Admiralty Academy of Arcanima
& Natural Philosophy

"Many hands, one circle; many minds, one horizon."

Synopsis

Located in one of Limsa Lominsa's more regal, imposing seastack-towers, the La Noscean Admiralty Academy of Arcanima & Natural Philosophy, commonly shortened to the Admiralty Academy of Arcanima or simply AAA (pronounced 'Triple A') by its students, is a Lominsan institution of higher learning with close ties to the Admiralty's Navy, Mealvaan's Gate, and the Nymian Restoration Society. The wealthiest and most talented of Vylbrand's budding arcanists attend Triple A as a far more rigorous, prestigious, and thorough understanding of arcanima.In addition to its scholastic role, the academy is an apparatus of soft political power with an administration that has been described as ‘open-minded’ or even 'favourable' to a more nationalistic, meritocratic, and magocratic La Noscea. Students are often exposed to these political ideologies either through lecture discourse, or through the authority of the student representative council, for whom the administration has taken a 'policing their own' policy by granting them an unusual amount of authority in managing, organising, and disciplining their peers while on campus, which regularly escalates into undocumented bullying and hazing behaviour that is tacitly approved of by the administration through their hands-off response and minimisation of its magnitude.

Curriculum

Students complete core education before being applied to a track system based on skill and aptitude in these colleges. These are meant only as a taste of the curriculum's lore fluff, and I have expanded details on it in supplemental documents.

  • College of Theoretical Metaphysics - Raw theory of aether, spellcraft, and experimental arcanima

  • College of Tactical Arcanima & Battlefield Applications - Combat magic, battlefield command, group harmonics.

  • College of Civic Practics & Administrative Aetherengineering - Reagent sourcing & supply-line management, aetherically-receptive design, aetherengineering, permanent arcane structures & rituals, familiars, runework, logistics.

  • College of Nymian Studies & Political Theory - History, law, rhetoric, propaganda, Nymian history & contributions, civic philosophy, morale adjustment, and social moderation.

  • College of Psychomathematics at Scale - Prestige majors involving wide-reaching self-system aetherinterfacing. A student must be invited.

  • College of Physical Excellence - Doesn't oversee any majors, only athletic extracurriculars.

Academic Societies

A list of academic societies and clubs formally recognised by the council and administration, implying a level of authority, special privileges, benefits, and budget allotment. This list is currently a big work-in-progress (only written two so far), but it can be assumed that your typical clubs can be found here (such as for various sports, writing / literature, certain forms of art, and so forth) as well as those you might think typical in a magic military school, such as clubs for arcane duelling and sparring.

The Fencing Club

"Dignity, Loyalty… and a bit of Panache."

ㅤSponsorㅤㅤㅤGwendolyn Pyre
ㅤCaptainㅤㅤㅤNasrin Darvish
ㅤCo-ChairㅤㅤㅤAugustino di UbertiOne of the Academy's oldest societies, the Fencing Club exists to cultivate discipline, footwork, and martial decorum through competitive swordplay. Members train across multiple fencing traditions, host inter-hall bouts, and represent the Academy in sanctioned duels and exhibitions.

Special Notes & Miscellany

  • In addition to their usual activities, fencers act as a student police force managed and beholden to the student-marshal and her councillors in order to carry out their directives and protect them while on academy business off-campus.

  • After completing tryouts and being accepted into the club, members are permitted to carry their academy-issued rapiers — and only those specific rapiers — on campus (model: ruthenium tuck).

  • Due to their important responsibilities, members are held to a standard of conduct exceeding that of the general student body.

  • Presentability is mandatory: immaculate uniforms, tidy or fashionable hairstyles, good posture, and dignified speech.

  • Sycophancy isn't required, but members are expected to display loyalty, devotion, and deference to the council and their directives when needed. There are all manner of martial clubs at the school, this one is for the AAA entrenched.

  • Nasrin Darvish, the current captain, is in the process of stepping down and the seat will need a replacement.

AAA Tower Fellow Society

"Every door, an opportunity."

ㅤSponsorㅤㅤㅤ???
ㅤCaptainㅤㅤㅤn/a, decentralised body of free thinkers
ㅤCo-Chairㅤㅤㅤsame as the aboveA famously selective scholarly salon dedicated to rigorous scholarly mentorship, arcanist debate, classical rhetoric, and the occasional hosted wine tasting. Maintains dubious connections with two of the Academy's sponsors: the Oldcross Theological Society and the Sublime House's Institute of Natural Philosophy.

Special Notes & Miscellany

  • Invite-Only. It's existence is known, but mostly through word-of-mouth and gossip as it's not advertised. It pulls many of its members chiefly from Theoretical Metaphysics and secondarily from NymPol Studies, but students from any college exhibiting traits found 'advantageous' to the society can be approached to join.

  • Epistemic Ruthlessness. Haven for free, fringe, and creative thinkers. Demonstrated willingness to discard comforting frameworks (ethical, theological, cultural) when they obstruct understanding; candidates should show the ability to pursue what is true rather than what is permitted.

  • Hermetic Pattern Sensitivity. Intuitive grasp of symbolism, recursive structures, and analogical reasoning, particularly where such patterns cut across formal disciplines rather than within them.

  • Scholarly Discretion. Knowing when not to publish, credit oneself, or clarify one's conclusions. 'True' magi ought to be jealous and protective of their intellectual property. This especially includes utter secrecy regarding club business and proceedings.

  • Arcane Hunger. It should be at the forefront of your desires: chasing every esoteric horizon and bleeding it dry. You should rarely find yourself satisfied, and it will never be enough.

  • Meta-Purpose. Serves as a narrative vessel to provide a dark academia framework fixated on the occult.

The Office of the
Student-Marshal

The student-marshal is the representative and de facto leader of the student body. As a way to encourage collective cooperation and hierarchy among peers, and to alleviate strain to the faculty and the administration, the marshal is given an unusual amount of authority over the student body to ensure many of their needs are met, their voice is heard, and their infractions disciplined.Elected from their peers, a marshal's term lasts for the duration of their enrollment at the school, barring expulsion or a three-fifths student body appeal, with elections being held in the departing marshal's final quarter.To be considered as a marshal nominee, a student is held to exceptional standards and must meet a number of criteria before having their application confirmed by one of the deans: be within the top ten academic percentile; belong to an arcanima-related major; be in “good standing” (no outstanding fees or fines; no disciplinary action for current or prior semester); be a member of an honours or athletic program; and provide a petition of supporting signatures from at least ten students (also in good standing).

Duties of Office

  • appointing dormitory deputies and organising their quarterly (or as needed) inspections; occasionally overseeing the proceedings in person for deemed-sensitive inspections

  • working with faculty and administration to organise large-scale academy events, such as tournaments, festivals, and formals

  • filtering and submitting “deemed-reasonable” administration requests from student to faculty including supplies, dormitory alteration, faculty complaint reviews, and so forth

  • regularly travelling to and partaking in events (sometimes multiple times in a month) hosted at the academy's satellite campuses in Ul’dah and Ishgard, or for any reason deemed appropriate by the deans

  • approving and denying “non-trivial” spellcraft on campus outside of regular courses and formal academy functions, fetes, and competitions, in addition to: providing comprehensive guidelines for the spellwork itself and the ritual space it will be performed in; reviewing, provisioning, and tailoring licenses for prolonged spellwork usage

  • disciplining students within the guidelines laid out in the student-marshal primer

Student Representative Council

The student-marshal has more obligations and responsibilities than any person (let alone a full-time student with honours) could hope to manage, and is thus authorised to appoint up to six councillors with partial authority for delegating their workload. Although the administration requires an appointed councillor to be within the top ten arcanima percentile & in good standing, any failing of theirs or their task is seen as a failing of their marshal who claims full responsibility of them when they're appointed to the role.Together, they make up the Student Representative Council that acts as the liaison between the student body and administration to champion their peers’ needs and provide organisational and disciplinary measures to lessen the burden to faculty.

"...the school, the city, our shining Vylbrandian shores... everything runs more smoothly when every person knows their place... and if you aren't ambitious, if you don't choose to be exceptional, then you've chosen to be at the mercy of those who have."

▍   MEHRI IMASHA, STUDENT-MARSHAL

Administrative magic major, kinetic war magic minor, tennis athlete, and marshal of the student representative council. Mehri is a hardworking collectivist, firm-handed authoritarian, proponent of rather ruthless hazing, and the highest authority among her peers beneath the administration itself. She's also been accused of abusing her authority...

▍   ILVATI KIERNA, NYMPOL STUDIES
Mehri's bestie and right-hand on the student council. Captain of the school soccer team and heiress to an entrenched line of La Noscean admirals. Spoiled, arrogant, and far more 'physical' and openly-demeaning than her peers. When she's not being chummy.

▍   DEVINA HUXLEY, THEORETICAL METAPHYSICS
A daughter of the esteemed Huxley family cannot and will not carry herself like a fool, and Devina is no exception. Equal parts calculating and guileful, she dislikes wasting her time on individuals who are beneath her. Schedule an appointment; she has more important things to do. Played by Reveli.

▍   URUHA DU LORRAINE, TACTICAL ARCANIMA
Of distinguished Coerthan blood. Beneath cool elegance & grace, Uruha hides someone equal parts thoughtful & poetic, a lover's lover... if not often driven to obsession, or with just as much capacity to be ruthless and even cruel when required. Played by Tabbycat.

Honours Society

Elected by the student representative council, the honours society represents, allegedly, the best and brightest the school has to offer, assuming you don't buy into the affect of cronyism. They hold no official authority, but their status alone implies they're at least known and held in high regard by the council.

▍   NASRIN DARVISH, ARCANIMA PRACTICS
Nasrin comes from a family of wealthy, Ul'dahn merchants and priestess-senators. Captain of the school's fencing club. Playful, relaxed, very openly gay, and often surprisingly neck-in-neck with Mehri in academics.

▍   DASHU'LI KIERNA, THEORETICAL METAPHYSICS
Ilvati Kierna's younger brother, 'Shushu' could be accused of nepotism, except metrically-speaking he's the top-ranking student who consistently maintains the highest test scores every quarter. He's also exceedingly polite and well-mannered, which means few suspect him of the psychological torment he enjoys.

▍   QIDA'LI KIERNA, TACTICAL ARCANIMA
'Dolly, on the other hand, must surely be counted among their ranks due to nepotism. Loud, crass, and interested in little else save spending hours on the training range testing new and spectactularly-explosive 'tonal' siege arcanima. Will punch you in the tummy if you look at him wrong, but laugh it off like it's all just play to him.

▍   AUGUSTINO DI UBERTI, TACTICAL ARCANIMA
The Honourable Augustino di Uberti: bored Werlytian baron-brat, utterly ruthless co-chair of the fencing club, and an all-around piece of shit. Affluenza fuckboy with a whiff of political scandal. Cruel, smug, playful, and unfairly pretty.

▍   EVANGELINE PACHI, NYMPOL STUDIES
Quintessential people-pleaser and habitual gossiper. Always at someone's ear - big smiles, being their very best friend. Hard-worker, too, though, which is how Mehri chose her to process the council's extremely important (and dull) paperwork. Played by Tabbycat.

▍   ADALET CLAIRMONT, THEORETICAL METAPHYSICS
Unimpressive, ordinary, probably caught napping in the middle of lecture. This Werlytian oddity is never long without her dolls. Slow and strange, her stare lingers with you for a while. She's an odd-one-out, which seems largely due to Student Marshal Mehri taking an overprotective shine to her. Played by Tatiana.

▍   JOANIE SHERBURNE, NYMPOL STUDIES
To find Joanie impenetrably spaced out is her most common visage but yet more impressionable is her newfound zeal and eccentricities; her nosy habits, consistent sleuthing and brightness cannot go unignored, which earns her the unease of her fellow peers. Allegedly, she was a representative and Mehri's closest confidantes before the death of one of best friends. Played by Ishmael.

▍   WEISS ARKWRIGHT, TACTICAL ARCANIMA
Arrived: by letter of recommendation, already surprisingly gifted in the arts of war, and wearing a scowl with pigtails. Sleepy, sardonic, and cold to a fault, but strike up an honest conversation with her that piques her interest and she just may light up. For some reason, Augustino insisted on her honours status. Played by Windo.

Disclaimer: Obsolete Rules

As the academy is no longer an active role-play community as much as a lore backdrop and device for worldbuilding pleasure, the rules below are largely obsolete. I'm leaving them here for now as I think it's still helpful to further illustrate the school's environment.

Low-Stakes & Grounded Atmosphere

As fantasy RP communities often lean towards either a heroic / epic or grimdark / gritty atmosphere with more extreme and inflated behaviours and actions, it’s important to set some atmospheric guidelines for a more low-stakes, relatable, and lived-in environment like what could honestly be described as a magical girl / non-transphobic hogwarts school life anime mixed with dark academia:

  • your character is a student at the moment (probably between 18-24), possibly even an exceptional one, but they are not a great wizard yet and they don't want to get expelled, which would involve them being removed from the project; many of these rules are to prevent that

  • do not pull weapons on people for any reason besides your life being at risk

  • do not cause huge scenes and massive destruction of property

  • you can still be a piece of shit, though (it's actually encouraged), just don't be really thoughtlessly breakfast club-cringe about it

  • consider the spell you're using: ex. there is no 'gentle' fire, do not attack a student with it, it tends to permanently scar and also spread and destroy stuff

  • your social circle matters - the school is clannish and cliquish and ruthlessly competitive; it chews up mouthy 'lone wolves,' so better have friends (pc or npc)

  • these rules are further expanded on in the discord under the 'Character Guidelines' guidebook section

Preliminary Rules

  • be 18 years of age or older

  • no transphobes, misogynists, fascists, capitalists/libertarians, anti-Palestinians, all that ooc yucky stuff you get the idea

  • not considered a 'beginner-friendly' group; solid grasp of role-play etiquette expected

  • lightless is mandatory, sorry; not only is the uniform a mod, this is intended to be a casual side-project for several members and i don't want folks thinking they need to level / boost a whole new character for it

  • modbeasts: heavily discouraged, hard to really define a hard line for this rule, but when modding try to prefer vanilla textures (mash-ups and the like) and follow a 'less is more' approach with regards to c+ and heavily-modded sculpts

  • tomestones-as-cellphones will be a thing in the setting, as will some modern-adjacent concepts and clothing (be cute & chic my darling lambs), but try to otherwise keep modern-to-sci-fi tech to a minimum (and no sol9, way too larger-than-life for this). this is in the spirit of fun, artistic anachronism, and just not taking ourselves too seriously

  • this is a sneak-peek of the most immediately-important ones; there will be more on the discord server