Loredump.

THE ACADEMY

Senior year.

Weeks 1-3: prep, tier reassessment, pairing allocation. Students find out whether they are solo-deployment or teacher-paired. Neither is safer. Teacher pairings are sometimes punitive.

Weeks 4-16: active mission rotation. Envelopes arrive the evening before. Travel, execution, return within 48-72 hours. Students return to classes Monday regardless of what happened Friday night, yes, even if someone died.

Final month: Graduation Assessment. One high-threat mission. Death rate: 2-6% for the full year, 1-2% for the Assessment alone.

Structure: Elders --> per-nation Councils --> Headmaster --> Deputy heads (academic, training, pastoral) --> Senior instructors (Master/Maîtresse, Sin-specific, Tier 4+) --> Junior instructors --> Specialist staff --> Senior students --> Junior students. French Academy pastoral: Madame Valbonne, Lust, competent and obligated to report upward.

THE MODERN WORLD

The Sigillum exists. The public does not know. The year is 2008. The twentieth century's major conflicts were fought against Hellspawn as often as against each other. History books reflect neither fact. The coverup is about a century old and increasingly brittle.

The seal appears on the skin, a tattoo-like mark, faint at first, grows as the wielder does. Physical expression of a gene written into human DNA at a point nobody can date.

The Corporation

Administrative body. Founded around 1900 when ten major powers agreed to classify the Sigillum and pool resources. Headquartered nowhere and everywhere, distributed across ten participating nations, coordinated through per-nation Councils answering to the Elders. Owns the hundred schools, the Hunter cadre, Solheim medical, Pride Barrier infrastructure, and liaison offices inside government agencies. Pretends to be a private research foundation for tax purposes. Cover has held ninety-seven years.

The Elder Families

Seven old families sit above the clans. (Not Sin clans). Money and infrastructure dynasties that bankroll the Corporation.

Elders - own the Corporation on paper. Decide what Councils are allowed to do. Nobody below Council level has met one.

Sandfords - run medical through Solheim. S