Okay, so for the first (partial) week I'll focus on the University of Lüm. Djarvin's largest and most respected institution of learning and drawing students from all over the world of Curcalen, the University of Lüm is important enough to the city to effectively qualify as a ward by itself. Its departments of history, geology, and mathematics are particularly renowned, but it offers thorough education in pretty much all subjects.

The key faction or NPC controlling the university would I suppose be the university's chancellor... but that's the Thursday prompt, so I guess I'll be detailing the chancellor on the last day of the year. So what rival faction or NPC opposes the chancellor? Well... I'm going to say the university has a board of directors that frequently opposes the chancellor's wishes, but the chancellor is skilled enough at playing them against each other that they're not usually much of an obstacle to the chancellor's plans.

I'm going to say a more significant problem for the chancellor is the current head of the history department, Lurius Cathe. The chancellor themself has a background in history and in fact was the head of the history department before they were made chancellor, and when they were they appointed Cathe to their former position—a decision they've very much come to regret. Cathe is certainly enthusiastic in his study of history, but carries out that study in some very dangerous ways. He's not above having necromancers summon ghosts to ask them about the past, sending agents to pillage important sites in other nations where they're not supposed to be (something Djarvin has a reputation for doing anyway, but Cathe takes it to extremes), and even consulting with demons who might have knowledge he wants. The chancellor is aware of, or at least suspects, what Cathe is up to, and is very concerned with the possible consequences if something goes wrong, but Cathe has managed to maintain just enough plausible deniability to make it very difficult for the chancellor to take direct action against him, particularly since they have so much else they also have to deal with.

Lurius Cathe is a tall, thin man with a grayish cast to his skin. He has sharp cheekbones, a large, rectangular forehead, and prematurely gray hair. His mellifluous voice and eloquent speech somewhat belie his rough and cadaverous appearance, and he's a skilled orator who's very good at telling people what they want to hear. While he hasn't persuaded the entire history department to emulate him in his unorthodox methods, but has gathered a number of faithful followers both among the faculty and the student body—although if one of his ventures does seem in danger of being uncovered and causing trouble for him, he's not above throwing one of his allies under the bus so he can escape the blame.

(Eh... I feel like maybe this guy is too obviously and straightforwardly a villain; I kind of like it when things are a little more ambiguous and opposing factions each have valid points of view. Oh, well; I guess some more villainous characters are okay; I'll just make sure on future weeks not to make all the opposing factions or NPCs this clearly on the wrong side.)