Cheat sheet: what has happened so far
This is a non-exhaustive list of reasonably public things that have happened so far in the mega-continuity. Your character may or may not be aware of any particular event, depending on how observant and/or lucky and/or looped into the rumor mill they are. They may also be only vaguely aware of it or misinformed.
Day -180 or so: The Three-Maleficer Pileup
This section is information about the events of LAST YEAR. It is common knowledge for upperclassmen, who may have passed it on to underclassmen they know.
- Over the course of the year, tensions between the students of two small Indian enclaves with a rivalry outside the school ratcheted up and eventually broke out into open conflict at the end of the first semester.
- In the leadup to open conflict, one of these enclaves hired an indie kid (Marco Inaros) to spy on the other.
- For reasons of his own, Marco poached the room of one of the students in the enclave he was spying on and killed a number of the other students for malia.
- The twin brother (Talat) of the poached student was understandably upset by this, himself went maleficer, and killed Marco and many members of the enclave that had hired Marco.
- These murders, combined with casualties on the part of the other seniors who tried to stop the maleficers, resulted in one Oxford senior (Elias) losing his entire graduation alliance and being unable to find a new one.
- Elias, not wanting to die alone in the graduation hall, poached a junior so he'd have another year to prepare.
- The next morning, the rest of the Oxford seniors announced to everyone else what Elias had done and said they would handle it internally.
- Elias and the rest of the Oxford seniors are all dead now.
The following facts are much less widely known:
- Marco's girlfriend (Naomi) had gotten pregnant, and he had poached the room in order to have a nursery for the baby.
- The fact that the baby was born and subsequently died are well-known; that Marco was the father (and the exact manner of death) is not.
- A Sacramento student (Vanya) was dating and mindlinked to Talat at the time and has experienced massive trauma about this.
Day 1:
- Freshmen were inducted on Thursday afternoon (July 2, 2020). There were introductory conversations followed by dinner and more conversations. Many people also went on supply runs.
- The Chicago enclave was destroyed shortly before induction, no one knows how or why. Because of this, a whole bunch of kids from mundane families who didn't know about magic beforehand were inducted.
- Known by: most English-speakers within the first day or two, many but not all Chinese-speakers within the first day or two, spreading further as time goes on.
- Song Lan, a Shanghai freshman, didn't even make it to the cafeteria after induction
- Known by: Chinese speakers with connections within the first day, others slightly later or with a garbled version.
- There's an African kid (Masozi Kamau) with mal-related powers and a concerning aura. The English-speaking enclaves have warned their kids away from him; Shanghai has apparently adopted him.
- Known by: as of Day 2 lunchtime, a fairly random assortment of people that happened to encounter Masozi or hear about him from someone that did.
- Chantal Myers, a Toronto freshman, killed herself the first night. Specifically, by going into the void.
- Known by: a pretty small circle as of Day 2 lunchtime, but rumors are probably going to spread.
Day 2:
- Homeroom and schedule selection, followed by breakfast, Maleficaria Studies (in one huge lecture hall for all freshmen), other morning classes, lunch, work period, afternoon classes, and
work period.dinner. - At breakfast, Alexius Marcus sold eidetic memory potions. By lunch, they were discovered to have occasional unfortunate side effects and also work less well than he thought. Refunds were issued.
- Known by: the people he sold them to and whoever they told.
- Shanghai has officially adopted Masozi.
- Known by: Kyoto enclave, miscellaneous others (mostly Sinosphere at first, but the news spreads all weekend.) New York does NOT know about this until Sunday.