Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 salla Feb 26, 2010 14:20:23	Short form: It's a magic academy that was given a writeup in Dragon magazine. I'm wanting to use it in Eberron, but with a bit of a twist in that the students are also 'operatives' that are sometimes contracted to go on missions for either the school officials or outside employers (one of my players described it as 'Harry Potter meets Naruto', though looking at the races the players have chosen, we might throw in 'Casper's Scare School' too ...). I'm trying to figure out where to put it.  Aundair would be the most obvious place if I were doing it as a straight arcane school, but I feel it needs to be placed in more neutral territory, so as to at least make it more difficult for the various nations to lean on and influence the place.  Are there really any neutral zones on Khorvaire, or will I need to resort to something more exotic like a floating island or sticking it in a dimensional pocket?
#2 Brandark Feb 26, 2010 14:39:19	I like the floating island idea, myself.
#3 ty_the_guy Feb 26, 2010 14:42:56	Ah, the White Lotus Academy, I know it well. I was going to have my campaign with my players take place in Eberron and it start out in the White Lotus Academy. I switched over to Forgotten Realms. In my planned campaign, I placed the academy in the outskirts of Aundair, but the academy was subject to itself. In essence becoming it's own apolitical sovereign territory. That was my idea.
#4 zeratulcraft Feb 26, 2010 14:45:16	I like the idea of a dimensional pocket, every city has a way to access the Academy, it's a matter of knowing which door you're holding a white lotus up to as you pass through it.
#5 Sarlax Feb 27, 2010 16:58:00	I don't know how much you intend to stick with what's already been written, but by the article, the academy is at least 143 years old. Since that predates the Last War, any place in the 5 Nations could reasonably be considered neutral territory. The nations, it appears, weren't hostile to each other at that time, so there's no specific reason to found the Academy in a specific place on those grounds. That said, there are already two magical academies in play - the Twelve and Arcanix, in Karrnath and Aundair, respectively. As I remember it, the Twelve was founded first, after the War of the Mark, and the royals of Galifar established Arcanix as a balance so that magical talent wouldn't be monopolized by the Houses. With these things in mind, I'd place the school either in Breland or Cyre if you want it in the Five Nations. Thrane doesn't seem to fit too well with an arcane school slanted towards numerology, and establishing even more arcane power in either Aundair or Karrnath might have bothered the governor-princes of those territories. Cyre's obviously a rough choice, but you might have a twist - the school may have been founded right on the border of Cyre and barely escaped the Mourning, thanks to numerological prophecy. Or the revelation may have come late, and the school was able to evacuate before being destroyed. Outside of the 5 Nations, I'd place it in Q'Barra. The frontier feel works nicely for the mysterious founders if they wanted to keep the school apolitical, while the remote and dangerous environment makes the school an important source of aid for the region. It may also have drawn Duke Ven ir'Kesslan to found "New Galifar" in Q'Barra rather than Darguun or the Shadow Marches - there were already elements of civilization in place. Q'Barra's also a great site because it is a strong base for three of Khorvaire's "magical" conspiracy groups - the dragons, the Inspired, and the Lords of Dust.