Art of the Octangle (1)

We start here a new section dedicated to the art -mostly sculpture- that decorates the Octangle at the Unseen University.  Our first stop is just outside the Great Hall's Gates:

Here on the west side of the Octangle, the tall octiron double doors of the Great Hall overlook an expanse of worn grey flagstones before they give way to green lawns and ancient chestnut trees.  Cobbled paths lead around the edges of the lawn, and another leads eastwards to the clock tower and the main gates onto Sator Square.  Beside the doors, a pair of statues stand upon tall plinths, surveying the courtyard with a proprietorial air.

Each corner of the outer rim of the Octangle is dedicated to one of the eight orders of magic, which is reflected both in the statuary and in the benches available. The deep blue oak bench one here is dedicated to the Hoodwinkers, and will run away if you try to sit on it and you're not of their persuasion:

The bench suddenly springs to life, tips you onto the ground, then shuffles off deciding that now is a perfect time to run a quick lap of the octangle.

You stand up.

The bench returns from its light jog around the courtyard.

look bench

Placed on the grass up against an ancient chestnut tree, this curved-back bench is made of solid oak and held together by a black cast iron frame.  The wood has been stained a deep blue to represent the colours of the Hoodwinkers, with the hopes that it will attract young wizards of the Order and provide a place for them to gather and study.  How much it gets used for this purpose is unknown, as young wizards tend to care more about concepts like "indoors" and "not studying".  They do however care about who sits on the bench, and therefore over the years it has been filled with many enchantments to stop Wizards of other orders using it.

Two statues are placed nearby. One shows the archetypal Hoodwinker / Blue wizard:

A short, stout wizard carved from Llamedese bluestone stands by the doors, hands raised in a complicated gesture that probably represents summoning forth illusions.

The other is a bit more idiosyncratic, representing as it does a wizard of agricultural inclinations:

The eighth son of a wool merchant from Zemphis, Joseph Ptarmigan was a noted expert on pseudoavian chromodynamics in negative narrative potential fields, and was plagued throughout his career by the mistaken assumption that he was Djelian, based on his surname alone. The sculptor has depicted him wearing a large turban and carrying some sort of ceremonial agricultural implement.