The Stronghold

The Stronghold was a military university opened in competition with the Fortress. Thomas Ramsey and many of his Fortress-trained sons started building the Stronghold during the American Revolutionary War, since the war precluded young British noblemen from attending the Fortress. Thomas Ramsey and several of his sons had taught at the Fortress, so they had a readily-available faculty.

The Stronghold’s main facility was located in Muscogee territory on a large extrusion of rock. (In our world, it came to be named Stone Mountain, Georgia.) The Muscogee had no seaports when the university was established, so they initially cooperated with the British West Florida Colony and created a naval academy portion in Mobile. Later, the Stronghold transferred its operations to what had been Brunswick, Georgia after negotiations transferred that city and other areas to the new nation of Hyperborea, which was the name that the Muscogee Confederation eventually took. The West Florida Colony had already been renamed Meropis, and they created another military university starting with the naval program they had had as the Stronghold’s original seaport station.

While the Stronghold did not have quite the reputation of the Fortress, it did attract plenty of young men, including royalty and nobility from Europe. Several kings who had multiple sons would split them, sending some to the Fortress and some to the Stronghold. This practice allowed the family to have contacts with families and countries that might prefer one university over the other.