The Seven Academies

The Seven Academies

1. Sanusiaer -- capital city as well as academy; Lilith's academy
2. Praestutia -- primarily an illusionist's academy (don't ask why it's so far North)
3. Necolumnior -- central near the river; primarily assassins
4. Sycophantia -- illusionist's academy; along eastern side of Southern Border
5. Feiaceo -- Northernmost Academy; primarily spies
6. D??neco -- primarily battle-assassins (and therefore elves); along the border (West); first academy + town
7. Calumynet -- easternmost school; primarily humans

Enrollment/Duration of the school years:

Most of the children are accepted when they are 3 years old. They go through basic training, and are weeded out until the age of 8. Once they are 8 years old, they are officially in the school program and are fair game to anyone who wants to pick on them. It has been known to happen that children are accepted between the ages of 3 and 7.
School runs all year long, with a two week vacation between each quarter, which is about 11weeks long. There are various holidays throughout the year, but it is rare that school is missed for more than 3 days. There is a half day of classes on the weekends, but this time is mainly used for electives and homework.

The average age of non-human graduates from the academies is 35, and the humans normally graduate 10 years earlier. Grades may be skipped if you take the test at the end of the year. (There is a test for every course you take.) You are allowed to take an end-of-year test if you have a note with the signature (both magical and written) of any teacher or healer within the school. It does not matter if said teacher/healer has anything to do with the test you are taking or not. If you fail this test, there are no penalties. The tests are arranged so that it is possible for a student to sit in on a test that they have not taken the course for and not miss the test for their actual level.

Assassins choose their required courses based on ability and magical talent. By the age of 15, the basic assassin training is finished, and they must choose where to go from there. They may choose to be a 'battle assassin', which is basically an assassin-mage. Some students are forced to take the battle assassin courses because of their magical talent. (For example, most assassins with metal magic are battle assassins. Lilith is the exception because her talent didn't develop until much later, and when it did, she hid it from the headmasters.) Then the regular assassins can either become assassin-healers, or take a variety of courses that strengthen various talents (i.e. speed, flexibility, strength, shifting, etc.).

The starting size of the class is always larger than the final graduating class. People either drop out, or die along the way. They may die by their classmates' hands, or by other students at the academy. They may also die simply because of overworking themselves, injuries that the healers couldn't do anything about, etc.

Teachers/Headmasters:

It is not uncommon to have a good amount of substitutes in the Academy, because teachers do get jobs/missions occasionally. When this happens, another teacher that doesn't have a class during that period will step in and substitute, or a teacher will teach their class as well as another. On occasion, another teacher will choose a student that is walking in the halls at random, and tell them what course they will be teaching, and for how long.

There are seven headmasters in each academy, and there is a hierarchy. The chain goes as follows: Pylleomin, Solium, Evrenis, and Lemue. There are two of every position except for the Pylleomin. There are seven assassin/spy academies throughout the country, and there is a single person that is their superior and that person also rules over the entire country. He is called the Avelate. The Avelate will (supposedly) choose a successor and teach him/her everything (or almost everything) that he knows. The current Avelate is over 2000 years old, and has been in that position since the creation of Cetairiacelos, which he aided. No one knows all that much about him, other than the fact that he has very many realisitc, stone eyeballs in his various offices, each resting upon what appears to be a cushion made of hair. Sometimes, these are accompanied by either butterfly or bird wings of unusual size.

Healers:

All healers are required to know how to defend themselves as well as their patients. Many times, they are the ones that break up fights around the school. Because of this, very few people dare to oppose a healer outright.
In the healers' ward, a healer's word is law. If they tell you to commit seppuku, you do it. They will often have to create physical restraints to keep their patients in the healing ward as long as they should be, because the one thing that people try to resist is the duration of their stay. Some of their most gifted escape artists are used as guinea pigs to test out which new ways of restraint work and don't work.

It is not uncommon for an assassin/spy to become attached to a specific healer and refuse to be healed by anyone else. The healers take this all in stride, and don't try to heal a coworker's patient unless it is absolutely necessary.

The building itself:

The building is multistoried. In some places, it is only two stories, and in others it is up to nine aboveground stores. There are various basement-like stories below ground, but it depends on where you are in the school as to how many of those there are. There are towers, courtyards, rooms that aren't used anymore, etc.

The school has been added on to as the need for more space increased. Because of so many add-ons and renovations, there are secret passages and 'tunnels' all throughout the school. Very few people know about the existence of these passages, though. They are filled with booby-traps that won't necessarily kill you, but can and will severely injure you. When that happens, the spells surrounding the paths wipe your memory and deposit you in a place where you will be found by others.