The Prometheus Institute

Oh, where to begin. The Prometheus Institute is part of the education division within the Government-Civilian Alliance. It is a self-proclaimed safe-haven for genetically gifted students and children who exhibit genius, and its mission is to protect those gifted children from exploitation by supplying them with an extensive, well-balanced education. That's what the brochure says, anyway. In reality it's a government-run boarding school/indoctrination camp.

When I was trying to decide on a name for this prestigious academic organization, I knew I wanted a mythological reference. I wanted that little oomph of pretension that says, "Hey, look at us! We must be important because our name references a tale from an ancient culture!" Greek mythology in particular lends itself to this, so I set about looking there for the perfect mythological figure. And I found him.

Prometheus is a perfect namesake for the Institute on two different levels. First, there's the well-known story where Prometheus the Titan steals away fire from Zeus and gives it to mankind. He is a hero and champion of the people. Man needed fire to survive, Zeus was withholding it out of spite, and Prometheus supplied it. This is the image that the Prometheus Institute wants to project: they bring enlightenment to their student body and thus ensure the nation's future by educating its brightest children, who might otherwise not receive the attention they deserve.

Of course, that's a very shallow, naive view of Prometheus--which brings us to the second level: Prometheus the Usurper. Prometheus is a primeval example of usurped authority and redistribution of wealth. "You don't have fire? Zeus has fire. I'll take fire from Zeus and give it to you." Fire was not his to pass around, and no matter how noble his motives were, the act reaped dire consequences: Zeus retaliated by giving Pandora and her happy little box to mankind as a follow-up gift; chaos and destruction ensued. "Prometheus" means "forethought," but obviously he didn't think that far ahead. Or, more chillingly, he did and really is a villain.

Like its eponymous hero, the Prometheus Institute usurps authority that does not rightfully belong to it. Its student body is acquired from parents whether they are willing or not, and it controls the students' fate both in their school years and beyond. It's also tortured by an angry eagle, but we won't go into that in this post.

The school was originally designed to have five campuses with sites located near New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Dallas. However, within a couple years of its founding, the administrators deemed it necessary to establish a more remote campus, which is how Prom-F ended up in Western Montana. Each of the five campuses--A, B, C, D, and F--has approximately 120 students for a combined student body of 600-ish. In addition, each student is assigned a "child-life counselor" to track his or her progress, both academic and social. At the start of events in A Boy Called Hawk, the Institute has been around for a third of a century at least.

The Prometheus principals are appointed directly by the head of the GCA, a presidential cabinet member colloquially known as the "Service Czar." They have full control over their campus and its students, and they report directly back to the Service Czar. They are as follows:

A Campus: Genevieve Jones
B Campus: Gregory Lee
C Campus: Rupert Carter
D Campus: Annemarie Legrand
F Campus: Lucian Gates

There is some not-so-friendly rivalry among them, though some get along better than others. Jones, Lee, and Gates in particular have a civil camaraderie with one another. Carter and Legrand are a bit more belligerent, probably because their respective campuses are viewed as less prestigious than the A and B campuses. The five sites are supposedly equal, with mostly identical structures ("mostly" because the dorm at Prom-F is twice as large to accommodate all the on-campus staff), but there is still a hierarchy among them that corresponds to their designated letter.

The five campuses meet in a yearly exposition, with each campus playing host in turn. This event is for those in grade 5 and higher. Students under the age of ten are not allowed to travel from Prom-A, -B, -C, and -D, except under special circumstances. That age restriction is raised to twelve for Prom-F, since most of its students were late acquisitions (six or older when they were enrolled).

I could probably go on, but this post is long enough already. In a nutshell, the Prometheus Institute is run by a bunch of power-hungry control-freaks, and it should be despised. That's not too spoilerific, is it?

Next time: Hawk West. And maybe his siblings. Depends on how much I have to say about him.