Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rules

1. Have your student draw the map of the Below! If you need a refresher, it's in the World of Below subforum!
   
2. Once you've finished, post your answer here, along with a short reply of them turning in the assignment.
   
3. If you have any questions, please PM me!

Rules

1. Write 2-3 paragraphs on the courtship rituals for any race. You can even do hybrids if you can think of a good way to mix them! Feel free to add in your students thoughts on the matter.
   
2. Once you have completed the assignment, have your student post here to turn in their report to Kanna.
   
3. If you have any questions, please PM me!
   

Rules

1. Roll 1 100 sided die. This is how well you did on your presentation! Any roll from 25-95 will pass! You can ask the teacher for one redo by quoting me.
   
2. Once you roll, make an RP response of how they felt during the presentation!
   
3. If you have any questions, please PM me!
   

Jezebeth sat in her seat, her legs singing underneath as she listened to the teacher begin the lecture. She was honestly excited they were talking about the histories over the different races. She had already read a bit on her own, the Fallen. Still, she listened just as intently when they talk about them as well. The small smile on her face never faltered, even as she mentioned homework for the night.

She settled into her desk after classes were over and set to work; I know that for a long time Fallen didn't know where they came from! But it was eventually realized that the Fallen of Below actually came from Above! The first Fallen to write history of the Fallen is one of the six saints; Saint Cassiel! The other five saints are; Acelia, Yurie, Mariel, Lionel, and Fanyuel. These six saints are often worshiped alongside the Nine in Fallen culture. They are all very important figures in Fallen history. The Fallen are the race that helped to put an end to the 50 year war as well, creating the Treat of Maiden's Price!

In Fallen society there is typically a hierarchy of elders, with younger Fallen looking to older Fallen for judgement. Cassiel's Watch and the Winged Isle are run by a council of elders referred to as the Arch Regents. I also read in a book that a Fallen with give feathers to people they care deeply for in a like-like kind of way. I don't have anyone I like-like yet, but some day I'm sure I will!

She might have realized that the last part of her essay went on a bit of a tangent. But oh well, she returned to class the next day and handed in the paper just the way it was. She waited patiently for the teacher to give her a little pat on her head and than she practically skipped to her usual seat a few rows back in the class room.

Ustule stared at Miss Kanna, her bright pink eyes wide with pure, unadulterated panic. Write about their culture?! Their culture?! A thousand generations of Litches screamed at her, NO! No other race had business knowing about them! No other race had any business with Litch culture at all! Imps, well, alright, Imps were quite alright, but when other races came head-to-head with Litches, things never ended well!

She'd been told all her life to never talk about their customs and traditions with strangers, but here she was being asked to write about it! In two 'paragraphs,' no less! She slumped in her chair and stared at her notebook as it if were a death sentence. This was her home now. Her stupid, cruddy, dumb home now. All because of some stupid, stupid... She blinked to push back the incoming tears and straightened her back. She couldn't go home. They'd taken her south, and now she couldn't go home. And apparently in the south, they divulged all their secrets to other people.

Alright, then. When in the South...

Litch culture is often misinterpreted by the other races. I know this for a fact, because a lot of people have been telling me that I am strange and not what is expected of a Litch. I do not know why it is. It is very confusing.

They tell me that Litches like learning things. This is true. We like learning things a lot. We are very interested in knowing things, and if we are interested in something, we will learn everything there is to know about it. We like to learn things slow, so that we can learn them right. If we are trying something for the first time, we will do it slowly and carefully. We do not like making mistakes, with chores or with people.

But people also tell me that I should know things I don't know, just because I come from Boreas, and Boreas is where Litches come from. I don't think this is true, because there are a lot of places in Boreas, and we don't travel very much. I know a lot about things back home, but I don't know a lot of things here, and one time when we went to another village, I saw lots of things I didn't know. So I think that people think that because Litches learn lots of things we know lots of things, but I don't think that's true.

People also say that Litches are very cold. They say that we do not emote enough, and that we are not very good at knowing how other people are feeling. I think this is probably true, because I have seen a lot of people acting ways that people back home never acted. This seems to be the way other people act and live. But life here is also a lot faster than it was back home, so I think maybe we Litches act colder because we live life slower. We like to be patient and we like to be accurate, so we move slower, and we act slower. So this makes it harder for us to understand how other people act and why, because they all act really fast. This is something I think we actually agree with Demons on--Demons are prone to politeness, and we like being polite, too. So we can agree on that.

But some things we don't agree on with Demons. Demons come from the very far south, and Litches come from the very far north, so we don't always see eye to eye on what is important or right to do. I think Demons tend to overreact, but maybe they think that we Litches tend to overreact. So maybe there's some truth to both sides.

That was hard to write, in so many ways. But she was certain that she had answered the question without mentioning anything she shouldn't have. She set the paper on Miss Kanna's desk and walked back to her own.

Once upon a time, Zalir would have waited until partner picking was done to pair up with whoever was left over, but zey couldn't help but notice as zey walked in today that zeir new friend Aella was in zeir class. When it came time to pick partners, zey scooped up zeir notebook and pen and asked her to be zeir partner. A lively conversation ensued, and to Zalir's delight--and not to zeir surprise--much philosophizing and speculation was involved.

Zalir loved having friends.

My partner was Aella, a Chimera-Fallen hybrid. The two cultures are rather different, according to her, with the Fallen placing a higher priority on obeisance to a hierarchy and Chimeras encouraging independence and ambition. The mix, then, puts her ancestry at odds with itself. Being a hybrid of the two, she says, is awkward in both directions. As a Fallen, she is expected to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors and pay homage to them with her actions and attitudes. Unfortunately, she does not know much about her specific individual ancestors, so following this tenant is difficult. Especially so since her Chimera heritage manifests, in part, as an instinctive urge to be an individual of her own.

There are, sadly, limits to the independence encouraged by traditional Chimera culture; Chimeras are expected to be members of a Clan, and as a hybrid, Aella is unlikely to be considered for adoption into one. She explained to me that Chimeras are not so tolerant of other races as Fallen are; hybrids are looked down on in their society. For this reason, and for the high value they place on learning and knowledge, she actually favors her Fallen heritage over her Chimera.

Being a hybrid is difficult for her--Chimera would outright ignore her in their homeland, and Fallen would be too polite to tell her if her existence offended them. Her inability to fit in with either of her races bothers her, but also gives her an added attachment to the society that has been created by the Academy. She has no intentions of moving to the homelands of her races or trying to fit into their society--it would be futile, and I think she is quite content to live here in the culture we have made for ourselves.

Zey chewed on the end of their pen, considering adding more. No? No, that seemed about right. Zey handed it to Aella to let her read it, and turned it in.

For once Ganymede decided to sit at the front of the class. Well, they told themself they decided to sit there, but that was mostly because the back seats were occupied. Bleh.

They sat and watched while Kanna spoke, finding her to be very.. very energetic... They weren't sure if they liked that... But at least she knew homework was terrible. But if she knew homework was terrible, why did she have to assign it? Gross.

Geists have a lot of Princes that watch over them I guess. Six. It's called "Prince" but anyone can be a prince so you don't have to be a boy. Geists have lots of big families even though they wander off a lot. Unless you're from the cache, then you don't have a family so I don't think that's something that all Geists have to have. I read that there's supposed to be five grown ups in a house with kids, or its bad. Maybe that should happen here. More caretakers because there are a lot of kids and they all need a lot of stuff.

Geists like to borrow things! But only sometimes, when stuff is right. They don't borrow stuff they wouldn't want borrowed from them 'n stuff. Geists show people they like them by taking their things and then showing off. Its a fun game. But here, borrowing is not okay and taking things and showing them off is not okay either. I don't like that.

They stared at what they'd written... they hadn't really meant to go that deep into things, but oh well. Wasn't like anyone who mattered was going to see it. They placed the paper on Kanna's desk, staring at her intently for a moment without a word before heading out for the rest of the day.

History always fascinated Meris, which is why he tended to pay attention to although he was a bit worried on what the homework would entail since it was obvious it was going to be about the 50 year war. When Professor Kanna finally told them the assignment he hoped he could come up with something...

The war started due to a soul stone trade that went awry. The above lost their tempers and eventually ended up kidnapping a demon princess by the name of Elena. Eventually tensions between the demons and the above exploded into war. Things kept continuing until The above ended up firebombing and destroying several cities, one of which was Valir and ended up bringing more of Below’s races into the battle. Over time the Above started running out of soldiers and soul stones and Below suffered because their farmland and major cities were destroy causing them to starve. The Fallen of both sides decided enough was enough and created a council to end the war.

As for how this war affected me? I have a rather weird connection to the war. I'm not like most cache babies that are at the academy. In fact my family members are very well off Geists due to the actions they preformed during the war. I was told my family actually lived in Valir before the war and in fact a good chunk of my ancestors died in the bombing of the city. My grandparents barely managed to escape; and I almost wasn't here to write this paper as apparently My grandparents had already imbued the soul stone that was to become my mother and it was with them during the escape. As my grandparents are very patriotic souls, they of course went and joined the war effort soon after making sure that my mother's soul stone was taken care of by a family friend. Luckily they survived the war and are currently living in New Valir with the rest of my family helping to build the city. Even if they are reaching the end of their twilight years. It was due to the fellow soldiers they met and befriended during the war that lead them to sending my mother to the academy to learn more about different races and their cultures so that we could open up and be more accepting as a family. Its also here at the Academy where she met my father.

Meris had to have proof read that document sooo many times. His family was rather secretive after all and it was hard writing a paper about how the war affected him if wasn’t allowed to write most of what his family actually did during it. However that should be enough right? Oh well it was just going to have to be turned in the way it was. The next class period he turned in the assignment with a small smile towards the teacher and took his seat.

Morin loved history, which people often remarked was a bit weird considering he was in Arkham and slowly working towards possibly getting a music degree in the future. However he liked what he liked, so he was easily able to pay attention while Ms. Kanna was giving the lecture. Now what to write for that second section of the Essay was the answer.

The fifty year war was a war between The Above and The Below. The Above started with the kidnapping of a Demon Princess and it only got worse from there. The Demons lied, and dragged in another race that had nothing to do with the war causing them to fight just to protect themselves. Above then took it even further and started firebombing cities bringing even more races into the war. However things started to turn bad for both sides, Above had dwindling soul stones and were losing soldiers, Below had no food left due to all the bombing and where starving to death, eventually the fallen of both sides came together to create a council to end the war. Below started supplying above with soul stones again and Above would import extra food for the starving.

When talking about how the war affected me, my story isn’t that different from others around the academy since I’m a cache baby. Due to the war I grew up here at Asphodel academy. I supposed if the war hadn’t happened I might be living with my parents or other family members somewhere up north, but as such I was awoken here and raised by the caretakers. This helps in the fact that I am not just defined by Litch culture, I am in the position to understand other races and form my own opinions on them first with out any prejudices my family would have had. Then again maybe I'm being too hard on them and they could have been rather tolerant. Its hard to say good or bad things about them, seeing as there isn't any information on where I came from at all.

Hmm he probably could have written more, but it was good for now right? Finishing up his last sentences he packed up his stuff as he got ready to leave for class. He made sure to hand the assignment in to the teacher on his way in and took his seat next to one of his friends.