The university is the largest repository of knowledge in northern Endon, though it specialises mainly in mundane knowledge: very few wizards, sorcerers or druids are willing to work in a town so overrun with thieves. Warlocks, of course, are less picky.

Founded by the richer families of Endon some five hundred years ago, the University of Talbot has long been where the ruling classes have been educated: it specialised mainly in the knowledge that they will need – namely, law, philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. The university does not deal with the magical arts, for several reasons (not least of which is the territorial outlook of the Academy in Endon’s Pass), but it is reknown nonetheless as a repository of knowledge.

The University also maintains the library and museum for which it is famed: the theses and textbooks of several hundred years, on subjects ranging from mathematical proofs to in-depth examinations of the behaviour of feybeasts.

However, due to the natural distrust that has built up in the University towards the townspeople of Talbot as the thieves’ guild has become more politically powerful, entry into the University has become monitored, and only those willing to pay a fee or with a pass given by a sufficiently influential governor are able to enter unhindered – unless, of course, they are students.

The University also employs and equips its own private guard, a unit of trained and well-payed soldiers who keep out unwanted riff-raff and expell any attempts to break into the extremely valuable hoard in the museum. There are, however, hordes of other university employees, from the cooks that feed the students and the staff, the groundkeepers, the cleaners, the batmen, the student supervisors, and the professors. The students are considered by many within the University to be nothing more or less than a necessary evil – a minor nuisance that is required to be kept under close supervision.

Applied Sciences Laboratories

A new kind of building, this is the only one of its kind in Endon: a specific place for experimentation, dissection, and alteration. It is filled with curiosities undergoing study – live specimens of exotic creatures, banks of plants both benign and toxic, and chemical compositions guaranteed to burn off your eyebrows.

King Guilandros Library

Constructed under the supervision of the King after whom it was named, the library is the collection of non-magical tomes in the north. Access, however, is absolutely restricted, and even the students studying at the University find it hard to find and read the texts that they need in order to pass their exams.

Museum of Artefacts and History

This museum is the largest outside the capital, and is maintained by a curator. Its wonders include artifacts from long-dead civilisations, weapons and armour from defeated empires, skeletons of exotic creatures, fascinating and valuable crystals, and more.