Eden Academy

Formally titled Eden College, the school has stood in Berlint for more than five centuries and educates a body of roughly 2,500 students aged six to nineteen, spread across thirteen year levels split into primary, middle, and high stages. Eight residential halls, Specter through Rose, organize classes and dormitory life alike; the day runs to eight 45-minute periods, midterms and finals arrive each term, and afterward students are re-sorted into subject classes ranked A through F.

The campus sprawls across grounds the size of a small town, mixing lecture buildings with hills, farmland, training areas, and a river used for rafting; the school even keeps animals ranging from cows and sheep to eagles and ostriches for its agricultural program. Landmarks include the Tower of Wisdom, venue of the Imperial Scholars mixer, the circular Stella Lake named for its mirror-like surface at night, the guarded North Hall vault where exam papers await grading, and an off-limits old schoolhouse behind the Cline Hall dormitories. An apple emblem, evoking the forbidden fruit of the school's biblical namesake, marks everything from gates to the uniforms, which build on a white round-collared shirt: younger boys add a gold-trimmed black jacket with knee-length trousers, girls wear a square-necked black dress with a red ribbon at the collar, and Imperial Scholars alone drape a black cape lined in dark red over the ensemble.

Elegance is the institution's obsession. Applicants are judged from the moment they walk toward their interview, watched from windows above and tested with staged obstacles such as a boy stuck in a filthy gutter, and families who dirty their clothes are ejected on the spot. Admission requires a written exam and then a family interview conducted by three housemasters, with high-scoring near-misses placed on a confidential waiting list. Once inside, students live under a merit economy: Stella Stars reward exceptional grades, talents, or public service, and collecting eight elevates a student to Imperial Scholar, a rank carrying private lounges, dining, and garden privileges, while Tonitrus Bolts punish failure and misconduct, with eight forcing expulsion and an umbrella-shaped "Rain" marker serving as the warning stage. Striking a classmate costs three Bolts at once.

The school anchors Operation Strix, since the twice-yearly Imperial Scholars mixer is nearly the only place Donovan Desmond appears. Recent years bring turbulence: two busloads of first-years are hijacked by the Red Circus extremist group in a hostage crisis resolved by police and some quietly heroic students; Henry Henderson is framed for trading test answers for bribes and briefly resigns; and the effort that clears him exposes a long-running illegal admissions racket under Murdoch Swan, ending in mass staff arrests and Stella Stars for the children who uncovered it. Campus lore adds color through the Seven Wonders, legends that include a pool siren called Lorelei, Imperial Scholar portraits in the Hall of Fame that supposedly move, and a devil ritual said to haunt the old schoolhouse, while a quieter tension runs beneath the tradition: children of old alumni families sometimes look down on first-generation classmates, and kidnapping is treated as a standing risk given the wealth on display. During the first East-West war, Henderson was labeled a dissident and taken into custody after using a campus speech to condemn the military for turning the fallen Women's Combat Battalion into propaganda.

The faculty is led by headmaster Benedict Ivan Goodfellow. Henry Henderson serves as Cecile Hall's housemaster and history teacher, Walter Evans oversees Malcom Hall, and Donna Schlag runs discipline with her secretary Rahden; Murdoch Swan, formerly Cline Hall's housemaster, was arrested along with several colleagues over the admissions scandal.

Cecile Hall's first-year Class 3 gathers most of the young cast, including Anya Forger, Damian Desmond, Becky Blackbell, Emile Elman, Ewen Egeburg, and George Glooman, while Bill Watkins attends under Wald Hall. Damian's brother Demetrius, a current Imperial Scholar, studies in the middle school under Cline Hall. Alumni of note include Donovan Desmond, Henderson, Martha Marriott, and Donna Schlag, every one of them a former Imperial Scholar.