Pensalir

Pensalir... is technically the upstart academy, but you wouldn't be the first or the last if you thought it was the other way around. Founded about 20 years' prior, Pensalir is by now considered the most prestigious provider of higher education (combat and academic) on Sliver. Technically a fee-paying school, almost everyone studying is awarded a full scholarship, but that does not equate to equal odds of attending. Pensalir practically rolls out the red carpet for the teenage heirs and heiresses of Nova Strella, as well as welcoming an increasing number of students from Centre-South (and Sliver's) capital Elysium - the Northern elite bankrolling Pensalir see this as a hand on the hearts and minds of the next generation, and many of the Elysium youth see study there as securing their bright future.

Students from other settlements, including the working and middle-class cities of Pracha and Lenabury that're also in the North face a tougher path to entry. Without connections, they're tested against one another in gruelling practical and written examinations, with only the top-cut qualifying. But despite the face these students find a place purely on their own merits, a significant number of the student body tend to see them as useless! They wouldn't state it outright, but in a patronising, sympathetic kind of snobbery - 'Oh dear, they mustn't quite be cut out for this'.

The faculty itself treats all of Pensalir's students equally for the most part, everyone is put through a strict, almost-militaristic regimen. Pensalir believes in a strict hierarchy and traditional methods of teaching to hone the leaders of tomorrow.

...Though this all seems like a drag, it's well-compensated for by Pensalir's top-notch facilities. Set in a massive, palatial complex jutting from the highest mountain overlooking Novo Strella, the place seems almost unearthly in its splendour. Pensalir boasts the best teachers, one-to-one training sessions, and the very latest in re-discovered technologies at its fingertips.

Pensalir students tend to be: stronger on average, more conventional in combat; formally-trained and taught, and have access to almost whatever arms and amenities they want.