Entrance Exams

Entrance exams are an important part of the Evercrest admission process. They are not pencil and paper exams; rather, they are displays of an applicant's skills. Many people train their entire lives to be accepted into the academy. In order to be accepted, applicants must attend the entrance exams. If they fail once, they are never allowed to apply again; it's a strictly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so make it good!

Entrance exams can last anywhere from three days to two weeks depending on the amount of applicants. The class heads judge the exams and offer up their class if they are interested in an applicant. Keep in mind that no one chooses their own class, and every applicant that comes through is only eligible for six of the nine classes, depending on if they are a non-magic or magic race. During the exam period, applicants and the class heads alike are forced to stay awake 26/7 until the end of the exams. They roll continuously until they come to an end, and order is based on surname. Those unlucky enough to be at the end are likely to be welcomed by half-asleep (or asleep) class heads who barely pay attention to their performance.

Since the entrance exam is very important to the roleplay, and you can be denied entry to the academy, this page is here to help you through writing your character's exam!

Starting Out
When you create your character, you can create them with a class in mind or just make them and hope. No matter how you do it, keep in mind that their race determines the classes they are eligible for. All races are able to be accepted into the neutral classes: wardens, erasers and couriers; non-magic races are eligible to join the vanguards, intermediaries and crusaders; and magic races are eligible to join the divines, alchemists and sorcerers. If you're uncertain on if your character's race is magic or non-magic, read up on the humanoid species and races either here or at the site before continuing.

On your app, there is a place for skills. This isn't to make your life difficult, even though it certainly can seem like it sometimes! No, it's so you can have an idea of what your character's strengths are to use on the entrance exam. Do keep in mind that your characters are encouraged to actually be good at things, otherwise they probably won't be accepted into Evercrest. While making a very strong, perfect Mary Sue or Gary Lou obviously isn't okay, we trust in your ability to make a character who can actually do stuff and have their weaknesses as well. It's an elite school, your character only has one chance ever to make it in, they better have skills to show they're worthy of riding a dragon!

Skills can literally be anything from jewelry making to rigging explosives to knife throwing, fill it out as much as you need to! We suggest around three to four skills as a minimum, so you have some idea of your character's capabilities. If you want to do a trial roleplay or one on one with someone before filling it out, just ask around on the cbox for some help.

Keeping your character's race in mind when writing up their skills can be helpful. For example, an Anbrian dwarf would likely not be a good contortionist, but a drow would probably be an excellent archer or swordfighter. Their history, personality and appearance can also go into skills. An artistic character may be very good at crafting their own weapons or their own medicines or be excellent at map drawing, for example. The possibilities are endless!

If you would like a kickstart for your brain, just nose around here to spark some ideas.

Before you even make your character, though, be certain you read the lore that will pertain to them and check the site for any bans. No magical humans, no one under fifty-three from Seville and no race/species that is not roleplayable. Knowing information about your character's country is invaluable, and very important, so read about it! The number one reason applications are pended is for breaking the lore, so it's worth reading what you need to the first time around so you don't need to spend time fixing your character.

The Exam
After your character's application is accepted, make their account. Be sure to register in Firstname Lastname format, correctly capitalized, and please complete your miniprofile from your control panel! It's also beneficial to link your character accounts to your OOC account. If you don't know how to do it, just ask in the cbox or PM an admin or member and we'll be happy to help.

The Exam Room and Pre-Planning
The exam room is a large room inside of the Gymnasium, a giant building just outside of the campus' outer walls. Dorms for applicants are provided here during trial week, and there is a large gym and library for the applicants. Down one hallway is a large lobby, and beyond that is a short corridor that leads to two large wooden doors. The decor is Victorian-modern, all the walls are red and gold and the sofas, chairs and benches are plush and padded. There is red carpet, golden chandeliers and portraits of current and past class heads hanging on the damask-wallpapered walls. This is in stark contrast to the dorms, library and gym, which resemble more of a modern industrial high school setting instead of sophistication.

The actual exam room is a small room. The applicants enter on the right, and have to step up onto a wooden "stage" that is six inches off the ground. There are red curtains, catwalks, stage lights and beams running along the ceiling. At the front of the stage, about three feet from it, is the class head table. It is long and made of dark wood. Each class head has a dark wood throne with a plush seat and back made out of fabric that matches their class colors. The alchemist head is not present, as they are holding the spell to keep the call-able dragons around campus, so their dragon is at the table instead. The dragon takes up the end of the table.

On the stage can be nothing, or it can be everything. Prior to the exams, every applicant is asked to record what they will need for their performance. Most ask for a rack of weapons or dummies, but you can ask for anything -- a kiddie pool, a stool, a flower pot -- so long as it is within reason. Musmite and guns are not on the list of "things you can ask for", your character will need to have their own at the exam stage. These can be bought in the store.

The Structure of the Exam
This is very important, so be sure you follow this form or risk being declined entrance into the school. Things marked optional are certainly optional, but they are encouraged.
 * Description of waiting or flashback to trial week / life. This is optional, but encouraged, especially if you have a flashback to the trial week while your character is waiting. Since class heads monitor the trial week and decide who they're most interested in during that time, showing us what your character did during that time is important! While it has little effect on getting accepted, you may perk up some class head's ears during this time and make them pay attention for the exam rather than being like "eh, nah" before ever getting to that part. Also, feel free to use this space to talk about your character's history, feelings and all that.
 * Being called to the exam room. This ideally should begin your post if you did not have a flashback or any information before this. The name-caller is a red-haired female dwarf, and she wears black glasses and gets grumpier as the time passes on (she has to stay awake too!). She'll call your character's full name, and your character will enter into the exam room through large doors. There is no need for them to introduce themself at this time, they should go straight into the exam. Introductions before the end speech may annoy the heads, since they already know the person's species, name and age -- it's on forms they are given at the beginning of the week.
 * The exam itself. Obviously required. This is the most important part of the entire post. Show off your character! The next section down illustrates "good" and "bad" entrance exams. Please keep in mind that your character gets one time in their entire life to apply and that it is okay for them to be able to do stuff! Do not just have them walk in and shoot one arrow at something. That is not going to get them into the school. Don't make them perfect, but show that they have the mind to learn and the raw ability to be good at whatever it is they will be going into!
 * The end speech. This is absolutely required. This is essentially your character justifying why it is they should be accepted into Evercrest. Do they have a prestigious family background? Do they know 20 languages? Do they learn fast? Have photographic memory? This is where they can introduce themself, talk a little about their life and their ambitions, and then fall silent. They are to stand there until the class heads offer.

Acceptable Entrance Exam Examples
"Verity put her arms around her brother, going over rather than under even though he was taller than she was. Her heart was beating rapidly. She was sure that Sorren could tell. Their gazes locked and a silent understanding passed between them. It was so nice to have someone who just knew. The name caller cast a sympathetic look toward the siblings and Sorren went in to the room. She tried to catch a glimpse of the inside, but she couldn’t make out anything. The door swallowed up his form and she was left to herself.""Verity took a seat and closed her eyes, drowning out the mumbles of people and focusing hard on her brother’s feelings. She couldn’t feel much, which was good. He wasn’t feeling afraid. Of course he wouldn’t. This might as well be just another performance, and they had done thousands of shows in front of innumerable people. Nine people was nothing. Well, they did basically determine the course of the rest of their lives, but she was used to people controlling her fate.""Someone came over to strike up a conversation. Her face broke into a smile she had used dozens of times. She was grateful for the conversation, since it kept her from stressing over how her brother was doing. She knew if she started to worry too much he would feel it, and she didn’t want to distract him in any way, though he was pretty good at continuing on with the show, even if she were scared out of her mind. He was always the more stable of them.""Verity was mid-sentence when she felt the echoes of her brother’s pain wash through their link. She stopped talking for a second, earning a glance from her conversation partner. She apologized and continued talking, though her mind was with Sorren. He must have shifted. How the heads were reacting right now? It wasn’t every day that a werewolf came knocking on their doors. The soft push of pain subsided and their link went quiet. It felt like ages before the door opened again, but finally it did. She said goodbye to the person she had been talking to, explaining with a smile that she was next, unless there was another Twinborn running around Evercrest. Sure enough, her name was called. She was tempted to ask the name caller what had happened to Sorren, though she guessed since he didn’t come out through the door that he must have made it into a class. She had mentioned to Sorren that she kind of set her sights on the sorcerer class. The idea of using her magic to fight was appealing.""Well, this was it. Verity took a breath and centered her mind, just like she did before any show. This was no different. No different. No different. She had performed so many times, and this was just one more notch in the bedpost. Her steps echoed solidly through the room. Verity didn’t look much at the line of people in the front of the room. She had found that looking at the audience only caused her stress. If she made eye contact with any of the, it suddenly became personal, and when it became personal she over analyzed everything she did. Meeting the eyes of men was even worse. She always felt threatened by the seemingly penetrating gazes of men, especially ones that roiled of manliness. Best to just ignore the eighteen eyes that were trained on her, two of which belonged to a dragon. That much she could see out of the corner of her decidedly yellow eye.""Verity tucked her hair behind her ears. A long time ago, she preferred to have her hair up when doing shows, but the ringmaster had decided that some shows were more visually striking with her thick black locks whipping the air in her acrobatic stunts. Time to get right into it, then. She pulled her Twin Truths, two sharp scythes on either end of a strong chain, out of their special sheaths and got a running start across the stage. She jumped, straightening out her body and crossing Twin Truths across her chest, flipping in tight rotations while airborne. The motions were familiar. A smile broke out across her face. Living in the circus might have been hell, but performing always made her happy. The oohs and aahs from the crowd gave her energy, encouraging her to go on. In the air, she prepared the shadow magic she would need. She pooled shadows to approximately where she would land, and rather than hitting the floor, she slipped into the shadow well. Her body felt completely different. She felt grainy, like sand was not only rubbing all over her skin, but around every cell of her body. Any and all identity dissipated when she was shadow. A shadow behind a dummy provided the exact placement she needed to do the next bit of her act. Electricity cracked from the shadow behind the ill-fated artificial human with enough power to stun a real person. She dissolved form the same shadow and leapt onto its back, hooking one end of Twin Truths around its neck. Verity refrained from slicing. It was her job to disable. Sorren killed. She didn’t have the stomach for it. “Oh, I don’t actually kill people.” She smiled.“That’s my brother’s decision.” Verity slipped off the dummy and stepped back into darkness. At the flick of a hand, the form of a man emerged, made entirely of swirling shadows. He walked up to the heads table and bowed, dissolving seconds later. By then, Verity had once again submerged herself in blackness. She came out on the other side of the room with a vicious shout. She leapt into the air and kicked, sending fire blazing out from the soles of her feet. Twin Truths’ chain trailed behind her. Verity landed and took a moment to breathe. She winked at the heads, not looking at any of them directly. Slowly, she began to spin, letting centrifugal force carry her arms out. She let more and more of the chain slip from her grasp, until the scythes were flying in a deadly circle. She muttered a word and lightning shot down the length of Twin Truths, easily conducted by the metal. It took a lot on concentration, but Verity kept the lightning contained, redirecting it through her body and into Twin Truths again. It was gorgeous. Lightning arced off of her body, leaping between each blade of her weapon and weaving in and out of the chain.""It was all over in a moment though. Keeping the lightning around her body was difficult, since lightning was such a powerful and wild element. She let it all go, directing it to the dummy. It exploded in a deafening release of energy. Pieces of dummy soared through the air, landing all over the room. Verity looked toward the heads, smiling her winning circus-bred smile. “So, that’s pretty much my magic. I also use Twin Truths to electrocute an enemy when they come in contact with their body or weapons. If I had someone to fight with I could show you how I disarm people with them.” She stroked the weapon fondly. “What I am about to do next, well, I don’t particularly like it. It kind of hurts, a lot.” Her weapons made a small thud on the ground when she set them down. She sat cross-legged, taking a deep breath. She had been made to shift so many times now, but it was still impossible for her or Sorren to shift without extreme pain. She let a word drop form her mouth, like a drop of mercury. Her body arched with pain and a shrill scream, not unlike a wolf howl, pierced the air. This pain was a thousand times worse than anything she had experienced with all her practicing with lightning. But it was mostly just the rune that hurt now. She had shifted so many times that he actual transformation itself was almost painless. Soon, she sat, completely transformed. Soft, thick fur dove off her body in sheets. When she stood, it was clear just how much taller she was.""Verity cleared her throat, letting her body adjust to the altered vocal chords. “I am Verity Twinborn,” she began with a wolfish grin. “I worked with my brother in the Seasky Circus for almost two centuries. It wasn’t fun but it taught me everything I know.”Her voice was gravelly and feral. She couldn’t help that part. Verity had a pretty low voice anyway, but it was accentuated when she was half form like this. “We were finally able to leave, and I ask now that you let us begin the next chapter of our lives at your school.” Verity bowed, feeling like she were back on stage, but this was her own decision.""- Verity Twinborn's exam by Tori" There were so many people. Of course, Alexandra knew there would be a lot of people, it was Evercrest afterall. Humanoids came from far and wide for this just like she did. The small blond girl stood silently against the wall, refusing to cower. Not that she could say anyone would notice her if she cried, all of these freaks were like a hundred feet tall or something. Or at least six. That’s how tall Papa was anyway, and these people were definitely bigger. She knew she must be one of the youngest ones there, but that was no big deal. She’d been training for this, same as everyone else. Alex was here for a reason.  The ten year old had managed to make a few fingers bleed from gnawing at her nails by the time she heard her name called. She quickly pulled the hair tie from her wrist and yanked her blonde locks into a ponytail that sat messily atop her head, striding into the room hastily. Alex peered at the steps to the exam stage. Really, it took all she had to swallow the nausea and bound up to face the heads who were about to judge her for good. Rubbing the back of her neck she tried to tell herself there was no reason to be nervous. Why would she be nervous anyway? She’d seen some of the jokes during training, she had this. Yea. Her gaze slowly moved to the table of imposing figures at the table before her. Nothing to be scared of at all. Alexandra began her exam by clearing her throat rather loudly in front of 8 class heads and a dragon. But in that momentary lapse in action, the girl managed to compose her thoughts properly and moved straight into her demonstration. Shadows snaked up her legs and shot out across the floor, slipping over the edge of the stage. She bit her lip as the rest of her collapsed into a puddle of blackness and her consciousness suddenly felt up in the air. Everything around her slipped as she wound her shadowy tendrils between the seats of the class heads. Pressing forward more and more, she expanded her shadow down to the edges of the room until she reached natural shadows and receded into them. Her body rapidly reappeared, and she clung to the wall until the tips of her toes emerged before pushing off and doing a simple turn in the air to land on her feet. It was so confusing trying to figure this out on the spot. Of course Alex had told herself that she’d plan out her routine before coming in here, but every time she attempted to think of one it flew out of her mind while she debated whether it would be impressive enough or actually leave her with enough energy to say her name. Whatever, she caught her breath now and knew that she had to keep moving. The skygge shuffled to the end of the stage to give herself as much space as possible. A deep breath and she was off with a running start, before pushing herself into the air to do a frontflip. Her knees bent as she braced for impact, and on landing she spread them to quickly punch in front of her. From each fist came bursts of flames, then she quickly twisted her body to kick each leg into the air for a similar effect. Her right foot skidded as it hit the stage floor, causing her to lose her balance. Alex felt her heart in her throat as she felt herself falling, but her reaction time saved her and she pulled herself into a somersault and blew flames as she regained her stance. The girl glanced over to the heads to check their reaction. She couldn’t help but notice they were quite uncomposed, but she reverted her attention back to her exhibition. A few quick words rolled quietly off her tongue. Bringing her arms up around her in a wide circle, Alex felt her energy centering again. She put her hand up to her chin and puckered her lips to blow bubbles, dark ones. The three orbs consisted of a weird shady substance but she knew they would hold. Her small feet carried her over to the side of the stage and she proceeded to drag three human dummies to the middle of the floor. It strained her a little bit considering they were each a bit bigger than she was, but with a little huffing she managed. Not a surprise of course, she didn’t ignore training her muscles in preparation for this. Once Alex had them set up a few feet from each other, she strode back to the front where her shadows were hovering. The girl held her hands up and concentrated. Flames began to lick up from her palms as she took measured breaths. Alex slowly held the rising flames under each orb just long enough for it to catch. A few seconds later, each one was engulfed in flames and dark fumes began filling the room. Hopefully the smell of smoke wouldn’t upset the heads too much, but it wasn’t the kind that would clog up their lungs. Well, as long as she finished this quickly it wouldn’t. Alex blinked and knew the area was getting smokier. With a small grin on her face, fire wrapped around one arm and shadows twisted around the other, both curving up into scythe like forms of energy. This was definitely the most fun part of the demonstration. Sprinting forward, Alex slashed at the first dummy with fire, melting a gash in the torso. Her right arm of shadows went for an uppercut, hitting the chin of the dummy and promptly decapitating it at the shadowy blade sliced through it. The second one wasn’t so cleanly cut, by the time the dummy was split in half, the material was completely shredded. Shallow breaths left her widening grin. There was so much satisfaction in ripping things apart. The last one stood in front of her. She had to finish this quickly if she wanted to avoid collapsing. Charging forward, the skygge charged into the dummy to knock it over. Alex split her attention to start absorbing in the extra shadow energy that was dispersed around her while running after the skidding dummy. As it cleared, she jumped into the air and gave one last burst to the streaming magic around her arms before slamming the scythes in an X across the chest of the dummy lying on the floor. Alex landed hard on her knees, cringing. At least she destroyed the prop before her. In the moments following, she absorbed the dark fog around her as much as she could in an attempt to revive a bit of energy. When it was finally bright enough that she was sure they could all see, the young girl sighed and pushed herself up. The walk to center stage was a little slow, but they could take the extra time to look at the effects of her skills lying around her while the magic dissipated from around her arms. She rubbed her hand across her face in an attempt to neaten up. Of course, she took it away only to see glorious smudges of smoke and that most certainly still covered the majority of her body. A fantastic impression. But whatever, her magical repertoire was the important part, and she felt like that had been a decent show. Maybe. It was exciting for her anyway. Once again Alexandra stood before them and cleared her throat, but this time she was exhausted and covered in soot. Having to speak seemed to allow the anxiety to creep back into the pit of her stomach. She was stalling. This was terrible. With a cough, she forced herself to begin saying what she’d almost practiced. '''“Uh, hi. Hope you all can still breathe,”''' Alex chuckled nervously. No, she had to be more confident. These people were judging her afterall. '''“Okay, well I’m Alexandra Firan but Alex is better. I’m… good with magic. Fire and shadow stuff, though I guess you didn’t get to see my cool scythes for too long. But they’re really cool. Fighting is probably my strong suit but I do pick up on things, and all kinds of things. I mean, I’m only ten so to be as good as I am, I have to be a fast learner, right? I can read quickly too, but that’s not something I can show you.”''' Her voice trailed off as she looked upon each head. One of them had to be impressed by her, she had tried. And she knew she could do it, so that was that. She was getting in. '''“I work hard, and can do stuff to prove it. I hope my exam showed that. So, thanks for watching me.”''' With that, she bowed and waited. "- Alexandra Finn's exam by Scarlet"

Unacceptable Entrance Exam Examples
"'Jacob Hideman,' the name-calling courier said. A young, lanky man strutted into the exam room and looked at the heads with a cocky grin.""'I'm Jacob Hideman,' he said as he pulled a coin out of his pocket. 'Today I'm going to show you my magic trick.' He noted a few raised eyebrows from the heads: a human doing magic? Didn't they know the art of illusion? He placed the coin in an outstretched hand so all the heads could see, then closed his hand. He placed both hands behind his back and grinned while he craftily placed the coin in his other hand behind his back, keeping his hands closed while he did so. He placed both fists out in front of him.""'Which hand?'""'Left,' one of the heads replied. Jacob grinned and opened his hand, which was the one it wasn't in before. The class head who replied clapped, and Jacob bowed.""'Thank you, thank you.'""- In this one, Jacob does something that would never get him accepted into the academy; also, the class heads are powerplayed. Class heads aren't allowed to speak during an exam, and ideally an exam should not involve them (unless it's something being stolen from their person, or illusions, but do not describe expressions!). More than likely, the heads would have been yawning and rolling their eyes throughout Jacob's exam. Also, Jacob didn't give an ending speech."

After Your Post
After you post your application, it's up to the class heads. Depending on what time of the year it is and what life is like, this can take a few hours to a few days. Please be patient with us, we have lives! You're welcome to prod us, just don't nag. If it is evident no one is interested, your character will be denied entrance to the school. It is possible to keep them in play, however, later on into the plot, so don't delete your character's account or application if this happens. There will be opportunities for them in the future.

If you do get offers from the class heads, then congrats! Your character was accepted into the academy! Accept the class offer that you feel suits your character best. If you don't get an offer from a class you were interested in, you can choose to have your character walk away; this is a rare occurrence given how prestigious the school is.

After you reply, your character's account will be changed to the appropriate class, you get a pretty miniprofile with your character's class' colors, and an admin will let you know your dragon and mentor pairings. This block has your mentor/student and dragon/rider pairing in it. Be sure to communicate with the roleplayers in your pairs so you can get moving along in the roleplay.

Dragons
After being accepted into the academy, the new student will be led to the hatchery or the eyrie by their class head.

Non-magics are led to the hatchery, which is through a door at the back of the left wall. The hatchery is a very large room that is humid and very warm, lit by windows on the back wall. It is similar to a greenhouse, with tables of eggs lined up wall-to-wall and assorted by dragon species. There are three wardens that watch the eggs here, and they assist new students to the correct table depending on class. At first, humanoids will pass their hands over the eggs of their class' dragon. If none hatch, they will move onto the other eggs to try to hatch one of another species. Usually, students will hatch a dragon that corresponds to their class. Why this is so is uncertain, but many assume it is because andzkin have the same soul from birth, and that they are destined to fall within the same Evercrest class.

The unhatched dragonlings communicate telepathically with the wardens, and the eggs on the frontmost tables of the hatchery are those who believe their andzkin is in the current year's crowd. All eggs are present in the room, so there are tens of thousands of eggs in varying ages in the room.

Mages are led through the eyrie, via an enchanted door on the back of the right wall. It is a regular door and opens into the hallway, but once you step through it, you are on a windy, rocky outcropping overlooking the campus. It is on top of the lip of the large cave the library is located in, and has (crumbling, unsafe) steps that wind down into the inner wall of the campus for those who are unsuccessful at calling a dragon. The student's class head will tell them the spell and wait to see the results of the calling. If a dragon comes, they give their congratulations and teleport back to the exam room; if no dragon comes within a half hour, the person is invited to stay on campus for up to a week to ensure their andzkin does not exist anywhere on Alksheist. If the dragon doesn't show up within this time, they are allowed to enter the hatchery and attempt to hatch a dragon. If this fails, they are sent away.

In the case that a mage is accepted into a neutral class without a magic class head, a magic class head will accompany the student to the eyrie.

Because of the nature of the site, unless we run out of dragons (which we never should unless someone missed making their dragon and rider character), your character will always hatch or call a dragon. No stress for you after that, but your character is probably stressed out! Keep in mind that if you have a mage, they will always, always always call a dragon unless you buy a token not to in the store. Likewise, a non-magic character will hatch a dragon. The exception to both of these rules is if your character had a dragon before coming to Evercrest, which you also need to buy a token for in the store.

Mentors, dorms and more
Mentors and dorms are assigned by the class head at the class' orientation, which is typically held one to three days after the conclusion of the exams. The class head will welcome everyone into their class and explain what is expected of students. Some classes have longer orientations since they do not have any classroom learning in their class, and some orientations are very short because their class does have classroom learning. Everything depends on the class. The orientations are not roleplayed, but you can ask your class head about what the orientation was like so you can reference it. Orientations are also where students receive their class-specific clothing and are inducted into any sub-category of a class or go through any rites of passage into their class.

Mentors and students are together often. Dragons and riders are also together often. Dragons, riders, mentors and students are together often. Roleplay it. Roleplay friends, awkward dormmates, dragon races, whatever! It's all free, welcome to the site!