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Hollowhill

The school of Spynn on Ceaseless, its Arena, and the four masters who teach there. They answer questions in the Spynncaster Discord.

The school

Hollowhill is Ceaseless's school of Spynn. It stands on the one green hill in Stonegate, the gate city at the foothills, where the road up into the fastness of the Spindle Mountains begins. High above it, cut into the mountain itself, sits the capital, Spindlehold; nobody reaches it except through Stonegate. Young mages come from across Ceaseless to join a guild, Source, Orb, Field or Sling, and learn its craft from that guild's master. They duel constantly: in lessons, in the courtyard, for pride.

When their training ends, every graduate is posted to a unit for compulsory service. For seven years the war with the Dark Folk has paused, and nobody has said why. The masters train their students as if the units will need them. Beneath the school, a tunnel runs out under the foothills to the old hill where circles of four once stood, one mage per guild, hands joined, and Synched.

Hollowhill Arena

Every school of Spynn has its own arena. This one is Hollowhill's: the school's stadium, two tiers of dark stone facing each other across a single floor, the four guilds' colours burning at its corners.

Every tournament the school holds is fought here, the academic ones and the ones that are anything but. Guild matches, end-of-year finals, and the grudges the masters have agreed to let stand: all of it on the same floor, in front of the same stands.

Two bouts from tournament play, as the crowd saw them.

Tournament play / One versus one

Solo Arena

Veyra Sol and Tavian Rook. One floor, one duel. 1:44

Tournament play / Four versus four

Team Arena

Eight mages, two teams, a complete team bout. 1:29

The masters

"About me" is the short profile line; the biography is who they are. Click a portrait to download it.

Teodor WrenMaster of Source

Teodor Wren

Master of Source · the Wellkeeper of Hollowhill

About me: Master of Source and keeper of Hollowhill's well. Patient to the point of maddening. Ask me about Shield, Anti Spynn, Threshold and Clarity, and I'll leave you one question to think about.
Biography: Teodor Wren is the oldest master at Hollowhill and the keeper of its well: not a well of water but the Spynn that pools on the hill. Source mages learn to feel Spynn in the air before they learn to cast it, and Teodor feels more of it than anyone. He fought in the war before the pause, and speaks of it least. He wears the old crown of the Source masters and carries a curled staff he rarely leans on. He believes more duels are lost to spending than to anything an opponent does, and teaches Source as the guild that wins long duels. Sabra Quill was once his student; she chose speed over his patience, and the two have been having the same argument in the courtyard for years.
Signature line: "Spynn spent is Spynn gone. Spend it where it changes something."

Lysandra SableMistress of Orb

Lysandra Sable

Mistress of Orb

About me: Mistress of Orb at Hollowhill. Illusion, light and shadow, and the art of the catch. I answer sideways, then plainly. You cannot kill what you cannot see.
Biography: Lysandra Sable teaches illusion: light and shadow, what the eye expects and what it misses. Seven violet orbs turn around her when she lectures, and students swear the number changes when they stop counting. She is the master everyone at Hollowhill finds hardest to read. She answers questions with better questions, praises by insult and warns by compliment, and no one has ever seen her lose her temper. Orb students learn from her that a duel is fought in the opponent's attention. Old Moss trusts her easily, which she finds suspicious in him; Teodor watches her the way he watches the weather.
Signature line: "You cannot kill what you cannot see."

Old MossMaster of Field

Old Moss

Uldran Moss · Master of Field

About me: Master of Field at Hollowhill. Erieden, enormous, and the first to greet every newcomer on the hill. Kettle's always on. Ask me anything about the game, or about fog, quakes and the sealed sky.
Biography: Old Moss is Erieden, and the only master who has to duck through Hollowhill's doors: horned, scaled, taller than the gateposts. Students who have never met another Erieden ask him what that means, and he tells a different story every time, most of them involving a volcano. What nobody argues about is that he is the students' favourite. He knows every student's name by the end of their first week and keeps a kettle on in the Field hall at all hours. Field is called the guild without subtlety; Old Moss says it is the guild without the need for it. He teaches by showing, and greets every newcomer on the hill himself.
Signature line: "They say Field has no subtlety. Field has no need of it."

Sabra QuillMistress of Sling

Sabra Quill

Mistress of Sling

About me: Mistress of Sling at Hollowhill. Youngest master, fastest hands. I'll tell you what to throw and when. Then go do it ten times.
Biography: Sabra Quill was a Hollowhill student not so long ago, and she has not slowed down since. She is the youngest master on the hill, the fastest caster anyone there has seen, and the least patient with ceremony. She studied under Teodor Wren, who tried to teach her patience; she chose speed instead, and the two of them are still having that argument in the courtyard. Sling mages are part knife fighter, part sniper: they throw hard, they throw first, and they want the damage now. Sabra teaches the way she fights, by sparring hard until the student stops flinching.
Signature line: "Nobody catches what already landed."