Progression in The City of Gold is not meant to begin and end with the Character you play today. The choices made by one generation should shape the opportunities inherited by the next.
That is the foundation of Education: a player-driven system connecting Settlements, municipal office, physical currency, practical learning, Character development, and family planning across years of in-world history.
Education is a long-term investment
Players may educate their current Character, but they may also educate their future children. Children remain NPCs while growing. During those years, their parents can enroll them in courses and invest in the knowledge they will carry into adulthood.
When that child is eventually inherited as a playable Character, the education purchased throughout childhood is already theirs. A family that plans carefully may begin its next generation with deeper knowledge and greater potential than the Character who came before.
Education is therefore not a conventional skill tree and not a source of instant progress. It is a decision about time, money, place, and legacy.
Schools grow with Settlements
Every Settlement tier unlocks one educational institution that its Mayor may construct:
- Hamlet (10–25) — Village Schoolhouse. A single-room school for reading, writing, arithmetic, local customs, and religion.
- Village (26–60) — Parish Academy. Several instructors broaden study into bookkeeping, agriculture, craftsmanship, and administration.
- Town (61–150) — Civic College. A respected public institution offering commerce, law, engineering, navigation, military theory, and governance.
- City (151–300) — Royal Academy. One of the kingdom's premier schools, with renowned scholars, advanced instruction, and elite facilities.
- Metropolis (301+) — Grand University. The realm's highest center of learning, distinguished by great libraries, research, professors, and the most prestigious education available.
Higher institutions unlock deeper studies, more advanced courses, and a greater attainable level of mastery. A Hamlet can begin a child's education, but the greatest centers of civilization can carry that learning much further.
Education is public infrastructure
Schools are municipal buildings. Only the Mayor may construct the institution available to the Settlement's tier.
Growth, however, is not always permanent. A Settlement may later lose the population or conditions required for its current tier. When that happens, its educational building is not destroyed. The institution becomes Dormant.
A Dormant institution cannot enroll students or operate. Its history and physical existence remain, ready to resume when the Settlement once again reaches the required tier. Decline suspends the community's investment; it does not erase it.
The Rector
Every educational institution is administered by a Rector. The Mayor appoints the Rector and may remove them at any time.
The Rector manages enrollments, organizes education, chooses which available courses to offer, determines tuition, and administers the institution. It is an important municipal office comparable to Mayor, Judge, and Marshal: another responsibility through which a player can shape daily life inside a Settlement.
A building alone cannot educate anyone. The Rector turns public infrastructure into a functioning school.
Tuition belongs to the economy
There are no fixed tuition prices.
The Rector freely determines the cost of every course the institution offers. Tuition is paid with physical Gold Coins, Silver Coins, and Copper Coins. These coins are inventory items: property that can be carried, traded, stored, and transferred between players.
This makes Education one of the first major economic activities inside Settlements. A school is not only a progression interface. It creates demand, income, competition, and difficult family decisions.
Different Settlements may develop different reputations. One might make foundational learning affordable. Another might charge more for prestigious instructors. A Royal Academy or Grand University may attract families from afar by offering studies that smaller institutions cannot provide.
The value of education is set by players and tested by the choices of other players.
One week of practical study
Current Characters and children may both enroll in classes. They do not need to travel physically to a classroom or remain seated inside it. Enrollment is administered through the institution, and every course lasts one week.
Courses improve practical gameplay skills. The final skill catalogue and balance are not being defined here, but Ship Crafting provides a useful illustration of the intended progression:
- Village Schoolhouse: 0–20
- Parish Academy: 0–40
- Civic College: 0–60
- Royal Academy: 0–80
- Grand University: 0–100
These numbers are illustrative rather than final balancing values. Their purpose is to show the relationship between civilization and mastery: increasingly advanced institutions allow increasingly advanced study.
Education will therefore create meaningful choices. A Character may begin learning near home, travel toward a greater institution, seek a particular Rector, or accept the limits of the education their Settlement can presently sustain.
The inheritance that matters
The heart of this system is not making today's Character stronger as quickly as possible. It is preparing the next generation.
A parent chooses to spend real resources on a child who is not yet playable. The benefit may not be felt immediately. Years later, when succession makes that child the family's active Character, the accumulated education becomes visible as inherited opportunity.
That Character may know more, craft better, govern more effectively, or pursue possibilities their parent could not reach. What began as tuition paid during childhood becomes part of a family's long history.
This is one of the central promises of The City of Gold. Players should be able to invest in things whose meaning outlives the immediate moment: a Settlement, an institution, a child, a body of knowledge, and a future they may only experience through an heir.
Build more than a city.
Build a legacy.
The permanent system reference is available in the Golden Encyclopedia Education chapter.