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Do you swear to obey the rules of Tentir? To guard its honor as closely as you do your own? To go out and come in, to live or to die, as you are bid? To protect its secrets now and forever, from all and sundry, whatever should befall?
the oath, To Ride a Rathorn,
"Chapter VII: In the Bear's Den", I

Tentir is the Kencyr randon college. It is one of the ancient Riverland keeps, built on the Western bank of the Silver. To the North is the Jaran keep of Valantir, while to the south is the Danior keep of Shadow Rock. Only unnamed ruins face it across the Silver.

Keep[]

Tentir is divided into two sections. Old Tentir houses most of the classes, while New Tentir houses the barracks.

Old Tentir[]

The college itself stood well back on the stone toes of the Snowthorns. Old Tentir, the original fortress, looked as solid as ever. It was a massive three-story high block of gray stone, slotted with dark windows above the first floor, roofed with dark blue slate. As if as an afterthought, spindly watch towers poked up from each corner. To the outer view at least, it was arguably the least imaginative structure in the Riverland.
Rue's narration, To Ride a Rathorn,
"Chapter I: An Unfortunate Arrival", I

To the east, facing the Silver is Old Tentir, the original keep, which holds the majority of the actual college. It was originally an ancient Bashtiri fortress, which like all the keeps, was itself built on the site of an ancient Merikit hill fort. Important places in Old Tentir include the class rooms, among them the Bear Pit, the Map Room, the Great Hall, the Fire Timber Hall and the underground stables. Old Tentir was rebuilt by the Kencyr and possess an odd architecture with many secret passages and dead ends.

New Tentir[]

Behind [Old Tentir], surrounding a hollow square, was New Tentir, the college proper. While the nine major houses had once dwelt in similar barracks, changes in house size and importance over the centuries had allowed some to seize space from their smaller neighbors. When they could no longer expand outward, they had built upward. The result from this vantage point was an uneven roofline of diverse heights and pitches, rather like a snaggle-toothed jaw.
Rue's narration, To Ride a Rathorn,
"Chapter I: An Unfortunate Arrival", I

To the west facing the Snowthorns is New Tentir, where the cadet barracks are located, surrounding three sides of a training square. As each house is responsible for maintenance of their cadet barracks, resulting different heights for each barrack.

Randon[]

Randon who train at Tentir are among the best warriors and leaders in the Kencyrath. Three major conditions exist at Tentir that serve to pull the Kencyr closer together:

  1. Cadets from all houses train together in all things, counting all members of the college, randon, sargent, cadet, as blood-kin within Tentir's walls.
  2. Deaths and injuries that occur at Tentir are considered outside of regular events, and no blood price is permissible under Kencyr Law.
  3. The Commandants of Tentir serve in rotation, representing each of the major houses in turn.

This serves to hold the Randon together and reduces, slightly, the tensions between houses. A special connection between members of different houses is called "a Tentir bond". Woven, in part from those individual bonds, is the loyalty to the whole of Tentir, refered to as "the Tentir bond". In theory, this is supposed to override house enmity. However, in practice, it often falls short of that goal.

Although the ability of individual randon, even those who are their house's war-leader, to effect the decisions of their lords ranges from minor to slight to nonexistant, the collective influence of the randon within a house is significant, the Tentir bond permits the randon to influence even the High Council.

Classes[]

 Following breakfast and assembly, there were four two-hour lessons—half before lunch, half after—then a free period, then supper. Evenings were spent studying, mending gear, or attending to other house business.
 Sometimes, after a particularly dismal lesson or because an instructor had had an especially bad day, a ten-command was obliged to repeat a class far into the night.
 Often, depending on the season, cadets were called on to perform one of the thousand or so chores that the college needed done to function properly.
 Every seventh day they were free to do whatever they pleased.
 While each house ate and slept in its own hall, cadets continued to train together, two different ten-commands at a time under whatever randon or sergeant was best suited to teach them.
Jame's narration, To Ride a Rathorn,
"Chapter IX: School Days", I

Students study a large range of subjects, including:

References[]

  1. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter X: Battles Old and New", II — "The day's first class—archery with a Jaran ten"
  2. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XX: The Bear Pit", II — "She and Timmon were on their way down from sword practice on the second floor of Old Tentir."
  3. Bound in Blood, "Chapter VI: Blades Unsheathed", II — "The morning's second class also took place in Old Tentir, this time in the large, familiar, first floor room where the more obscure weaponry of the Kencyrath was taught."
  4. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter IX: School Days", IV — "Their next class was held in the great hall of Old Tentir. They entered to find Senethar practice mats spread out on the flagstones and half a ten-command lounging on them."
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Honor's Paradox, "Chapter V: The High Council", I — "Lessons proceeded as normally as possible if rather fast to generate heat for chilled limbs. Weapons, strategy, history, the Senethar, the dread (and freezing) writing class…"
  6. Bound in Blood, "Chapter VII: Rude Walls", I — "Half Senethar, half Senetha—that is, half fight, half dance—Sene classes were conducted in one of Old Tentir's large, interior rooms."
  7. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XX: The Bear Pit", III — "Maneuvers involved not just formation work but directed attacks, each member of the ten responding to her gestures like the fingers of a hand. They were learning to work well together, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses,"
  8. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter IX: School Days", IV — "Jame and her ten tried to stay awake during an interminable lecture on strategy, delivered by a randon so battered that he appeared to have made every mistake against which he was now warning them."
  9. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XX: The Bear Pit", III — "composition afterward, partnered respectively with […] Jaran. Only the last caused a murmur of dismay among the Knorth: according to rumor, the scholarly Jaran were taught their letters before they learned how to walk."
Kencyr Riverland keeps
Kithorn Tagmeth Mount Alban Wilden Falkirr Gothregor Omiroth Kestrie
Restormir Valantir Tentir Shadow Rock Chantrie Kraggen
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