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The Spire

1. Introduction

I have dawdled on this page in particular. Perhaps it’s unwarranted to feel so unsure about how to begin. I suppose I must dispense with my own personal feelings, and provide only the facts, unclouded by bias. This is how Spire scholars are supposed to behave, after all. Objectivity at all costs.

I am of course a former scholar at the Spire myself, so I am intimately acquainted with all of its follies and brilliance.

‘Spire’ is the name of the archipelago in the west of the Eastern continent, which, of course, takes its name from the major communication mast placed there by the Precursors. There are two such masts in the world; one that marks the location of the Hall of Faces in the west, and our Spire. These two each have their own networks of minor masts. It has long been theorised that the ‘Eastern Spire’ (as ours is known) is the elder of the two, but we know now of course that this is incorrect.

Our Spire has been inhabited in some form or other since its inception, but it has been a university since year -4 UF (i.e, four years before University Founding), making this institute of learning roughly 620 years old. It is currently our planet’s most densely-populated settlement, with a current population of roughly 900,000 people in permanent residence, though it is important to note that citizens who live in the sea at the base of the Spire are also counted in this number, as is the coastal village of the same name at that spans the cliffside and reedbeds around the Spire’s great outfall pipe. The structure of the Spire itself holds, on any given day, roughly 70,000 scholars and craftspeople.

It is over 900m tall and extends that distance again into the ground. There are approximately 200 ‘levels’, though many of these are half-height and only fit to accommodate shortwings, as are the very highest floors and landing platforms. Half of its span is given to the University, and the other half to governance and craftsworkers.

2. History

I am of course a fan of dividing history into eras, and the same can be done with the Spire. The Spire is a rather interesting example of a settlement that has been continually inhabited since the time of the Precursors. The height of the promontory on which it sits (approx. 350m) has left it rather resilient to tidal events, so even in the historical decades that have seen this section of the continent flooded, the Spire has never been washed away, and the highest water-marks are inscribed twenty-three metres above what is currently ground-level. From this we can understand that this may be one of the few coastal settlements that has never had to move to survive a flood. This has left it with an unusually rich archaeological character.

2.1. First Settlements at the Spire

The Spire was settled in year 50 FS (From Settlement) by the first generation of Sirenian harpies. You may note my use of ‘Sirenian’ here – these were not ordinary harpies as you or I may understand them, but a distinct political faction that had participated in the war of independence. They loudly and openly self-identified as ‘Sirenians’, inhabitants of this planet, and it is from this exact group that the usage of ‘Sirenian’ to refer to any type of person has become commonplace in Spire-speak. The Sirenians were not politically opposed to the beta phocid village that had been constructed in the Western continent by Davide and their cohort, but they were independent by choice. The Sirenians believed that, while the war of independence was righteous, they were not affiliated with the aquatics beyond this one shared struggle, and by the time the struggle was won, the Sirenians chose to cut ties with Davide’s fledgling government.

I have discussed this political fracture at greater length in my thesis, but for now all you need to know of this era is that the Spire was settled by harpies first and that these harpies were isolationists and held no fondness for the peoples they had left behind. These basal or ‘alpha’ gen harpies (though this method of numbering generations is not strictly applicable to harpies) would be my own ancestors, while those that remained behind in the west would be the ancestors of longwings.

The Sirenian faction built the first water-wells around the base of the Spire and transported as many resources as they could from the West. Many progressed inland, but many more remained at the Spire, finding it an ideal place to live. They did not live on the Spire itself, however, but in dwellings at its base. Following Ishmael’s High Tide, the sea had receded from the cliff and where there is now a thriving docklands, there was once a dry village of harpies. Their remains and belongings have been well-preserved by anoxic subtidal mud beneath the docks, and from these dig-sites I have found some of my most intact Precursor artifacts.

We know little about these harpies, as they were not prone to journaling as were many of the beta phocids, but we know they lived a fishing lifestyle and brought with them many resin objects which I believe to be manufacturing machines. These would have produced items such as clothing or even food. They are known to have occasionally corresponded with Davide’s government, providing news from the Eastern continent.

2.2. The Raising of the Spire

As discussed in my ‘World History’ article, the era following the dispersal of people to both continents has been frustratingly hard to study. But we do know that at a certain point, it became more commonplace to live on the Spire itself than at its base. This may have corresponded with a time of flooding, when the harpies recognised the value of living in the air. I believe that this may have been more accessible to shortwing harpies who, at the time, were still somewhat ‘new’. You can fit many of us in one small space and we weigh very little, making construction of platforms and cloth-rooms fit to hold us rather simple.

The harpies of the Spire arranged themselves into craft-clans, forming tight-knit groups not bound by blood, who would dedicate their days to perfecting and teaching various crafts. These were simple, at first; farming, weaving, construction, and the like, but soon became more and more elaborate. By working together, the craft-clans were capable of providing the basic material resources for a thriving settlement to function.

During this time, the Spire had become less an isolationist colony and more a stopping-point for travellers who had just crossed the great sea. As such, it also attracted strangers and newcomers, even aquatic people, but for the majority of its history, the mast of the Spire has only been accessible by flight. The newcomers would increasingly come to barter for goods produced by the craft-clans, and thus the settlement, and its productive capacity, grew.

2.3. Janir-vay-or

The University found its roots in an unusual craft-clan which had been formed to read the progress of the moons in an effort to predict tidal events. While this was successful, it was also an example of a craft-clan that did not ‘produce’ anything but information. The moon-readers would not have been permitted to benefit from the work of other craft-clans, as they had nothing to barter with but their intelligence. So they were instead given special dispensation to operate on the condition that their information was as valuable as the work of a carpenter or a stone-carver.

Janir was a young moon-reader who thought that he could apply this principle to information other than flood warnings. He produced a thousand-page thesis on the principles of advanced linear mathematics, the culmination of six years of solid work. He was then forced to justify the existence of this work in front of a craft-clan council that found it materially useless, and subsequentially exiled from the craft-clan of moon-readers.

He was invited to form a new craft-clan by Eroa-vay and Helma-vay, a linguist and naturalist, respectively, who had also been captured by scholarly pursuits. They founded the craft-clan of ‘scholarship’, and were radically disliked by all others. Their clan was invite-only and they, like many Spire-dwellers at the time, would only consider shortwing enrolment. Helma-vay constructed the first hall of the University and argued that this should be the start of a new era (and a new year count system, as discussed on the ‘world history’ page). This was 616 years ago.

Janir-vay-or is considered to have founded the university as he was the first person at the Spire to publish, or make available to read, a scholarly article that described itself as such. He took on a leadership role and became the first Master, our representative on the council of leadership. The scholarly craft-clan was deeply unpopular and faced several attempts to eradicate it (war between craft-clans was not unheard-of at this time, and many had their own defensive militias), and in response, Janir-vay-or threatened the other craft-clans that they would never benefit from the knowledge generated by the scholars. His thesis and those of his companions were held under lock and key and no outsider would set foot inside those halls. Here, ‘outsider’ means anyone not directly invited into the clan.

Janir-vay-or was killed by Eroa-vay in a sword-debate on the very controversial topic of open enrolment. Eroa-vay successfully and fatally defended his position that there was no use in researching information if it would remain locked up forever, and that for the university to become a true rival to the other craft-clans, any shortwing should be able to join and learn. Eroa-vay correctly believed that this would ‘poach’ bright minds from the other craft-clans, tempting over shortwings who wished to learn more about their world and be given the time and resources to do so. Thus, the University became an entity outside the craft-clan structure and began to grow in numbers, though in this tumultuous new era it was not uncommon for craft-clan defectors to be killed by their old acquaintances once they chose a more scholarly lifestlye.

2.4. Mixed Enrolment

Education at the university remained accessible to shortwings only until about four hundred years ago when the work of the selkie Gerda-vay was submitted anonymously to the reviewing body of scholars. They found the work to be of very high quality, practically worthy of a mastery. It was an exploration of surgical techniques which could be used to drastically reduce mortalities following an open fracture. Gerda-vay had been practising as a surgeon for most of their life and had developed, by repeated observation and replicable experimental techniques, what we now know to be germ theory. They had submitted the resultant work to the reviewing body with the help of a shortwing acquaintance who could fly it to the Spire. This submission was itself an experiment; unbeknownst to the reviewing board, Gerda-vay had written another version of the same article, which used illustrations of selkie experimental subjects instead of shortwing, and this was handed to a scholar at the docks by Gerda-vay themself.

The selkie version of the article was dismissed on the spot by the scholar, who flew it back to the Spire to use it as entertainment. Only then did that scholar learn that the text was almost identical to the universally-praised anonymous article that had caused such a stir, and that the two articles could only have been written by the same author, with the same hand-writing.

There had to be a reckoning, of course. Gerda-vay waited patiently at the docks for an apology which did, eventually, come. Days of heated debate resulted in the other scholar being punished severely for failing to recognise the academic merits of the selkie article, as it was judged that anybody who found that article ridiculous was not intelligent enough to call themselves a scholar. Gerda-vay was given a mastery, which they refused to accept until they were given a seat at the University council. Their first act on the council was to successfully push for mixed enrolment.

Modern attitudes towards these events universally praise Gerda-vay, which is appropriate, as they went on to become the founder of our School of Medicine and may be responsible for saving more lives on Siren than any other practitioner. This history is, however, embarrassing to learn, particularly for new scholars. When I was young, I also felt ashamed to belong to an institution which had operated under such a policy for such a long time, but over time, I felt that I could also be proud at how far we’ve come.

I no longer feel this way, of course, given the reception of the University to my own thesis work. But that is a story for another time.

3. Present-Day Structure

Today, the University is home to roughly 30,000 students. According to census data, most inhabitants of the Spire structure belong to craft-clans, not that you would know it. The University, being entirely unique in the world, has stolen the show. The Master of the University, of course, is also the de-facto governor of the Spire. Another few thousand individuals are administrators and logisticians.

3.1. Progression

This is actually dependent on the individual Schools within the whole. The more populous Schools, such as the Schools of Medicine, Natural Science, and Mathematics, have rather arcane management and many sub-levels, particularly where advancement to a new level of mastery is not reliant on publishing a single large piece of researched information, but rather continuously-assessed work (as in Medicine). In any case, the basic ranks are as follows:

Novice – a scholar in their first year of work. A born citizen of the Spire may choose to forego their novice year, as they are considered to be more educated than many immigrant novices. Those lacking citizenship cannot skip their novice year. Novices are taught by dedicated teachers from the School of Education. The first few months are largely concerned with the teaching of research techniques, language arts, writing and reading, and what we call General Basic Knowledge, a foundational level of information with which all published works of the Spire assume a reader has some familiarity. Novices must use a novice suffix and cannot append any name-chains.

Under-Graduate – this is the main bulk of the work prior to first publication. A scholar after their novice year will select a relevant School and a Master whose discipline matches their own desired area of study. At this point, a scholar is allowed to adopt the suffix -var as well as whatever name-chain denotes their field. Within the School, the Masters will have several Published Scholars who are largely responsible for teaching the Under-Graduates; it is rare that the Master will deliver lectures personally.

An Under-Graduate is usually ranked by their number of years in study – I myself was, technically, an Under-Graduate of the Sixth Year before I left my post, and I was responsible for teaching, research, writing, and more or less the exact same duties as a Graduate, but with less freedom. An

Under-Graduate will wear a simple white neck-ribbon.

Graduate – an Under-Graduate may have published several works before attaining a Graduate title. To graduate, you must have produced several high-quality works and led your own research projects, and typically you will have won a few sword-debates in your time (scars from potential debate losses are also considered favourably as evidence). But ultimately, graduation is up to the Master’s discretion. A Published Scholar may have a somewhat higher internal rank than a fresh Under-Graduate, permitted to give lectures and judge submitted work, but a Published Scholar will always be an Under-Graduate in the eyes of the School unless the Master deems them suitable for advancement. Graduates tend to study more abroad and in the field than at the Spire, as they will have the right to request equipment and funds for elaborate research trips and complex projects, as well as novices or Under-Graduates to aid their work.

A Graduate will take the suffix -vas and wear a pleated collar with a black cape.

Master – honestly it is more of the same; your work must be judged by a panel of other Masters and Grandmasters. Many Masters will continue to study in the field or as they travel, but in my experience, they tend to be of an age that flight or rigorous travel is no longer an attractive prospect. Instead, they will propose projects with the highest level of complexity and hire on several Graduates (& their underlings) to conduct and coordinate the research. But the Master will always be the one analysing the resulting data and writing their synthesis on the topic. A Master works very slowly, in my experience, and would not be expected to rapidly produce work anymore. They take on a -vay suffix.

A master will wear a black visored silk hat and black silk cape.

Grandmaster – a Grandmaster is the leader of the School of his discipline, typically elected by his Master peers and with additional support from the Principal. I suppose there’s nothing to stop a Grandmaster continuing active research but in my own School of Anthropology, our Grandmaster does not. He coordinates the School itself; any projects he deems unsuitable will be struck. The basic lecture plan given to all Under-Graduates is also reviewed frequently to close knowledge gaps identified in research and to ensure the Under-Graduates are being given a suitable curriculum. A Grandmaster will not change his suffix but will lengthen the name-chain to make it plain that he is a master of education in a particular field. Their clothing does not change as they are often not more published than a Master.

Principal – the leader of the University, the Grandmaster of Grandmasters. Chosen by his peers, as before, and responsible for the governance of the Spire and all its surrounding territories. The Principal’s suffix is a rare example of re-ordered chains. All other scholars will have their scholar suffix take the final place in the name-chain, denoting as the most important fact about that person. For example, I am Qedi-am-o-var, and to move my -var earlier in the chain would be considered an insult. But as Principal will use a Master’s -vay suffix before the lawmaker’s -or suffix, indicating that, to this person, governance takes precedence over direct scholarship. At the time of my study, the Principal of the University was Iuinti-vay-or, who had come from the School of Astronomy.

The Principal will wear the same as a Master or Grandmaster, though their hat is white.

3.2. Dormitories

Each School occupies a different support branch on the Spire, with the exception of the School of Aquanautics, which is at the shore-line as most of its scholars are swimming people who would otherwise struggle to get to the airborne bowers. For the rest of us, we are resident within a cloth-room enclosed within the walls of our School. Under-Graduates of the First Year are assigned to bowers in groups, and these will be their residence for their entire period of study at the School. What furniture or other belongings are allowed in with them is strictly policed, though after a few years, and with good behaviour, you are permitted to customise your own nest as you please. Only Grandmasters are given dedicated bowers.

You might imagine then that space may be a problem at the Schools and this is correct. Most of our support branches are approaching the limits of what they can safely support, so the enrolment in a School may be curtailed or limited by the number of available beds. Many novices do not get their first choice of School and are instead pushed off into whichever has the most space to receive them.

3.3. Conferring

This is the process of being awarded your new rank or suffix. Conferring is of course a very important ceremony and as one progresses through their School, the ceremony becomes more significant. You must have a witnessing body of three peers (of the same rank) present at your Conferring to vouch for your character, and only your own Master can decide whether or not to Confer. If the decision is made, it must be co-signed by the School’s Grandmaster. If you are being given a uniform upgrade, that is given to you by the Principal (or, at least, each package will arrive with a letter signed by Iuinti-vay-or, though I have no proof it is his signature).

3.4. Publishing

Astute readers will notice my use of the phrase ‘publishing’ or ‘published’ and may not understand what I mean by this. When you are published, your scholarly work becomes a matter of public record. Your own hand-written thesis will be passed on to the Printing Crafts-Clan, who will make a bound copy of it on the thinnest silk, to make it weightless and extremely durable. This is then preserved within the Spire’s great Library and must be accessible to anybody who wishes to read it. This includes those who may not be able to visit the Library; requests can be made by anybody, in any place, to have a copy flown out for them to read. Publishing is necessary for progression, but you will nearly always publish more often than you will progress.

Work that is denied publication may be submitted as many times as is necessary. But work that is banned from publication cannot be held within the Library and, in the worst case scenario, will be destroyed. Even your own personal copy and notes.