A City Beneath the Sea
Ossirian Deep is not arranged like a campus. Campuses imply exits.
The city is a functioning arcane metropolis where tens of thousands live, study, trade, conspire, and occasionally explode. Students, faculty, artificers, attendants, merchants, archivists, and bound constructs all share the same space. Lessons end. The city does not.
Every district is shaped by mana, not zoning laws.
Personal flight is permitted only after Year Three and regulated tightly near the Heart. Until then, most citizens rely on the city’s transit system: Mana Chariots.
These are semi-autonomous arcane vehicles shaped like open sleds, carriages, or armored discs depending on district culture. They glide along invisible current-lanes maintained by the Wellspring.
Chariots function as taxis, buses, and private rentals.
Some are House-owned.
Some are Fraternity-branded.
Some are ancient enough to recognize repeat passengers and adjust routes out of spite.
Fares are paid in coin, favors, or sanctioned spell tokens depending on distance and district.
Crashes are rare. When they happen, they are educational.
Before the Houses, before the Fraternities, there is the Concourse: a massive circular district accessible from all radial sectors.
This is where students learn how to live like citizens instead of apprentices.
• The Abyssal Galleria — a multi-tiered shopping district
• Public eateries, taverns, and spell-safe cafes
• Illusion theaters and scrying cinemas
• Arcane instrument halls and performance domes
• Neutral study vaults and rentable ritual rooms
House rivalries are suspended here by ancient pact. Duels are forbidden. Violence still occurs—quietly.
Illusion cinemas show reconstructed memories, dramatized mana duels, or historical disasters rendered with unsettling accuracy. Ratings are enforced after a First-Year incident involving a live Leviathan memory.
Live performances range from elemental orchestras to Ambient dream-plays that leave viewers disoriented for days.
Wizard Chess halls remain packed at all hours. Bets are regulated. Cheating is admired if undetected.
Ignos is vertical.
Towers rise like furnace chimneys, laced with controlled magma channels and heat sinks carved into obsidian. The air is warm, dry, and constantly vibrating.
• Open-fire kitchens dominate local cuisine
• Duel platforms are common social spaces
• Night markets glow with ember-light
Students here favor aggression, spectacle, and reputation. Street duels are technically illegal and functionally inevitable.
Popular venues include:
• The Cinder Coil – a tavern where drinks are flash-heated in the glass
• Redline Arena – public duels, ranked weekly
• Ash & Salt – a student-run eatery famous for incendiary stews
Terranox is heavy.
Massive stone arches, gravity-stabilized plazas, and subterranean halls dominate the district. Sound travels far. Secrets do not.
• Communal feasts in echoing vaults
• Strength and endurance trials as social events
• Quiet, intense study culture
Terranox hosts the city’s largest public archives and war records.
Key locations:
• The Bedrock Forum – debates that last days
• Vault Nine – open-access historical mana catastrophes
• Hammerfall Kitchens – dense food, no frills
Verdalis is alive.
Buildings grow. Paths shift subtly. Moss-covered towers breathe mana. Newcomers often get lost because the district allows it.
• Communal gardens double as classrooms
• Animal familiars roam freely
• Seasonal festivals tied to growth cycles
Food here is fresh, regenerative, and occasionally sentient.
Notable spaces:
• Root & Bloom – a popular student café grown around a giant seed-tree
• The Canopy Walk – aerial paths for shapeshifters
• The Green Quiet – a meditation grove rumored to respond
Ferrix never stops moving.
Gear-driven bridges rotate. Golem couriers march on schedules no one remembers setting. Libraries rearrange themselves nightly.
• Artificer markets open at dawn and close when someone breaks a rule
• Workshops double as dormitories
• Noise is constant and accepted
Ferrix students frequent:
• The Brass Halo – café/workshop hybrid
• Cog & Quill – public schematics library
• The Null Bar – anti-magic drinks, strictly regulated
Aqualis floats.
Water flows through halls in controlled currents. Some spaces are fully submerged, navigable by spell or breathwork. Others are dry but ever-moving.
• Meditation chambers overlooking abyssal glass
• Healers and diplomats train side by side
• Night cycles matter more than clocks
Popular locations:
• The Drift – a slow-moving tea hall
• Mirrorpool Theater – illusion-reflected performances
• Tidewell Commons – communal healing spaces
Nocthyr does not behave.
Corridors fold. Distances lie. Time occasionally slips. Students are advised never to travel alone until Year Four.
• Dream study replaces sleep
• Casual reality alterations are frowned upon, not forbidden
• Surveillance is constant but unseen
Noteworthy sites:
• The Lucid Market – goods traded in memory, emotion, or probability
• The Pale Auditorium – Ambient lectures and forbidden symposia
• The Long Walk – a path that never measures the same twice
Students eat out. They date. They argue in cafés. They attend illusion movies, take chariots too fast, skip curfew, and get dragged into Fraternity politics before they understand what those words mean.
Then they wake up for class.
Ossirian Deep feels vibrant because it must. A stagnant city under the sea would go mad.
This is a place where adolescence collides with inherited power, where learning magic is not separate from learning how to live inside it.
And the water outside the Auric Dome never stops pressing inward.