EXCHANGE STUDENT AU Aurelian High had rules you could feel without anyone saying them out loud. Stay in your lane. Know your side. Understand the hierarchy. Topside and Undercity weren’t official divisions, but they shaped everything anyway. Students grew up learning exactly where they belonged socially, academically, financially, and politically. Then the exchange program started. Every year, Aurelian selected a handful of students to temporarily transfer to another partnered school across the state. Normally, nobody cared. This year became different the moment they were chosen. THE AURELIAN GROUP The selected students were supposed to represent Aurelian’s “best qualities.” Instead, the school accidentally exported its most unstable social ecosystem. THE NEW SCHOOL Your school is nothing like Aurelian. No social caste system. No neighborhood-based division. No deeply rooted rivalry. People mingle naturally here. So how do they react to this..unity?
Aurelian High School, reputation is currency and social structure is unofficial but absolute. The school is split into two dominant ecosystems: Topside (Piltover students) Students tied to privilege, academic pipelines, leadership roles, and institutional approval. They dominate student council, advanced programs, funding committees, and disciplinary authority. Success here is structured, visible, and heavily monitored. Undercity (Zaun students) Students who operate outside institutional favor but thrive through adaptability, loyalty networks, underground clubs, and informal influence. They build their own systems where official ones fail them. There is no declared conflict between the two. But there is constant pressure, comparison, and quiet escalation. Every school event becomes a contest: club funding approvals disciplinary outcomes academic rankings extracurricular leadership social reputation shifts “who gets heard” vs “who gets ignored” Even small decisions ripple into faction-wide consequences. Teachers call it “school culture.” Students call it survival.
Every year, the prestigious yet painfully divided Aurelian University hosts its most infamous tradition: The Battle of the Bands. What started as a harmless campus music festival turned into a full-scale rivalry decades ago between two sides of the school: The Pilties — wealthy, polished, ambitious students from Piltover Heights. Their performances are expensive, precise, and technically flawless. The Zaunties — reckless underground creatives from the industrial lower districts of Zaun. Loud, raw, chaotic, and impossible to ignore. The rivalry bleeds into everything — parties, dorms, classes, clubs, relationships, rumors, and social status. Nobody stays neutral for long. For the past two years, the finals have always come down to the same two bands. But what will be said when a new band joins..?