Hello and welcome to what I think is the start of an amazing adventure. First things first! This story is (in my dumb opinion) pretty unique in the way that it adds a 6th faction and integrates The Hunger Games into itself. This first chapter explains how everything works in this world and is done so by Tris in the form of a school assignment (weird start right lol).

Final Note: Tris is the main character (3rd person). I haven't decided on any pairings to work into the story yet so leave suggestions? :). All characters are the same age as they are within their respective books. The story opens the day before the choosing ceremony, the actual games don't start till later in the story (you'll see why). Story set 50 years after the Erudite succeeded in overthrowing the Abnegation (A lot changed because of that).

-Any and all suggestions/criticisms are welcome! They help me get better! Please leave a review :)

So without further delay... Here we go!

Chapter 1

Assignment: Write an essay in which you discuss the history of our fair city and why the Hunger Games are justified. Keep the following questions in mind while writing.

- "Why would the Erudite create a sixth faction?"

- "Why would transferring between factions be discouraged?"

- "Why would the factions train their children for The Hunger Games?"

Also, reconsider using the word "Divergent" if the urge presents itself. Thanks you.

Good luck!

A Historical Essay by: Beatrice Prior

The Six Factions and The Great Overthrow

Fifty years ago, Erudite brought order and peace to the peoples of our city. Before this peace, the five factions – Erudite, Abnegation, Dauntless, Candor, and Amity – lived calmly while maintaining healthy relationships with each other for a long time. This lasted for one hundred years until the people of Abnegation began to abuse their positions of power as heads of government. Along with the Abnegations negligence, the people we refer to as "Divergents" were also threatening the system. Their numbers grew, and their inability to conform to the ways of a single faction made them dangerous. The Divergent if left unchecked would destroy the foundation of the faction system, and a world without factions, where no one knew where they belonged, is above all else unthinkable. Abnegation, being no stranger to committing crimes in the past, hid these threats from detection if they were to come across them. Abnegation had to be stopped, and in being unable to reason with them, Erudite had no other choice then to use force.

With knowledge as their voice and the Dauntless by their side, they brought an end to the tyrannical rule of an entire faction, thus liberating the remaining four. The Abnegation and Divergent were held accountable for their sins, and many lives were lost. Every single Divergent, even those who were factionless, were executed. The Erudite made the right choice as they always have.

But what was the destiny of this new world? Abnegations population decreased drastically, and the remaining four factions mutual fear of the Divergents resurfacing lead to panic. This pushed the Erudite to form one of their greatest ideas to date. They would create a sixth faction.

The new faction was founded on loyalty, and its name was to be Stalwart. It was to be filled with humble people who focused on maintaining interpersonal ties and trustworthiness. The world needed more loyalty. Abnegation proved to us that without it, our system would fail.

Volunteers from Amity and Candor were taken from their factions and used to create Stalwart. It was a good faction that chose to use a pale purple to make up their faction attire, and the colour has remained constant since it's founding.

And so, peace once again returned to the factions. Abnegation was forgiven, Erudite took its rightful place as our governmental leaders, and the new faction produced hardworking people that came to provide structural maintenance and electrical power for the entirety of the city. This came with the discovery of a new energy source that was practically undying. The Stalwart, with Erudite's guidance, rebuilt the city and its roads, and the boundaries that we lived within increased exponentially in mere years. All was good, till the Erudite and Stalwart noticed a horrifying trend.

It seemed that the percentage of faction transfers was increasing more and more each year. Before the rebuilding of our system and the overthrow of Abnegation, the Choosing Ceremony – in which children of sixteen years of age could decide whether to stay with their faction or leave and join another – was a joyous time where ones aptitude for a faction left them thinking they could roam freely. This choice, it seemed, was actually the cause of all our societies problems to begin with. What makes each faction unique is its peoples likeness in thoughts. Switching factions meant that you introduced the people you transferred to the ways of your old life. The seeds of your past ways were planted in the heads of the people around you. This left the unity in thought those people shared susceptible to corruption. Transferring could only mean the destruction of what the Erudite fought so hard for. And thus the Hunger Games were born.

These games, though it is anything but an actual game, were meant to discourage the transferring of children from one faction to another. Every year, one month after the Choosing Ceremony, any children who chose to transfer would have their names entered into a lottery. One boy and one girl transfer - if possible - from each faction would inevitably have their name selected, and that meant that they were chosen to participate. This selection event is called "The Reaping."

The Hunger Games, overall, is a bloody event in which the transfers selected must fight to the death in an arena until only one remains alive. The victor will be allowed to return to the faction they transferred to.

Usually, twenty-five percent of the transfers are reaped from a faction, but the Erudite have the final say. The amount of children reaped depends on the number of transfers that year, but they can be adjusted to suit the needs of each individual faction. For example, if Candor received four transfers while Dauntless received twelve, then most likely only one child would be reaped from Candor while the Dauntless can choose to have six reaped.

In light of this new development, the remaining four factions were – of course – horrified. Though in the end, it didn't take the factions long to accept the Erudite's logic and get with the program. The Abnegation, Candor, and even the Amity and Erudite began to train their children at a young age to fight in case they ever chose to transfer. The Abnegation did this out of selflessness, for if one of their children transferred and was reaped, then they needed to be able to rest easy knowing that they helped their son or daughter. The Candor trained their kids most likely for the same reason the Abnegation did, though they would never admit it. The Amity trained them out of love, since no one wanted to see their child dead on a screen, and the Erudite trained their kids since it was only logical to have them be able to protect themselves.

Dauntless born had already been training to become soldiers for as long as they could remember, so their ability to fight was far ahead of any other transfers they would came up against. The newest faction however refused to train their children, for if they transferred, then they went against everything their faction valued. They were being disloyal. However, within the one-month period between the Choosing Ceremony and The Games, they would train their transfers as a sign of loyalty to potentially new members of their faction.

The training the Abnegation children received along with the Amity kids paled in comparison to what the Dauntless were being taught. And that is why, if any kids choose to transfer at all that year, the Dauntless who were reaped almost always won.

In all the years that the Hunger Games have been held, only eight out of the forty-six victors did not originate from Dauntless. Out of the eight, three were Erudite. Two were Candor. Two originated from Amity of all factions. And only one from Abnegation. As for the sixth faction Stalwart, the children who originated from them had a zero percent survival rate.

The Hunger Games are used as a way to both scare our younger population out of switching factions, and also to show us the importance of faction loyalty. With minimal faction transfers, the sense of community within each faction has lead to the overall happiness of each individual living there. The Games benefit each and every one of us by protecting us from ourselves.

The Erudite, in their benevolence, allowed for the aptitude tests to continue. Partly because they wished to continue monitoring the population in case any Divergent were somehow birthed into our city, but also to supply us with knowledge about ourselves. But if we do have aptitude for a faction other then our own, choosing to switch hurts hundreds of people in the process. Our families, our entire faction, our new chosen faction, along with ourselves are open to depression, and that disease is not something that we can wish away.

That is why we should not leave the faction we are born into. To disregard the order that Erudite brought us would be selfish. It would be stupid. We would be lying to ourselves, and acting out of cowardice. But above all else, we would be showing disloyalty. The six things that each faction stands for would crumble to nothing as it did all those years ago, and the peace founded on Jeanine Matthews The Valiant's hard work would have been for nothing. We would be lost.

We can only hope now that the Divergent have died off, and that the number of faction transfers remains as low as it has been since the creation of the games.

May our transfers for this year understand that if they are reaped, that it is for their own good. We in this great city that was founded on honesty, selflessness, kindness, loyalty, bravery and a thirst for knowledge, collectively pray that the odds... be ever in their favor.