Legate of Mineta

S; Yep. And some other forms of tutoring as well.

None to be released yet, unfortunately!

M; No, have not! Just haven't received an answer.

S; "It's actually a big part of why Dialectic is part of the Durand core curriculum! And the real dialectic masters scorn using Glamour in debates; if you can't win by the power of pure logic, they say, why bother?"

Let me get that on my list asap!

Rhi & M; 1-4: "Will have to dig around in the archives. Gorillas are very rare, though. Not thought to be mythical, exactly, but they tend to appear in stories as temple guardians in remote tropical locations: symbols of ancient wisdom along with physical power." 5: "They've been targeted, yes; Zoe's parents haven't taken the bait, as far as she knows. Dad was a student of the Scholarch Triphalo, and Triphalo was an exponent of a philosophical system that owes a certain amount to old-school Skepticism - in magical practice, it means testing every thesis you possibly can with Negation techniques (magical or logical) until it either breaks or is proven true; he would probably die of shame if he let himself be taken in. Zoe herself is perhaps more desperate to hope, and more vulnerable. (If also maybe more likely to find a magical answer in the end.)" 6: "Why... why do you want to know? Nah, fair question! Assuming they're willing to be seen in the first place, it's usually not too hard to signify what appear to be gender distinctions. Admittedly, a lot of them are distinctions by design rather than biological characteristics: feminine pixies tend to favor very long, free-flowing hair and skirts, while masculine pixies go for topknots or hats and trousers. Many seem, physically, to be essentially preadolescent (not that they are, but they're lithe with relatively subtle secondary sexual characteristics), but some you can tell at glance do have what we'd call adult characteristics. Unless it's all glamour. ;-)"

Got it!

For GoG? No not yet.

Rhi; I bet we do.

Rhi; I'll send that to the Team, thanks!

S; It is, just not a specific academy associated with it.

M; "First principle: yes, you can have fey Familiars. A fey-like a sprite or a will-o-wisp is relatively common. The smarter and more powerful (and more human-like) the fey creature is, the less likely it is to respond to calls for a Bond in the first place. There are very rare cases where magical Bonds form between humans and near-humans."

S; For your questions: "The status of a knight without land is more or less like that of any other landless noble... but with modifiers. If you're from an old knightly family who's fallen on hard times, you'll be welcome in the same places as an ambitious young soldier who was knighted on the field after saving her lord's life - but some people will think that your courtly manners make you more "real" a knight, while others will think that young soldier with a new title has more real influence. There's also the question of whether you're a landless knight who's in service to a lord or lady, in which case you're carrying all the weight of those affiliations, or whether you're a knight-errant just out there doing your own thing, in which case you might be anything from a bandit to a saint. New knights are generally expected to offer support in battle to whichever figure made them a knight (though sometimes it's understood that you can have other obligations that matter more), but you're unlikely to be called into a standing army unless the lord or lady in question is actually in the middle of a conflict. You're not likely to be treated as just a footsoldier with a title, regardless; unless the lord or lady who "made" you is very poor, you'll probably be given a shield, a sword or wand, a horse (and the means to feed it), and some kind of armor if you don't have them already. You will stand out. All that said, note that Everwine von Zoedorf's father was made a knight for rescuing the son of the Duke of Zoedorf from drowning, and the title is hereditary, but Everwine very much hopes to go his entire life without standing on a blood-drenched field. 3) No, actually! There's a small consortium of fairly recent Vernin graduates who are actively seeking funding for such an enterprise in northeast Meril, and many of the great workshops in Ritzeln and Staade have significant apprenticeship programs - but there doesn't seem to be anything quite like a steampunk Academy currently in existence."

S; Here you go! "The intent was that, as a page, you were sent to serve with a noble family, and that the young master in the story was presumably the son of the actual head of the family. He would have been responsible for your well-being in the absence of his parents, at least in theory, and he would’ve been entirely within his rights to expect you to perform duties on his behalf while you were in the family’s service. You certainly would’ve been released from service when you were accepted into the Academy - the Academagia is a pretty prestigious deal, and your acceptance would’ve reflected well on the family you served as well as on your own. You are welcomed back after graduation for a year’s condensed service (as a magical counselor rather than a squire) and then a knighthood if you were so inclined; again, an Academy education counts for a lot."

M; "Oh, yeah, that's not the safest question to ask in Fey company. It's really hard to know who's been illusioned up to look like what and which tribes are so unutterably opposed to each other that you'd never get them to admit that they were physically similar - when in fact they were literal cousins. That said, the similarities of any types of Fey humans are likely to meet across the old Empire of Man are generally fairly striking; the great Fey processions and hunts can easily travel from island to island, and the smaller and weirder Fey seem to have access to magics that in human society would be called Gates and locked away. They all tend to be influenced at least somewhat by dominant local human cultures, sure, but modern scholarship suggests that there are "core" Fey traditions (and physiotypes) that persist (or at least evolve in relatively consistent ways) across a very wide geographic distribution. The Walkers of the Sands in the distant south know at least some of the same songs as the Reindeer Peoples of the far north, and they may even have second cousins who inter-married. But, again, it's worth stressing that this is an assessment based on knowledge of Fay groups that interact with literate human classes and let them walk away alive and with their memories unscrambled. Who knows how the weirder ones differ!"

wei270; Thanks, we appreciate that! I don't think we'd pursue those options except as a last resort- Academagia is our baby, so we're taking it step by step. But, the spirit of your ask is well received.

It depends on the College (and in some cases gender.)

S; "1) Depends on how wrong a bed you mean! For students with roommates, it's certainly not unheard of - Cante has dosed himself and collapsed into Marc's bed more than once. But dorm rooms are generally locked and warded when unoccupied, so it's relatively rare for somebody to wander into a neighbor's suite and crash into an empty bed located in more or less the same position as their own. 2) Absolutely. Heck, even the Rimbal team has hazing traditions that are honored more often than not - steal a patch of soil from an opposing team's pitch, jump out a certain third-floor Godina window, etc."

MGGB; No date given yet. The labor continues.

For Y2, not Spells. But Enchantments you'll see.

Can't wait!

Rhi; None yet! It will take some time to develop a client, if even it's the case.

Rhi; "1. It's said to be a rectangular room, with desks along the north and west walls and bookshelves on the south and east. Magical torches in sconces on the walls - they light when someone is proximity to them, so you can always find one another. In the center of the room, there's an oversized standing desk that might once have been used by people of authority - but it's now somehow almost lost in a living, magical rosebush that has grown on its surface and out of its drawers. People who visit and collect petals from the roses apparently enjoy assorted blessings for two or three days afterward. 2. The description above is reasonably widely known among the student body, though you can't tell how accurate it's likely to be. As for the average person's assumptions: apart from the rosebush, it's really not that exotic by Academagia standards. But, of course, there may be elements you're not hearing about. 3. No, generally speaking, Faerie cultures use human scripts for (relatively rare) communications with the human world. Their own cultures rely much more on oral tradition, with talking animal messengers generally taking the place of written correspondence; they pride themselves on memory (and on extremely long lives), so why write down things when there's no meaningful risk that they'll be lost or forgotten? There are courts and communities that do things differently, granted, but they're as likely to use an archaic form of Renaglian as anything else."

S; This, also is true.

S; And for your second: "Most hidden rooms in the Venalicium are unknown to the students, for obvious reasons. There are a few exceptions: there's supposed to be a door that only opens for Familiars whose wizards are sick or hurt and are in need of assistance. There's also supposed to be a scriptorium for couples in romantic relationships (or destined to have romantic relationships)."