated portraits.
	Longmous   Longmous House values the cleverness needed to become a wizard. Their house colors are red and orange. Their common rooms are inside the Western Tower of the campus. Members of Longmous are studious and enjoy researching new spells and using their power to acquire knowledge. Many seers and oracles come from this house. Longmous' Provost right now is Pytho Fenice.
	Vidopnir   House Vidopnir emphasizes boldness in the performance of magic. Their house colors are purple and yellow. Vidopnir's common rooms are in Twelvewands Hall, one of the few remaining original buildings on the campus. Members of Vidopnir tend to be risk-takers and the majority will end up as roving adventurers. Their current Provost is Flightmaster Renn.

  Rumors persist of a secret fifth House directly created by Titus Mautsmith himself. According to academy legend, any student who can learn the name of this house and speak it aloud in the main quad wins entry into the house, which is fabled to contain a trove of magical relics.   While all students take classes together, various houses engage in friendly rivalries from time to time. The provosts carefully monitor these competitions to ensure that no student or House goes too far. Usually, the threat of punishment is enough to deter all but the most determined of students.   Along with the residential houses, Mautsmiths students have established a number of student organizations, from supper clubs to debating societies. Two of the most popular clubs on campus are the Duelist League, a student organization that teaches students to duel each other with magic, and the Magpie Society, the oldest secret society on campus that claims to be finest performers of pranks at the college, especially during Founders Festival.

Mautsmiths Academy promises to train the very best into powerful wizards and mages.

Mautsmiths main asset is their academy building, which is built on a low lying cloud that was stained with the blood of immortals. Mautsmiths contains the largest library of magical tomes in the Lands of Legend (or so they claim), and a grand library on a huge number of non-magical subjects as well. Each of the four residence Houses that students are assigned to possess relics that belonged to the founders of the respective houses. It is rumored that somewhere on campus is a secret fifth house that contains magical treasures crafted by the titular founder of the academy, Titus Mautsmith himself.

Titus Mautsmith established his academy in the year 401 of the Third Age. The great archmage, who named himself the Mage Lord, was one of the greatest heroes of the Third Age. He claimed that he even set foot inside the Dark Tower and survived. He had gathered a group of eight powerful magicians, wizards, and sorcerers who helped him found the academy. These eight were a who's who of elite magical practitioners:

• Deepmire the Blue, the fabled Sea Mage
• Imaginez the Illusionist
• Miraculo the Sage
• Septimus Seventh Son, trained to be a wizard from birth
• Funflame the Pyromancer, known for her mastery over fire magics
• Rimbleby Longstrider
• Hypnotum the Mind Bender, master of the mind
• Tremenda the earth mage, mistress of rock and stone

  The nine archmages collected clouds stained with the blood of immortals, which made them solid enough to build upon. On this cloud they built the Academy. Ostensibly, the Academy orbits the city of Lys. Almost immediately, Mautsmiths began attracting aspiring mages, with its original entrance exam being, "if you can get to the academy, you belong there."   Within a decade, the academy had grown significantly in size. At Titus' recommendation, the eight founders created the four houses, each emphasizing an enduring trait of magic. While there is a friendly rivalry between the houses, Mautsmiths officers push for unity and cooperation from all students.   While Mautsmiths has had a large number of famous wizards as alumni, it also has had its share of infamous mages. The Lizardfolk wizard Slann, vulgarly known as the Mad Lizard Wizard, graduated from Mautsmiths and is rumored to have researched his epic spell that created the dinosaur domains at the academy. Mautsmiths funds research teams each year to attempt to reverse the Saurian Hex.

Mautsmiths generally houses between 60-100 students at any given time. Mautsmiths staff includes between 16 and 24 instructors, eight deans, four provosts, a dozen librarians, the headmistress and the Brander. Mautsmiths also welcomes visiting scholars for short stays of up to six months; generally, less than a dozen such visitors come per year.

Upon the cloud that orbits Lys, Mautsmiths has several towers, halls and courtyards that house the academy. These include:

• The Main Quad: The Main Quad is the heart of the academy, and where the magic portal from Lys comes out. The Quad is a large wide green lawn, divided by white gravel walkways. in the middle of the Main Quad is the bell tower known affectionately as Silent Cal. Silent Cal, of course, never rings. The bell is a relic from the Founding Era, its clapper removed long ago. Since then, it has served as a harmless oddity, tolling every hour with a soft pulse of silence—a brief moment where all sound fades, and the world hushes for exactly six seconds.
Along the western side of the Main Quad is Armory Hall, to the south is the Long Arcade, a covered stone walkway. The western side is dominated by the Pentacular Tower. The north has a curtain wall, pierced halfway between the Hall and Tower by a postern gate that leads into the Academy’s greenhouse.

• The Fountain Courtyard: South of the Main Quad and the Long Arcade is the Fountain Courtyard. The Courtyard has a magical fountain in the center that flows backwards, surrounded by fruit trees and stone benches. Surrounding the Fountain Courtyard on the south and east sides are main floor dormitories belonging to Meramaid House. On the west is another covered walkway that connects to the Long Arcade. Past that walkway are 9 steps down to the Founder’s Terrace.

• Founder’s Terrace: west of the Fountain Courtyard, Founder’s Terrace is the lowest point of the Academy. The Terrace holds a larger than life marble statue of Titus Mautsmith, pointing north towards the Long Arcade. It also held the dodgeball pitch, no longer used since the infamous Dodgeball Incident.

• Western Tower: The Western Tower is a squat round tower. First two floors are classrooms and teachers’ offices. The third and fourth floors are the common room and dormitories of Longmous House. (the center of the fourth floor is open to the floor below, making the common room quite large. There is also a basement that contains magical and alchemical storerooms under lock and key.

• Armory Hall: a strongly built rectangular building with narrow arrowslits instead of windows, Armory Hall is one of the original buildings of Mautsmiths. It was originally a repository for dangerous artifacts and spellbooks, and where the students would train to use magic in combat. The first floor contains common areas: a library, study, main hall, and storage. The second and third floors are mostly dorm rooms, but crowded around the central stairwell are instructor offices and small practice spaces and labs. The flat roof is both crenellated and covered with a metal mesh known as the birdcage, which is where battle magic is practiced. While there is rumored to be a basement level, it is locked away and unused.

• Twelvewands Hall: Twelvewands Hall is the last remaining original dormitory hall on campus. Located in the western courtyard, this freestanding building looks to be made of timber frames, filled with whitewashed wattle and daub. Originally a coaching Inn from outside Lys, the main floor is a common room and doubles as the Academy pub. The second and third floors are tiny, cramped dormitory rooms for students in Vidopnir House. Amazingly, the Hall is always just large enough to accommodate all Vidopnir students, although just barely.

• Pentacular Tower: This massive five sided tower is the main building of the Academy. It contains the dining hall and kitchens on the first floor, large lecture halls and teacher's offices on the second floor, administrative offices and guest quarters on the third floor, and the Great Library taking up the top two floors of the Tower. On the top of Pentacular Tower is a larger-than-life statue of Mautsmith himself, holding an open book and gazing into the horizon. It is the only statue of Mautsmith that does not point towards anything.