Setting Guide
Welcome to a quick guide to the universe of BNHA and more specifically the universe of BUA. We don’t require extensive knowledge of the BNHA canon, and thus have compiled this guide for interested people to get to know our setting better.
General Setting
BNHA, as in Boku no Hero Academia (or translated to English as MHA, My Hero Academia), is a setting in the future year 20XX, where humankind has awakened to new powers called Quirks.
​
Quirks are superpowers. Most speculate that Quirks get stronger with every generation, resulting in the end of humanity called Quirk Singularity, where all Quirks are uncontrollably powerful. Not only are there these superpowers, but technology is incredibly advanced in parts, despite society being very much the same as in our day; this makes BNHA somewhat of a sci-fi setting.
The first Quirk manifested generations ago in Keikei City, China. The first Quirk user was dubbed “Luminescent Baby” due to them glowing with a bright light at the moment of birth. This started multiple tumultuous eras in mankind’s history, where countries across the globe created new legislature to control Quirk usage.
Despite rebellion, Quirks became controlled, and only those with approved licenses can legally use their Quirks in public. So started the era of Pro Heroes, Villains, and Vigilantes. Pro Heroes are approved, powerful people working for Hero Agencies. Villains are those who use their Quirks illegally and malevolently as superpowered criminals. Lastly, Vigilantes are those who may have ambiguous morals or work for the greater good but without a license.
BNHA focuses on the high school life of students in the world’s most esteemed Hero Academy, U.A. Academy. That is also the basis of our roleplay server.
​
​
BUA-specific Information
In BUA, we focus on a time after the events of the canon plotline. Our setting has moved the U.A. Academy from the fictional city of Musutafu to the fictional island of Wakugaijima, placed off the eastern coast of Japan near Tokyo.
A disastrous villain attack destroyed the former U.A. Academy in the year 2122, so around a hundred years after the current canon of BNHA. The fabric of society was left largely unchanging after the canon, and in case canon will end up uprooting the society, BUA canon diverges. All personal relationships to canon characters are not only forbidden but impossible, because they’ve passed on and/or disappeared.
Despite the timeskip, technology has plateaued and in general, things have remained rather unchanging. This is for the ease of roleplaying, as figuring out the developments of the entire world would be tough. BUA world can be approximately treated like our world/BNHA canon world as they are right now so that everyone’s on the same page.
The U.A. school buildings were rebuilt on Wakugaijima island on the slopes of a dormant volcano named Waku-san. The construction had already been started for other reasons and was completed only a little after the destruction of the original school. The new school year on Wakugaijima started in the April of 2122.
Now, a modern city of Hokuya rests on Wakugaijima's coast with the island revitalized by U.A. High School. The older village of Gyousen still stands, and there's plenty of untouched wilderness for the students to explore.
The future of U.A. Academy is now in the hands of the new generation of students.
​
U.A. High School
The classes are named differently from the canon, and aren’t sorted according to any perceived ability at all but sorted randomly and simply numbered from one to ten. U.A. High School does not accept more than ten classes per department. Ideal class size does not exceed 15 students, but classes may be smaller. This brings the maximum of possible U.A. students in a single department to a total of one hundred, and the overall school capacity is 1600 students from every department and grade.
Both the grade and department are marked by a letter in front of the number of the class, first a letter assigned to a grade, and then a letter assigned to a department. The letters are in the Latin alphabet and come from English as follows:
-
Heroics Department = H
-
Support Department = S
-
General Education Department = G
-
Business Department = B
-
First Year Grade = F
-
Second Year Grade = S
-
Third Year Grade = T
As such, a first year student in Heroics in the class 1 would officially belong in class “FH-1”, whereas a third year in business in class 7 would belong in class “TB-7”. Amongst peers, the classes are usually referred without the letter for the year grade.
Department of Heroics
The most widely publicized department is undoubtedly Heroics. Students usually enroll into it to strive to become Pro Heroes, but there are other reasons: Heroics also teaches basic civil service and promises its students to eventually attain the necessary qualifications to be allowed to use their quirks in public, an unique opportunity for this department.
Department of Support
Support focuses on the development and creation of various support equipment and paraphernalia that help heroes in their work and sometimes can be of use for the average civilian. Support is a creative environment with unmatched facilities.
Department of General Education
Students who didn’t make the cut for Heroics or Support can still land a spot in General Education, which can cause some tension between the departments. However, some students decide to enroll in General Education to gear up for college or for other pursuits that can be supported with credentials of having graduated from U.A. High School.
​
General Education students can transfer into a Heroics or Support class if they show significant success in their studies and school events. In-server, you can seek this option via Student Transfers.
Department of Business
Those who enroll in Business wish to participate in Heroics and Support from a strictly business-like viewpoint, practicing everything from founding and managing hero agencies to producing and marketing heroes. They can also gear more towards marketing goods and services for the support item industry.
Quirks
Quirk presence can be diagnosed by the presence or the absence of an extra joint in the pinky toe. A singular joint signifies the person will develop a quirk, whereas two joints signifies a Quirkless person. Quirks are mostly inherited, with the child having a Quirk that combines elements from both of their parents’ Quirks or genes from their ancestry. In rare cases, a child may have an exact copy of their parent’s Quirk, or an entirely new mutation that has nothing to do with their Quirk Lineage.
​
Quirks are classified in three categories: Emitter, Transformation, and Mutant. All Quirks don’t neatly fit within these categories, but they’re useful to know.
Emitter-type Quirks generally require conscious effort to activate and maintain. Many of them include the creation of real or unique materials, and often it’s possible for the user to control these “emissions”. These Quirks can also sometimes alter substances. This is, by far, the most common type of Quirk.
Transformation-type Quirks cause the user to take on impermanent alterations to their physical form. These can include turning their body or parts of their body to different materials, items or different states of existence. Physical enhancements are also part of this type. Usually these changes require conscious effort from the user to activate and sometimes maintain. Because this Quirk combines the physical changes of Mutant-type quirks and the activation of Emitter-type quirks, it’s sometimes called the Hybrid type. This seems to be the least common type of Quirk.
Mutant-type Quirks manifest as permanent physical changes in the user, sometimes even from the moment of birth. They cannot be deactivated and are always passively active in some form, which may be a hindrance. Mutant-type Quirks are the only Quirk that can be inherited without the Quirk itself present, the physiological differences present through generations without any significant advantages.
Significant powers with regards to Quirk usage usually manifest around the age of three, but many Mutant-type Quirks are noticeable earlier on. Some Quirks may manifest later, and usually the full extent of a Quirk is only unlocked in adulthood with significant training. In elementary school, children receive Quirk counseling that not only helps them manage their Quirk, but also instills in them the laws that prohibit the public use of Quirks (unless in self-defense). Laws most likely vary from country to country.
Within the BNHA setting, people with “villainous” or just scary Quirks are somewhat demonized in society, whereas Quirkless people are somewhat shunned for not having a Quirk at all.
What is important to us about your characters’ Quirks is that they are not unbeatable and otherwise comply with our OC Guidelines. This means that they must have limitations and drawbacks of some kind, generally following a rule of "the more powerful the Quirk, the more extreme the drawbacks". Drawbacks and limitations can include limited range, physical and/or mental strain if the Quirk is overused, etc.
Limits must be especially in place for Student Role characters. A sixteen year old, generally, needs to still learn how to use their Quirk--That’s why they’re in school! Adult characters, in most cases, are vastly more powerful than student characters.
​
​
Character Details
We don’t set any specific limitations on characters as long as they comply with our rules and guidelines, but given our setting, there’s a few things that are good to keep in mind. notably, U.A. Academy is located in Japan. Therefore, it’s mandatory for every character to have a some sort of grasp on the Japanese language! They’re supposed to attend classes in Japanese, after all. BUA’s school welcomes all transfer students from any country as long as they pass the entrance exam.
U.A. Academy has a notoriously hard entrance exam that consists of a written portion and a practical portion. The written portion is a normal exam that you might expect to take when trying to get into high school in Japan, though undoubtedly a bit tougher than normal.
The practical exam for Heroics students consists of a robot-assisted simulation of a hero work scenario; you can score points for things like destroying enemies (the robots) or rescuing civilian dummies, or even for rescuing fellow test-takers. Different difficulty robots yield different points. Support students have a different kind of practical exam, and General Education and Business students only take a written exam.
Some students also get into U.A. via recommendation: this means that existing Pro Heroes vouched for their budding talent. These Pro Heroes may also be family members who recognize their child's potential.
All Main Student Role characters are currently first years in U.A High School, which means they are generally fifteen to sixteen years old. Teacherless Students may be older. Of course, for non-student characters, there are no guidelines for age, though extremely young characters are discouraged against.
