Andoria Ladies' Academy

[aleksiempainen]

Andoria Ladies' Academy is a strict private academy for aspiring ladies where they learn domestic skills as well as ladylike etiquette. The Academy's bursar is Bianca Price (Nina's stepmother), a wealthy investor who owns a number of factories in Andoria. The Academy is a heavily sexist and prejudiced environment, the ethos being that women are only to work to serve men (ironic since Bianca herself is financially independent). Ladies attending learn cooking, cleaning, sewing, caring for children and etiquette. Once 15 years of age, ladies at the academy are paired off at random with boys from the boys academy to be married. They will most likely never have met before as the two academies do not associate and the ladies are strictly not allowed to associate with boys. Those who join the academy after the age of 15 (such as Nina) have until their 21st birthday to find a husband (wealthy suitors browse the academy often) or else they are sent to work in Bianca's factories unless they can find other work deemed suitable for women. This generally consists of light manual labour and nothing that requires creativity or thought. A lucky few can be sent on modelling contracts where they appear on motivational advertisements like posters. This is reserved not only for the most attractive but also aryan ladies. There is a racial hierarchy within the academy, and the etiquette lessons teach them to obey it. Aryan ladies are given preferencial treatment where as girls with brown eyes or darker skin are seen as second class (Nina being ethnically Hebrew on her mother's side does not score highly on the hierarchy). The rules are strict and breaking them will bring about punishments of varying severity. Rules they take most seriously are missing lessons, failing to return to the residence halls before bedtime and most of all displays of physical affection. Students are not allowed to have relationships except for their chosen partners from the boys' academy or paying suitors. Relationships with outsiders yield heavy punishments, as do relationships between students. Homosexuality is greatly frowned upon in the academy (As a bisexual girl this makes Nina feel very uncomfortable).

*If anyone has any ideas for the academy or wants to chip in with characters attending that would be great!