# THE ARCANUM & UNIVERSITY: COMPLETE LORE DOCUMENT
## I. INSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEW
Location: Imre, on the Great Stone Road in central Atur
Purpose: Premier center of learning in Temerant; secret guardian of advanced magic
Founded: Antiquity; built atop the Underthing (ruins older than the Aturan Empire)
Student Body: Roughly 1,000–1,500 students total; perhaps 200–300 in the Arcanum
Masters: Exactly nine, one per discipline (never more, never fewer)
The University is both public academy and hidden magical stronghold. Publicly it teaches medicine, rhetoric, arithmetic, engineering, and history. Privately, the Arcanum trains those capable of mastering sympathy, naming, sygaldry, and related arts—disciplines dangerous enough to reshape the world if mishandled.
The institution’s power rests on three pillars:
- Monopoly on advanced magic and scientific sympathy
- Control of written knowledge through the Archives
- A tuition system that creates lifelong debts and obligations
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## II. PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
### A. The Grounds (Surface Level)
- The Masters’ Hall
Central building where the nine Masters convene, hear petitions, and conduct termly interviews. It is both a council chamber and a courtroom for students.
- The Archives
A vast subterranean library beneath the grounds, reputed to hold more books than the rest of Temerant combined. Access is strictly tiered by rank and favor; whole wings are sealed or “lost.” The Archives are as much a political instrument as a repository of knowledge.
- The Hollows (Student Housing)
- The Mews / “Fishery flats” – cheapest, crowded quarters for poor students.
- Rooms and shared suites – standard accommodations for most.
- Private suites – for wealthy nobles, successful artificers, or students with powerful patrons.
- Lecture Halls
Halls like the Mains host lectures in Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geography, Sympathy Theory, and more. Many classes are open to non‑Arcanum students, blurring the line between mundane and arcane education.
- Workshops & Classrooms
Distributed around the campus: physicking rooms that smell of alcohol and blood; alchemy labs with copper stills; writing halls full of slates and chalk.
### B. The Fishery
The Fishery is the sympathetic laboratory and manufactury where students turn theory into practical sygaldry.
Key features:
- Massive stone wheels, pulleys, and counterweights moved via sympathy.
- Deep shafts, heat sinks, and water reservoirs to safely dissipate energy.
- Forge-fires and metalworking stations for inscribing runes into brass, iron, and exotic alloys.
- Strict safety rules, frequently broken by ambitious Re’lar and El’the.
It is the beating industrial heart of the University: lamps, heat-eaters, ever-burning lights, and mechanical devices are designed, tested, and sometimes catastrophically fail here.
### C. The Underthing
Beneath even the Archives lies the Underthing:
- A sprawling network of tunnels, cisterns, halls, and forgotten chambers.
- Stonework and architecture markedly older than the University above.
- Labyrinthine passages with strange names and purposes; some parts are dry and habitable, others flooded or sealed.
- Whispers that it contains ancient mechanisms, sealed doors, and perhaps a connection to the legendary “Doors of Stone.”
The Masters officially discourage or forbid exploration of the Underthing. It is the perfect setting for secret meetings, hidden laboratories, ancient wards, and long-buried lore.
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## III. ARCANUM HIERARCHY
### A. Student Ranks
E’lir → Re’lar → El’the → Arcanist
- E’lir
Entry-level arcanists. They have passed Admissions, understand basic sympathy theory, and are allowed to take introductory arcane classes. Tuition is relatively low but still punitive.
- Re’lar
Proficient sympathists who can perform more dangerous bindings and basic sygaldry. Their tuition is dramatically higher, and they begin to gain real respect and access.
- El’the
Advanced students who can manage complex, multi-link workings and original research. They enjoy considerable privileges, including better housing and Archives access, but pay crushing tuition.
- Arcanist
A full graduate of the Arcanum. Historically this would almost guarantee that the person knew at least one true Name; in the current era some graduates are primarily engineers, physickers, or scholars without naming.
### B. Elevation and Tuition
Each term, students sit for Admissions and Elevations:
- Termly Interviews
The Masters question students on their progress, test their knowledge, and judge their character. These interviews are high-stress affairs where a poorly chosen word can double one’s tuition.
- Whip Voting
At the end of the interviews, the Masters vote—on scraps of paper or tokens—whether to raise a student’s rank. A majority is required for elevation, and personal grudges often affect the outcome.
- Tuition Setting
Tuition is set individually: brilliant or politically favored students may pay only a handful of talents; others pay exorbitant amounts for the same education. Tuition is weaponized to:
- Punish perceived arrogance or misbehavior.
- Reward loyalty or useful service.
- Trap promising arcanists in long-term debt.
### C. The Nine Masters
The Arcanum is defined by its nine Masters:
1. Master Alchemist – Potions, chemistry, transformative substances.
2. Master Archivist – Guardian of the Archives, gatekeeper of written knowledge.
3. Master Arithmetician – Mathematics, geometry, precise measurement.
4. Master Artificer – Sygaldry, rune-craft, engineering, and practical devices.
5. Master Linguist – Languages, philology, and theoretical underpinnings of Names.
6. Master Namer – True Names, elemental dominance, the most dangerous arts.
7. Master Physicker – Medicine, anatomy, surgery, and healing.
8. Master Rhetorician – Oratory, logic, persuasion, and political theory.
9. Master Sympathist – Advanced sympathy theory and complex bindings.
Each Master commands:
- Their own budget and workshops.
- Apprentices and preferred students.
- Influence over Archives access within their discipline.
- A vote in every elevation and policy decision.
Master politics are ruthless, subtle, and almost never openly acknowledged.
## IV. MAGIC DISCIPLINES
### A. Sympathy
Sympathy is semi-scientific energy transfer based on three fundamental laws:
1. Doctrine of Correspondence – The more two things resemble each other, the stronger their sympathetic connection.
2. Principle of Consanguinity – A part of something can stand for the whole (a lock of hair for a person, a shard of glass for a window).
3. Law of Conservation – Energy cannot be created; it can only be redirected or transformed.
Practice:
- A binding is formed by focusing on two linked things and asserting, via the alar, that what happens to one happens to the other.
- The caster uses their will to route energy from their own body, from a heat source, or from a mechanical reservoir into the link.
- Imperfect links, distance, or bad focus produce slippage, which can burn or injure the caster instead.
Training Progression:
- E’lir: One link at a time, simple heat and motion transfers.
- Re’lar: Multi-step workings, object–person links (e.g., dolls).
- El’the: Multi-link, simultaneous bindings; creating and managing complex systems (like Fishery mechanisms).
- Arcanist: Large-scale or battlefield applications; subtle permanent enchantments.
Risk:
Sympathy is not “free” magic. Every working costs energy. Reckless use leads to hypothermia, unconsciousness, or death.
### B. Sygaldry
Sygaldry is the application of sympathetic principles through inscribed symbols and rune sequences:
- Grams: Simple sigils performing basic tasks (glow, heat, chill, warn).
- Grammarie: Complex arrangements of runes capable of sophisticated effects (ever-burning lamps, heat-eaters, mechanical relays).
Sygaldry allows the Arcanum to:
- Store and release energy safely.
- Construct devices that perform mundane tasks more efficiently.
- Create wards, locks, and traps that function without direct supervision.
It is the discipline that makes Arcanum magic industrial rather than purely esoteric.
### C. Naming
Naming is the rarest and most dangerous of the arts taught (if at all) at the University.
Key concepts:
- Everything has a true name: a word that encapsulates its essence.
- Truly knowing a name is more than learning a syllable; it is total understanding.
- Speaking a true name allows the Namer to command the thing absolutely.
Examples:
- The Name of the Wind grants control over air and motion.
- The Name of Fire governs heat and flame.
The difficulty lies in the mind:
- The Namer must hold a precise, intuitive, and total understanding of the thing.
- A naming attempt without sufficient understanding can shatter the mind, cause physical backlash, or draw unwanted attention.
At the University:
- Master Namers like Elodin teach through riddles, experiences, and stories rather than formulae.
- Only a handful of students ever manage a single true Name.
- The rest learn to fear it, or pretend it doesn’t exist.