Morgrave University is an institution of higher learning in Sharn, the City of Towers, in Breland. While not the most reputable university academically speaking, it has made great gains in research regarding the continent of Xen'drik, mostly by funding expeditions of adventurers, who bring back artifacts and information to fill the university's museums and libraries.

The university's main campus lies in the University District of the Upper Menthis ward in Sharn. It lies close to the center of the Menthis Plateau and amongst its uppermost towers. Morgrave University owns much of the property in the surrounding University District, which is used for rental accommodation for staff and students, businesses that service the university (scribing, bookselling, stationery, cartography, ''etc''.) and even non-university-connected activities. Thus, the University district is a center of learning and high-brow entertainment in Sharn. A good proportion of staff and students live in the nearby Ivy Towers district, and many self-professed sages, even those not employed or associated with Morgrave, live nearby or in neighboring districts.

A smaller campus is also maintained in Wroat. Morgrave University also has an enclave in Stormreach, a city in Xen'drik.

The university itself fully occupies Dalannan Tower, atop which stands the domed Lareth Hall. The tower houses faculty offices of many of the departments, as well as lecture halls and the Dezina Museum and Morgrave University Library. It has five tall but slender towers surrounding it, named for and representing each of the Five Nations: Aundair Spire, Breland Spire, Cyre Tower, Karrnath Spire, and Thrane Tower. These towers include general student housing and dormitories, faculty residences, and the offices of various departments. A skybridge also links Dalannan Tower and Kelsa Spire.

Morgrave University is known for its glass walls.

The so-called "ground floor", despite being far above the actual Menthis Plateau, comprises a number of large courtyards lying between the bases of the towers. These are filled with soil carried up from the actual ground and planted with grass and small trees. Here students like to gather and classes occasionally meet, at least when Sharn's weather permits.

Within Dalannan Tower itself, the ground floor houses the majority of lecture halls, study halls, sub-libraries intended for students with their required reading, and dining halls, as well as a few faculty offices.

Occupying the middle levels of Dalannan Tower, and attached to the library, the Dezina Museum of Antiquities displays the greatest collection of Xen'drik artifacts in all of Eberron, which are acquired on its expeditions but it always seeks more. It's considered quite impressive. The curator is Emeron Sennared.

The museum's vaults cover several levels beneath the public area and are only accessible from within the museum above. These are full to bursting with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of crates of artifacts from past expeditions, as yet unopened and uncatalogued, let alone displayed, even after decades. Nevertheless, more arrive on an almost weekly basis. Some items are simply stored here because they're too boring for public display, while others are too valuable or hazardous and are kept in secret secure vaults of their own.

The Morgrave University Library focuses on the history of Khorvaire and has the most wide-ranging collection in all of Breland. Access is free to students and staff, whilst outsiders who wish to use it are charged 1 gp per day. The librarians are gnomes from Zilargo. This library sits in the uppermost story of Dalannan Tower, just beneath Lareth Hall.

##Lareth Hall
Situated on the very roof of Dalannan Tower and at the center of the campus is Lareth Hall with its vast dome. It is the largest amongst a complex of similar domed buildings with pillared façades. Inside, it houses offices for the faculty and administration, including those of the bursar, registrar, and the university master, Larrian ir'Morgrave. The gynosphinx oracle Flamewind also dwells here, either in a chamber at the top of the dome or an adjoining spire topped by a column-ringed open-air hall, named Flamewind's Steeple.

Linking Dalannan Tower to Breland Spire near the uppermost level, and thus Lareth Hall and the Commons, is this long arcing bridge. It is covered and wide enough to be lined with shops down one side. These target students, selling books, paper, clothes, and equipment. The other side is left clear but adorned with posters for announcements, campus events, jobs, and goods for sale.

The Commons is a spacious open-air plaza atop of one of the neighboring towers, Breland Spire. The area is roofed against the elements but encircled by columns so that fresh air moves easily into the space. It is often frequented by many members of the university. Here, vendors arrive every morning and sell foods from many cultures from their carts and wagons. Both students and staff enjoy dining here and having long and deep discussions whilst they enjoy the view over Sharn. People would also give public talks and hand out pamphlets. The space is more peaceful in the evenings, and people prefer to read, meditate, or converse in privacy.

The Great Hall of Aureon stands on campus grounds, albeit on a separate but linked tower. Although most members of Morgrave are not especially faithful to Aureon, the Sovereign of Lore, a university legend holds that sleeping the night on the temple floor brings insight or inspiration in one's dreams. Merrix d'Cannith credits his creation of living constructs to staying here. Thus it's common to find people sleeping here in hopes of solving some issue or making a breakthrough.

Adorning the top of Aundair Spire are the glorious Hadrill Gardens, which boast a wide variety of exotic plants, flowers, and other vegetation from all over Eberron. One spacious, open-air garden is beloved by both staff and students as a place for quiet meditation and for romantic walks. Amongst the gardens are nine greenhouses, with one dedicated to orchids native to Q'barra and Xen'drik.

Some specimens are hazardous or even are monstrous plant creatures, and these are restricted to staff of the botany department and approved students. The master of the gardens is Professor Kona Erran.

Situated close to the top of Karrnath Spire, the Valdain Museum of Natural History displays a variety of animals and monsters, all stuffed and mounted with care. They include magical beasts like blink dogs, bulettes, and displacer beasts and a massive skeleton of a dragon suspended from the ceiling over the entrance. Despite this, with Morgrave University so fixated on ruins and relics, the Valdain Museum struggles to be funded and appreciated.

Situated in Cyre Tower are number of academic communities with shared interests, among them Shava House. A well-furnished apartment complex, Shava House was formerly a housing unit on campus for professors who lived alone, but it has evolved into a small academic commune where resident scholars live together and share meals and conversation, often on ancient realms and relics, especially Xen'drik, its history and legends. It includes comfortable sitting rooms for this purpose. Naturally, news and gossip spreads quickly through here.

It includes comprehensive and extensive libraries, the best in Breland, with the definitive literature of a number of specific academic fields, including geography, cartography, the history of the Dhakaani Empire, the history of Xen'drik, including esoteric magic like eldritch machines and manifest zones, and dungeoneering, such the subterranean world and inhabitants of Khyber.

It also has an incredible collection of ancient artifacts, relics, and treasures from all over Eberron in its museums.

Admission to the Morgrave University is comparatively easy< but does require paying college fees.Scholars, staff, and students come from all around Khorvaire. Many gnomes living in Sharn work at or are otherwise connected to Morgrave University.

An adventuring company in the employ of Morgrave University might be paid 1 gp per day on average or a bounty of 250 gp for a recovered relic. In return, they would be supplied with documentation necessary for their work and might be permitted access to artifacts not on public display, magic items, spellbooks, and expert consultations, as well as study and training in a field of knowledge, language, or complex tool.

Traditionally, the position of Master of Morgrave University is held by the oldest heir of the Morgrave line. The current Master is Larrian ir'Morgrave, a scholar with decades of research experience. There is also a bursar and a registrar.

The known offices, colleges, departments, schools, and subjects of Morgrave University, along with their notable staff, include:

There is also a musician-in-residence, Allorius Derethe.

Some funding for the university is provided by the Sharn Council, via the Upper Menthis representative Thurik Davandi, who ensures it is steady.

The university sponsors its own adventurers' guild, the Morgrave Outreach Association, whose members provide security, act as guides, and provide expertise in the field and on expeditions. It often hires adventurers and offers internships and apprenticeships for students under non-academic mentors. They have a primary guildhall close to the Sharn campus and others in Stormreach, Regalport, Stormhome, and other common points of departure for Morgrave expeditions.

It also hosts a number of academic societies devoted to different fields and specializations that put members in one contact with one another for social or professional purposes.

As Morgrave University has limited resources compared to other, better institutions and has a hard time building an academic reputation, its staff are constantly looking out for any chance to prove their worth and have what some call a rough-and-tumble approach to research. Nevertheless, they are passionate and well-educated academics, usually interested in ancient history and lost and foreign cultures. They operate as scholars, instructors, and archaeologists and it is a good place to hire sages on a range of subjects for short- and long-term research. They spend almost as much working in the field as they do in office and a number of professors are renowned scholars, explorers, and adventurers. Some, however, may delve too deeply into esoteric lore and into madness and the Cults of the Dragon Below.

They are trying to fund and organize more expeditions for research and exploration, especially after the end of the Last War and the shock of the Mourning. These often focus on the continent of Xen'drik, which is only a relatively short distance from Sharn, making the City of Towers are common starting for point for expeditions and Morgrave University a popular meeting place for explorers and scholars. There is usually more than one Xen'drik expedition underway simultaneously. In Xen'drik, Morgrave scholars have long studied the ruins around and beneath Stormreach and mapped the environs and they are experienced at uncovering its secrets and winning its treasures. Some of the most experienced explorers of Xen'drik are primal scholars.

They may also propose funding an expedition to the Frostfell to locate the lost ship known as the ''North Seeker''. Other expeditions don't have to go nearly so far: beneath the Cogs of Sharn were goblin ruins of the Dhakaani Empire and the occasional expedition down here yields Dhakaani relics to Morgrave's museums. Despite this, its expeditions are usually derided as little more than glorified treasure hunts.

In contrast, the university rarely sponsors its own expeditions into Khyber as they seldom recover artifacts of academic or monetary value. The few they do launch or involve themselves in focus on magical phenomena, such as the Gatekeepers' binding seals, planar confluences and their spatial distortions, and daelkyr magic and its psychological effects. House Tharashk prospectors hunting for Khyber dragonshards in prefer to partner with such academic expeditions, in order to share knowledge about its strange effects. Morgrave University gladly provides aid and supplies to these expeditions in return for a percentage of profits.

Because of this, Morgrave University offers fledgling adventurers chances for jobs and opportunities with which to build their own careers, particularly those who cannot find a place with more prestigious institutions. Staff can provide letters of introduction to other institutions, letters of marque from the Brelish crown that allow them to explore ruins, traveling papers and other documentation as required, and even sponsorship or patronage for the most successful. Such hired adventurers are sent to purchase antiquities, retrieve relics, or go on treasure hunts. Naturally, the university retained the right to claim any finds for research or display in a museum like the Dezina, with the remainder permitted to be sold. Thus, they, like other institutions, will often host the explorers known as thunder guides, who bring back information and finds, give lectures for a handsome fee, and network with their fellows.

While the majority of Morgrave staff are genuine scholars, who are focused more on the historical and academic value of a piece, some merely pretend to be, concealing a greedy and mercenary nature more into the monetary or ever magical value of a relic. These few, from students to scholars to professors, are corrupt and connected to the criminal element, including thieves and smugglers, or at the least are black marketeers themselves. On too many occasions, about once a year, invaluable relics discovered in Xen'drik or Dhakaani sites have disappeared from the vaults, reported stolen, and resurfaced on the black market or in private or Aurum-owned collections. The sheer quantity of artifacts brought back and held in the vaults seems to encourage their sale. Despite Master Larrian ir'Morgrave swearing to crack down on such practices, not much has actually been done.

Morgrave University is nevertheless an excellent place to get an education in Sharn, in different fields of knowledge, languages, and translation, as well as practical skills that would be useful in the field, such as wilderness survival, finding and disabling traps and locks, and using magical devices.

The university also provides training in spellcastng, albeit in the more theoretical side.

Typical of many schools and universities, Morgrave University is quite active during terms and weekdays whilst classes are being held, but appears almost empty at nights, on weekends, and in holiday periods.

The university hosts a number of functions, to which it tries to invite important guests like the playwright Luca Syara (though she herself rarely appears in public).

The gynosphinx oracle Flamewind holds an annual riddle contest at the start of each year; in 998 YK, it began at noon on Zarantyr 1{{st}}. For a fee of 50 gp, Flamewind grants a private audience in Lareth Hall and shares the "riddle of the three stars", which gives clues to a treasure chest hidden somewhere in Sharn.

On 26 Dravago, Morgrave holds graduate services whilst the neighboring Great Hall of Aureon observes the Aureon's Crown holy day. The priests give sermons and public lectures throughout the day on a variety of topics.

The various colleges hold their graduations on different schedules; the arcanist and theological colleges have theirs in the month of Nymm. Ceremonies are usually also held in the Great Hall of Aureon, at noon, with guest speakers giving keynote addresses. Graduations draw crowds of thousands of well-wishers and celebrating students, but have an attendant problem of over-exuberance and petty crime like pickpocketing, confidence games, and brawls in the University District.

The university provides its own courier service for communication between academics and to and from expeditions. Such messages are magically sealed and encoded, as well as archived under reference codes.

Compared to older, more prestigious institutions like the University of Wynarn in Aundair and the Library of Korranberg in Zilargo, Sharn's Morgrave University is lacking in influence and especially reputation, except among its own alumni. But even many at Morgrave work with the goal of getting a position at another institution with higher standing. Worse, its critics have long accused it of being corrupt and full of profiteers, smugglers, and treasure hunters. They say it puts profits above scholarship.

It is, however, one of the largest, the most famous, and easier to join or at least more willing to hire, especially for young adventurers similarly looking to establish themselves. Moreover, it has the best library in Breland (though not Khorvaire). As such, Morgrave remains highly competitive with Wynarn.

The legitimate members of Morgrave faculty have some academic ties to the Library of Korranberg, the Wayfinder Foundation, and The Twelve. These are not so close that they can get a better job elsewhere, however. Of these connections, while Korranberg disdains Morgrave, they nevertheless cooperate in the pursuit of knowledge. Their most extensive ties are with the Wayfinders, for their role in funding and arranging expeditions. Regarding the Twelve, many at Morgrave maintain connections in hopes of conducting research with them and accessing their resources, and a few have succeeded.

Less legitimately, the critics are somewhat correct: several members of Morgrave University do have criminal connections to thieves and smugglers. One is Hamish Jod, a halfling merchant, arms dealer, and Mournland scavenger. Moreover, a few have or are suspected to have connections to practically every influential organization known, including the Aurum, the Chamber, Cults of the Dragon Below, the Dreaming Dark, the Lords of Dust, and the Order of the Emerald Claw.

Morgrave University has little in the way of actual enemies, of course, but finds plenty of academic rivals. This is often because of the Morgrave members themselves, who seek to steal glory from members of other institutions. And many staff members of the University of Wynarn are simply offended that Morgrave University is more famous.

In turn, the oni mage Tzaryan Rrac of Droaam manipulates the resources of Morgrave University and monitors well-known explorers of Sharn by means of several agents of his in the local arm of the Daask crime gang.

The Storm Lords of Stormreach have traditional arrangements with Morgrave University and other groups for granting letters of marque permitting exploration of Xen'drik.

The university was founded by Lord Lareth ir'Morgrave in 738 YK to much acclaim by the elders of Sharn. He had earlier made a name for himself as one of the first Khorvairian explorers to successfully venture into the interior of Xen'drik, where he discovered the ruins of a lost giant culture. Although he declared the university's purpose to be "a beacon of knowledge," suspicions abounded that Lareth had made his fortune from black-market sales of Dhakaani and Xen'drik relics and other artifacts and his rivals accused him of using the university to aid in yet more treasure hunting, even as a cover for smuggling. The following centuries would see both staff and students work hard to repair its reputation, but also contribute to it.

Both Morgrave and Wynarn Universities were organizing significant expeditions to Xen'drik around 800 YK. This was one of several reasons for the dragonmarked houses to petition the Kingdom of Galifar to stamp out piracy on the Thunder Sea.

While a number of institutions have attempted to explore Argonnessen via Seren Island or Totem Beach, only one would-be explorer, a Morgrave University professor, has tried to negotiate with the chiefs of the Seren and come back alive. He was even able to persuade a band of Seren warriors to escort him to Totem Beach, where he observed a dragon totem ritual involving a sacrifice of a Siberys dragonshard to produce totem magic. In later writings, he speculated on its nature. No follow-up expeditions learned any more.

Shockingly, a student named Jacques Cantar, the son of wealthy shipping magnate Jaris Cantar, bashed his tutor to death in a psychotic rage. His father packed him off to Stormreach.

''Circa'' 996 YK, the Carradan Party, a sizeable expedition visiting Xen'drik in recent years, explored a ruined giant city, in which they came across a gynosphinx named Flamewind. Curiously, she claimed she'd been waiting for the explorers to find her and take her to "the land of the fiends", and of her own accord decided to accompany them back to Morgrave. She remained there to conduct research.

A recent Xen'drik expedition uncovered evidence of a duskblade tradition amongst giants.

A backpack left behind in the Dezina Museum of Antiquities was found to hold a statue of grotesque, even demonic, appearance and missing a head, as well as a fragment of a map of the Labyrinth in the Demon Wastes that seemed to mention the statue. The statue was put on display in the museum. There followed a series of incidents, apparently attempted break-ins, but these are deemed to be unconnected to the statue.

Recently, an expedition led by Professor Talbridge of Morgrave University explored the Menechtarun desert in Xen'drik, though they ran into tragedy at the Basalt Towers. His account was reported in ''The Sharn Inquisitive''.

''The Sharn Inquisitive'' chronicle made an exclusive report alleging a plot at Morgrave to take valuable antiquities out of storage and sell them on the black market. In response, Master Larrian ir'Morgrave vowed to stamp out crime and improve the university's reputation, but the chronicle was scathing, calling it "the usual platitudes and empty promises."

Morgrave University had a great achievement at the start of 998 YK, when on Wir, Zarantyr 4th, Professor Casimir ir'Tannan announced that his team had deciphered the ancient Code of Vvaraak. They employed extensive cryptographic methods and a large volume of samples of writing acquired by fellow Morgrave researchers, the Wayfarer Foundation, and independent explorers. The discovery was reported in the ''Sharn Inquisitive'' on Zarantyr 19th. Professor ir'Tannan planned to publish their findings over the following months, but Professor Emeritus Athuran Happlestep of the University of Korranberg called it "typical Morgave irresponsibility", given the risk of releasing monsters the dragon Vvaraak had sealed away.

In late Zarantyr, Morgrave historian Provost Dannad Mourain published a paper asserting that the Church of the Silver Flame evolved from an ancient serpent cult of Xen'drik, based on his new translation of the ''Serpentes Fragments''. This immediately drew the ire of the city's Flamites and from Zol, Zarantyr 24th, protesters packed the Commons to sing hymns and give speeches decrying Mourain and his claims. Among them was high priest Yurik Rendrich and their numbers grew to several hundred by Far, Zarantyr 27th and showed little sign of stopping any time soon. The Commons became unusable and there were reports of fisticuffs between students and Flamites. Mourain went into hiding for fear of extremist attack and his classes were cancelled for the foreseeable future.