[Alvadas Location] Acumen Asylum

[Bedlam]

An asylum is a place where people are taken and instructed on how to act in society. The Asylum the Headmaster created serves this purpose. The minds people of Alvadas who can afford the Headmaster’s rates come to the Asylum to learn. The campus is sprawling and very old, covered in disused spots with ropes of ivy and vines. Buildings have been placed haphazardly on top of buildings, old school rooms have had their doors removed entirely and left windows the only reasonable mode of entry. Over half the school is empty most days; full of old desks covered with dust. Arithmetic is taught here, writing, even a smidgen of history. Children are taught about great plays here, old books, and ancient persons of importance, often through story or song. More professional learners gather in the Asylum to take their knowledge to the next level, seeking out self-declared experts in their fields and request their knowledge. Deeper inside, the Asylum deals with the mad, lost to the weight of their own psyche or even those who have succumbed to the pitfalls of magic; they are all gathered here and conditioned so they might one day rejoin society. Enrollment The Asylum, in its capacity as an institution of learning, is a prestigious school—enrollment in any class requires seasonal payments of at least twenty gold miza per season for any individual class; however exceptions are frequently made for person with unusual skills, hired as new teachers or as orderlies deeper inside. Subjects Not all topics are for all students, but these are always open to anyone who can pay. Subject Professor Price Carving Miss Tapeesa Skyglow 200 GM per season Painting Miss Rihea 200 GM per season Writing Professor Tins 200 GM per season Mathematics Professor Tins 200 GM per season Calligraphy Professor Tins 100 GM per seasonRequires competent writing Dance Miss Rihea 100 GM per season Astronomy The Headmaster 100 GM per season History The Headmaster 100 GM per season Sculpting Miss Tapeesa Skyglow 200 GM per season Composition Meistro 200 GM per season Gea'tar Meistro 100 GM per season Mandolin Meistro 200 GM per season Kettle Drums Meistro 100 GM per season Ocarina Meistro 100 GM per season Harp Meistro 100 GM per season Drawing Miss Rihea 100 GM per season Note: Novice level courses in most of these subjects are offered at 50 GM per season and are taught by student teachers. These are limited potential interactions, meaning that lores should be relatively basic and simple. NPC : The Headmaster Race: Ethaefal Sex: Male Skills: 60 Hypnotism 65 Teaching 45 Astronomy 40 History 30 Persuasion In his mortal seeming, the Headmaster seems a kindly older man. His hair is receding and dark, and his face is obscured by a great big bushy white mustache. Some faces were made to hold a smile, and so was his. He is short and would be stocky were he not quite so plump—The Headmaster is never angry, not truly, always somewhere on the line between happiness and disappointed. His hands are small and very frail. But by moonlight, he grows very tall and very thin. His hair is like strands of starlight, his horns like little bits of rainbow. Where other Ethaefal are eternally young and beautiful the Headmaster is eternally old and handsome. His face is wrinkled and his eyes shine with affection for everything they see. His is the face of a heavenly grandfather, caring, doting, loving; old age’s wisdom without its weakness. Over the past few hundred years the Headmaster has learned to accept his fate, and even forgive, but he, eternal, deathless, has seen hundreds of students led to their deaths. A hundred unwise decisions, a hundred crimes of terrible passion; he brings the broken to the heart of his asylum and goes to meet them every night, and he saves them, bit by bit, until nothing of the monster of impulse and ambition is left. Before he rose to the Ukalas, he was a teacher in the sorcerer-schools of Alahea, and his death by voiding ‘accident’ taught him many things. He keeps his students safe by stealing all violence from their minds. It is his goal to be the father to every student he has, to make them safe for themselves and everyone around them. And if they protest . . . well, the insane always say the strangest things. Miss. Rihea Race: Human Sex: Female Skills: 55 Painting 47 Dance 26 Acting 35 Drawing 30 Teaching 26 Storytelling Rihea is a distant woman. Her hair is very dark and falls below her ears, and her eyes are pale. A matronly woman, Rihea is popular among her students for her stories; her tangents and anecdotes which, much to their chagrin, she does not know—or care—that they are abominable. A secluded child, she grew up in the company of bright-eyed parents and siblings, but seemed to care for none of them. She was brought to the Headmaster when she was seventeen, after she locked herself in her room and painted for days, never eating, until her parents came inside and found her nearly dead from her own unorthodox attempt at suicide. Years later and she was back on her feet, and offered a place in the Asylum to teach her arts to any who might know them. She is a morbid woman, obsessed with death and doom. It's been a long time since she was brought to the Asylum, a long time since the Headmaster declared her sane. The Asylum and the students she teaches are her anchors; her two greatest and possibly only loves, and she treats them both with profound kindness. Professor Tins Race: Human Sex: Male Skills: 60 Mathematics 42 Caligraphy 55 Writing 30 Organization 45 Teaching A round-faced man with wide eyes; his hair has begun to recede in places and if he is a little plum, then no one could call him large. Tins is a short, precise little man; he moves in jerks and gestures, and his eyes are always either too-open or squinted near shut. He is awkward in social situations, and stutters when put on the spot. He is also a genius. His mind absorbs everything put into it. Once upon a time he worked with a traveling merchant, keeping her records, managing her accounts. Until one day he snapped and beat her unconscious with a chair. It was in Alvadas, and he was taken to the Asylum after it was confirmed that he was indeed insane. His thoughts and actions were precise, and he had no tools with which to deal with his own emotions. Professor Tins has never harmed a student; he has a tendency to ramble, to smile and apologize far too often. He is uncertain, always wringing his hands, but when it comes to his specialties his mind works wonders. His hands and sure and swift, his mind fast and always certain; he can teach anyone who comes to learn from him. Meistro Race: Human Sex: Male Skills: Mandolin 60 Gea'tar 45 Harp 32 Drums, Kettle 35 Ocarina 30 Teaching 43 Composition 50 Meistro - for no other name is known to anyone but himself and the headmaster - arrived at the Academy a short time after the Djed Storm of 512 AV. There are stories that suggest he was deaf when he arrived, and through the grace of Rhaus regained his hearing to once more create the music he loved so much. Contrary to popular belief among his students, Meistro does not bear the mark of Audius. His skills were hard earned and are maintained through continual practice and a love for song. What can be said with words can be felt with music, and Meistro is of a mind that one learns best through action rather than contemplation. He is a lose-form sort of professor: those who do well in lessons are those who are willing to put aside their questions and insecurities and lose themselves to the music. He will occasionally give the proper direction such as which fingers are placed where or a suggestion that a different chord might sound more pleasing, but all in all, his classes are generally filled with a mess of sound as he bobs from one student to the next, adjusting their playing where applicable. He doesn't share anything about his past, but most are content to enjoy him in the present. It's well known the handsome man does not have another call his own, and his romantic inclinations are often the discussion of his students. Miss Tapeesa Skyglow Race: Vantha Sex: Female Skills: Carving 63 Sculpting 52 Planning 42 Engraving 36 Carpentry 41 Teaching 40 Miss Tapeesa Skyglow, or as her students (both endearingly and fearfully) refer to her as "Nanny Splinters", was beautiful once. Though age has weathered her into the wrinkled, gnarled figure she is today, her beauty is still very much alive in her work. Be it stone or wood, Nanny Splinters brings her medium to life, giving it a new purpose in ever growing world of art. She is a hard instructor, a natural born artist by blood and heritage, and she is quick of mind and sharp of tongue. How it was she came to be in Alvadas is rarely speculated about: she has been around long enough that - until her pale green eyes turn to a golden flare of rage - most consider her a native born Alvad. "Nanny Splinters" was a name gained through the woman's rather harsh work ethic that she expects every one of her students to follow. She is not a cold-hearted or cruel individual, but she is very much a proponent of hard work and going the extra mile. Thus, it is very rare for anyone taking a class from her not to sport some sort of injury by the end of the season, and the most common of those being gashes from the chisel (splinters were the second, and there was a general consensus that "Lady Hack-and-Slash" was a bit too conspicuous). She is not disliked by many, however, as she has a way about her that, even in the midst of her determined and often aggressive explanations of what she expects and how she expects one to achieve them, the genuine love for her craft and desire to share it shines through. There have been, however, times were Nanny Splinters may be absent from her classes for a stretch of time. When this happens, there is almost always a substitute from a class prior who fills in (these individuals range in skill and temperament to represent the entirety of the sentient races). It is rare for her to ever be gone longer than half a season, and when she returns, there is a new sculpture somewhere on the grounds. These sculptures are always a subject of whispered debate, as they almost always depict what could either be a murder or a redemption. Some speculate that the old woman has had her share of mortal encounters while others think of her as simply an artistic soul with a need to express herself. The truth? Only the Headmaster would know.