Royal Academy

The Royal Academy is located in the Sovereignty, the central zone of the kingdom. It is situated on a hill surrounded by forests of conifers.

Due to it's ability to sustain itself via teleporation circles, no supporting villages are found in the general area.

As the name suggests, it's main purpose is the education of noble students, but it is also used as the site for the yearly Archduke's Conference.

Barring those sent to the temple to become priests and shrine maidens, all nobles are sent to the Royal Academy, usually in the Winter after their tenth birthseason. Exceptions can be made to allow the attendance of older nobles if there were attenuating circumstances that prevented them from attending at the proper time, like severe illness, but these circumstance are rare and are not looked upon kindly in noble society. After the civil was and the resulting purges, all the former priests that were called back to noble society all got special exception to attend the academy, even the ones already fully adult.

The nobles are taught by professors who teach various fields of knowledge. Students are ranked by how much mana they have and the rank of their duchy, but while they are in class professors are always treated as the superior even to Archnobles and Archuduke Candidates.

The regular education takes five years. The first two years consist of courses common to all nobles and serve as a base for the later specializations. From the third year onward, the education splits off into courses specialized toward the field of the future career of the noble students. The courses are the knight's course, attendent's course, scholar's course and archduke candidate's course. In order to graduate one of these courses must be successfully finished. While it is uncommon, students can voluntarily take more than one course should they wish it. Generally each student may choose their course according to their own will, with the only exception being archduke's children - including adopted ones. For them the archduke candidate's course, where they learn how to govern a duchy and support the current archduke, is mandatory, even if they have no intention of competing for the position themselves. .

At the end of the final year, there is a graduation ceremony in which the most talented students of dedication whirl and blade dance are chosen for the final performance. To be chosen for these acts is considered a great honour.

When attending the academy, only a single retainer is allowed to be taken. However, other students can be hired as knights, attendants and scholars. Apart from the wages they receive, the students chosen as retainers also profit from this by being able to gather experience in the future careers, while still studying.

Arguably the most important part of the curicumlum of the academy is the acquisition of a schtappe. Only people who aquired a schtappe and graduated graduated from the Royal Academy, are recognised as full-fledged nobles.

To facilitate the timing of classes the bells in the Academy ring twice as often on days with lessons.

The Academy consists of a big central complex, erected on a sizeable hill, where the Library, classrooms and other rooms meant to be used by nobles of more than a single duchy are located. This includes seperate buildings for scholars and knights. From this central complex, the dormitories of the various duchies radiate outward, each in the style of their home. Students may only enter their own dormitory and the common areas. Each duchy dormitory is situated on it's own hill, each smaller than the one of the central building.

The Farthest Hall is a cavern that can only be accessed from a chapel behind the main auditorium of Royal Academy. It is in this place that students aquire their Divine Will, an essential component of a Schtappe. It's entrance is hidden byhind a staircase, that can be moved to the side by a professor pouring mana into a concealed feystone.

From the entrance and throughout most of the way, the place looks like a long corridor hewn directly from the natural rock, with the ivory footpath being the only visible artificial structure, serving both to provide secure footing and as the only illumination, with it's faint glow. This path leaders steadily higher at a mild incline, occasionally going up steep enough for the ivory path to form a couple of steps. At the very back of the corridor there is a big spiral staircase going up roughly one story, leading up to a large cavern with a circular ivory plaza surrounding a sculpture of a tree made from the same white material, beautifully illuminated by a hole in the ceiling above it, allowing sunlight to pour in.

Going by Rozemyne's observation, it would appear that the less mana capacity a student has, the nearer to the entrance they find their Divine Will. Laynobles generally find theirs in a matter of minutes, mednobles have to go about halfway up the path and archnobles very near to the end.

This building houses the Sovereignty knights apprentices.

Attached to the Knights building is a stadium for ditter matches. It has roughly the size of a baseball stadium, but does not have tiered seats for the spectators. The top appears to be open to the sky, but a transparent ceiling prevents wind and weather from affecting the field below. It is unclear whether this is a physical material or a magical barrier.

The field itself contains four magic circles meant to keep captured feybeast in place during treasure-stealing ditter matches.

 See Royal Academy Library (contains spoilers for Part 4 Volume 1 and onwards) 

Each Dormitory contains the living quaters of the students, as well as the teleportation circles connected to the capital of the respective duchy. Since they are made from the creation magic of past Archdukes of their region, their aethetics match with that of the home-castle, both on the in- and outside. Member of a duchy are strictly forbidden to attempt to enter the dormitories of another duchy. The dormitories are secured by magical barriers, that allow only those with magical token to enter, like the brooches that are handed out to students.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 3 In addition to the student facilities the building also contains parts that are not protected by barriers and thus accessible to visitors, which contain meeting rooms for inter-duchy socializing, as well as a set of rooms reserved for the archducal couple and their attendants for use during the interduchy tournament and archduke's conference.

The first room one enters after exiting the teleportation circle is the common area on the second floor, where all students, regardless of rank, gender or grade can socialize together. Apart from several communal rooms for studying, socializing or spending free time, this area also contains a common dining room. While each student is free to eat in the privacy of their own room, most Ehrenfest students seem to prefer eating together in the common area. Further backward are the living quarters. The boys' rooms are also on the second floor, while the girls' rooms are one level up. The third floor is strictly off limits to males. To assure that everyone follows this rule, guard knights are at all times stationed at the staircase, taking shifts to never leave the post unattended. The quarters closest to the common areas are traditionally used by laynobles, with the status going up the further toward the back one goes. The rooms furthest toward the back of their respective floors are reserved for archduke candidates. Attendents currently employed by higher ranking students are exempt from this, staying instead in rooms directly next to their masters', so they can stay near to their charge. Students can choose to share rooms with others to save money or if they like the company.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 3 The first floor contains the meeting rooms for inter-duchy socializing and is thus not protected by the barrier that keeps people from other duchies out of the student facilities.

The basement contains facilities for servants, like the kitchen.

Ehrenfest Dormitory is officially overseen by Professor Hirschur, though she often neglects this duty in favour of her research.

Since only members of a Duchy can enter their own dormitory, the academy provides meeting halls in the central complex. While those rooms are still under the management and care of the respective duchies and furnished according to their style, they are not protected by barriers like the dorms, to allow meetings with people from other duchies.

These rooms are big and can be fitted with many tables. When not needed excess furniture is kept in nearby storage rooms. To offer more privacy for smaller meetings, parts of the room can be partitioned off.

Ehrenfest's meeting rooms are decorated with tapestries that still show quite a lot of the surrounding ivory walls. Most of the furniture is made from carved wood.

Klassenberg's meeting rooms are fitted with massive tapestries that cover the entirety of the surrounding walls like wallpapers. Over the tapestries many expansive paintings are hung to as a show of the duchy's wealth, along with expansive furniture made from a marble-like stone.

The Royal Academy has a big villa for members of the royalty to stay during their term and the archduke's conference. Unlike with duchy dormitories, a member of the royalty can invite others to their own rooms for meetings, rather than having to rely on the inter-duchy rooms in the central complex.

A place where Sovereignty scholars have their rooms and laboratories.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 3
 * Ferdinand stayed at the Royal Academy all year and only returned to Ehrenfest when summoned, because of the bullying he received from Veronica. Due to this, he completed the knight, scholar and archduke candidate course.
 * According to Justus there were twenty rumours or mysteries surrounding the Royal Academy during his time as a student, though none of the current student has ever heard of them, likely due to the civil war. The ones he mentioned are a forbidden archive in the library only accessible by royalty, a statue of a goddess that is supposed to dance on the nights of the gratuation ceremonies, a gazebo where the goddess of time plays tricks and a gewinnen set that decdies the outcome of ditter matches.