The Imperial Academy of Psionic Learning and Wellness

Back to House Serpens.

Whether they studied there personally, take the MES stabilising drugs formulated and produced by the Academy, use one of the Psitech devices maintained or created by the Takumi, or simply benefit from the advances in MES research pioneered by the Tenured Sophists, the life of almost every person with MES has, on some level, been influenced by 'The Academy.'  The main source of MES research and education in Acheron Rho, the Academy is the pride and joy of House Serpens. The Academy trains those with M.E.S. to safely control their powers and keep their bodies healthy as they learn to live with the condition.

People who experience M.E.S. on Hroa are also trained at the Academy, but they undergo a more intensive experience. The Academy, as an entity for training those of Hroa and House Serpens, is an intense experience. Students often compete against each other, and are driven by a motivation to be the best of their class at their respective skills.

The Academy is a service for the sector, and those unable to pay for their tuition at the Academy can be sponsored by House Serpens. The Academy will train the student and then provide them a job associated with their skills, given they pass their Psychic Interaction Evaluations, also known as P.I.E.’s.

As with most architecture on Hroa, the Academy is mostly underground. A pristine network of glass, stone, and metal hallways link a wide variety of rooms and spaces. Classrooms, training rooms, libraries, dormitories, offices, computer labs, cafes, flexible study spaces, and a variety of other ammenities can be found by exploring the Academy's halls.

The Academy's staff are broadly divided into three groups. Nominators, who manage the Academy's students and determine their Psionic aptitude and discipline, the Sophists, wise mentors to MES students and, once Tenured, researchers into the nature of MES, and the Takumi, artisans and inventors responsible for the investigation and continued development of Psitech.

The Academy is also home to the Hroa Constrictors, House Serpens' Psiball team, and it is generally held that the sport originated at the Academy.

Education Structure

The Imperial Academy of Psionic Learning and Wellness is a multi-purpose school, with general classes for the population of Sero’ak, but the classes it is most well known for are those catered to the psionic population of Acheron Rho.

The classes are tailored to the students, with centuries of teaching experience culminating in a system where the students are sorted, then taught according to the ways their psionic abilities manifest and are best controlled. The general subjects are taken in classes alongside mundane students during the day, with a wide variety of optional modules available to those with the time and funding to take them.

Class schedules conform to typical Hroan sleep schedules with psionic classes occurring after the midday rest. The classes are grouped by skill levels determined by their teachers rather than by age, allowing more efficient teaching and preventing the need to accommodate for too wide a range of skills in one classroom.

The psionic classes are also not necessarily grouped by discipline, though such a group composition is common; many classes for the more physical disciplines require specific resources, and as such telekinetics or biopsions are grouped together, but other classes such as those to teach focus and control span across various disciplines.

The final grouping standard is based on the ideal learning style of the students, which is determined by The Inauguration after each student’s initial, mandatory training phase. This is a juncture that many serf students do not pass; unless they have the funding, either themselves or from a sponsorship, they will likely complete their training after the first year, and be sent back to the nobles they work for.

Within this first year, students are taught the basics of controlling their powers to ensure they are returned to society as a safe resource, rather than a ticking time bomb. Many students also learn a very specific application of their powers in this time, much like the Oarsmen that run the Hypercoil system.

Those less familiar with psionic training often have a belief in a sort of hierarchy to psionic techniques, things such as that only the most powerful telekinetic psions can fly or that healing is the easiest thing for a biopsion to learn. In reality, each psion learns at their own rate and each has their own unique aptitudes. For example, a telekinetic could exist that can fly and protect themselves from vacuum, but can barely lift more than a few pounds otherwise. A telepath could exist with the ability to alter memories but who cannot actually read minds beyond vague empathic impressions.

To facilitate the split in classes, the Academy itself is split into powered and non-powered areas, with the central building being used just for general classes, and the six towers being the locations students are permitted to use their powers at all, at least while in the first year of training. As well as the classrooms, there are a couple small psiball courts for students to use in their free time, or to be used for the more kinetic learners.

In the context of the greater Stars Without Number ruleset, the Academy does not follow the set structure for learning psychic techniques and disciplines. It is within the range of possibility that a telekinetic will learn the ability to fly, but won’t have any level 1 abilities. This is to allow a much greater flexibility within the populace, and to create an environment where skills are more like optional modules that you opt in to.

The Inauguration

The Inauguration, as mentioned previously, is a method of sorting students into the teaching methods that fit them best, whether it’s splitting between individual or group learning, or the practical style that meshes best with the students.

The ritual takes part after the first year of psionic training in the Academy, when a student is known to be carrying on in their education, though it is not uncommon that it is moved back or forward by a few months depending on the skill of the student. This allows the student to become familiar with their Nominator, and to end up a little more comfortable with the way that the Serpens staff handle themselves in societal situations.

At some point near the end of a student’s initial training phase, a teleporter will appear before them, give them only a moment to ready themselves, then transport them to a room. This can occur at any time and comes with no forewarning. Once they arrive in the small, well-lit room, the “Courier” departs and the ceremony begins. Despite the abrupt beginning, the ceremony itself is made to be accommodating to all students; it is intimate with only a telepath and the student’s Nominator present as Facilitators.

It begins with the signing of a waiver, and a stipulation that they may step away from continuing education when they wish prior to signing it, but once their signature dries, they consent to the ritual and all it entails.

Once consent has been established, and the waiver is placed to the side, the student is asked to close their eyes and enter a meditative trance that they should now be familiar with.. It is then that the Nominator uses their metapsionics to map out the patterns in the student’s psionics, seeing where metadimensional pathways have formed. This allows them to gauge how the student learns best, seeing how those pathways can be strengthened and new pathways can be formed, and also determining which methods would work best to take the student down the path they wish to walk themselves.

The other half of the ritual is done with eyes wide open, and with a telepathic link established between the two facilitators and the student. The Nominator will proceed to ask probing yet seemingly random questions; it is here that the telepath will transmit to the Nominator the most immediate thoughts, to lead them to how the student thinks, and then the conscious thoughts afterwards, to tell them what the student wants.

The student’s Nyūyō (入用: needs) are what place them in their class structure, whether this is a group bootcamp that emphasises physical exertion to unlock the mind, or an individual meditation and studying regimen. The student’s Yokkyū (欲求: wants) are what fill in the rest of their curriculum, to keep the mind engaged and eager. The groups that are created from this ritual are used for scheduling later down the line, and comprise of much smaller groups of students than the general classes.

While no steps are taken to remove the event from the student’s mind after the fact, as that would violate the sanctity of the mind, it is considered a huge faux pas to discuss your Inauguration with anyone outside your Nominator after the fact.