#tesserae

This system was developed for worldbuilding in my long fic Blaze of Glory, so I'll make some references to illustrate my point, but it's kinda general.

Tesserae in Twelve and Districts like it make a lot of sense. Sign up for having your name on an extra slip in the Reaping ball, and once a month, you can collect grain and oil rations for one person. Benefit: more food for your family. Drawback: more risk of getting Reaped.

But if someone is likely to volunteer, what's to stop any teen from taking 10+ tesserae per year and relaxing? The Capitol could simply put a cap on it, but I think it's fun to make it complicated. To reconcile the significant decrease of that risk in Two because of volunteer Career culture, I created another class of trainee: the Tesserans.

I know formalized training in an academy setting is not actually canon, as we don't get any detail on what Career training looks like. However, in my Two, the Training Academy is not just for the Hunger Games but also preparation for a career in Peacekeeping. My OC Pyra's view is a very Games-oriented perspective. She thinks of the generous Capitol in Ch6. Power, "They let their children train, let the Academy slide under the guise of pre-Peacekeeper training." But it isn't completely a guise. It is their education. They want a population of kids who get that early start with physical fitness, firearm and traditional weapon handling, and discipline.

"Real" Careers pay tuition to the Academy. They can start at age 9, have access to better accommodations, and do not have to work. Tesserans are introduced in Ch2. Kindling as, "students who were obligated to enlist after taking out three or more tesserae per year or more than ten cumulatively by age fifteen." Two has economic privilege in Panem. In the Seam, we see Katniss and Gale taking tesserae for their entire families as soon as they are eligible. Even before Gale's dad died the winter before his age-14 Reaping, he was taking 5 tesserae/year. However, the Town kids usually don't take any. Maybe 1/year if they need to. I see Two as being mostly closer to Town-class or a little higher with fewer poor people and very rare cases of Seam-like conditions. Plus, with more frequent Victors (roughly one every six years), Two gets more years with Parcel Days. Given that, I don't think as much of Two gets to the level of poverty for taking 3+ tesserae/year.

Still, by the time of graduation, the vast majority of students at the Academy are Tesserans. These students start at age 12 or applicable later year. Before age 15, they mostly do the same training as the paying Careers and just get worse accommodations/less access. However, in the year of their age-15 Reaping, those who are not promising candidates for Tribute get "demoted to support staff." Training time is reallocated to work time. They do chores like wipe down the equipment and fetch water, maintain the facilities, cook, wait tables at events like the winter dance, etc. These teens are paying back their District for the grain and oil their families back home receive and earning their keep at the Academy, where they do get that pre-Peacekeeper education. To people without Pyra's background, it can be less about going there for the training and more about the work, as Wolfram says in Ch24. Breadcrumbs, "I had friends who needed to take tesserae and work at the Training Academy."

This system lets the Capitol work around the Career culture---which is technically supposed to not be allowed but is permitted because it gives them a good show---and implement the tesserae system in a slightly different way. The Capitol can incentivize kids from the lower classes to enter the path of Peacekeeping (chance at glory in the Games, a bonus motivator to work hard). This gives them a steady supply of soldiers and instills a sense of gratitude and honor in them. This is how they raise kids to become Peacekeepers who shout, "I’ll never turn my back on the Capitol, even if I’m the last soldier in your way!" at their former friends.