Post by Opal on Jan 25, 2016 3:03:17 GMT
RAVENSDALE ACADEMY
Home to students training their magic, a number of mentors and teachers, and a few other staff members for good measure, Ravensdale Academy isn’t the most innocuous place in London. This is where most kids go after their magic is realized. It offers beginner magic courses which are open to most new students, as well as private mentors once a specialization is chosen. Additionally, it offers partnerships to various government agencies, from police to military intelligence.
HISTORY
Ravensdale Mansion was built in the late 19th century. It was relatively normal until World War II, when the mansion began to change slightly. For the most part, it remained completely normal, with its owners living in the mansion happily. But every now and then, a few disturbances would occur. Anything from items being misplaced, to a woman apparently being lost in the attic. The owners chalked this up to just human forgetfulness (although the woman refused to set foot in the attic ever again), but even their perseverance had a limit. After the blitz, the mansion became outright frightening. Furniture would be moved, sometimes disappearing for days. A number of figures would appear, although they seemed to all be benign. There were random trinkets scattered around the floor of their private library, with the worst being bones of a small creature. Perhaps the most unsettling was the unseen: there was the constant feeling that you were in the mouth of a great creature. A sort of desire to flee, but realization that it was too late.
The final straw came just months after the blitz ended. The owner and his family experienced multiple hallucinations, with the mansion turning into a sort of maze. When they tried to talk to each other, each person would see the others turning into ghoulish facsimiles of themselves. A few days later, and they were able to escape the horror.
The owners left the mansion, but it went uncared for and empty for years in their lack of desire to sell it. That is, until CAFE sought them out. The family didn’t want to let go of a piece of their history, but the memory of the strange occurrences convinced them to sell the strange house to the men in black across the negotiating table.
LAYOUT
The mansion has received considerable remodeling since its acquisition. The mansion has a number of sections, including dormitories, multiple halls for dining and gatherings, classrooms, training rooms, and a library.
The wide drive up to the mansion is flanked by gardens filled with beautiful plants and ponds. Wide steps ascend up to the doors of the mansion, which open onto the aptly-named Great Hall. Inside, another ballroom has been converted into a mess hall, although the expansive sitting room remains used for a similar purpose as a commons room.
One entire wing has been converted into dormitories--one level for each sex, two people per room, except in special cases. Another wing beside it has been converted into classrooms, where the students receive their non-magical education, and a larger room into the teachers’ offices. The Principal’s Office is the old study. Multiple gymnasiums for magical practice have been constructed into the ground of the hill (somehow--no one’s sure how it was managed without disrupting the structure of the mansion). The old guest house has been converted into a storage shed for athletic equipment, and the vast lawn has become a field.
A parlour was also converted into a Commons Room for the students, placed in neutral ground near the Mess Hall. The Common Room of Ravensdale is among the students’ favorite locales. A large room with numerous sitting areas and a grand piano, it has wide windows that overlook a lawn that, while familiar in concept and similar in biome to a British countryside, doesn’t exactly match up with the established geology of Ravensdale. But the scenery and lighting is every student’s favorite part of the Common Room. The weather shown outside will change to match the conversation going on, and the chandeliers and lamps can only be described as literal mood lighting. They’ll change in response to the prevalent emotion of the room’s inhabitants. The Common Room is also known to be quite sassy with its mood lighting and weather. Any and all rap battles or burn fights must be fought in the Common Room. The lights will flicker and hiss with every burn that the Common Room deems worthy, and is considered the official scorekeeper.
The house starts to get especially interesting around the library. It’s a beautiful old place, filled floor to ceiling with books. There are also computers available for student use. But as one ventures further and further into the library, it starts to seem like the library is maybe a bit too big to actually fit inside the mansion itself.
Eventually, the maze of the library ends in a single hallway, at the end of which is a boarded-up doorway. The boards have long been broken by Ravensdale students, allowing them to explore the Old Wing.
Creepy but beautiful, the Old Wing is faded with age and filled with antiques. Wide windows are covered with heavy curtains that no one’s quite brave enough to open. Statues follow students with their eyes and faceless portraits adorn the walls. Dust hangs in the air, and the light filtering around the curtains illuminates the floating particles, but most of the Wing remains in a dusk, which helps it be less creepy exactly not at all.
On one particularly famous spot, dubbed the Vanishing Lady’s Staircase, is a grand staircase with a single landing not far from the entrance. When first seen, the silhouette of a woman appears on the landing, but after an instant she vanishes, leaving the viewer uncertain if she was ever there in the first place.
No one’s sure what the Old Wing was used for, but after a few trips, students realized why it was closed off: it doesn’t exactly fit into Ravensdale’s floor plan, well… anywhere.
That, and the occasional things that come out of the Old Wing and give the Librarians a headache and the Janitors overtime. Additionally, it is impossible to make a map of the Old Wing. It vanishes from floor plans of Ravensdale that it’s added onto, or will get conveniently blurred or water stained.
Home to students training their magic, a number of mentors and teachers, and a few other staff members for good measure, Ravensdale Academy isn’t the most innocuous place in London. This is where most kids go after their magic is realized. It offers beginner magic courses which are open to most new students, as well as private mentors once a specialization is chosen. Additionally, it offers partnerships to various government agencies, from police to military intelligence.
HISTORY
Ravensdale Mansion was built in the late 19th century. It was relatively normal until World War II, when the mansion began to change slightly. For the most part, it remained completely normal, with its owners living in the mansion happily. But every now and then, a few disturbances would occur. Anything from items being misplaced, to a woman apparently being lost in the attic. The owners chalked this up to just human forgetfulness (although the woman refused to set foot in the attic ever again), but even their perseverance had a limit. After the blitz, the mansion became outright frightening. Furniture would be moved, sometimes disappearing for days. A number of figures would appear, although they seemed to all be benign. There were random trinkets scattered around the floor of their private library, with the worst being bones of a small creature. Perhaps the most unsettling was the unseen: there was the constant feeling that you were in the mouth of a great creature. A sort of desire to flee, but realization that it was too late.
The final straw came just months after the blitz ended. The owner and his family experienced multiple hallucinations, with the mansion turning into a sort of maze. When they tried to talk to each other, each person would see the others turning into ghoulish facsimiles of themselves. A few days later, and they were able to escape the horror.
The owners left the mansion, but it went uncared for and empty for years in their lack of desire to sell it. That is, until CAFE sought them out. The family didn’t want to let go of a piece of their history, but the memory of the strange occurrences convinced them to sell the strange house to the men in black across the negotiating table.
LAYOUT
The mansion has received considerable remodeling since its acquisition. The mansion has a number of sections, including dormitories, multiple halls for dining and gatherings, classrooms, training rooms, and a library.
The wide drive up to the mansion is flanked by gardens filled with beautiful plants and ponds. Wide steps ascend up to the doors of the mansion, which open onto the aptly-named Great Hall. Inside, another ballroom has been converted into a mess hall, although the expansive sitting room remains used for a similar purpose as a commons room.
One entire wing has been converted into dormitories--one level for each sex, two people per room, except in special cases. Another wing beside it has been converted into classrooms, where the students receive their non-magical education, and a larger room into the teachers’ offices. The Principal’s Office is the old study. Multiple gymnasiums for magical practice have been constructed into the ground of the hill (somehow--no one’s sure how it was managed without disrupting the structure of the mansion). The old guest house has been converted into a storage shed for athletic equipment, and the vast lawn has become a field.
A parlour was also converted into a Commons Room for the students, placed in neutral ground near the Mess Hall. The Common Room of Ravensdale is among the students’ favorite locales. A large room with numerous sitting areas and a grand piano, it has wide windows that overlook a lawn that, while familiar in concept and similar in biome to a British countryside, doesn’t exactly match up with the established geology of Ravensdale. But the scenery and lighting is every student’s favorite part of the Common Room. The weather shown outside will change to match the conversation going on, and the chandeliers and lamps can only be described as literal mood lighting. They’ll change in response to the prevalent emotion of the room’s inhabitants. The Common Room is also known to be quite sassy with its mood lighting and weather. Any and all rap battles or burn fights must be fought in the Common Room. The lights will flicker and hiss with every burn that the Common Room deems worthy, and is considered the official scorekeeper.
The house starts to get especially interesting around the library. It’s a beautiful old place, filled floor to ceiling with books. There are also computers available for student use. But as one ventures further and further into the library, it starts to seem like the library is maybe a bit too big to actually fit inside the mansion itself.
Eventually, the maze of the library ends in a single hallway, at the end of which is a boarded-up doorway. The boards have long been broken by Ravensdale students, allowing them to explore the Old Wing.
Creepy but beautiful, the Old Wing is faded with age and filled with antiques. Wide windows are covered with heavy curtains that no one’s quite brave enough to open. Statues follow students with their eyes and faceless portraits adorn the walls. Dust hangs in the air, and the light filtering around the curtains illuminates the floating particles, but most of the Wing remains in a dusk, which helps it be less creepy exactly not at all.
On one particularly famous spot, dubbed the Vanishing Lady’s Staircase, is a grand staircase with a single landing not far from the entrance. When first seen, the silhouette of a woman appears on the landing, but after an instant she vanishes, leaving the viewer uncertain if she was ever there in the first place.
No one’s sure what the Old Wing was used for, but after a few trips, students realized why it was closed off: it doesn’t exactly fit into Ravensdale’s floor plan, well… anywhere.
That, and the occasional things that come out of the Old Wing and give the Librarians a headache and the Janitors overtime. Additionally, it is impossible to make a map of the Old Wing. It vanishes from floor plans of Ravensdale that it’s added onto, or will get conveniently blurred or water stained.