Solmere

The capital city of Astoria, and the seat of the most prestigious academy in the province.

The city

Astoria is the westernmost seat of Maeris, "where the sun sets last across the whole world" (ch. 243). Solmere is its capital.

Ch. 255 gives the first sight of it, from the final rise on the third day of walking.

The city spread along the western coastline in a wide, gleaming sprawl, white stone and red-tiled roofs catching the late sun in long warm sheets of color, the harbor beyond it crowded with ships whose masts rose like a second forest against the horizon.

Its layout is stated to be designed rather than grown:

Streets radiated outward from a central district in careful, deliberate patterns, wide avenues cutting between districts that even from this distance announced their different characters, the dense close-packed warmth of a market quarter, the wider formal spaces of what had to be a noble district, the particular organized calm of somewhere built with real intention rather than simply grown.

Inside it, the noise is the thing Arthur notices: "merchants calling their wares in accents Arthur had never heard", and streets "crowded in a way the village had never once been crowded".

The academy grounds

Ch. 255, seen from outside:

set on a rise at the city's northern edge, walled entirely in pale grey stone that caught the light differently than the rest of the city around it

The academy's walls alone seemed larger than the whole of their village combined, towers rising at intervals along their length, and beyond the walls [...] courtyards and gardens and open training grounds, the particular grandeur of a place built not just to educate but to announce, unmistakably, its own importance.

Inside the gates: "wide green courtyards, students moving between buildings in loose unhurried clusters". New arrivals are checked in against a ledger at the gate and sent to the administration hall for room assignments.

Arthur's admission is recorded there as "Recommended admission, village sponsorship", which is Master Hobbes's letter from ch. 252 taking effect six years on.

The academy

A hybrid institution, academic and combat training together.

Years 1 and 2 are a general curriculum: Alchemy, soul ability theory, combat fundamentals, strategy, diplomacy. Instructor Vance puts the choice that follows it on the page in ch. 257.

VNC: this is Alchemy Foundations, a course every single one of you will complete before you're permitted to choose a specialization in your third year.

The dormitories are not divided by gender. Yseult Marchant is Arthur's roommate from his first day, which the volume uses.

Institutions of the year

• The Sports Festival, individual events and showcases rather than combat.
• The Trial of Power, 64 competitors, six rounds, single elimination, open to all years with no bracketing, abilities and weapons permitted. Serious injuries occur most years. See The Trial of Power.
• The Job Classification Exam, which sorts students toward likely futures and does not know what to do with Arthur.

Who is there

Headmistress Seraphine of Wysteria, old enough to have watched Nilah fight Vazroth centuries earlier, which quietly ties the academy to the saga's first half. Faculty include Kade Sutton (combat), Nadia Pratt (soul theory), Petra Vance (alchemy), Orlen Whitfield (strategy), Elara Bramwell (diplomacy), Julian (physician), and Bevan (groundskeeper).