Background:
During World War II a certain type of ability was unearthed; the ability to use magic. Originally, this ability was disguised as bombs or other war machines further hidden by the theorems and hypotheses of world renowned scientists, such as Einstein. Weapons such as atomic bombs were in all actuality the byproduct of powerful earth magic, and incidences like the Chernobyl disaster originating from a misuse of fire magic. As a result of the destructive nature many of these magics possessed, the United Nations limited access to Mancers (magic users). But an increase of Mancers in society has spurned the need for education, both in application and control, to help ready mages and the common society to prepare for the public introduction of magic into society. This need for education created the need for specialized institutions to help teach new generations of magicians how to control their powers and how to apply them for the sake of society. Even though magic is being prepared for its public unveiling, it is still very much a secret from everyone other than Mancers and high ranking government officials.

One of the most prestigious and adaptive academies of magic resides in the United States of America mid-west region. Located in Wyoming is the Vale Institute of Magic, better known to most U.S. citizens as the Vale Institute of Higher Learning. For most, this school is the penultimate achievement for kids, as many who attend the school become very famous or important in society. This boarding school provides a rather desolate location with enough raw elements to give all five types of magic users (fire, water, metal, earth, and air) a sufficient amount of resources to work with.

Story:
Students are being enrolled under the pretense that they are there to learn how to control their magic. It is largely unknown what the current headmaster, Kristen Vale, has intended for the students, but rumor suggests that she doesn't agree with what the government would like for Mancers, which is for them to be primarily under service to the government.

To help train the students several teachers, each with their own specialty in magic, teach classes that focus not only on magic usage, but other subjects as well, such as magic history. After each day of classes the students are suggested to spar with each other to show their daily improvements. Additionally, the students are categorized depending on the student's usage of magic. Students that show positive and/or creative usage are graded higher than chaotic or overly destructive magic.

You:
You are a young Mancer who has recently received a letter to attend the Vale Institute of Magic. There could be several reasons as to why they wanted you; maybe you come from a long line of magic users or perhaps strange things have been occurring, such as water moving when you watch it, or fire seemingly following you. Either way, they want you to attend, and decide to do so. While attending Vale your overall goal will be to develop your abilities and to learn new magic.

Through the various lessons and extracurricular activities you will be allowed to gain new spells and elements. You decide whether or not your character can learn more than one element, but the more elements a character has the less they can "master" an element. In other words a character that dedicates their magic to one element will be stronger in that element than a person who knows two, and the person who knows two elements will be stronger at their elements than a person who knows three, so on and so on. That isn't to say that a person who knows more elements is weaker, since the more elements a person knows the better rounded they will be against other characters. Additionally, a character that knows a certain combination of elements (there are multiple) can learn special mutations of their magic that are stronger than basic elemental magic.

The School:
The school is divided in to three primary sections: the main building, recreation center, and student dorm. Each section has specific uses and are completely available to travel to, with the only exception being a few rooms in the main building.

Main Building: The main building consists of three floors, though the entire third floor is technically the headmaster's office. The cafeteria is located on the east wing of the first floor while the gym is located on the west wing. The cafeteria offers a wide selection of food, which changes daily and requests can be made. The gym is unlike normal gyms in that it is primarily designed to be used for practicing magic in sparring sessions. In the gym there are five "battlefields" that can be used. These five each specialize in an element. On the second floor are the student classrooms. Classes are based off of year of study, unless noted otherwise.

Dorms: There are five dorms, each for a specific element. The dorms are Platinum House (Metal), Sky Temple (Wind), Phoenix Nest (Fire), Kraken's Den (Water), and Gaia Dorm (Earth). Each dorm is accented with traits inspired by their elements, but individual rooms are virtually identical. Student rooms are well furnished, with each room having a high end computer, queen sized bed, and full bathroom. Also, if two people wish to share a room they may request their queen sized bed to be exchanged for two twin sized beds.

Recreation Center: The recreation center is the place to go if you want to have some unconditional fun. You can find all sort of stuff here, such as TV, games, and if you're feeling extra scrappy you can spar on a special neutral battlefield. A large hybrid swimming pool resides inside and outside of the recreation center. Half of the pool is inside while the other half is outside, and both halves can be separated by a retractable glass partition. In addition to the pool outside, there is a very large field that can be utilized for recreational sport, since sport teams do not exist at Vale.

Magic and the Circle of Elements:


I'm sure by now you have noticed the circle above this paragraph. That circle is the Circle of Magic. It displays each element, their strength, and their weakness. Just to be clear Fire is strong against Metal, Metal is strong against Earth, Earth is strong against Wind, Wind is strong against Water, and Water is strong against Fire. The two elements in the middle circle will finally be revealed. They are Light and Dark. These elements are unique in that they prevent the user from learning any other form of magic, and that they are strong against each other. Magic is currently restricted to these explicit elements, so that means a character knowing Water magic can use spells pertaining to water but not ice.

Rules:
1. All PC rules apply.
2. No God-Modding, period.
3. No bunnying, unless the person/s in question give permission.
4. Try to maintain proper grammar. Your fellow RPers will thank you for it.
5. All posts should be at least 100 words long. If a post would be shorter than that due to interaction discuss using a joint post.
6. You can't win everything. If you can't take a loss then this RP may not be for you.
7. The code is "Challenge me!!!"
8. This RP is rated M for mature/16+. Themes involving excessive gore, explicit bedroom scenes, or overt amounts of swearing are still banned.

Accepted List:
For Sign Ups and availability please check the OOC thread here.

- Zane Reav (Colony)
- Shion Igna & Soren Kavanagh (Songbird)
- Sytano Morgan, Oscar DeMuere, and Imari Anselmi (Kenneth)
- Jason Barrett (siiadams)
- Maristella Reilly (Ziposaki)
- Yukio Higashi (Impossiperiod)
- Alma Sophia Jones (Nakuzami)
- Jack Marrick (Lord Sephear)
- Violett Fuerst-Shaw (Grif of Hearts)
- Guinevere Octavia Queen (tenthcompanion)
- Fire
- Water
- Metal
- Earth
- Earth
- Earth
- Wind

Headmaster Vale was walking around her office, checking various papers that are strewn about. Another person, a man to be precise, watched her as she paced about. The man was Paul Sandford, a teacher of Wind Magic and Magic History. He had been a close advisor to her father, whom had recently died.

"I'm sure you're nervous, but there's no need to be in such a hurry" said Paul.

"I'm not nervous. I just need to check a few things before the new students arrive. There were some oddities in this group." replied Kristen.

"Which ones are the oddities? There's that Aeromancer, Shion Igna and that older Pyromancer, Indigo Rogers. Oh, and that Hydromancer, Michael Lee, along with that Geomancer, Crystal Nightwish."

"No, the oddities are Zane Reav and Christian Miles. If what the report says is true then we may be in for a surprise."

"What for? What do the reports say?"

"Apparently these two use…"

Today is the first day of the new school year, and the new class is being introduced. You have all been gathered in the gym, though the only thing that has been revealed to you is that a certain announcement was about to be made by the headmaster. Kristen Vale took her place in front of the students, the fields of various elements strewn about behind her.

"You were all invited here for one reason or another. Some of you come from a lineage of Mancers, while others are first generations, but one thing you all have in common. You are inexperienced and as raw as the elements you control. That is why you are here, and with our help you will be able to use these abilities to their fullest extent. Before we get ahead of ourselves I should mention that the reason you all have been gathered here, in this particular room, is so that we may evaluate your control and strength. The following students have been selected to dual each other." She pulled a piece of paper from a pocket on her pants and started listing of matches. "Jason Barrett versus Crystal Nightwish, Shion Igna versus Indigo Rogers, Maristella Reilly versus Nicholas Skye, Nathan Steele versus Kayla Wash, and finally, Zane Reav versus Christian Miles. We will give you a few moments to prepare, so go ahead and pair up. Once you are done choose one of the fields behind me and when we give the signal you may begin. A quick note, though. Each one of these fields plays to the strength of a certain element so choose wisely."

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Kristen Vale​

Kristen had just now managed to finish her welcome speech to the new students. She looked on towards the students in the bleachers to see how each one would react. As usual, there were some who took the initiative to find their sparring partners and some that stood back to observe first. She couldn't fault a student for being either type, it showed either a willingness to get things done or the ability to be patient, and those were useful for Mancers of all kinds. More and more students began to spread out. Most were finding a match to watch, since most of the students showed only glimpses of magic ability or were too unstable to control it. A couple of students, seemed to have issues with fighting as well, but that was one thing Kristen was against. By her reasoning, those unable to compete in matches were either cowardly or couldn't grasp why these matches were important, which was also detestable to her due to how much can be learned from these matches. Almost on cue, one of the students approached her. It took her a few moments to register who it was, after which she recognized the student to be Michael Lee, one of the new Hydromancers.

"Ma'am... I know the battles are just to show our abilities, but…" Michael started.

She noticed him staring at a bottle of water in his bag. It looked to have just settled down when waves started to ebb, flow, and crash down in the bottle, almost like a tiny sea. It was basic for Hydromancers to control water like that, but for her it just wasn't that impressive. Then again, she had seen a student literally ride up a waterfall before coming to the school, so the water bottle event just looked like a cute parlor trick. Michael looked back at Kristen, sighing.

"I'd really prefer not to fight anyone, I'm pacifist… Maybe I could do something else to show my ability…?"

Now that was a word she never liked hearing. Her brow even furrowed for a moment when he said pacifist. They were nothing more than cowards who didn't have confidence, or so she thought. Regardless, that was something that could be changed through reasoning, and she had people perfect for that job. She knew one of the newer teachers, Eric Long would be perfect for helping this kind of student, since he was well practiced in therapy and was also a Hydromancer. With a bit of work she hoped Michael would develop into a fine student suited to her ideas.

She grabbed a small phone from a pocket on her pants and started looking through a list of contacts. Eric Long was fairly high up on the list of teachers and within a few moments she sent him a message to report to the gym and wait by Metal Field A. She received a quick confirmation on the matter. The phone was returned to her pocket, and was followed by a quick look at Michael.

"I just contacted another teacher. His name is Mr. Eric Long. He'll help you through your evaluation process, but I'm going to make this clear now. You will have to participate in these matches eventually, there's no exception on the matter. The only reason you aren't in one right now is simply because, from what we already know, you'd be overwhelmed too easily. For now, though, you should be able to find Mr. Long at one of the Metal fields. He's fairly young for a teacher, so you should be able to notice him pretty easily."

Her tone with Michael was coated with nonchalant, being sure not to sound too hostile on the first day, but her job was a business of sorts and she couldn't afford to have faulty products. The school's reputation wasn't built on faulty products, and neither was her plans, but that would have to wait. She just hoped the boy would be a bit less timid in the future and he would grasp the necessity in these duels. She sighed and returned her attention to the other students. One of the matches had already started. It was one of the Igna kids. The girl seemed promising, but pretty unusual that she wasn't a Pyromancer. After her initial thoughts on the match she started to walk around the gym, gauging the progress of each pair. Unfortunately, the only pairs that even seemed ready were Ms. Igna and Mr. Rogers pair, and the Mr. Barrett and Ms. Nightwish pair. As such, she continued walking.

.

Shima Aono - Battle On!

The Gymnasium

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