Nersinian lights are a mystery in itself, they seem to grow like a plant illuminating rooms with distinctive blue light, and if the tublike glowing plantings are ever severed it will start growing in both places towards each other from the damaged points. Now Nersinia being a place of unfathomable proportions are somewhat predictable with its lights, unless in very specific areas the light will always shine and shine with a blue hue. There is both light in floor and ceilings and there is always enough light to at least read a book by. The light does flicker sometimes in intensity and colour, but if it does this in a sequin or a predictable pattern, then we have not found a satisfying answer yet. We know very little about the light origins or its properties because to know these things we would have to damage some parts of Nersinia on purpose. And doing such a suicidal thing is hard to wrap one's head around, but then again there are people who wear white shoes, the monsters.
Now there is a bit of an issue with Nersinian lights and invisibility a spell every competent wizard should have in their repertoire. Well, the spectrum Nersinian lights shine at makes normal invisibility all but useless, in fact it makes most illusions exceedingly hard. That is to say there is a class one can take called; minor Nersinian illusions and throat singing. Some 300 years ago Nersinia had a MASTER illusionist named Rebistnere, she brought our reputation for illusion magic up by quite a bit. Unfortunately, she had some disagreement with another MASTER and at the end of a vigorous debate quite a bit of Rebistnere was on the floor, wall and ceiling. The MASTER knowing Rebistneres facility with illusion magic and the fame it brought this school feared Nersinian displeasure, so in a bit of desperation it collected what it could of Rebistnere and sought to make her remains a demi lich. It was, semi successful. Setting up the horror it had created in classroom 4G,L2A the almost demi lich is there to this day. It teaches 2 different classes minor Nersinian illusions and throat singing, but it has problems sometimes differentiating one from the other. So, if you go in to learn one thing you will understandably have to learn the other. The almost demi lich does not know you are there, it will teach to a full or empty classroom unless attacked, then it will kill pretty much everyone around and go back to teaching. It is still debated whether the light is mana conduits or perhaps payment from hosting a massive blue gestalt, either way the light shines in every room but with a special fire along what we call central roads.
Central roads: There are a few roads we term Central roads in Nersinia, most of them are from the portals to the central courtyards. These courtyards will often have day merchants on them, that means merchants who are here for a single day and do not sleep here. They still have to pay for the portal but not the to them extravagant rent demanded of anyone not a student or student guest. Now other Central roads are the ones from the dorms to the Cafeteria, the roads to the top 10 libraries. And most other roads are to various workshop floors, the greenhouses, museums to man's folly like the thief's downfall or the rainbow warrens, the bottomless pit, various training grounds, mazes and of course the road that is changing the most is the road to the main library seeing as that changes every week. Now one of the greatest boons of the roads is its passive speed and intuitive flow spell weaved into the thing, you could probably spend a century studying it, and people have. When you embark upon a journey on the roads, it will adjust your tempo, placement and speed to not crash into the many others who are using the same road while still getting you there much faster than regular walking. The road is one of the only things making it liveable for low circle wizards around here, but there are rules for even the nicest thing in Nersinia. Animals on the road: for some reason the Gnu of the Racatan highland, Terwiren horse kin and the silk sheep of Mordragar cannot be placed on the road lest it eat them. Yes, that is right the road grows a mouth and eats them, we do not know why. If the road comes into contact with an animal that is below a certain power level and it has never had one before, it WILL eat it. That includes one of a kind just bred unique animals, rare animals herded in for trade, one bite and gone, you have been warned. Evan if the roads are a terrifying eldritch abomination, I still bless it every day for the simple fact that.
Nersinia is big, well when we say big, if you walk in a straight line from the dorms and do not stop for 2 weeks. You will eventually stop finding rooms with as much light as you are used to, this will go on all the way up to the light is faded blue you can barely read from if you place your book directly under it. If you continue forward, you will leave the school and enter either the ruins or the dungeon of Nersinia. Both as you are now are experiences you will not survive.
Nersinias size: one of the things a MASTER will always do is add to Nersinian architecture, there are standing missions that pay crap N-points for the effort, but they do pay. The missions go as such scour the planes to find architects that has never heard of most places and commission them to construct a room or corridor, landscape, statue, landmark or wonder of their specific culture within Nersinia. The MASTERS, some of the older students, trading partners and even some pure teachers seem to think this will please Nersinia or perhaps help with Nersinian displeasure. In this place you will find things, styles or building methods found nowhere else. We used to have a thriving architecture program for student wanting some Brown colour or help exterminating sentient populations hiding in cities. But unfortunately, some 100 years back various students got the idea to commission a build, and then kill the architects on completion assuring the uniqueness of the thing. This superstition has been eradicated by some angry MASTERS and the Architecture program is slowly coming back. You may even see the odd bodyguard jobs on the jobs board from famous and local architectural or builder schools. Now no one has been told not to mess with visiting architectural students, but it is implied. Do with that information as you will.
student guests: each student is allowed 10 guests; the guest have to have the students marking on themselves or they are not exempt from rent if sleeping in Nersinia, guests are however allowed inside safe spaces. Each guest name and likeness are written in a little guestbook behind your nameplate on each room. Almost no students use this, why? Because a student is liable for all actions done and all words said during a guests stay. If you are a third-year student and your guest accidentally or purposely kills a first-year student, soul disintegration for you. If a Seven-year student kills your guest, too bad for you. From this I have inferred that Nersinia hates outsiders, but if that is true.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Why are there random dudes walking around? There are many students but there are also many servants/bodyguards. Now Nersinia has its own servants, the ones dressed in black and white with the wet everchanging masks, don’t mess with these. Not that something will happen if you do, but they do not talk and bother no one so I have never heard anyone have a problem with them. Still, they wear the Nersinian seal, maybe don’t mess with them. Other dudes walking the hall? Well, they could be anyone, upperclassmen, lowerclassmen or MASTERS in disguise for all we know. Most private servants have to pay rent to stay within Nersinia and they are not allowed within any of the safe zones on pain of melting. One of the only upsides to servants is that as long as they were or are never a student, they do not count as a team in the challenges Nersinia throws at you. However, the stronger the servants, the faster they deteriorate over time in this place. Small nightmares become howling night terrors, lapses in concentration become demented incontinence, small vices become crippling addictions. The percentage of third year students who are nobles and can afford the crippling rent and are subsequently killed by their own slaves or servants, are up there with acid in the betting pools for most students killed by.
This servant slave problem of the rich and powerful outside Nersinia, is going to be tough on the talented ones among you without backing. Since Nersinia is so hard on nonstudent slaves, powerful families have taken to enslaving the second year or third year to protect and teach their scions who are getting ready for first year. Forming a team but increasing the survivability chances of the scions by quite a lot. This has led to a thriving industry where fourth year student just before dropping out at the allowed point, form slaver Corps to hunt the more talented second and third years. At this point even third years are joining the action and outside mages are often hired in. Nersinia seems to have no problems with the current bloodbath other than increasing the rent for staying.
On the lethality of benign first circle spells and cantrips: All groups who prepare to go into dungeons or delve into ruins or battlefields have a small session where they swear oaths and sample each other's mana signature. This is logical for strong party's but even extremely week parties do this. This is because of benign neglect/murder: It’s a term where someone is fighting beyond what they can endure and someone “buffs” them, leading to broken bones, severed tendons and ripped muscles. These buffs can be given to casters as well, and the easiest way to murder in that case is to find a caster who has given everything in battle is on the verge of foreign mana saturation and buff their mana conductivity. The subsequent explosion of flesh and mana will be sure to murder them. You can also cast sleep on someone, and cast hasten mind on them a dozen times I assure you without proper precaution taken by the target their brain will be leaking out their nose in minutes. Most “buffing” spells second circle or over have dampeners or safeties like overflow dikes. Thus, they cannot be considered very dangerous, but many basic spells or cantrips do not. And to use other spells devised as timebombs with a small team in cramped quarters in enemy territories? Might as well cut your own throat.
Safe Spaces:
The Cafeteria: There are many safe zones in Nersinia, but none so inviolable as the Cafeteria. History tells us it is made of a Gods remains ripped to pieces when trying to assail the school some 500 years ago. Seeking in its corpse for the centre of what this God was, Nersinia came across memories of a man who made up the greater part of its personality matrix. Finding little left but his dislike for chewing and other noises from everyday tasks or misophonia as it is sometimes called. Nersinia fashioned the God remains into a vast cafeteria as punishment, but this though cruel lacked the certain Nersinian viciousness. Setting a mission, the grand prize being the role of fourth headmaster in existence, the entirety of Nersinian attention was focused on fashioning this Gods purgatory. Much of Nersinias fame can be traced from this point forward, and the winner an unknown ascetic Greg Rootswain. Greg fashioned chains of the concept of time so that in the vast dimension of the Cafeteria its spirit must always watch all who enter and eat trough all timelines. Therefore, you can be sure of no poisonings slow or fast and no harm, suggestion or compulsion direct or indirect. This is the primary reason why we as student eat at all and not just consume nutrient sludge, and if you think this is a stupid waste of your precious time. Consider this: the MASTERS eat in the cafeteria some days.
The main library is safe the same way the classrooms are safe, if someone attacks you or get you under a spell. The attacker will no doubt be melted before your eyes, but you will probably still be dead. And in the classrooms and the library what you should look out for is not an attack but incompetence. A student creating a faulty spell core, someone misunderstanding something in their alchemy book, a newbie dividing by zero in numerology. All of this leads to buckets and buckets of blood and viscera being scraped of walls and floor every day. Being careful where one sits during classes has saved many a life, always know where the exits are and sit close to them. In the same vein I would personally suggest you learn as many variants of the shield spell and the restoration spell as possible.
The green houses: here you may rent a plot and be reasonably certain no one will steal or vandalise your property. Why? Very few people know whose plot is whose, and your enemy may poison what he thinks is your plot but then it turns out to be a MASTERs, or someone may try to use a fire spell in the same greenhouse as a Casteperis who eats flames by trying to explode everything in a mile radius. This and many other realities make The Green houses and the alchemical labs onto de facto safe sones. And people are surprisingly enough quite courteous in those places.