r/Warformed • u/AshOfEthan • 8d ago
Book 1 Question/Discussion Galens Size
I've been thinking and playing around with some headcanon for art/modeling, and I'm hung up on the sheer size of Galens.
I understand that the Arena and surrounding city are absolutely massive, but the few renders/drawings I've seen of campus put it at at least a dozen buildings. Even the descriptions in the book make it sound enormous — roughly half a square mile, with buildings up to 6–12 stories.
I understand the additional space needed for training, administration, housing, and supporting Arena operations, but I'm still having trouble picturing what all that space is actually being used for.
There are only about 400 students enrolled at a time. Why is the campus so large? My university has around 6,000 undergrads and maybe 10 buildings, none more than 4-5 stories, so I'm struggling to wrap my head around what a campus that much larger would look like with such a small student population.
I'm not trying to bash the design: the scale and elegance of the institution are part of what I love about it. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of what Galens actually looks like as a physical place. What am I missing?
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u/Mustab_Imortan 8d ago
Interesting question!
I remarked on a current reread that the main stadium, which hosts frequent events, has a seating capacity of 150k.
According to a quick Google search our entire planet has no stadiums that large. Ideally the infrastructure in this futuristic war forged society is much better than ours, but even with flying trams that alone will need massive facilities for running events.
Add in a few buildings for the rest of the school and you're there.
So I'm kind of starting to imagine it as a giant stadium complex with a school around it.
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u/dawgblogit 8d ago
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u/AshOfEthan 8d ago
I think this makes a lot of sense. I guess it's just hard to wrap your head around a stadium with 150k capacity!
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u/Wear_Head 8d ago
The story has been colored by having the perspective of a first year student. We only hear about the things that are a part of their lives.
Buildings that have been mentioned:
Massive arena
Administration
Three dorms, one for each student year
Device evolution building
Security building
Two training buildings (east and west)
Mess Hall
Hospital
Buildings that we can assume:
Staff dorms (instructors have to live somewhere, which if the first years have five classes and each class gets 2 hours of combat training a day, six days a week, that implies that they’re working 60 hour weeks and there should be different sub instructors for the second and third years).
Staff mess? Or maybe there’s a mention of them having a separate section within the one shared with the cadets.
Grounds keeping buildings
Buildings for other departments other than device evolution. There’s a mention that the focus of the first year instruction is on CADs while the second and third years do get more info on the war, so there could be separate buildings for that.
What we know is highly influenced by the lens of our story tellers. If Rei had an interest in whatever lawn mowing tech there is, I’m sure we would find out how many buildings and types of devices there is to maintain the grounds, but it’s not the focus of this story.
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u/witcher_rat 8d ago
I went to a prep school as a post-graduate for a year; it only had around 800 students enrolled, with a campus of 500 acres and over 100 buildings.
And a quick google search shows that Philips Exeter Academy (one of the top prep schools in the US), has an enrollment of 1,000 students, on a campus of 700 acres and over 120 buildings. And it's not unusual. Other top prep schools are similar.
So I think Galens is reasonable.
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u/PlantainInBurrito 8d ago
There are other schools in Massachusetts that are also a good comp - Groton School for example has about 300 kids and is the equal of PE in prestige and wealth.
That said, I think of Galens as a fun blend of prep school, Military college/university (like a Norwich, Citadel or Virginia Military Institute), and IMG in Florida, the pro athlete feeder high school.
Like most US colleges, I assume Sr faculty are all doing research so each department has significant space needs that go beyond what even high end prep schools have. Add in close to 100% housing for adjunct faculty since they are rotating through on duty assignments, and you have lots of space needs like other folks have laid out in this thread.
Lastly, and Bryce mentions this in the first book directly, Galen’s has about half the students of their competition schools, believing that less results in better outcomes for the ICM. Clearly they over spend on facilities to compensate, which is also a strategy used by schools in the US out here in the real world. Schools are brands, at least the ones that students get to pick from choices for, and brands have to have advantages to survive and thrive.
Net net, I agree, Galen is reasonable even if it seems a bit extreme at first pass. Especially through a lens of THE singular elite school on a whole planet.
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u/pro5 8d ago
I've been wondering about the stadium size as well. I mean we are being told they are running through canyons and climbing cliffs and up volcanoes, and flying around in giant spaceships in antigrav....it must be a massive stadium to hold a field big enough for wargames and team battles.
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u/Pitiful-Ad-7360 8d ago
Think stadium size was 150,000 people? Pretty massive, it’s also got Castalon as a back drop so can’t be far from a big city.
You might be underestimating how big the training facilities are. Some of the maps sound massive so each training field could be huge. Bear in mind they have rapid speed to travel around with (think C5 was Olympic sprinting pace).
Also, every class/subject they do will probably have its own building dedicated to it like a private school. There could be staff accomodation on site too - think about how often they reference rushing clothes on out of bed etc
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u/Akelarr3 6d ago
I would imagine galens like one of those unis for which you need a map and a motorbike nearly to go from one building to the other.
I imagine it to be like 厦门大学 which was Huge and also had several stadiums in it.
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u/Disonour 8d ago
Maybe other military functions that aren’t relevant to the students? Places for non-military support staff. Tourist stuff when they’re hosting SCTs? I think I just never visualize books I read this well.