World building: Academy uniform & chores (Patreon)

All right I promised y’all a world building post  here we go!

UNIFORMS

You might remember this page from my May sketchbook- an overview of some of the different uniforms at the academy! We never got to see the winter one and probably never will now 🥲 

These are the two variations on the Summer uniform! Short sleeves, and no sleeves.

Satyr are brought to the academy when they’re found as babies- and while at the academy, they never actually ‘own‘ their own clothing. These uniforms (including the casual ones) are all that are provided for them- when they’re dirty they get dropped into communal laundry baskets- seen in the comic: 

And clean sets are delivered to their dorm rooms every morning. The uniforms are generally a ‘one size fits all’ kind of deal with some variation- for example Philo, who prefers no sleeves, has to hope he manages to grab one of those tops before they all get taken in the morning.

That‘s why when they go to their graduation they’re just wearing the simple casual uniform- the set that they wear to graduation are the only clothes they get to keep and take with them! If they‘ve been adopted into a noble family it’s expected the family will provide them with clothing, and if they go to the Spire there’s a whole new set of uniforms for them. Spire Satyr are also able to earn an allowance which they can use to buy their own clothing.

Now we come to the question of… who does the laundry??

CHORES 

The academy and its grounds are the only areas where no humans are allowed- it’s strictly Satyr only. Trained adult Satyr are too valuable to waste on a job like doing laundry or cooking meals, so because no humans can be hired to work there, the chores for maintaining the academy are split between the various classes of Satyr students.

So each dorm gets a rotating chore each week! This can be laundry, cleaning, gardening, cooking, etc. Their teacher directs them and oversees it as well as helping out, and the chore time is generally after their classes are done for the day. 

Extra chores can also be assigned to individual students as a punishment- whether that’s on top of their regular chores or on their free day, and they can also be sent to help a different class to make them do their least favourite chore two weeks in a row. This has definitely happened to Philo Aster and Mordecai a lot!

For a little bonus information- Philo‘s favourite chore was cooking, least favourite cleaning. 

When Satyr graduate they‘re no longer expected to do chores, if they‘re adopted into a noble family generally they‘ll have staff, and there are human staff at the Spire. If Philo had have been sent to a small town to do town duty his skills he learned from doing chores would’ve come in very handy. So unless they flunk, graduating is kind of a ‘Finally! No more chores!’ moment.

I hope that was interesting! The bonus 18+ pages of the comic have finished up now, so we’ll be going back to regular page updates once I’ve thumbnailed the next batch.