Application essay to the noble schola of the great city of Vendria.
By Anabell Fairchild.
A treatise on The Event, its effects on the environment and on humans, and humanity's reaction to it
Part 2: Humanity's reaction
Now that we have spent some time describing the myriad changes wrought by The Event we can turn our attention to how human society reacted to them. Similarly to the previous part of the essay, I have broken the topic into sections for ease of reference. It should be noted that the term “harvest” refers to the draining of a human or monster-girl’s life energy via gynovory.
Reactions of human society: immediate reaction to the homana genius
As previously stated The Event resulted in the mutation of approximately 4/5ths of humanity's population into a new genus, the homana. The universal reaction to this was wide scale violence. It is easy to simplify the causes of this violence with sweeping generalizations such as “we were fighting for survival” or “the monster-girls were trying to harvest and eat us”. While these statements are true, they are oversimplifications of a complicated situation. We will attempt to analyze the different reasons for this violence.
When The Event happened the mutation of 4/5ths of the population was instantaneous and complete. These new monster-girls immediately began displaying the predatory behavior they have continued to display towards humanity. The records that survive from these early years after The Event tell of horrifying accounts of men and women coming home to find their former families, now monster-girls, waiting to strip and harvest them. It is important to consider the social and economic results of this. Farmers became unable to tend to their crops or their animals for fear of predation. Ships and caravans bringing imported goods stopped arriving. The sick and those unable to move were easy prey for monster-girls who also targeted anyone who attempted to provide these individuals consistent aid. Any street police or watch officers had their hands full trying to protect their fellow citizens from monster-girls and thus were unable to consistently enforce laws. Rioting, murder, and looting became common. Armies fractured as their leadership was thrown into confusion with small bands of soldiers setting off on ill-conceived missions to provide aid. Nations collapsed as each city and town attempted to survive the predation of the monster-girls in their midsts.
No consolidation or rebuilding could happen without a safe environment so the early humans turned their attention towards their first task: banishing the monster-girls within their walls. The solution was to press civilians, soldiers, and watch officers alike into a fighting force known as “the guard”. Unfortunately, the early guard units were inexperienced and only cities with populations large enough to sustain significant attrition survived. Those that could not had their populations harvested and were left as empty shells.
Despite the valiant efforts of the early guardswoman, no city would have survived had the monster-girls not fallen to interspecies predation. Since there were so few true humans remaining the monster-girls quickly realized that they would need to compete with each other if they wanted to capture humans. They similarly realized they would need to compete with each other for territory, food, and other resources as well. At first monster-girls simply killed each other but then they discovered they were able to gynovorously feed on other monster-girls. Then they began hunting each other as well as humans, though humans remained their favorite prey. Species that were ill-suited to this, such as Homana Oryctolagus cuniculus (bunny-girls) and Homana mus musculus (mice-girls) found themselves facing annihilation from both the rallying humans and their fellow monster-girls. The significance of the infighting between species of monster-girls cannot be overstated. Indeed, it was crucial to the survival of the human race for two reasons. Firstly, it drew the monster-girl’s attention away from their human prey and towards surviving and hunting fellow monster-girls. This gave many cities and towns the time they needed to organize effective fighting forces or to escape to settlements that could. Secondly, it reduced the population of monster-girls to a level that could realistically be taken on by the rallying human populations. Thus, through bitter fighting, the monster-girls were banished from civilization.
Now that humanity was not being hunted in its own streets a second problem needed to be addressed. A consistent source of food needed to be obtained for each city. Farming was extremely dangerous as it required significant areas of land and a significant amount of people to work that land. Both needed to be protected. Two main solutions presented themselves. The first was to construct walls that surrounded the farm lands and to post guards on these walls. This was the most effective method but was extremely resource intensive and only employed by the largest of cities. The second solution was to have regular patrols of both the farms and of the livestock by guardswomen, who often utilized trained dogs to assist them in detecting more stealthy monsters. Most cities and towns settled for a mixture of both of these strategies. Other strategies were also created. Regardless of the method they used, the surviving cities now had relatively safe streets and a relatively steady source of food. It was time to rebuild society.
Reactions of human society: restructuring of education and of labor
The surviving human societies needed to reorganize how they would educate their children and assign them labor roles. Thanks to the Progenia tree children were being born at a rapid rate and each would need to be educated, trained, and given a role in society. In response to this the tree system was created. The thought was each root, representing many different children from many different socioeconomic statuses, would all come together for a period of universal basic education. This period was the trunk of the tree. Once that had been completed, each student would be enrolled in one of the three main branches; the scholar’s branch, the guard's branch, and the workwoman’s branch. Students received the basic training of that branch of these main branches subdivide into further subbranches. Since this system is near universal the reader is likely very familiar with it and I will not bore you with a detailed analysis of all three of the main branch’s subdivisions. Still, there are some cultures that do not use this system and it would be wrong of me not to explore at least one of the main branch and its subbranches as an example. We will focus on the guard’s branch as our example. Once a student has been assigned to the guard's branch that student will receive basic combat training, basic monster species recognition training, and basic training on weapon maintenance. Once they have completed basic guard training they must choose one of four subspecialties to receive further training in. They are as follows:
Guardswoman: The general soldiery of society. Students that are accepted into this branch are given more training on fighting monsters and monster-girls. Some tasks they are trained for include the protection of farms and farmers, guarding a city’s outer perimeter, and escorting merchant caravans, among other things.
Watchwoman: The police of society. Students accepted into this branch are trained in their respective city’s legal code and are given special education regarding the proper ways to control riots, arrest criminals, interrogate prisoners, and so on. Many of the smaller towns do not have this category and rely on their guardswomen to fullfil this role.
Hunters: This is exactly as the name implies. These individuals are tasked with venturing out into the wild to hunt for food. The meat they bring back supplements the produce of their town’s farmers. The pelts and materials they bring back also used to create many needed goods. They receive specialized training on tracking animals, setting traps, and in the use of poisons to catch game. Proven and experienced hunters are highly valued by their respective towns and are given significant respect. However, due to the dangers involved in venturing out into the wild alone, the attrition rate for new hunters is high. For the larger cities, able to protect enough farmland to guarantee a steady food source, this category does not exist
Rangers: This is the most competitive of all the guard’s branches and is only offered by larger towns and cities. These can be compared to a guardswoman who is given further training such that they become extremely proficient monster hunters. It was the development of this branch in particular that allowed cities and towns to go on the offensive. A town without rangers often responds to a monster-girl sighting by increasing the number of guardswomen posted in the area of the sighting. Towns with rangers respond to sightings by sending their rangers out on search and destroy sorties. In addition to search and destroy missions, rangers are also tasked with search and rescue and are capable of doing any of the jobs a guardswoman is tasked with. Rangers are the elite of the guard’s subbranches with no other option being held in as high regard. Such is their value that it is not unheard of for towns to loan out their ranger(s) to other towns as payment for goods.
Different cultures have different rules regarding if a student can change main branches but most do not allow it. Students are only able to pick one main branch and one subbranch and changing branches is not generally allowed. There have been exceptions however, such as if a student is inaccurately assessed and assigned to a branch that does not suit them
With a steady source of food, a well defined education system, and guards able to provide relative security for their respective settlements, humanity began to have a serious chance at survival. With the rangers, humanity was able to make progress towards rebuilding. Some species of monsters and monster-girls were successfully hunted to extinction and roads for merchants were created. Unfortunately, our world is still a very dangerous place. It is not uncommon for merchant convoys to arrive missing some of their escort, if they arrive at all. Casualty rates for guardswomen are high and the quality of training varies wildly between settlements. Survival is the most many towns can hope for. Should I be accepted into the most honorable schola of Vendria and allowed to study the scholar’s branch, I intend to further study the behavior of the animals that prey on us, both homana and nonhuman alike. I plan to create a bestiary that guard trainees can reference and study. Through this work I hope to reduce the high casualty rate experienced by our guards.
Thank you for your consideration.
Anabell Fairchild
Ranger candidate class of 238 A.E.
Dear Ms. Fairchild:
We in the schola appreciate your work and the interest you have shown in the scholar’s branch. I have noticed your diligent study in our library and your clear interest in learning. It is with heavy hearts that I must deny your request for admission into the scholar’s branch. I have spoken with your instructors in the ranger subbranch and it is clear to everyone, that is where your talents lie. Your instructors rave about your combat ability and your talent for quick battlefield analysis. They say you have the chance to become one of the greatest rangers Vendria has ever trained. It would be wrong of me to deprive humanity of such a ranger. It is wrong of you to not fully apply yourself to your ranger training. I say this with compassion as I know it can be hard to put aside our childhood dreams. You must do so however. I am sure you are aware but with this rejection you are no longer permitted inside the library. I do not do this to be cruel. Our library has many books and scrolls, and some of them are extremely delicate. Without the proper training on their handling it is easy to damage them and thus destroy the knowledge contained within. Your treatise will be added to the library and I hope you take some comfort from that.
Sincerely,
Belladonna Porter
Head of the scholar’s branch of education at the schola of the great city of Vendria.
