Talk:University of Ubrekt

Yeah, I threw that location in as a hook based on that whole plot element. Wasn't sure if you would like it--glad you did! --146.127.253.14

Clever girl. -gm

This is a good start. I'm going to swoop in later with some clarifications, revisions, and additions but this is off to a good start. -gm

Any text vomit you want to produce before I go off and do some universities?

Yeah, check in with me first with something like this before you go off. I think on the HU talk page I put some good starting references for trying to coordinate a University's history with the that of the wider realm. This is good, and Ubrekt is one of the more well conceived universities of mine. Might be a productive summer for us all at this rate! -gm

General vomit.

Founded in the 1st century BI, as a rival to the success of the rival University of Hakan. Modeled on the the classical Academy Ubrekti, it became a center of antiquities scholarship and historical sagecraft, especially interested in prerving and expanding known lore about the ancient Ubrekti and the First Empire.

University of Hakan seems to have some meat to it too, but this one is Germain's alma mater. Here are my thoughts on this one:

• Urban campus -- Occupies a number of prominent buildings through the city's civic and mercantile districts

Sounds about right.

• Law + Accounting -- Being the center of the empire, this university needed to produce a large number of secretaries to govern and manage its massive territory. Ubrekt City has also always been a trade hub because of its prime waterways, and many nobles need their children to be able to keep documents and books.

Well, this university was founded about 100 years before Alexandria's shit went down, so it's not exactly a direct line to the ancients. (See List of Universities) However, it was founded with the assistance of the clerics of the Lady of Peace, and so could have a strong civic and legal background for that reason. (The role of Ubrekt during the demi-pantheon was to act as a sort of elysium, where the various ever-feuding states could settle grievances, sign treaties, etc. When this university was founded, Ubrekt was headed up by a theocratic high-cleric with a secular landed senate. One of those things got replaced by a king when the ethnic Hakani were migrated there and the other still exists and really HAS since ancient times.

Sounds like it was still basically a legal center with a good reason to keep huge libraries of law texts and documents. Am I right about there being a mercantile focus, or would that sort of thing be outside the scope of the university?

That feels about right. While Antioch's Hakan university was almost entirely an arcane college, the Ubrekt university was much more bardic and professional in scope - law, history, oratory and rhetoric. All the "classical" values of Rome.. er. Ubrekti Empire. To this day, it probably boasts the world's most intact and comprehensive library.

• Philosophy + Classic Arts -- This area would have been considered the center of the world for a long time, and holds a large number of masterpiece statues, buildings, and murals. They also hold many of the classic studies on human form, architecture, religion, and culture. Because they have such a massive reserve of study materials (libraries, collections, etc) and experts, they can provide an education that few cities could top.

It is as you say. In the late-demipantheon period, a renewed interest in the classics - spurred on by Antioch's - would naturally lead the Ubrekti university to focus on its own very storied culture. (Uh oh.. We can't avoid that Ubrekt article much longer.)

• BI? -- This is a pre-Alexandrian University, and I would expect them to have a relationship with the Church based on that experience. What was it like? Did the city/university side with Alex early, or did she fight them in the prophet's war? Not sure what to do here, but it seems big.

Ubrekt would have been vehemently opposed to Alexandria, doubly so upon her return when it became clear she was intent on upending the demi-pantheon itself. With their expiration, the Theocrat-in-Chief and the old religious bureaucracy fell apart and the place was essentially reorganized Potsdam style by Alexandria, migrating the human Hakani from the lands that were to be re-bequeathed to the gnomes, and relocating them in Ubrekt. This has not been the most stable scenario from a long term PoV, but Alexandria didn't really have that luxury at the time. Cut her some slack.

• Church? -- I would imagine them having rich pre-Alexandria traditions. Also, they were not the center of the empire by Alex's day, so there was less need to coopt as a religious city. How did this place fare with the Church in the end? Is there that much of a presence? Whats it like?

I might have answered this above? Are there aspects of it I did not or you would like more about?

Mostly. I guess from a more practical perspective: since the university was not founded by the modern church and opposed the modern church, how much of a culture does it have for training clerics? I see many of these universities (probably especially flannary, but also most of the western universities at least) being mostly clerical training even today, but this one seems like it might be an exception to that rule.

Well, we can assume that the Church tacked on a clerical training college to the main university sometime in the early FIs, but I'd agree that - of all the mainland churches - this is by far the most secular and clerical training is more of an afterthought than a true mission. How's that? -gm