Dear mage-students,
Our school accepts magic users from the ages of 13 to 18. The attendees of Galileo Academy are generally known as mage-students. New students are called this, or Undeclared, until they choose their specialisation and new House at 15. At this point, they are considered proper "first years" or initiates, and each year they advance to be apprentices, pledgemages, and adepts.
Snarls and Star Arches
The fabric of magic is described as a Weave that allows spellcasters to interact with the world's underlying magical reality. Sometimes, this fabric is knotted and tangled in some locations, creating "snarls". At these places, spells can be amplified or distorted in unpredictable ways. This phenomenon matters for Galileo Academy because a luminous snarl is located at the heart of the campus, located in the Hall of Oracles in the Biblioplex.
Similarly, there are gravity-defying arch shapes throughout the school, and in particular, over the Biblioplex. These star arches are made from spokes of natural materials that float in an arch shape, with a precise inner curve and a rough and irregular outer arch. They can stand straight or lie at an angle, and they can be small or enormous, whole or broken, grown over or mysteriously clean. Their irregular spokes evoke the radiating lines of a shining star.
Both snarls and star arches are subjects of magical research for students and faculty, who also study wild and dead magic zones, floating earth motes, and other weird locales.