Chapter 19 House selection ceremony
The principle of the academy was the extremely rare Fire and Wind Dual element wielder whose prowess lied in his ability to control large crowds of soldiers on a battlefield.
He was the master of a self created A rank spell which he called the ‘ Fire Tornado ‘ , which was quite literally a destructive tornado burning with blazing flames. A move said to have destroyed 1 thousand soldiers at once . One of the greatest warriors in Avalon he was also one of Alexander’s closest friends , as the two can be said to have carved the entire fire nation together.
With his love for teaching , he carried a passion towards creating this academy , Hence when Alexander made him the principal of the academy he worked with passion to make the academy one of the best in the continent.
His name was ‘ Chanakya ‘ , but students from the academy called him ‘ The professor ‘ instead of sir principal.
Only the staff and teachers from the academy referred to Chanakya as sir principal , As he was well respected by both the students and the teachers.
Chanakya’s decision was supreme in the academy with him governing through a just yet iron fist , as there was never any mercy shown to those who broke school laws or tried to cause harm to the future of the students.
As the first year students would soon find out , Chanakya was not someone who cared at all if a student was from a Noble house or a common house , wether he was a national of Avalon or a foreign student . For him everyone was equal and everyone was the same.
Silence reigned over the crowd as Chanakya’s natural aura commanded that he be heard as he took the stage and started to speak …..
” Children , Welcome to the national academy of Avalon. One of the best and most prestigious academies in the entire Everlon continent , with a long list of extremely successful alumini.
I do not wish to brag about the achievements of this institution as i am sure everyone of you know them already. I understand that it is not easy for you younglings to leave your parents house to stay in this unknown place amongst unknown people. However trust me when I say this kids ‘ You are safe here ‘.
You have a golden chance to learn about our history , our culture and about the way of a warrior. No matter what field of profession you may have a talent in , the academy is the place for that talent to shine and grow .
So instead of focusing on the difficulty of seperation from your family , if you all focus on improving yourself in the years to come , let me assure you that all of you can become champions in life.
Now let me give the floor away to the headmaster of the ‘ Bhakti ‘ house ( House Of Faith ) , who will explain you more about the academy “.
A stunning woman wearing a red robe took the stage as she glanced over the crowd and addressed everyone in a sweet yet stern voice
” Thankyou sir principal , Good morning children , I’m professor Layla , i teach the subject advanced elemental arts , something that you all don’t need to worry for the next 2 years.
Before you all officially start your educational journey here , let me tell you all about the unique nature of the national academy in which it divides all newly entered students into four different houses which act as your academy family during the duration of your stay here.
The four houses are
Gyan house ( House of knowledge ) ( Blue )
Dharma house ( House of Reality ) ( Yellow )
Karma house ( House of Destiny ) ( Green)
Bhakti house ( House of faith ) ( Red )
All of you will be assigned to one of these four houses , as your dormitories will depend on what house you belong to as well as some other special privilages .
Throughout the year there will be many different competitions in which all the houses shall participate and compete in with One house being declared the winner at the end of the year.
Every member of the winning house recieves lucrative rewards depending on their contribution to the houses victory as well as bragging rights over all the other houses.
Last year the winner was the Karma house ( Green house ) , and the green house students Live with their heads held high in the corridors of the academy , while the others live with regret and shame.
The same goes for us teachers , as every teacher except the principal belongs to a house and we wish to win at all costs .
Hence before your schooling officially starts All of you younglings will go through a simple aptitude test and elemental affinity test , the same as you had when you were born , and depending on your results the house masters may spend merit points to acquire you into their factions , or you may be drafted randomly incase no headmaster is willing to spend points on you .
Hence line-up boys and girls the most exciting part of your schooling career is to start now ! “.
Excited clamour and chatter started amongst the students , everyone already knew about the house system of the academy prior to coming here , and everyone was excited to join a specific house and partake in house activities to bring the house they belonged to Honor and Glory.
Some were shy to display their talents infront of the academy , while some were excited to showoff their true worth. oftentimes than not , it was the House selection ceremony that gave the truly strong students a nudge in the right direction to be motivated and hard working.
The house system was a genius move by Chanakya as with healthy competition he motivate the students to strive for both individual and collective development.
If there was no house system , while the better performing students would get more resources from the academy and they would compete amongst each other , there would be no sense of group development or a reason to help others to rise with you.
Students would just try and undermine each other and hamper each other’s progress in that case , which was not something that Chanakya wanted for citizens of Avalon.
But by being in a group , they would try and help their teammates in team battles and house mates to rise higher too , soo that the house could collectively win in the end. Thereby teaching the importance of teamwork and collective development.
The merit points that the houses had at the end of a year , were recredited as 1/10th their original value at the start of the new year. These merit points were the resource pool that the various headmasters could use to pool in fresh talents , as they could use them to bid on the talents they found promising and recruit them into their houses .
Hence the better a house performed the previous year , the more merit points they would have in the coming year’s newbie house drafting ceremony . However irrespective of how the headmasters used these points , after the ceremony and the drafting of every single new student , the new year officially started and the merit counters were reset to 0.
In the previous year , the winners were
Karma ( Green ) House with ( 1280 ) merit points
Bhakti ( Red ) house was second with ( 1220 ) points
Gyan ( Blue) house came third with (960) points
while
Dharma ( Yellow ) house came last with ( 740 ) points.
It was a tough fight between the red and green house , however the difference maker was one newbie called Percy Draco . Drafted to Karma house , he was a force to be reckoned with single handedly winning the house 140 merit points as well as the special Rookie of the year award worth 30 merit points , bringing his total to 170 points in contribution towards his house.
Due to his exceptional performance , Karma house headmaster now sat with 128 merit points in the auction. 6 more than Bhakti house’s headmaster sitting with 122!
As the students were sorted into a queue and being checked of their aptitude and elemental affinity . The house masters and the principal looked on from the platform above , contemplating on wether or not to use merit points to draft a promising newbie.