April 16, 2021

Adventures Across the Grades Edit

By Tirzah H.

Ever since students first came together in FirstClass, adventures and role plays have been a prominent part in the lives of NorthStar students. In the beginning, it almost all consisted of knights, pirates, swords, magic, and dragons, but recently those adventures have evolved into more modern things, to mafia organization, federations, communists, light-brigades, and full-blown war between student-led factions, with bombs, guns, tanks, missiles, and other modern weapons. Some people still cling to the old ways of magery and knighthood, but those students are few and far between, and they are clinging on to the old ways by their tips of their fingers, loathing to let go but knowing the doom of ancient places such as the Mages Guild and the Noble and Ancient Thread is at hand.

However, most of the questing is done by high school students. Since in this edition the Navigator is trying to explore how the same things work differently in the different grades (elementary school, middle school, and high school), I, a high school student, asked around to see what was different. And the results were rather surprising.

Apparently, high schoolers are the only groups that really do roleplays and adventures anymore. In FirstClass the middle schoolers were definitely more laid-back about the whole “quest, adventure, and mortal peril” thing, but that was largely because we didn’t have access to the Mages Guild or the Noble and Ancient Thread until high school. However, we attempted to conduct our own little roleplays in MS General or the Leaky Barrel (a hidden folder) if we could find it.

However, on Teams, high school is the only place where adventures can be found. Perhaps that is because high schoolers are the only ones old enough to have people who remembered adventuring in FirstClass and were able to bring it to Teams culture. But, according to middle-schooler Michaela, middle school chats are usually, “calm, controlled conversations. And yes, that is the truth. A LOT of memes are posted. Like, a lot. But missions and quests aren’t necessarily a part of the MS Teams.” And from what I have seen in the Student Body team, middle schoolers like to ask “Questions of the Day” and do a lot of truth-or-dare. According to another middle schooler, Estella, there are private roleplay chats that middle schoolers are in, but the middle schoolers don’t usually do the quest or roleplay designated. Instead, they “talk about exploding oldies and stabbing each other with sticks.” (Oldies is the middle schooler term for anyone who is eleventh or twelfth grade)

Elementary school doesn’t have any adventures or quests, either. According to Elsa, the elementary school representative, the talks there consist of random things such as rickrolls, animals, and paper airplane clubs.

High schoolers, as previously stated, spend a large portion of their Teams time engaging in some kind of mission or quest activity. While these activities have definitely taken a back-burner position compared to their prominence in the Golden Age and just following it, they’re definitely still an important and enjoyed part of the high schooler NorthStar experience. The Noble and Ancient Thread and the Mages Guild used to be the most popular, but since The Move of 2019, the Noble and Ancient Thread has sadly died, and the Mages Guild is mostly used as a hangout room if it is used at all. Two committed mages, Alexis and Sam, have tried to keep it alive and are actually reasonably accomplished mages, Alexis in particular, but it is largely ignored by the public.

Now, there seems to be a sort of unsteady peace, but for a while, the HS General and other places in the High School Team raged with war. I wasn’t present for the wars, but I do believe they were fought by a communist group against the Meanies in the beginning, a group of people who would go around insulting each other and others. The Meanies later changed their name to Mafia and the communists to the Light Brigade (I believe). The reasons for the wars were never clear, but it was quite organized for a time. There were double-crossings, betrayals, a gauntlet to pass to join either group in case you were a spy, and deep under-cover subterfuge. The wars ended and began again with different names and peace treaties, but they were almost always fought by the same groups. Now, the Age of Wars is over and quiet roleplays do their quest peaceably with some resemblance to the FirstClass medieval settings - but it’s only a matter of time before somebody gets bored and starts another war.

Tirzah H. has been at NSA for about two years. She lives in Indiana, USA with eight of her eleven siblings and mom and dad. She has recently started writing for the Navigator. She enjoys spending time with family, hiking, karate, writing, and playing with babies.