Locations · Neighborhoods · Any
The Quadrangles
In the western part of the city is a large neighborhood. It is this good sized old walled neighborhood that gives the city is reputation for education, wisdom, and enlightenement. It is called The Quadrangles by locals and those of high education.
In the western part of the city is a large neighborhood. It is this good sized old walled neighborhood that gives the city is reputation for education, wisdom, and enlightenement. It is called The Quadrangles by locals and those of high education.
The Quadrangles is a set of eight plus one colleges, institutes of higher and focused study. The colleges are all adjacent, filling a large city block, often with alleys or narrow streets between them. They are all built upon the same basic plan, which if you as some of the scholars was based upon early Eiren monastaries. Each is square or slightly retangular three story affairs, with a paved central courtyard. The center of the courtyard has a fountain or some kind of appropriate statuary, and several sets of benches. Each side of a college quadrangle has two to three archways/ short tunnels leading through to the courtyard. Thus the phrase, 'Through the arch of knowledge', for learning something. Classes are entered from the courtyard (either directly or from stairways); offices and deliveries are always from the outside.
The eight colleges are: Letters (literature, history, oratory), Law, Healing, Greater Building (Roads, Huge Walls, large scale things), Dwarvethurgy (metalurgy and mining), Knowledge (mathematics and various physical sciences- such as they are), Thaumatury, Thergical (the basic study of religion ... precursor to higher religious study from various religions),
The rest of the neighborhood supports the Quadarangles. There is much in the way of inexpensive apartments and housing. There are a number of cafes and food holes (tiny places selling foodstuffs out their front windows/ counters).
The quarter is filled with book sellers and scroll mongers. Importers, exporters, and bookbinders all have a home home here. In fact, this is the majority of businesses here. There are several libraries which one has to pay to be a member of. Certain library memberships are included in the price of tuition at given college.
There are a dozen shops of Scribes, Tutors, and researchers. Many a problem can be resolved by simply searching various archives, libraries, and talking with the right scholar. Translators have set up shop here, so you can get papers in any language here. With the presence of translators and foreigners here, as well as free thinkers/ radical, some say the spys hang out here as well.
Note: One College, The School of Architecture (Lesser Building), is not in a quadrangle. It is adjacent to the others in a nearby/ adjacent building. The school nearly failed for psychological reasons, it had no arches. With the installation of faux arch leading to doorways, they now seem appropriate and fit in with the colleges.
There are plans for new colleges, some for certain guilds, in the works. The various organizing groups are working up the funds to buy land and build quadrangles.
Scrolls
Twists, chapters, and details meant to stream with the submission — not general discussion.
No scrolls yet — leave one if you have a twist worth keeping.
Sign in to plant an idea scroll.
Enjoyed this? Sign in and cross blades for MoonHunter — five clashes, up to 25 XP.
Sign in to cross the blades.
Discussion
Reader talk, questions, and feedback — not scrolls.
No comments yet — be the first voice in the hall.
Sign in to join the discussion.
Also in
Codex hubs that gather this piece with similar work.
- Neighborhoods MoonHunter
Bonds
Curated bonds across the Citadel — sign in to bind a bond. Kindred Favors are another thread in the same weave.
Links to this article 2
- Bridges District MoonHunter linked by MoonHunter
- Neighborhoods MoonHunter linked by MoonHunter
Use alongside
Submissions that pair well with this one at the table.
-
Not Sure What To Do?
A few threads that are itching for additions or collaboration to get you started at Strolen's Citadel.
-
Bassage Market
Once a place where the great merchants of the city met, this decrepit square has become a thriving marketplace for the poor and the unwanted. Many a shady deal…
-
Regency Boulevard
'Build a road, wide and surrounded by beautiful architecture, to lead from Guilders' Court to the new palace,' the Regent commanded Master Thraso.
-
Plaza of the Bell
In the center of the plaza is The Bell. The large iron Bell is covered by a small slanted roof held up by four pillars. These pillars rest upon a square raised …
-
The Dovecote Rookery
Nowhere else in the city would you find a place more tragically downtrodden.
-
Azure District
The district gets its name by the good sized walls that are painted a bright blue that mark the magic district. That wall is watched by the Witchhunter guard.
Other cities in the same continent will also have quadrangle neighborhoods as well. They will be copies of this, the first one. They will have several schools in one building, until the institution builds up enough to have one school per building.
Colleges of days gone by. A touch of Oxford yet an entire neighborhood surrounding them is impacted by the schools. This gives you a place, a center of learning, a society, the way people structure knowledge, and a cool little tag line for the educated to use.
Busy, yet somehow the place always seems dusty, and smells of old paper and nervous students. More distant from the Quadrangles would have to be the dormitory ward, where the students would lodge when they were not at lecture.
I've always liked scholarly congregations. Too bad so little of the academic feel of those schools of pure thought is left in the establishments I've been part of.
The piece that stuck out for me was the description of metallurgy and mining as Dwarvethurgy. I like the idea that some basic technologies would have been perfected by other races before humans, and that as a result, their naming may be quite different. The word for Mining in common could be different.
Interesting to think about.