[h3]The Opening Ceremony[/h3][hr]9:07 AM, August 6th, 1210PW. 35 Degrees Fahrenheit. Raining.[hr][color=f7976a]"So I finally tested my theory out. Turns out you [i]can[/i] safely regrow someone's entire spine, provided it's done within five to seven minutes after removal."
"Wait, [i]what!?[/i] What the hell is going on in that workshop of yours?"[/color]

-Transcript excerpt from Mordhaben's Institute medical science meeting notes, 823PW.[hr]

The doors to the side wings of the Administrative Building finally open up, interrupting any ongoing conversations, and a stream of roughly five people each in the Mordhaben's ceremonial uniform steps out and slowly walks around the student body along the side paths. A series of chairs appears at each side of the bottom of the steps to the front door and they all take a seat, their burnt orange half capes turning to a dull brownish color with each raindrop, and their black cloth caps and military greatcoats hiding the splotches of dampness. One, near the center, is wearing a burnt orange hood, and his head is wrapped in bandages, with his eyes obscured by a pair of black aviation goggles. He casts a hand upwards and the rain stops. Or, rather, it seems to stop - any student who looks upwards would see the rain splattering and pooling upon an invisible ceiling. He waves his hand once more, and from beneath the administrative building's portico a large sheet of old, weather beaten canvas drops down in front of the podium, with a weight at the bottom. A series of straps throws itself over the weighted pole, keeping the screen secured.

With low, crunching footsteps, a gigantic, nine-foot tall first-generation Chimera in a business suit and a much smaller, more humanoid later generation chimera with the same tail step out from around the side of the canvas. A projector hidden somewhere in the back of the courtyard throws an image across the canvas screen. It's just Mordhaben's logo, flickering, with some odd bars and film artifacts popping in and out of the image. The two Chimeras stand off to the side as they address the audience - the hulking lobsterlike one opened its insectoid incisors and began moving what passed as a mouth, and some sort of sound came out that one could assume was an attempt at speech.

[color=004b80]"KKKkKKclllkclk. Tschchkk TkTkTkTk CRKlak. Ack, cakaaack, CLK'k,"[/color] and such similar lines spouted from it. It sounded more like someone shaking a box full of plastic clapper toys than like any kind of animal speaking, but the smaller Chimera standing alongside the larger one nodded and began translating much more loudly after a few seconds. [color=00746b]"Welcome to Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages. I am Administrator Boorkat Malkin, and this is my assistant, Katrice. Due to my speech difficulties, we have prepared a short film, which will serve to inform you all of why we're here and what will happen next. Please do not speak too loudly lest you disrupt the viewing experience for others. Mr. Barnham, if you would..."[/color]

The Administrator and his assistant moved down the flight of stairs to take a seat on the ground at the bottom. Crustacean tails as large as theirs apparently made it impossible for them to use backed chairs of any sort. The canvas screen flickered, and what would be the very first motion picture many students (particularly those not from major cities) had ever seen looped over the top of the canvas and jittered into place on the screen in shades of black and white.

[hr]
Over the black square loudspeakers attached to the sides of the administrative building came a lively, friendly tune. Audio quality was as high as could be expected for a vinyl spool, but it was by no means [i]bad[/i]. Peaceful still shots of human cities panned across the screen in sequence: one of a small house, with the family patriarch carrying a young child out to retrieve a newspaper - one of a restaurant filled with people, with the shot focused on a group of friends laughing as they drink - one of a park full of people and chimeras walking their pet dogs, virehounds, and blundcats as children play with a frisbee in the background - amongst others. A narrator speaks with a perfect transatlantic accent over the music.

[color=f7976a]"Peaceful society is a sacred thing. People have, after thousands of years, almost mastered the art of living together happily and without conflict. Children can grow up with their parents and their siblings. Young people can go to school and get an education. Adults can get jobs doing the things they enjoy, and perhaps eventually find the person they love and start a new family of their own."[/color]

The film shifts to patriotic scenes of soldiers running through an obstacle course, their thin steel helmets loosely bouncing atop their heads as they run. They pull their rifles to their shoulders and throw themselves to the ground upon reaching a line of sandbags, and the camera zooms in on one small, scraggly human man with a look of absolute determination on his face. He fires his rifle several times and the image cuts to one of rounds punching holes in a thinly painted tin target plate.

[color=f7976a]"Over the millennia, it has been the job of young, strong people like yourselves to protect our communities so that others can continue living happily. These soldiers are necessary for the continued existence of all we hold dear. But they are not enough alone."[/color]

As the music shifts to a darker, more mysterious tune, a scene of four shadowed humanoid figures walking up a hill and away from the camera appears. One of them has a thin, curved ceremonial sword at his hip. The camera slowly rises over the hill, and on the other side, a burning town complete with sounds of sporadic gunfire and distant screams can be seen. The shadowed figures reach the top of the hill. [color=f7976a]"This is what happens when our armies fail. This is real footage from the destruction of the village of Vivat, on the southeast outskirts of the Unoctocan Empire. When the alert was raised, the Empire sent out an expeditionary force to protect Vivat from a Monster feeding frenzy, but the expeditionary force found itself overwhelmed and quickly crumbled as they tried to evacuate the town's citizens amidst the chaos."[/color]

The music ends. Suddenly, a black cloud sweeps across the ground and into the town from all directions. Every building turns black, every window darkens, and the sounds of mayhem stop. Two of the shadowed figures turn to one another and seem to be speaking to one another. One shouts at the other and points at the camera, then at the burning village, as the other's face twists into an expression of absolute horror. The four turn their backs on the camera and raise their palms toward the village, just as the black shadow across the place sweeps to the center of the town, slowly returning color to the place as it gathers itself up. Something [i]extremely[/i] bad is happening there, and the four shadowed figures take a combat stance. Ripples of force erupt from their hands, shattering the air as they fly towards Vivat, followed by a trail of blooming flowers and grass spilling upwards from the ground. The town crumbles as it's struck, revealing a shining black orb perhaps twenty meters across forming in the town square.

The orb forms a mouth and screams horribly, like thousands of men burning to death - the only sound since the end of the music - and it erupts into hundreds of thousands of shards of broken black glass when the ripple of magic flows through it. The scene cuts to black as the narrator continues.

[color=f7976a]"A Mage task force was instructed to bring along a cameraman when they went to offer their support to the expeditionary force, in order to record the humanitarian efforts of the military in reconstructing the town and healing the injured townspeople. The Mages were late, and had they come any earlier, they would have been caught in the Shade's cloud, resulting in their certain deaths. The best the task force could do was destroy the Shade's body and purify the corrupted dead before it became something worse."[/color]

The black image is coated with a growing and increasingly ornate white pattern, which then opens up from the center into a scene of a scrap of text-filled paper being signed by a hand in a business suit. The scene cuts to a zoomed out view of the Unoctocan Parliament's Green Room - a huge, round place with green floral wallpaper and wooden side panels along the bottom few feet of the walls, with a domed ceiling. A series of six round wraparound desks filled with hordes of people in suits wraps around the room along the bottom of the image, and a man instantly recognizable as the Czar is at a desk in the center, signing a new bill into law.

[color=f7976a]"In response to this tragedy, the Unoctocan Empire decided to formally recognize Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages, amongst other, smaller academies elsewhere, as an official training ground for Imperial Mages - independent magic users trained in The Way whose duty it is to deal with threats to the citizens of the Empire long before they can cause another disaster on the scale of the destruction of Vivat."[/color]

The scene shifts once more to the Mordhaben's Institute logo and slogan.

[color=f7976a]"You are the seventh class to come to the Institute since the signing of the Imperial Mage Educational Funding budget bill. There have been severe injuries in that time, and sixteen students have returned home in coffins. In that time, over two hundred have safely graduated, with more on the way. Education here at the Institute will be rigorous and at times extremely dangerous. Students are required to take part in weekly outings under the guidance of either a staff member or a professional Mage as well. It is not for the faint of heart, and if you do not accept the risk, telephones are available in the entrance hall, and the train back to the Imperial City of Unoctoc Station will depart in two hours. Otherwise, breakfast will be served in the Cafeteria, followed by the beginning of the entrance exams. Good luck!"[/color][hr]Finally, the canvas screen rolls up, and an older human student in a black military uniform standing in front of the Podium addresses the crowd.

[color=a187be]"Cafeteria's this way. Follow me."[/color]

He turns away and walks through the Administrative Building doors.[hr][@Eragon][@Jay Kalton][@GrafRoy Zeppeli][@Dark Light][@Etranger][@hagroden][@kkbird123]