#THE IMPERIAL MAGIC INSTITUTE Official Name: The Imperial Institute of Magical Arts and Sciences at Rhoanësberg

Location: Rhoanësberg - a city built specifically for the Institute 150 years ago, about 3 hours by rail from Kronstadt

#STRUCTURE: Not a school - it's a UNIVERSITY • Students are 18-24, pursuing their Mastery in a specific field • You don't "graduate" - you complete your Mastery thesis and earn your Magister title • This is basically a magical PhD that makes you politically and socially powerful • Entry is by examination OR by noble privilege (if you're high-ranking enough) • About 2,000 students total

The Campus: • Gothic Revival architecture meets magical excess • The Grand Atrium - seven stories of marble, floating lights, enchanted ceiling showing real-time sky • The Spires - twelve towers, each housing a different magical discipline • The Restricted Archive - six levels, the bottom three require special permission and blood wards • The Dueling Grounds - formal arena for magical combat, used for both practice and settling disputes • The Alchemy Gardens - greenhouse complexes with plants from across the empire • Student Housing - not dorms, but luxury apartments in four residential halls (divided by social rank, naturally)

SOCIAL HIERARCHY: The Four Houses (residential, but also social): • Kronhaven Hall - old blood nobility, serious money, future dukes and duchesses • Private dining rooms, servants' quarters, the works

• Sommergold Hall - respectable nobility, wealthy merchants who bought titles, military families • Still fancy, but not quite Kronhaven level • Lots of social climbers

• Eisenturn Hall - scholarship students, minor nobility, talented commoners • Functional, nice enough, but clearly a step down • These students have a chip on their shoulder • Akademos Hall - international students, researchers, older students finishing decade-long Masteries • Most diverse, least socially rigid • Weird hours, weird people

FIELDS OF STUDY (Your "Major"): • Arcane Theory - pure magical research, theoretical applications • Battle Magic - combat, defense, magical warfare (military career track) • Artifice & Enchantment - making magical objects, weapons, tools • Alchemical Sciences - potions, transmutation, magical chemistry • Divinatory Arts - prophecy, scrying, reading fate (considered slightly disreputable) • Restoration & Healing - medical magic (very prestigious) • Necromantic Studies - legal necromancy, death magic, spirit work (controversial but legal) • Elemental Manipulation - fire, water, earth, air specialization • Runic Construction - wards, circles, permanent magical structures • Thaumaturgical Law - magical legislation, pact work, binding magic

SOCIAL SCENE: The Factions (unofficial but everyone knows): • The Court Set - nobles destined for positions in the Imperial Court • Care about politics, marriages, alliances • Host elaborate parties in their suites

• The Dueling Club - combat-focused, competitive, aggressive • Constant challenges and matches • Respect earned through skill, not birth

• The Symposium - intellectual elite, research-focused • Host academic salons, present papers • Look down on "brutish" combat magic

• The Libertines - party constantly, more interested in pleasure than study • Technically here for Mastery but mostly here for networking and fun • Throw the wildest parties, source of all gossip • Looked down on but also everyone goes to their parties

• The Reformists - want to change the Empire's rigid class system • Mostly scholarship students and younger sons • Politically active, idealistic, considered dangerous by old families • Constantly in trouble with administration