Talk:Blake Belladonna/@comment-26160399-20171009211819/@comment-4010415-20171011221319

I don't recall any of the WoRs saying that the kingdoms' survival is tied to the academies. In fact, the Huntsman Academies were not established until after the Great War ended. Prior to that, they only had combat schools.

WoR: Atlas never said that the first thing Mantle did was establish an academy. People trying to settle Solitas found an incredibly helpful Dust deposit that allowed them to create a settlement (I think it was fire Dust and that the images of houses with machines that send the Dust throughout the house might be the invention of heating systems). It also said that, because of the harsh environment, Mantle had to advance its technology faster than the other kingdoms for its survival. The only mentions of Mantle's combat school, Alsius, is that the area next to it was the perfect place for an R&D facility, and that Alsius itself reopened as Atlas after the Great War.

WoR: Vacuo never said that Shade Academy is the only civilized area in Vacuo. It said that it's the closest thing the kingdom has to a formal government because its people rejected the true formal government that the kingdom attempted to form.

Yes, it would have been better to target Shade, since Shade's destruction would cause Vacuo to crumble pretty easily, but Salem targeted Beacon first because that's where the Vytal Festival was being held, and the fact that the tournament was broadcast live across the world gave them the ultimate platform to spread fear and distrust worldwide.