The University of Planar Studies (Sigil, Guildhall Ward)

The University of Planar Studies is an institution of learning and research located in the Guildhall Ward in Sigil. A large gray stone building with black slate roofing, decorated with stone statues of the planar creatures it researches, the University is dedicated to furthering the knowledge of the anatomy and biology of Outsiders, Fey, Magical Beasts, and sometimes even Constructs and Draconic creatures. Due to a series of interlocking agreements with other research guilds in the city, however, they are strictly prohibited from doing any research into Humanoids of any type, Monstrous or otherwise.

Students in the University spend their days dissecting creatures, studying their physical form (internal and external) and recording their findings in the University's vast library. Spellslingers, Planewalkers, and even the Factions of Sigil pay the University a tidy sum to take advantage of their research for everything from tactical information to spell component properties. Some rumors say the fiends of the Blood War, both Baatezu and Tanar'ri, turn a blind eye to the death and dissection of their own kin in exchange for information on physical weaknesses of their enemies. Staff at the University categorically deny this, claiming to be neutral in all conflicts.

The University is not aligned with any particular faction, and accepts all students who can afford tuition. Nonetheless, certain factions find the nature of their research more interesting than others, and the bulk of the student body claims membership to either the Fraternity of Order or the Dustmen.

The University has a constant need of specimens for research and practice, and ambitious Planewalkers can make good money by restocking their inventory with dead creatures, as long as the bodies are in relatively good condition. In addition, all students must do at least one period of field study during their studies, traveling the Planes and observing the objects of their study in action. This usually means partnering with Planewalking teams, sometimes for pay, and sometimes in exchange for services. Their connection to the Sigilian community, the Factions, and Planewalkers in general have ensured that the University has both the financial and social capital to stay afloat in the notoriously cutthroat City of Doors.

The University of Planar studies has a long history in Sigil, and has attracted students from all walks of life. But though it is no particular secret, many overlook the fact that the University teaches its students not just how to dissect the flesh and bone of Planar creatures, but also to dissect the nature and mechanics of the Planes themselves, and to seek true sources of power that eclipse the gods themselves. The most diligent students train to be Archivists, studying the mechanics of divine magic behind the blind faith of priests as well as the biology of their servants and creations. Those Archivists who excel at their studies are permitted to join the elite Department of Paragnostic Studies, a post-graduate research fellowship who plumb the depths of the multiverse for its most forbidden secrets.

The Department of Paragnostic Studies has a small number of students, and even fewer of them have truly reached the heights of their power. But the few who have never hesitate to share their knowledge and research with their fellows. Many donate copies of their spellbooks to the University library to assist their juniors in the quest for knowledge, in a tradition that dates back to the founder of the University of Planar Studies, Randalph Carter.

Carter was born a son of a clergyman on a Prime Material world dominated by humans, in a culture dominated by a monotheistic religion. Trained as a clergyman himself, he became a missionary and explorer, seeking to bring his god's light to the dark corners of his world. But a random portal on one of his journeys in the wild whisked him permanently to the City of Doors, where all his faith and belief was tested and, ultimately, broken.

Carter was an intelligent, resourceful man who believed in Science and Natural Philosophy as well as his god. In spite of his new surroundings, he landed on his feet and began using Sigil as a base for exploration of the multiverse. He soon learned that his world was only one of thousands on the periphery of reality, and his god (if it truly existed at all) was but one of dozens.

He fell in with the Athar for a time, but ultimately rejected their militant anti-theism. The part of Randolph Carter that believed in Science knew the power of these gods must come from some central source, as the Athar believed. He vowed to seek out and discover it, taking up the path of the Archivist.

He wandered the Planes for years, amassing wealth both in knowledge and in gold, finally sequestering himself in the Library of Thoth in the Outlands for nearly a decade. Those who knew him said he was a changed man when he emerged, his rabid hunger for knowledge somehow tamed and refined into a benign curiosity.

Returning to Sigil, he founded the University of Planar studies, taking up once again his original path as a missionary, only this time preaching Science and Knowledge rather than faith. His prayerbooks, a trio of heavy tomes bound in red dragon hide and gold, went on the shelves of the library's Special Collection, where they have remained throughout his tenure as Dean as beyond, to this very day. Their pages are filled with cramped, narrow notes in Celestial, Infernal, Elemental languages, and even the secret glyphs of the Druidic language. all outlining obscure magic gleaned from Druidic sources as well as many obscure and forgotten religions.

Two of Carter's original students were Zeyna, a Zenythri from Mechanus, and Revolio Gearberg Jr., a Planetouched Mechanatrix born in Sigil. Both members of the Fraternity of Order, they were inspired by Carter's lifelong quest for ultimate knowledge, seeing it as a mirror of their own Faction's desire to discover ultimate power through ultimate knowledge of all laws.

Together with Carter they founded the Department of Paragnostic Studies, becoming its first researchers. Though they never quite reached Carter's level, they nonetheless were geniuses in their own right, and to date no student of the University has surpassed them.

After graduating from the University, Zeyna and Revolio married and took their work back to the Fraternity of Order, advancing through the ranks until they took senior positions in the Bureau of Research and moved to the Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment on Mechanus.

The pair only ever returned to Sigil once since then, for Randolph Carter's funeral. In honor of his memory, they both donated their prayerbooks to the library, a pair of platinum-plated volumes etched with Terran runes, filled with divine spells gleaned from Planar philosophy and Celestial magic.

Students of the Department of Paragnostic Research usually come to see each other as extended family. But every family has its black sheep, and Viktoria Goodwyfe remains an uncomfortable topic for students and teachers alike. Her story lives on, however in whispered rumors told by candlelight to scare novice students, or over mugs of ale in the quiet corners of taverns near the University grounds.

Viktoria was a later student to the University, years after Carter, Zeyna, and Revolio had left the academy in younger hands. Her blunt, distant affect and unwillingness to socialize soon earned her a reputation as “the weird girl”. Some students took to teasing or bullying her, but the attempts were short-lived; she never cried, grew angry, or told any teachers. In fact, she barely seemed to notice what was happening to her, or around her, and the blank look in her eyes and the strange sense of disconnection drove her tormenters away on their own.

Despite her near catatonic personality, Viktoria was no simpleton. She took to her studies with dispassionate mania. Teachers were uncertain whether to be pleased or disturbed at her singular fascination with Aberrations during dissections, nor was the Librarian certain what to make of her obsessive perusal of the library's most rare and exotic books.

The Department of Paragnostic Studies reluctantly took her on board when she applied for membership. However unsettling she was, there was no arguing with the quality of her research, or her ability to find obscure lore and secrets. None were ever certain where exactly she went on her frequent “research trips” outside Sigil, but she always came back with something equal parts compelling and disturbing.

The student body and faculty breathed a collective sigh of relief when she finally completed her studies and left the University. In truth, none ever saw or heard from her again. But decades later, a reprentative of the Bleak Cabal knocked on the University's door with a package addressed to the Dean, from Viktoria Goodwyfe.

She had insisted, he said, and rather forcefully, that her prayerbook be given to the Dean of the University of Planar studies before she was incarcerated in the Criminally and Irretrievably Insane Wing of the Gatehouse. He went on to apologize, saying that he had done his best to clean the book before delivering it, only Viktoria's hands had been absolutely soaked in blood when she handed it over.

Viktoria's prayerbook remains on the Special Collection shelves, a simple book bound in black leather. Despite the best efforts of the faculty, none have ascertained exactly what creature's skin the leather came from. Those pages not marred by bloodstains contain a mixture of research notes in Common, spell notation in Infernal, and diagrams of creatures as-yet unidentified by the University. Later pages devolve into rambling diary entries, bizarre poetry, and ever more illegible drawings more akin to the scribbling of a disturbed child than a researcher. Still, what few spells that can be gleaned from its pages are unique and powerful enough to earn them the distiction of being in the Special Collection.

The University Librarian is familiar with all the books in the Special Collection, having understood the magical script of each book's writer. Students are welcome to borrow prayerbooks for study and scribing, but to help keep all but the most serious researchers away, there is a small fee for scribing spells (25gp x spell level). Students who are willing double the fee can buy the attention of the Librarian for a day, who can assist them in understanding the magical notation when scribing the spell (50gp x spell level, automatically decipher spell writing). Proceeds from scribing fees typically go to maintenance and upkeep for the books in the Special Collection, some of which are quite old.

Library Spell List