- Balic: Dictator Andropinis sponsors the city-state’s lone psionic university, the Cerebran.
- Draj: Sorcerer-King Tectuktitlay commands that children who exhibit powerful psionic talent are sent to the House of the Mind and rigorously tutored.
- Gulg: Children who show exceptional psionic ability are given to the teachers at the seer dagada, who patiently train their students and treat them like family.
- Nibenay: Several schools thrive here. They range from the powerful, highly commercial School of Augurs to the monasteries of the Exalted Path and Serene Bliss.
- Raam: Among the dozens of schools here stands the greatest psionic university of the Tyr Region, the Psiumarkh, which has lasted for centuries by remaining neutral in city affairs.
- Tyr: The relatively new School of Thought trains the nobles and merchants of Tyr. The city also houses numerous individual masters who provide private lessons.
- Urik: King Hamanu’s orders dictate that any commoner or slave child be sent for training at the King’s Academy, and no other institution can teach psionics.
“Sometimes I envy the little people—the common citizens and slaves. No need to worry about political assassinations, no lessons to keep up with, no property to protect. All they need to do is survive.”
Within the city-states, noble castes own more land and more slaves than anyone except the sorcererkings. The members of this social class are largely ineffectual puppets who have no real power, and only rarely do they muster the courage to oppose the plans of the sorcerer-kings. Even when they do so, it’s not for the greater good. Most nobles watch out only for their own interests. They care nothing about what happens to people of lower castes, with the possible exception of people they own.
Though nobles lack true power, they gain many advantages due to their wealth. Nobles can read and write and can easily acquire food and water, which isn’t true for much of the Athasian population. Every noble receives a basic education in psionics, either through a school or from a tutor hired by the noble’s family, learning an array of psionic talents to better defend himself or herself against enemies or to command minions. Most lose interest in their training and fall into the same decadent malaise that pervades the noble caste. Only a rare few nobles fully develop their psionic talents, but those who do so are among the most capable and dangerous practitioners of the Way.