Introduction

Brief history

The Aurora Collegium of Sciences is a network of primarily scientific academies that host research industries and hubs of progress. Founded by Ciara Tearnan Rothwell Tarentae, only the brightest minds in science and technology are hired; all this to perform new and innovative research far and wide across a series of institutions, academies, and facilities. Progress for the sake of progress.

Most residents of the galaxy are unaware of the true reason for that progress.

How it serves the Brotherhood

The Dark Brotherhood’s Shadow Academy operates the Collegium, utilizing the inventions and discoveries of both the aware and unaware, to further its own interests. While many may be identified as plausible recruits for the Brotherhood, there are even more who would refuse to engage in progress with the Collegium, knowing those who are running it behind the scenes. Thus, those who are trained into the highest ranks of the institution may never know that detail.

This doesn’t mean those scientists are without benefit; those who make it through the competitive training are almost guaranteed a career at the top of their field, with all they can access to keep that position. Members of the Brotherhood are simply aware of the real stakes at play.

Life Inside the Collegium

Structure

Stardust

Focused upon technological advancement, the Stardust Society publicly pushes through on breakthroughs in engineering, general electronics, and droids. Their members make new creations entirely or make improvements upon existing designs to make the ordinary extraordinary. To make the ways of normal life not only easier, but also more accessible. To make protecting and trading safer as well as more efficient for everyone involved.

Privately, the Stardust society is far less altruistic. Technologies of war are seen as of equal importance at minimum, and far more commonly a priority as the Shadow Academy's true interest, the Brotherhood, faces a stream of adversaries, new and old, on an unfortunately consistent basis. While sorrowful for those lost souls, the Stardust society flourishes under the increased funding and uses these times for even more advancements.

Wayfinder

Historical artifacts from across the Galaxy are best placed in the hands of those dedicated to the preservation and protection of powerful artifacts. The Wayfinder Society was originally the Shadow Academy Society, but with the creation of the Collegium, it was transformed into the more focused entity it is now. With the adventurous to find and extract, and the cautious to preserve and protect, the Wayfinder Society prides itself on ensuring the right hands hold the galaxy’s history, even if many may disagree with who the “right” hands are.

Powerful artifacts are more often than not taken into the archives of the society that is entrenched with the Brotherhood, the hidden temple most don’t know about, which is only located with a specific Sith wayfinder. There is a mobile facility alongside this, and both are used for transport, research, and safekeeping of desirable objects. If ancient technology can be reverse-engineered, then progress is only a few steps away.

Wellspring

Biological, or biotic, sciences are the pursuit of those accepted to the Wellspring Society. From medicine to bioengineering of both micro and macro organisms, these scientists are truly the lifeblood of the Collegium. The society was named after the Wellspring of Life, a mysterious planet that appears barren to those only looking with plain eyes. Those harboring the Force, or the ability to dive beneath the surface, found the true and incredible life of the strange planet. Such is what the scientists of Wellspring try to recreate while pushing at the boundaries of life itself.

However, the road to curing diseases, bioengineering the life of viruses and beings alike into existence, is rarely a clean one. The covert operations of the Wellspring Society ignore morals when it comes to experimentation. More so than many of the others, their scientists tend to follow the belief that the ends justify the means, as well as the usual nefarious plotters experimenting with living weapons.

Operations

The Horizon Station

Acting as not only a public headquarters for the Collegium, the Horizon station is also a hub for all of the societies connected to and working within the umbrella of the organization. Each society has its space and specialized equipment, thanks in no small part to the station being double the capacity of an MC-85 Mon Calamari Cruiser with no space wasted on offensive defenses. These facilities also include areas where collaboration is encouraged, and competition is allowed to flourish. Thus, the Horizon Station holds a constant state of activity within its hull.

Despite being such an important piece of the Collegium’s puzzle, the station is never publicly visited by high-standing members of the Brotherhood, including the leaders of the Shadow Academy. Nor does it ever find itself located in the Arx system, although it wanders the galaxy in sectors that still allow the Shadow Academy to keep a close eye on operations while giving a sense of comfort to the unrecruited scientists.

Societies Without

The Aurora Collegium isn’t just an insular organization, and many external contracts and relations bind the spider web of information and research across the galaxy.

One such organization is the Severian Principate. Jacinta Ni’Erilia, being the Triumvir of Words, is the primary contact within them. Under her watch, the Collegium uses facilities and industries to help boost its own research. This comes at the cost of sharing such research breakthroughs, thus limiting the nefarious topics that are often delved into, due to needing to follow the legal and moral lines that the principate operates under.

Such is the downside of collaboration across all of the Collegium’s external contacts; however, the boons of more minds at the table far outweigh such inconveniences. After all, the brightest minds can oftentimes be recruited into the deeper folds of society.

Tools

Of course, there are benefits to being part of such a prestigious society. Members of the Collegium of Sciences receive both educational and physical benefits from progressing through the ranks. Additional knowledge is quite literal, as your characters gain more lore or language options on the Character Sheet. Additionally, members receive granted items at various ranks. These include droids, research equipment, and even a powerful weapon.

Collegium Datapad: The Collegium Datapad is a compact, high-performance electronic device designed to store and display information with an exceptionally high level of encryption. It provides provisioned access to a vast set of knowledge made digitally available by the Aurora Collegium. It can also store and protect a student’s personal notes, recordings, and research related to their particular field of study.

Collegium Scanner: The Brotherhood-issued Collegium Scanner is a short-range portable scanner provided to members of the Aurora Collegium's scientific societies, designed to aid in members' research. It can detect heat, sound, energy signatures, and determine the distance between two points, mass, density, volume readings, and the wearer's own basic biometrics. Output of this variety of information is limited to a small screen or audio, but a small dataport allows it to be connected to a droid or datapad for advanced analysis of recorded information.

The Collegium Research Droid: The Brotherhood-issued Collegium Science Research Droid is an advanced droid model engineered by the Aurora Collegium. Its purpose is to assist Collegium field scientists in research and experimentation. It features an expansive mobile scientific database similar to the RH-series Research Droid, and a reconfigurable locomotive apparatus similar to the TKD-160 Research Assistant Droid. It stands 1.9 meters tall in its two-legged configuration. The droid is equipped with a suspension system that cushions its movement, preventing unstable chemicals and compounds from potentially dangerous jarring. It also possesses an advanced protocol chip that enables it to engage in “creative brainstorming” with organic scientists; a monocular eyepiece that contains a high-powered, multi-spectrum molecular microscope; sophisticated olfactory analysis technology; and an “endosystem” providing six ports on the droid’s vertebrae for the attachment of dock-able accessories like additional arms, work surfaces, small tools or injection needles.

Shadow Academy Sith Sword: The Shadow Academy Sith Sword is a medium-length bladed weapon, just short and light enough to still be wielded single-handed. It is constructed through ancient metallurgical and arcane means safeguarded by the Dark Council of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood, giving the weapon a strong connection to dark side energies. In the right hands, it is as dangerous as a lightsaber.

The Collegium and You

For our use in real life, accessing all of the feats, tools, and cool stuff through the society rankings is done through the Shadow Academy on the Dark Brotherhood website. In fact, it’s exactly what you’re doing right now! Through completing exams, which then build into degrees, savants and mavens, you earn the various rewards mentioned above.

From the essentials department all the way into the lore, involvement in the Collegium is quite simple out of character for those exploring the details of our unique area of space.

How Did Your Character Get Here?

With the Collegium being expansive across the galaxy, one’s character could easily have been recruited into the Brotherhood through being a skilled member of the society. Through your character's agreeable nature with the darker side of the Collegium’s research or pure usefulness to them, one’s character could have been drawn deeper into the fold. Discovering the truth behind the society could be quite a shock, as well as the Dark Brotherhood at large, but it’s one with worthy benefits.

If not that, then there are many avenues one’s character could end up as a guest or member, through recruitment or invitation from within the clans, their own curiosities, or perhaps even as simple as having a friend who’s been there before and going to study together.

What Do You Get Out of It?

Unlocking the perks for your characters to utilize and enjoy is achieved through the use of the Shadow Academy. Through doing exams, you earn Academic Credits (ACs), and exams are linked to various degrees that all combine to improve your ranking in society.

Rank Name	Abbreviation	Requirement	Reward
Matriculant	SA:I	Obtain 1 ACs	Warbanner Tasset
Student	SA:II	Obtain 10 ACs	Knowledge I
Student	SA:III	Obstain 20 ACs	Collegium Datapad
Student	SA:IV	30 ACs and a Maven Degree	Warbanner Pattern
Graduate	SA:V	50 ACs and two Maven Degrees	Knowledge II
Researcher	SA:VI	70 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees and a Savant Degree	Collegium Scanner
Researcher	SA:VII	90 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees and 2 Savant Degrees; or Rank Boost from Rank 6	Microsensory Stabilization Gloves
Scientist	SA:VIII	110 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees and 3 Savant Degrees; or Rank Boost from Rank 7	Knowledge III
Scientist	SA:IX	130 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees and 4 Savant Degrees; or Rank Boost from Rank 8	Microdroid Swarm
Specialist	SA:X	150 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees and 5 Savant Degrees; or Rank Boost from Rank 9	Collegium Translation Visor
Specialist	SA:XI	150 ACs, 2 Maven Degrees, 5 Savant Degrees and 1 Sage Degree	Collegium Research Droid
Research Director	SA:XII	SA Society Rank XI and 99% Average, calculated as the average score of active courses that grant at least 1 AC.	Sith Sword and Knowledge IV

Image Credits

• Horizon Station by AdamKop