Specifically, this academy exists to train soldiers for the war effort. Magic using individuals are rare in this world, so faction A has begun kidnapping/conscripting young magic users and forcing them into training (with perhaps a small amount of brainwashing on the side) to be the cornerstone of the army against faction B.

No I haven't thought this through much yet. Plus I'm horrible with names.

Anyway, students would be trained in magic for warfare (non militaristic uses of magic would be strictly forbidden from practice) and secondarily for close combat. Particularly problematic students would be taken for "rehabilitation" and so most don't attempt to escape for fear of getting caught. In that way, we're mixing prison drama with classical magic academy. Yay diversity!

Spies would be among the students, spies for both factions, and the main goal would be escape, and hopefully being able to end the war or otherwise take down the villainous evil empire. I'm always open to contributions, so put any suggestions for names or plot or etc. down below if you're interested!

I'd be interested!

I'm rather interested. :D

Things I want to put up for vote

Other races? specifically elves I was thinking.
should elves be faction B with spies in Faction A's academy using shapeshifting magic to conceal themselves?
Modern twist? Hogwarts style? or just straight fantasy
any good aligned faculty members? perhaps player made?
age range? 16-20 is the obvious choice but it's flexible.

Factions maybe.... Sorry if this is a bit warcraftish

Humans, Dwarves, Elves are Faction A

Orcs, Trolls, Kolbolds are Faction B

Or pretty races vs ugly races. (Also, remember Kolbolds are now officially lizard people.) You can add more if you wish.

Though I'd probably not be very fair in this. I'm that DnD mage that you hate to RP against because I make every other roll of yours a death roll when I'm lvl 1 and your lvl 50+ :P. yay for the (Now fixed) Golden bug combo!

If I did join this, I'd probably be better off as a neutral party or something, that way I wont get in positions where Its me vs another person very often. :P. I dunno, I'd need to see some very specific rules against what can and can't be done. I've got a looot of lethal combos with one or two spells that seem harmless by themselves.

Also shapshifting/illusions would prob be the norm.

militaristic hogwards might be terrible or good depending on how you handle it.

I'm not really a fan of the human like races vs the beast races, first because the amount of shapeshifting required is quite ridiculous, and second because it just seems mean, what if we had a mix instead? also six races seems a bit much.

Interested!

I agree with OP, I think it would be the best if the war was fought entirely between humans. But other races can be fine, as slaves/natural phenomena/walking alchemy components/etc. Like they were in Potter. Maybe even more so, cause hard times call for hard measures.

Also, I think it would be better to make it a conscription. What sort of silly government abducts the citizens when they can draft them? But then, abduction would make give it more of a "prison break" atmosphere.

But here goes my question, then-is the country fighting against some sort of evil empire, or is the adversary among the "good guys"? To be honest, I enjoy a bit of moral ambiguity-but more dualistic situation can also be cool, especially with right amount of misinformation and propaganda.

neither faction A nor B is good. That's for sure.

I wouldn't mind other races, but I don't think that the races should be determined by faction. Why not have a mix in both with some races seeing a higher percentage of representation in one faction over another? In other words, factions A and B both have Elves, but faction B does have more elves than faction A. That would get rid of the need for shapeshifting, though it would still put some skepticism on a race in a faction that doesn't have a lot of that race, like Elves in faction A.

The impression I got concerning the nature of the academy is that it is designed to raise children for war, not adults. Conscription would make less sense then, as the government has a feasible reason for acquiring the students for the academy, and that is for education. Depending on how propaganda-heavy this government is, it could even be seen as the pinnacle of education for children, making the parents glad that their kids are going to attend it, all the while unaware of its sinister purpose.

I also like the idea of other races being seen as inferior to humans and often used as slaves and whatnot. And it would be interesting to see a xenophobic government use them for war as a way of reducing their numbers. Not to mention the training 'accidents' that can happen to some of the stronger members of the inferior races.

Those are just some of my thoughts on what has been presented thus far. :3

Bump

Interested

I'd be interested.

What about this for a name?

La Congrega del Talento

Races aren't that bad. If you use them, I don't like the faction idea based on race. I think it becomes too WoWish or DnD ish. It also depends on the style of fantasy you want. Straight fantasy could work with factions, but I think it should be based on skill and ability not just what they look like.
The modern twist can get silly with other races like Orcs and Trolls and what not, it would have to be Hogwarts style or Straight Fantasy.
I think faculty members would be NPC, otherwise the plot and story could fall apart.
And for something like this, especially with being trained for war, perhaps the age range would be more mature, like 18ish?

I agree with nrtashi and the whole government abductions though, it does sound too prison breaky.

Wingardium-
/shot
interested.

This sounds pretty promising! :D Most definitely interested.

So I think I want to go with conscripted students age 15-20 humans as the first faction and elves as the second, elf students will infiltrate the school as part of faction b spy efforts. But the ultimate goal will be the overthrow of the human empire.

I'd love to join, if you've still got room! No worries if you're full though.

One could go with a racist Empire of humanity that is determined to conquer the entire continent and subjugate all other races. They've already created concentration camps in their country for their 'undesirables". Maybe they tattoo the foreheads of those they allow to serve as their slaves?

Meanwhile, our country is composed of all sorts, possibly allied with others and is hoping to resist them.

Alternatively, we could be moral beings in the "evil empire country", conscripted into this school though not believing in its teachings. We'd much rather be on the other side but escaping the country would be nigh impossible.

Can we have characters who are Brownies, Goblins or gnomes?

I'm interested, if there's still room available.

I think the way it's going to go down is humans vs. elves, both as particularly nasty empires, with the end goal of forming a resistance group and taking down one or both.