Basgiath War College is an institution in Navarre that trains members of the Navarrian military. It is most popularly known for its dragon riders.
General Information[]
Basgiath War College is located roughly in the middle of Navarre and is the main college is built into the side of Basgiath Mountain in the Morraine Province. The building itself is split into two halves, the main lower portion dedicated to Scribes, Healers, Infantry and Administration. And the upper half, otherwise known as the Citadel, for the Riders Quadrant. The main building is built into the side of Basgiath Mountain, as if it were cleaved from the ridgeline of the peak itself. The sprawling, formidable, structure towers over the grassy fields below with its stories-tall battlements built to protect the high rise of the keep within, and has defensive turrets at each of its four corners, one of which houses the bells. There is a worn cobblestone path along the southern turret near General Sorrengail's office.[1] There are four roads that lead up to the fortress where they converge just on the grassy fields just beneath the main gate.[1] Of all the doors in Basgiath, the main gate is the only one no candidate enters during Conscription day, since each quadrant has their own unique entrances and facilities.[1]
The northern turret leads to the infantry ground level quadrant. The southern gate leads to the healers quadrant. The central tunnel leads to the archives and the scribe quadrant below ground. The entrance for the riders quadrant is nothing more than a fortified door in a tower similar to the infantry one with the exception that the riders have to climb up towards the citadel.[1]
Before Conscription Day, all future students are required to pass a written and physical agility exam. The majority go straight into the infantry, ending as front line fodder, but those that pass become candidates of their choice of quadrant. Candidates are a mixture of volunteers, conscripts, and those serving Navarre as punishment for crimes. However the Riders Quadrant only accepts volunteers and the 107 children of the rebellion.[1]
Training lasts three years, and first-years are not permitted to write or receive letters from their family for the first year. Only second and third years are allowed to contact their families and friends outside of the college.[2]
If their child dies at the war college, parents have the option to either retrieve the body and personal effects for burial and burning or the school will put their body under a stone in the fields beyond Basgiath and burn their effects themselves.[3]
Conscription Day[]
The exact date of Conscription Day is unspecified, but through various references to the passing weeks and months, it can be inferred that Conscription Day is in the second to last week of July.
Locations
[]
The Citadel[]
See more information about the Riders Quadrant located here.
The Riders Quadrant is located in its own separate Citadel high above the administrative building carved into the southern ridgeline. The enormous stone footings of the citadel rise up the mountain to the base of the structure and can be easily seen from the Parapet. The fortress looms behind thick battlements in an L-shaped formation of tall stone buildings that can withstand fire for obvious reasons. The walls around the citadel are ten feet thick and eight feet tall to support the weight of dragons who use them as a perch. The only opening within the wall is the opening that leads to the parapet which is elevated twelve inches above the gravel-paved courtyard.[4] To become a Riders Quadrant cadet, Candidates must climb a turret, cross the parapet, and enter the courtyard of the citadel on conscription day.
The Parapet[]
The inside of the tower leading up to the turret is dimly lit with equidistant windows along the curved staircase. There's no railing for the two hundred and fifty stairs. The top of the turret is bare, with crenulations of stone rising and falling in a circular pattern at the height of Violets chest with a gaping hole at the entrance of the Parapet, doing nothing to obscure the view of the Iakobos River and ravine below.[1] At two hundred feet in the air it is a stone bridge that is only eighteen inches wide and slick but not slippery from moss growth. It's surface is uneven in some places held together by mortar that can be knocked loose and makes it easy to trip.[4] The exact length of the parapet is unknown. Due to its height, the wind is very strong and can blow candidates off, causing them to fall to their death.
The Courtyard[]
A sizeable open space that connects the turret to the citadel via the parapet, it can easily hold a thousand riders and thus where the cadets hold formation. Shaped like an angular teardrop the rounded end is formed by a giant outer wall at least ten feet thick. Along the sides are stone halls. The four story building carved into the mountain.[5]
- Stone Dais
- Located to the right side of the Parapet opening[5]
- The Alcove
- There's an alcove in the courtyard wall, close to the first defensive turret of the citadel that's a shady hidden spot with a hard wooden bench. There's a tunnel at the end of the alcove[5]
- Tunnel
- Connects the alcove with the turret to the dorms, has mage lights that flicker on scones as people pass and a wrought iron gate that looks like it was built to keep out a troll, or dragons.[5]
- Western Gate
- A door along the courtyard wall, to the left of the academic building, that opens to a tunnel that leads to the ridgeline that separates the citadel from the flight fields.[3] The archway at the end opening to the gauntlet is roughly 10 feet tall.[6]
First Defensive Turret[]
Has a set of circular steps without a railing that lead up three flights to the second and third year dorm rooms. The stairwell also descends a flight lower than the main entry to a passage that connects with the healers quadrant in the main campus. The main floor has a polished stone floor.[5]
The Dragon Rotunda[]
Imposing, links the academic wing and the dorms but also serves as an entrance to the gathering hall, commons, and library behind it.[5] The stone keep has a giant arched door at the center with the words carved into the arch that say, "A dragon without it's rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead."[5] There's a wide staircase leading up to the four doors of the rotunda from the courtyard. Inside is overwhelming, the room is three stories tall, from the polished gray marble floors to the domed glass ceiling that filters in the soft morning light. When entering from the courtyard, to the left are two massive arched doors to the academic wing, between the orange and black pillars, echoed by two doors on the right, leading to the dorms. Up half a dozen steps, there are four doorways straight ahead leading into the gathering hall. Equally spaced around the rotunda are six daunting marble pillars carved into the shapes of shimmering dragons; red, green, brown, orange, blue and black. They're sculpted in a way as if they'd come crashing down from the ceiling above. here's enough room between the snarling mouths at the base of each to fit at least four squads in the center of the Rotunda. Violet notes that it's possibly the most beautiful piece of architecture in the citadel and all of Basgiath.[7]
There's a small gap between the claw of the dark red marble dragon and the wall.[7]
Students use it to walk through from one building to another.[7]
Academic Wing[]
A four story building carved into the side of the mountain with a rounded end.[5]
- Battle Brief Room
- An enormous lecture hall with recessed flooring from which the teachers lecture. Battle Brief is the only class held in this circular, tiered, room that curves the entire end of the academic hall. It's one of only two rooms in the citadel capable of fitting every cadet, presumably the gathering hall is the other room, however the senior third years have to stand against the walls while the rest of the cadets sit in creaky wooden seats.[8] There is a twenty foot high map of the continent mounted to the back wall that's intricately labeled with defensive outposts along the border and illuminated by dozens of mage lights that more than make up for the lack of windows.[8] Reached by taking the academic towers turret.[3]
- The Sparring Gym
- There are twenty sparring mats across the massive gym that consumes the flirt floor of the academic wing. One wall is made entirely of windows and doors that are left open in the summer to let in a cool breeze. Each squad gets one mat during assessment day, and there are three squads from each wing.[8] The sparring mats are black and the sparring gym has wood-planked walls.[9]
- Professor Kaori's Classroom
- Has circular tables/desks so that he can project images onto the middle of each table.[9]
- Burn Pit
- Located at the top of the academic tower's turret, past the battle brief room and up to the stone roof. It has an extra-wide iron barrel that's only purpose is to incinerate the personal belongings of the dead.[3]
The Forge[]
This holds the only known luminary in Navarre (until Viscount Tecarus hands over his own in Iron Flame). It's heated by dragon fire and is used to smelt alloys and forge weapons, such as daggers. To get to the forge, Xaden takes Violet out of the Academic wing, across the courtyard, into the tunnel to the flight field, and down a set of stairs. At that point, their route is interrupted.
Dorms[]
Connected to the courtyard via the first defensive turret. Private rooms for riders after they've bonded with a dragon. the third floor is for second years such as Dain. The building to the right of the courtyard towering over the cliff.[5] Second and third year riders with leadership positions are awarded larger rooms.
First Years Section/Barracks[]
A three story building, although only the first and third floors house first years. Beds are positioned in four neat rows and house more than 156 cadets. Lights flicker on after sunset[10] and go out with curfew.[7]
Noteworthy: Jack Barlowe's bed is on the third floor[7]
- Hallway
- leads from the womans hall, on the first floor of the first year barracks, past other halls that will lead to individual rooms once riders survive threshing. At the end of the hallway is an arched doorway that leads into the rotunda and as they enter the rotunda they pass the Green Dragon marble statue.
Gathering Hall[]
located behind the rotunda[5] students pass through the commons and walk past the Library and study tables to enter the gathering hall.[9]
Commons[]
Located behind the rotunda[5] students walk up a small flight of stairs to enter. Inside the commons are study tables and the entrance to the library. Passing the library leads to the gathering hall where students eat.[9]
Library[]
Located behind the rotunda[5] inside the commons. It's not the same as the archives, but it features all the tomes needed for studying in the Riders Quadrant.[9]
Individual Rooms[]
Dain Aetos[]
Dain's room is simple; bed, dresser, desk and a wardrobe. There's nothing personal about it other than a few books stacked on his desk. The bed is expertly made, and the covers are a simple riders black. He has one arched window that overlooks the rest of the main campus across the ravine through a clear glass windowpane.[5]
Xaden Riorson[]
Xaden's third year room is the last door at the end of his hall.
Violet Sorrengail[]
Violet's first year room is located across the hall from Rhiannon's and next door to Liam's.
Main Building[]
Healer Quadrant[]
- Tunnel - a suspended stone bridge with few windows that leads out of the riders quadrant that leads over the ravine directly into the healers quadrant. There's a door at the end.[10]
- Infirmary - a long hall of beds, half of which are occupied by Riders on Assessment Day. There are wooden chairs next to each bed and blue fabric curtains that can be used to partition beds away from public view.
Bell Tower[]
Infantry Quadrant[]
Scribe Quadrant (Under Ground)[]
Archives[]
They are a part of the Scribe Quadrant. The doors of the archives are sealed every evening. The complex magic that activates when the doors are sealed, are intended to protect and maintain the scripts, but is incoporable with the human live. For this reason, every living has to leave the archives before the doors are shut, unless they want to die.[11]
Administrative Building[]
Through the windows of the cental administrative part of the fortress's lower half Violet is able to see thousands of candidates on the grassy fields just beneath the main gate of the War College.
General Sorrengails Office[]
Outdoor Locations[]
The Vale[]
The Vale is the valley behind Basgiath that is the dragons' home and they protect it from gryphons. Dragons eggs are laid at the Vale and it is their sacred hatching ground. Hatchlings and Feathertails, both terms for different stages of a baby dragon's life, are protected at the Vale until they are old enough to protect themselves.
Flight Field[]
The flight field, also known as the training field, is located at the top of the ridgeline that the Gauntlet is carved into. The flight field is inside a natural box canyon that's designed for dragons to land and take off from. In the afternoon sun the view is spectacular. with miles of autumn colored meadows, gold-leafed trees, and peaks rising on three sides (the fourth side, the valley entrance, is the narrowest part and is a steep drop off down to the gauntlet and the steep staircase beside it) Opposite of the valley entrance is a waterfall that rushes during runoff season. There's a dirt path that leads through the center of the valley used for presentation day, with a lingering odor of sulfur.[12]
There are stairs that lead from the flight field to the citadel, however only cadets that have successfully completed the gauntlet may use them.
Unbonded cadets, healers, and any other non-rider personnel are not permitted onto the flight field.
The Gauntlet[]
see more here.
There is a steep staircase carved into the cliffside beside the wide switchbacks of the gauntlet to allow riders to reach the flight field that sits on top of the ridgeline after Presentation.[3] The view just outside of the Western Gate at the entrance of the Gauntlet is spectacular, still high up on the mountain thousands of feet above the valley. The greenery seems to stretch endlessly to the south, with random clusters of squat trees among the colorful slopes of wildflowers.[6]
Basgiath Mountain[]
The Main Building is built into the side of Basgiath Mountain, as if it were cleaved from the ridgeline of the peak itself.
Iakobos River[]
Runs beneath the citadel. there is waist high grass along the sides of the river. At the beginning of Fourth Wing the river is swollen and rushes with the summer runoff from the peaks above the war college. The current is fast and deadly during late summer, especially coming out of the steep drop of the ravine. There's a line of ancient oak trees that line the river, which is where Violet retrieves the fonilee berries and spies the Marked Ones having their meeting.[13]
Unnamed Lake[]
It is near the Citadel, where Dain and Violet used to swim growing up at Basgiath, and where cadets from the Morraine province all meet up on Saturdays and spend time together at the lake because it reminds them of the ocean back home.[13]
Trivia[]
- The map is upside down, the main campus building (healer quadrant) is actually pointing south.[5]
- The war college is decorated with busts of war heroes displayed on stands.[14]
- The name "Basgiath" originates from the Scottish Gaelic words 'Bàs', meaning 'death', and 'Sgiath', meaning 'wing' or 'shield'.
Gallery[]
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Fourth Wing, Chapter 1
- ↑ Fourth Wing, Chapter 24
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Fourth Wing, Chapter 10
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fourth Wing, Chapter 2
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 Fourth Wing, Chapter 3
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fourth Wing, Chapter 11
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Fourth Wing, Chapter 4
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Fourth Wing, Chapter 5
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Fourth Wing, Chapter 8
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Fourth Wing, Chapter 6
- ↑ Iron Flame, Chapter 33
- ↑ Fourth Wing, Chapter 12
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Fourth Wing, Chapter 7
- ↑ Iron Flame, Chapter 1