Robin’s Glantri Great School of Magic in Detail

This article aims to showcase what’s maybe the biggest fan work ever made about Glantri and possibly the most detailed magic school ever in the worlds of fantasy, maybe beating even that of a very famous young adult series on wizards. “Glantri Great School of Magic in Detail” is indeed a 555-page PDF file which can be freely downloaded from here https://pandius.com/gsomdtl.html in the Vaults of Pandius.
In her monumental and fantastic work, Robin details the Timeline of the School, 10 main levels, 6 layers of basements, 2 courtyards, 4 extra locations, and the Chamber of the Radiance, with 55 maps and extended descriptions, many adventure seeds, new spells and items. An entire campaign with many adventures from levels 1 to 36 could be easily set in the School with Robin’s book. It is obviously impossible to host the whole work on THRESHOLD Magazine, so here I will showcase only the maps of the ten levels and the six basements with the name and function of each room, linking to the appropriate page in Robin’s PDF. But to better introduce this marvellous work, I’ll leave it to the original foreword she wrote.

Foreword

Something bugged me a long time ago. It was the Gazetteer 3: “The Principalities of Glantri”; an outstanding work by our beloved Bruce Heard, our Mystara Spirit. The book gave us stacks of intense usable information, yet it also gave some incomplete material. The AD&D2e adaptation of Mystara and the “Glantri Kingdom of Magic”, “Wrath of the Immortals”, “Poor Wizard Almanacs”, “Castle Amber”, “DM Survival Guide” and “Players Survival Guide”, added some information, but holes stayed, or more were created due the awful desecration of Gazetteer 3 by GKoM. Many flaws have crept in, and areas left open. Areas you actually need in playing the Great School of Magic in Glantri on Mystara, BECMI style (or actually any D&D style)!

I searched and searched, found and compiled, not only from the canon sources, but also with the help of some fan work. The great difficulty was that various canon sources gave various scales to work upon (our beloved Bruce Heard even added yet another recently). Combining size and reason/logic together I came finally upon the scale of 1 inch = 40 feet (1mm = 1.27 feet) to be used from the original map in the inside cover of Gazetteer 3, instead of the 1 inch = 20' as per GAZ3. With almost this scale I had earlier created an Isometric map of the Great School of Magic (GSM) in Glantri City made from the initial interior cover map of the GSM. And I already started to make the vertical information, according to canon sources…then Real Life kicked in, and I had to store my stuff. Here the maps were damaged by moisture and mice. In 2016 I rediscovered this map, and decided to restore or redraw them. I actually went beyond that, I made two more Isometric maps from other directions, enabling the Great School of Magic to be viewed from all directions. With this, more detail came about the inside, and following the canon sources together with architectural laws for stability, strength, and consistency I now even created the inside floor plans, first in pencil, later clarifying with Windows Paint. Rereading all the canon sources, and the newer fanon sources, more information was added, a timeline came forth, and the various uses canonically of the rooms made even more clarity. Using the interior maps that came forth after the creation of the Isometric maps and more architectural sanity, I created the Great School of Magic of Glantri as presented canonically in the Mystara various sources (including many more small bits & pieces from fans). I continued to stray further…and deeper, higher…a strange habit I know, but it brings me even more clarity and depth, but specifically multidimensional reality. I expanded the Magical Circles, to bring more magic in the world. I also took many items and spells from other D&D sources, and some self-created to bring more magic use and feel.

Without further ado; I am now ready to present you Glantri Great School of Magic in detail …and scent, and touch, and sight, and magic, and material, and use ….etc, as best I could compile from all the canon sources and creations together in 16 months of near continuous work.

Important Note; All grid maps presented in this book have a scale of 5 feet per square. Making the GSM roughly 160 x 250 (with some outside poking corners & edges).

Main Building Level 1 : Auditorium and Entry Hall

Courtyards and Extra Locations around the School

All this is just a small part of the content of Robin’s Great School of Magic in detail book, and to showcase all the 55 maps would take too much space, but we can give you a bird’s eye view of the rest of the pdf content.

Courtyards are detailed on pages 119–217 and include Dueling grounds with new rules for magical duels, Temple of Rad with its Crypt, Owlery, Kitchen, Infirmary, Dining Hall, Serving Hall, Confectionary, the Dream Masters’ Nightmares Room, Administration Tower, Warehouse and Griffon Hall (including griffons’ tricks, appearances and traits), Guardhouse, Secret Chambers of Earth Elementalists (with many spells), Ghoul Chambers. It’s a huge section full of content and surprises.

From page 218 to 273, there are some extra locations around the Great School: the Silver Tower Inn (with Cryptomancers’ rooms and spells), Alexander Plaza (with Dragon Masters’ chambers), Aeromancer Stronghold (invisible above the GSM), the Canals (with their own secrets).

Main Building Basement -3 : Testing Area, Water Elementalists’ Rooms and Classrooms
High-res map in the Vaults: https://pandius.com/20_GSM_Interior_-3_Wizwarrens.png

This level contains the Graduation test rooms presented in Gazetteer 3 pages 90–93 and the rooms of the Test of Darkness adventure contained in the Glantri: Kingdom of Magic boxed set, with full detailing of the darkness itself. It’s a huge level described in detail from pages 274 to 305, also connected to Alexander Plaza, Silver Tower Inn and Secret Chambers of Earth Elementalists, extra locations listed below. So here only a thumb of the big map is shown. This level also contains the rooms of Water Elementalists, Hydromancers’ Library, the related Aquatic Classroom, the Alchemy Classroom, and the Music & Sound Classroom.

Main Building Basement -4 : Necromantic and Alchemy Level
High-res map in the Vaults: https://pandius.com/21_GSM_Interior_-4a.png

This level, described from pages 306 to 360, contains the Necromantic Classrooms, Museum of Osteology, secret Necromancers’ Library (with more spells), more Alchemy Classrooms, the Secret Dungeon of Alchemists, and Library (and spells).

Main Building Basement -5 : Storage and Hall of Witches
High-res map in the Vaults: https://pandius.com/22_GSM_Interior_-5a.png

Described from pages 361 to 389, this level contains some storage areas, the Hall of Witches and the Secret Dungeon of Alchemists, the Secret Catacombs of Necromancers, Classroom of the Teachers, and Museum of Osteology Archives. From an area infested by giant spiders it is possible to reach a level dating back to Blackmoorian times.

Lower Chambers

Described from pages 390 to 402 these are Blackmoorian rooms infested with the Wasting Disease, and the only way beside Immortal Magic to reach the Chamber of the Radiance.

Great School of Magic Dependance

In the “Glantri: Kingdom of Magic” boxed set there was the illustration of a country mansion indicated as the Great School. As it did not fit at all the map of the School in the Gazetteer Robin decided to use it as the Dependance of the School, an old Flaemish villa described from pages 403 to 475, and containing several Classrooms, some located here as it could be dangerous or impractical to have them in the center of Glantri City, such as the Fire Elementalists’ Portal Room or Griffon Pens. The Dependance also contains the Convenchamber of Witchcraft.

Chamber of the Radiance and the Rest of the Book

In the final 80 pages of the PDF there is a lot more content which I’ll only list briefly but it’s definitely worth checking: Chamber of the Radiance and related themes from pages 476 to 497, and from pages 498 to 554 wandering monsters, maps of all buildings, list of classrooms and libraries, spellbooks, magescript, list of teachers and staff, spell miscasting rules, special skills, marble types, final report card, new magic items list, new spells list, adventures leads list, the expanded history of Glantri City once Braejr once Redfen, suggested PCs or NPCs.

Do not miss this wonderful work by Robin on the Great School of Magic!