Hulean Collegium of Iniquity
by OneEyedZealThe Hulean Collegium of Iniquity prides itself on being the foremost center of instruction for thievery, illicit activities and promotion of vice on the world of Mystara, and loftily ignores critics who assert that it achieves this distinction by being the only real institution of its kind on the world of Mystara. It is based out of the city of Azurun, in the south of Hule, and boasts a student body several hundred strong, including not just the usual clever orphans and outcasts who might grow into thievery in other nations but also scions of nobility, diviners and holy men. Speaking about or leveraging one’s past and family connections is considered taboo while enrolled at the Collegium, as students are expected to succeed solely on their own merits and talents. In a few cases, magical compulsion may be used to reinforce this.
History: The Collegium usually claims to be as old as Great Hule itself, founded variously either by contemporaries or disciples of Hodasus himself. This is almost certainly a fable, however, along with much of the Collegium’s later history; the Collegium has enthusiastically mythologized its own past to blunt any charges of heresy or sedition, claiming any inconvenient details as merely a matter of folklore rather than fact. It’s generally accepted that the Collegium in its current form has existed for at least three centuries, migrating from points north after a lethal dispute with landholders there. The Collegium exists in contrast to larger Hulean culture–when hard times demand orthodox repression, the Collegium fades into the shadows; when prosperity invites foreign greed and meddling, the Collegium becomes more active, to better fleece and defraud the newcomers.
Location: The Collegium has no fixed address, but relocates as needed; known past sites have included a seemingly abandoned noble manor, an underground warren within the city catacombs, and a goatherders’ village half a day west of Azurun proper. In the present day, the Collegium operates openly, from an estate first built for an ambitious merchant coster that was driven into bankruptcy half a generation ago. The main facade and public areas are deliberately glitzy and garishly ostentatious, to both overawe the gullible and inspire scorn in the well-bred; student quarters, lecture halls and exercise areas are considerably more functional. A veritable warren of spy nooks, secret doors, hidden cubbyholes, concealed passages and escape hatches are present; many are trapped in some way, bait for the overly curious sort who poke around where they’re not meant to.
Instruction: A blend of lectures and self-study, and hands-on practice within different exercise areas maintained on the Collegium grounds. Most activities are not particularly dangerous, but a leavening of testing traps, wall-climbing exercises and similar can be crippling or even lethal for the unlucky; instructors have some room to adjust the hazard of the curriculum, and are known to up the threat level unannounced to catch out an overconfident or disfavored student. Servants’ upkeep of the Collegium complex is also part of students’ daily lives. This is mostly just scutwork, but is also framed as training in espionage and infiltration; instructors will sometimes deliberately drop gossip within earshot of a student maid or scullion, to see if the eavesdropper is clever enough to take advantage.
Students at the Collegium do not engage in active thiefcraft or robbery most of the time. Azurun is a large and cosmopolitan city, but not nearly so prosperous as to uncomplainingly absorb the energies of several hundred novice thieves. A small number of the student body does get seconded, for the duration of a few months only, either to Azurun’s own Thieves’ Guild (which is nominally independent of the Collegium, but in practice operates in close cooperation) or for missions in other cities within Hule. Students invited to a term of practical thievery are either the precociously talented or the ineptly overconfident, with the latter fully expected to get arrested and quietly remove an embarrassment from the Collegium’s roster.
Faculty: Pseudonymous and invariably disguised, either by wearing hooded cloaks, magical veils or masks, or use of an enchanted facepaint that renders one’s features and voice unrecognizable. Instructors are not allowed to impersonate one another (though voluntarily sharing a cover role is permitted); some faculty are full-time, many are part-time while maintaining a regular mundane life among Azurun’s merchant class or petty nobility, a few maintain multiple identities that each appear to be part-time only. A typical faculty member is a thief of 8th+ level of experience, but some are spellcasters, demihumans or humanoids, or mundane individuals with special skills and mindset.
The Azurun Thieves’ Guild: Commonly known as the ‘Bent Coin’, it operates independently of the Collegium but retains nearly all its junior members from the student body on short-term work. Most of the guild’s leadership are accomplished Collegium graduates, and while they most often plan and direct Collegium students on burglaries and criminal activity they do sometimes execute more challenging solo jobs. The guild’s senior ranks are at present more top-heavy than is really comfortable, sustained mainly by the lower ranks’ work passing on all the profits while incurring very few of the usual costs. The Guildmaster is strongly considering splitting off roughly a quarter to a third of the Guild leadership to stage a takeover of the criminal world in Slagovich, Vilaverde or Zvornik. He hesitates mainly because his potential cadre is almost entirely rogues, and decidedly lacking in the sort of ruthless muscle or spellcasting acumen needed for a covert conquest.