The Students of Topaz Second

Ever wonder what the teachers think of their students and how they’re graded? Ever wonder who is ranked best in the year, and who should be doing something else? Maybe you’d like to know how SEELIE grading work?

No? Didn’t think so. Well tough, because that’s what this is about! I’m starting with the students of Topaz Second – tomorrow I’ll show you the grades for Ruby. As for what everything in those graphs means…well, rather than give you an elaborate description I’ll keep it simple: left side basically covers ‘magical’ abilities, the right more normal things. The filled section is that students grading from the Midsummer exams, while the dotted line represents what the staff believe they will have achieved by Midwinter, the end of the second year.

Bring on the James May graphage!

Lance

Poor Lance, if Torsten Academy were any other SEELIE Academy he wouldn’t even graduate from the first year! Barely scraping the grade for mere application to a SEELIE Academy, he owes his continued education to both the kindness of Rembrandt Payne and the fact his Academy…well…isn’t really that well regarded. Even his predicted grades for the end of the second year aren’t up to much – nowhere near the mark needed for graduation! He can at least take heart that his physical abilities are above average (ST and DX), and with a bit of work (and a lot less perving) he could achieve a reasonable social (SO) rating (that covers things like charisma and social knowledge – a good rating for leaders, diplomats and empaths).

Chris

Chris isn’t much better off than his lecherous friend, but his upbringing has given him at least some advantages. Brought up in the technopolis of Malkuth, he has a better grasp of science and technology (TC) than the average person, and his social skills are also fairly developed thanks to his family (wealthy politicians). Along with general knowledge (KN), these are his key areas and the only ones he is expected to excel in. Unlike Lance, his current grades would get him through the first year of the Academy, but his predicted final grades for the second year are far from graduation levels.

Elone

The devout Hawk with dyed hair has one thing going for her grading that the average person wouldn’t expect on first impressions: her chi (CP) is well above normal levels. She is either naturally gifted or has some way of developing her spiritual power outside of the Academy – the effort she puts into her education is lacklustre at best. Even with such a stand-out rating, however, she lacks any magical powers that could possibly make use of her potent chi and her potential is limited to more mundane areas. Elone isn’t SEELIE material, and her presence at the Academy once again exposes Rembrandt Payne’s soft stance.

Andromeda

Andromeda may be a hard-working student, but her focus on people skills and sociology has left her others underdeveloped. As both Chris and Elone have proved, the social grading isn’t just reliant on social knowledge – Andromeda has that in spades, but perhaps lacks the natural charisma to make proper use of it. Like Elone, she also has above-average chi, but this has come through her dedicated studies in meditation and thus may reach its natural limit (for her age anyway) soon.

Phoenie

Phoenie’s leadership potential is her strongest asset, followed by her strong skills in research, giving her both good general knowledge and – even though such teachings have been held back due to Godhand – above average magical knowledge (MK). Her obsession with the supernatural perhaps holds her back from developing her other skills, but it also means her mental and psychic defences (DF) are stronger than most other students in her year. If she reaches her predicted grades, Phoenie will almost scrape the accepted mark for graduation into the third year (yes, almost – that’s how high SEELIE standards are – and shows just how bad Torsten Academy has become). Of course Rembrandt Payne will likely ignore SEELIE’s recommendations and promote most students anyway…

Shelley

For one of the quieter students, Shelley actually has very high potential – her predicated grades would easily get her into the third year. A lot of this is due to her parentage, however – Shelley’s mother is a magic-user, infamous enough for Godhand to target Shelley to reach. But because of that infamy, Endora Edwards has not had the time she would have liked to pass her skills on to her daughter, and so Shelley’s current grades are lower than they could be. With the influence of Godhand removed, Shelley could reach her potential before the end of the year – assuming the Academy can pull itself together in time!

Deneb

Deneb is, without question, one of the second year’s top students. Second only to Ceres in her Midsummer grades, and surpassing her in year-end predictions, Deneb is a perfect example of what a student of SEELIE should be. She isn’t perfect by any means – she lacks leadership skills and works better alone than in a team – but compared to some of her peers she looks infallible. Quite why she performs so well compared to everyone else, though, is another question entirely. Rembrandt Payne does his best to downplay her grades to SEELIE, and insist that her presence provides a role-model for the other students, lest they decide to transfer her to another, superior Academy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 00:47 and is filed under BONUS, Background Info, Statistics, Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.