Kyning Rore

 

Kyning Rore is a university for mages, located on a small island off the eastern coast of the Perilous Realm, in the Sea of Mists.

The island was shaped by magecraft over many years into the likeness of a great spiraling seashell of white stone.  Within the seashell are the many classrooms, laboratories, libraries and dormitories of the university. The seashell can be seen for miles around, even at night or when the mists are thick upon the sea, for the stonework of the walls gives off a phosphorescent glow in the dark.

The mages who teach at Kyning Rore come from all over the realm, as do those who hope to become students. Anyone may apply to study at the Rore, and tuition and board are free, but of the many who come there to learn magecraft, most sail away soon after, having discovered that they have not the gifts or the dogged determination to carry on with a program of study that is rigorous, demanding, and sometimes leads to unpleasant revelations about oneself and one’s limitations.

Kyning Rore was once a remote, forbidding place where only the daring, hardy few came to learn the mage’s art. The food at the dining hall was meager, tasteless fare, and each student was assigned a small, sparsely furnished cell (there is no other word for these cold stone closets).  In winter these rooms could be bitterly cold. There have been many changes over the years, however, as the university became well-known for the quality of its instruction. More and more students flocked there, the food got better, the rooms more comfortable, and it has even been suggested that the curriculum is no longer as difficult or challenging as it once was, that students now come to the island not so much to learn the craft as to acquire the glittering reputation of having been a student at the Rore.

Many famous mages have trained at Kyning Rore, and unfortunately a few infamous ones as well, who took what they learned and used it to deceive and control others. A Master’s degree from Kyning Rore, they say, is no longer a guarantee that the mage who carries it still follows the mage’s oath to serve others and do no harm.