Iron Prince

by Bryce O\

Reidon Ward receives the lowest-rated CAD (Combat Assistance Device) in the history of Galens Institute, a military academy where students fight with evolving technological implants. But his CAD has a unique growth pattern, and Rei's willingness to train beyond human limits reveals potential the rating system wasn't designed to measure.

26 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Aria Laurent — An A-rank ice specialist from the most powerful family in the Astra System — who fell for the lowest-ranked cadet at Galens and discovered that rankin
• Casper Irons — The instructor who sees what Rei could become — a combat teacher at Galens who mentors the lowest-ranked cadet when doing so earns him nothing but tro
• Chance Cassidy — Rei's roommate, first friend, and the team's shield — a Phalanx-type who's smart enough to see what Rei is becoming before anyone else does.
• Guest — A top cadet at Galens whose talent represents the conventional ceiling that Rei's unconventional path is shattering.
• Kay — A team member who rounds out Rei's Sectionals squad — reliable, competent, and the kind of fighter a team needs to function.
• Lasher — A highly ranked cadet at Galens — one of the top fighters whose skill provides the benchmark against which Rei's impossible growth is measured.
• Lennon — The person who helps Rei understand what 'Atypical' actually means — providing the framework for why Shido doesn't follow the rules.
• Logan Grant — An A-rank Saber who tried to break Rei Ward and failed — then discovered that the hatred consuming him had a source he didn't want to face.
• Major Reese — The faculty member who wants Rei gone — an institutional antagonist who sees a broken system coddling a broken cadet and will not tolerate either.
• Reidon Ward — The lowest-ranked cadet at the most elite military academy in the system — born with a body that was killing him, bonded to a CAD that shouldn't exist
• Sense — An ability-type cadet whose non-standard fighting style provides another lens on what CADs can become outside conventional classifications.
• Shido — Rei's CAD — an AI weapon classified as Atypical among Atypicals, with the lowest starting stats and the highest growth potential ever recorded.
• The MIND — The most powerful artificial intelligence in human history — it governs civilization, assigns CADs, and has taken a very personal interest in one cade
• Valera Dent — The commandant of Galens Institute — an S-rank Atypical user who is one of humanity's most powerful fighters and sees in Rei something that reminds he
• Viviana Arada — A fire-type Brawler who fights like she has something to prove and befriends people like she has something to protect — Rei's fiercest defender and th

Locations

• Galens Institute — The most elite military academy in the Astra System — where humanity's next generation of CAD-bonded fighters train, compete, and are ranked against e
• Laurent Holdings — The seat of the Laurent family's power — a dynasty that shapes policy in the Astra System and would very much prefer their daughter not date the lowes
• Sectionals Tournament Grounds — The inter-school competition venues where Galens' cadets fight rival academies — and where Rei's team proves that rankings don't tell the whole story.
• The Astra System — The star system where Galens Institute operates — one node in the Intersystem Collective's network of human civilization, where the war with the Archo
• The Combat Arenas — Where rankings are earned and reputations are destroyed — shielded combat spaces where CAD-assisted fights happen in conditions that simulate lethal c

Items

• Combat Assistance Devices — AI weapons that bond to human users, manifest as armor and weapons, and evolve through training and combat — the technology that makes humanity's stan
• Stormweaver Classification — Rei's unique Device evolution path — a classification that doesn't exist in any database, has no precedent, and represents something the MIND has neve
• The Archons — Humanity's existential enemy — an alien threat that has been pushing human borders for decades, the reason CADs exist, and the war that everyone train
• The Intersystem Collective — Humanity's interstellar civilization — governed by the MIND, defended by CAD Users, and organized around a military hierarchy where combat ranking det
• The Ranking System — F through S — the letters that define a cadet's worth at Galens, a User's career in the Collective, and the social hierarchy that Rei Ward is systemat
• The Spec System — The seven stats that define a CAD User's capabilities — ranked F through S, publicly displayed, and the reason Rei Ward was the most dismissed and the

View full codex at Simulacra.Ink