I just want to say that I have been overwhelmed with the response to the project. I am so very excited by Hitt everyone has sent in so far. This is amazing and I never figured that I would get such a quick response and tremendous feedback. Again thank you all so very much. So just an update: we need 3 more female characters and 4 more male characters. You still have time so don't rush. Every submission so far has been great. As a treat I thought I would post this small chapter early. Here you will get a better understanding of some of the lore of the region and the Institute. Again keep submitting as I have been so very impressed. This is just a small chapter again as a thank you to everyone who has submitted an Oc. If you are still on the fence, please do submit I don't bite that hard.
When Arceus created the world, he blessed one region in particular. Avantura was nicknamed the land of "milk and honey" for how rich the land was. There were luscious forests and the sea was filled with bounties of fish Pokémon. The land was filled with Pokémon and humans living in perfect harmony. Avantura became the pioneer in raising Pokémon. Avantura were the first region to create the concept of a Pokémon league. In fact the Avantura league was widely considered to be the toughest league in the world. Avantura trainers supposedly had a special connection to their Pokémon. A connection that no other trainers had to their Pokémon. There was something about Avantura that made it a unique area. The people of Avantura considered themselves to be the gold standards of Pokémon training and that could never ever be replicated by anyone else.
At the heart of this arrogance was the Institute. The Institute had been founded by Luka Babic. Luka, a former Pokémon researcher, had seen Pokémon battling up close. He was fascinated by it. Luka had failed as a trainer, but he had been studying the nuisances of Pokémon battling. He had found it fascinating. The way that the Pokémon and the trainers fought together. He was especially interested in the Avantura battling style. Luka had studied other Pokémon leagues and battlers. He had been to Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, etc. yet none of them compared to Avantura. There was something different about their style. Something unique that set them apart from the others. Luka wanted to find out how he could take advantage of this. He was a smart man and knew that if he could sell this special style to the mass audiences then he could make himself very, very rich.
That was when he had come up with the idea for The Institute. A place where trainers could learn how to be like a Avantura trainer. He was going to sell the experience of learning the secrets of being an Avantura trainer. Sure he knew that the skills varied from trainer to trainer, but with the mysterious legendary stories that surrounded Avantura's trainers, Luka knew he could sell the experience to outside trainers. He just needed to pick the area and hire the staff that could really build up the university. Of course this would require money. Luckily for Luka, he had made quite a nice nest egg for these type of situations. He had been a popular researcher and his documents had been published into books which had sold well. So Luka Babic took the money he had made from his research and decided to risk it all on his gamble.
He had picked out the perfect location. A large, long forgotten, former castle and surrounding areas in Zlato were for sale. The "city of Gold" had many castles that had been left abandoned, but there was one that Luka had in mind. The castle had been a memento of a different era. Back when dragon Pokémon had roamed freely across this land, castles had been needed to protect people from the vicious creatures. But now that there were no more dragon Pokémon in Zlato or Avantura there was no need for castles anymore. So they had often gone unattended. People had inherited the castles from their families, but had not taken care of the castles. For most they just wanted to sell and get rid of. This made smart real estate buyers, like Luka, eager to go in and buy these landmarks and the land surrounding it. Luka was a smart man and knew that he had to jump on any opportunity to purchase one.
It was more a palace than a castle. Sure the building itself was falling apart, but the location was ideal. The castle overlooked "More mlijeka i meda" translated into the sea of milk and honey. Luka could not have imagined a better place to build his experiment. Luka would also bought up the areas surrounding the castle as well. It would take two years for Luka to build up what he had envisioned for the university. He had not only sunk money into the project, but blood and tears. He had basically built this up by his lonesome. The finished product was marvelous. The castle itself would be the main area of business for the university. Luka had converted the houses that had been around the castle into lodging for the students that would come. There was also grass fields where the trainers would be training. It was crude, but for what it was Luka was proud.
Luka Babic had a lot of contacts from his time as a researcher. He knew a few big wigs that were masters at their craft. They ranged from professors to trainers and fellow researchers. Luka contacted those that he knew would be interested. Some balked at the idea. They did not want to be apart of the project and risk their reputations. Some even deemed Luka crazy for trying to do something like this. They could not see the big picture like Luka could. This was the way to not only make a ton of money, but to enhance one's reputation. Then a miracle happened, a former champion of the Avantura region signed up to be an instructor at the Institute. Virgil Novak was one of the best champions of his era. He had only lost one match in his tenure. His record for title defenses was a record. The fact that Virgil had been willing to give this venture a chance added needed credibility to the project.
Of course the first few years had been rough. They had not met their quota for the students that they had expected. And of course not everyone knew how to teach. Luka was losing money every single year as well. No one knew exactly how long the Institute could last. The Institute looked like it was going to be an absolute failure with Luka looking like a moron. Those in the education/research industry preemptively took a victory lap saying that not anyone could just do what they did. The leader of this was a young professor from Pallet Town named Oak. Professor Oak claimed that The Institute's presumed failure showed that people just could not just help to educate trainers. It took a special breed to be able to work with the trainers. Oak said that the Institute would be the prime example of failure and serve as a warning to others who would try and copy Luka.
Then something happened that would change the whole narrative surrounding The Institute. Dominic Knezevic, part of the first ever graduating class of The Institute, would become champion of the Avantura region. He gave credit to what The Institute had done to help him reach this point. This was the best way to market the university. After Dominic had celebrated the school, applications started to pour into The Institute. More and more trainers started to flock into the school. They wanted to be the next Dominic. So The Institute started to have waves and waves of recruits from all different areas of the Pokémon world. The best part was the parents were willing to pay which Luka gladly accepted. The Institute's reputation had went from joke to become the premier place for trainers to go. They wanted to learn exactly what the people of Avantura knew. They wanted to have a chance to be the next great champion of their region. Numerous trainers came to the Institute and would walk away with more knowledge.
Trainers like Cynthia, Lance, and Red had all been products of The Institute. They would often give credit to what they had learned at the Institute. It was the haven of knowledge for the trainers. Luka's vision was not just to make these people champions, but to show them how to have that special connection with Pokémon. A way for the trainers to feel the joy and pain they would have from their Pokémon. But it was a grueling process and only one Pokémon could ever truly have that special connection with said trainer. For example Lance and his prized red Gyrados had that connection. They had enhanced it at the Institute. The Institute brought out the best in those that stayed. It was a brutal training and some could not make it. They would drop out and would often claim cruelty from the school. But those that did last would become special trainers. They would go on to become champions in the region and be considered the best trainers in the world.
This new fame allowed the Institute to expand and build. New facilities were built. The old dirt fields were replaced with more modern ones. Luka would expand the school and added some more buildings. This meant hiring more teachers. All were welcome to join as staff. Those that had mocked Luka so much before had come running to him for work. To try and enhance their reputations after the Institute had put them to shame. Even the mighty Professor Oak from Pallet Town had wanted to become a guest lecturer. Luka welcomed them all in. He was not a vengeful man. He knew people had wanted him to fail and he was fine with it. He had been a success story. Luka was making money and turning out champions. His reputation was sky high and so was the Institute.
Of course there were those that would bash the Institute. They would claim that the Institute was a cult. A place where trainers were broken mentally and physically. That the Institute abused Pokémon and trainers. A group known formed to try to start a University that used the opposite techniques of the Institute. That university would fail within a year. Still there were many that would criticize the principals of the Institute. Luka would be vehement in his defense of his principals of the university. That the techniques were necessary and had turned out many great champions. It was not a cult, it was a school for learning. Yes some of the trainings were brutal, but it had to be in order to serve the students. Luka would fight and fight against all criticism until his last days.
There were even some that claimed the Institute was not just a University. Rather that it held a secret that only a select few knew about. Something that could change the Pokémon world as people knew it. That the Bunin family built the Institute to cover up whatever secret lied beneath the university. Those critics were labeled as nut jobs. Conspiracy theorists even formed their own group known as "the Righteous." They claimed to know the true secret of the Institute and wanted to show the world. Some people had tried to break into the university, but were quickly stopped. The government of Avantura would even try to designate the Righteous as dangerous. There was nothing going on in the Institute except Pokémon training.
Luka's son Franz would say that the criticism that his father faced was what killed him. Frank never forgave the critics of his father's grand experiment. Even as Franz would elevate his father's work, he still never forgave those that criticized his father. They had put him in the grave and Franz hated that. This was why he had made the Institute a private university. He no longer cared about what the others thought about his methods. No Franz was going to do things the way his father had intended. That was to bring excellence to the university. He had done so for many years even surpassing the number of champions his father had produced. Franz legacy was going to be cemented as even more impactful than his father.
But then the great champions dried up. The Institute had not produced a great group of trainers and that infuriated Franz. Some said that his time had passed and the methods were outdated. That it was time for the Institute to morph into something more modern. That it was time the Bubic's era of terror, as some called it, came to an end. Franz did not listen to these outsiders. Instead he doubled down on what the Institute was about. In fact Franz issued a public statement saying that this current group of students at the Institute was the best class they ever had. That he was going to stake his whole reputation on it. Now this class just needed to prove him right.