New Olamn

New Olamn is one of the foremost bardic colleges in the Realms, located in Castle Ward, Waterdeep. A thriving educational center, it sits in a new, walled enclosure at the end of the Cliffride. Heroes' Rest and Stormwatch, formal noble villas available for rent, now compose the campus, and a tunnel through the northern spur of Mount Waterdeep provides access to the college.

In the Year of the Wave (1364 DR), a former Harper named Iriador “Garnet” Wintermist unleashed a series of unconventional attacks against the inhabitants of the Sword Coast. Her anger stemmed from the decline of bardcraft and the evolution of the Harpers away from their founding ideals. Although she was ultimately defeated, several Waterdhavians took her lesson to heart and refounded Waterdeep’s old bardic college two years later in what had been the Cliffride villas of Heroes’ Rest and Stormwatch. (The old location was the House of Song T19.)

Backed primarily by the Crommor, Estelmer, Majarra, Melshimber, and Thann noble families as well as the Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers, New Olamn has become a noted education center and an excellent storehouse of knowledge in just a few short years, with bards coming from across the Realms to study within its walls. Those generally acknowledged to have successfully completed their studies acquire the title of master bard and, if they choose to study at the school of New Olamn in the city of Waterdeep, receive the degree of Magnus Alumna upon completion of their studies.