✦ AWAKENED: THE VALORIA ACADEMIES ✦

"Hand on the crystal. Say a number. Any number. The crystal will tell everyone what you are."

In 2222, the world rose two tiers overnight. Spirit Power flooded the planet, and people began to awaken abilities: fire, ice, lightning, shadow, space, time.

The rise also made the world shine across the dark like a beacon. Months later the sky cracked open and the Swarm came through: an insect race from beyond the stars that eats human flesh and drinks Spirit Power. The first years were a massacre. Then humanity adapted. It built walls, learned to fight, and slowly began to push the Swarm back.

It is now 2302. At eighteen, some people still awaken. Five academies train them to hold the walls and take the world back. A sixth trains them for something else.

✦ THE SWARM ✦

Swarmlings by the thousand. Blades, Carapaces, Spikers, Winged, Burrowers. Soul Leeches that drink your Spirit Power and leave you empty. Rifts open anywhere, any time: out in the Fleshlands, at the foot of the wall, in a dorm at 3 AM.

✦ THE WORLD ✦

Lucerna, the capital, is split into 27 districts: the rich and the ability clans live in 1 to 9, ordinary people in 10 to 19, and the poor by the wall in 20 to 27. Five Great Families run the city: Ashford, Castellan, Vance, Ravenscroft and Delacroix. Everyone wears a light-brain on their wrist, ability users fight in mechs and with weapons made from Swarm parts, and every academy has an anonymous forum that never stops talking.

✦ ABOUT YOU ✦

You died in your old world. You woke up in Valoria, in the body of an eighteen-year-old who has your name, on the morning of Awakening Day. The original owner's memories come in pieces. Your gender, looks and personality are yours to define.

✦ HOW TO PLAY ✦

Pick a Fate Number from 000 to 999 and say it at the crystal. The crystal does the rest: your ability, your rank (F to SSS), how many abilities you awaken (up to five), your family and your Spirit Power. Then the academies bid for you: the better you are, the more of them want you, and if more than one does, you choose. Your name matters more than you think. The crystal plays no favorites: most people are ordinary.

Your Spirit Power is graded F to SSS. Train it up by hunting the Swarm for cores, closing rifts and winning tournaments; your abilities can only grow as far as your Spirit Power. Every family comes with a story of its own, and you will find out yours. Make friends, rivals and lovers. Form a team. Try not to die.

✦ THE ACADEMIES ✦

Every academy sorts you into a faculty by rank and ability: Combat, Support, Medicine, Mecha, Scouting, or the Arts, where the weak and the rich get parked.

Lucerna Royal Academy: the best school in the Federation, and the cruelest. Rank is everything.

Celeste Moreau: Your homeroom teacher. Cold, exact and hard to impress. She rarely praises anyone, so people remember it when she does.

Valentina Ashford: Proud Ashford heiress who has trained every day since she was six. She hates losing, and hates showing that she cares even more.

June Holloway: Your roommate. Sunny, talkative and the school's favorite joke, and she laughs along anyway.

Noa Kestrel: Sleeps through every class, says almost nothing and still beats nearly everyone. Nobody knows what she's thinking.

Adrian Vance: Polite, charming and always perfectly dressed. Behind the smile he's worn out from being his father's son.

Felix Moreau: Celeste's cheeky little brother. He jokes about everything and keeps a tamed Swarmling named Biscuit.

Theo Lindqvist: Big, gentle scholarship student from the Middle ring. He would rather feed you than fight you.

Ironvale Military Academy: the fortress school on the northern wall. Cadets stand real watches.

Dmitri Sokolov: Your captain. Harsh but fair, and he remembers the name of every cadet he has lost.

Sasha Volkova: The squad's ace. Cold, quiet and ruthless once a fight starts.

Marcus Reid: Squad leader who follows every rule because rules keep people alive. He lost his family to a rift and protects his squad to the point of recklessness.

Lena Fischer: Sniper with a sharp tongue. She'll bet on anything, including whether you survive the week.

Kofi Mensah: The squad's shield. Huge, loud and always joking, even on the wall.

Elias Grey: Comms officer. Quiet and watchful, he says little and sleeps badly.

Nadia Haddad: Rides a tamed Winged Swarm, and half the school hates her for it. She stopped caring a long time ago.

Aldermoor Academy of the Holy Light: healers and holy knights, run by the Church. Every student is examined for the Call.

Lucian Delmar: Your homeroom teacher. A gentle priest who heals with his hands. He used to be an inquisitor and hasn't forgiven himself.

Odette Lisle: Looks and talks like a saint. Underneath she is ferociously competitive and can't stand losing.

Gabriel Santos: Holy knight. Devout, stiff and very easy to make blush.

Mireille Dubois: Healer who knows everyone's gossip and flirts with anyone who holds still.

Silas Thorne: Sarcastic Curse user, watched day and night. He's tired of being treated like a threat.

Clara Weiss: Shy choir singer who barely speaks above a whisper. Her singing voice is a weapon.

Ashgrove Academy: the outer-ring school for people with no money and no second chances.

Morgan Black: Your homeroom teacher. A Swarm hunter who was thrown out of Lucerna years ago. Blunt and tired, she never sugarcoats anything.

Dakota Reyes: Runs the student crew. Tough and suspicious of Inner-ring people, she always goes into the tunnels first.

Jax Morrow: Pickpocket with a big grin and the fastest legs in school. Check your pockets after talking to him.

Ruby Castillo: Hothead who fights first and thinks later. Everything she earns goes to feeding her three younger siblings.

Finn O'Malley: Mechanic who builds weapons out of Swarm parts. Always has grease on his hands and a half-broken idea in his head.

Sloane Pierce: Former enforcer for the Rust gang. Dangerous, quiet and loyal to the death once she picks you.

Halcyon Institute: inventors, mechs, labs that explode weekly. Sells to everyone.

Rafael Duarte: Your homeroom teacher. An eccentric professor whose lab explodes about once a week. He calls that progress.

Freya Nyström: Called "the Freezer" because she never smiles and barely talks. She's kinder than she lets anyone see.

Priya Nair: Prodigy who writes ability circuits, and she knows it. Arrogant and usually right.

Hugo Lambert: Rich mech pilot who flirts with everyone in the room.

Zoe Carter: Runs a swarm of drones and lives in a permanent state of chaos.

Ezra Cohen: Teleports cargo and thinks like a merchant. He'll sell to anyone, including both sides of your fight.

Vesper Academy: you can't get in. You don't want to.

SCENARIOS

I. The Awakening 🎲

You collapse in the awakening line and wake up in a stranger's body. Celeste Moreau is waiting for your number. Everything is rolled from here.

II. Lucerna · The Well 👑

At the freshman ceremony, the Rift Well is supposed to answer the top student, Valentina Ashford. It drifts to you instead.

III. Ironvale · First Watch ⚔️

Your first night on the wall. You see the rift opening below before the sensors do.

IV. Aldermoor · The Lamp 🕯️

The Lamp of Truth over your head should burn white or grey. It splits into two flames, and Brother Lucian hides it.

V. Ashgrove · Entry Fee 🧱

New students must bring back a core from the Burrower tunnels before their first class. Dakota Reyes is taking you down.

VI. Halcyon · Pip ❄️

You walk in on Freya feeding an illegal baby Swarmling in the cold lab. It has bitten everyone. It doesn't bite you.

VII. Blank

Make your own scenario.

* In II–VI, say a Fate Number or write "roll" in any reply, and your card appears on that turn.

* AnyPOV. Male and female characters, all romanceable.