Moonlight's Guidance

CH20: The Cliffside Tower

Beacon Academy, a prestigious combat university that is renowned for delivering the world's greatest huntsmen. The Branwen twins, The Green Flash, and even The Hunter. Two of the four still serve Vale's huntsmen academies.

How does it look? Well, to put simply, magical. Imagine this, right above the blood red canopy of the Crimson Forest, lies of cliff side overlooking all of Vale from miles away. Upon the cliff side, stand's a tall silver tower with an enchanting green glow emanating from the top. The tower is surrounded by buildings, facilities that are dedicated to creating a force capable of protecting mankind as a whole. The lawn is a lush green, lined with sidewalks of polished white marble. And placed at the very middle of this fairytale garden, stands a water fountain, decorated with a statue of a brave huntsman, armed with his staff and dagger. He has a determined look on his face and peers over at the skies above Vale. He seems almost inviting, as if to challenge the forces of dark to dare harm his home.

Yes, indeed, the school is as majestic as it as badass. Especially the headmaster, Ozpin. No last name. Simply Ozpin. Many have tried to find the man's background or his semblance, but all have come up empty handed. One could say, that the headmaster embodies his school. Mysterious, yet you cannot help but he blown away by it's presence.

In my opinion though? The best part of the school is it's entrance exam. Now, there's something very unique about it that every other school blatantly avoids. Most schools invite potential students based off of the form they admitted to the school. If approved, they are invited to take the entrance exam.

However, Beacon is different. You are only approved to attend after the exam. Any person within the age group could wander in and take the exam, and if they impress the staff and headmaster, they'll be admitted despite any issues with their papers.

Now obviously, such a system is blasphemous. It throws all caution and order to the wind. Some would say it's suicidal for the school's success.

Oh, they could not be more wrong.

At the very moment you enter the bullhead bound for Beacon Academy, you are required to sign a paper that completely relieves the school of your protection. Meaning, if you take the examination and are under prepared, you can die in that red forest without an ounce of legal consequence towards the school.

And again, you're shouting blasphemy. I would agree with you, but as we all know, humans are controlled by three emotions. Fear, anger, and love. Your love for someone can cause you to commit horrible and amazing things. Whether it be murder to protect someone or saving an entire bus of people, despite your intentions being set on only saving one person.

Anger is the purest emotion by far. Spite, hatred, disgust, all root back to one basic emotion, anger. My favorite of these three is disgust. It shows the absolute most of humanity's depravity. Disgust leads to so many horrible things. If you're disgusted by something, your first instinct is to either avoid it or get rid of it all together. The church's distaste for the early stages of medicine, Hitler's hatred for the Jewish, hell, even things as subconscious and normal as killing a rat, all stem from one thing. Anger.

Fear on the other hand?

It maintains order. If you're truly afraid of something, you'll do your absolute best to avoid it. The term "flee in terror" comes to mind. So often used in media, cinematography, and poetry, yet it's simplicity shows a lot. Fear inspires cowardice, cowardice inspires obedience, obedience inspires order.

Anyways, this whole philosophy thing is a really long way of saying that fear causes order.

Because of said fear, hardly anyone attends the initiation unprepared. In fact, Beacon has the highest success rate because of the fear of death. You quite literally surrender your life to it until the end of initiation. Who would waltz into a death trap unprepared?