While I do agree that providing some insight into game mechanics and how they play out in PK as you mentioned would be good to have in the academy.

What I gather from the OP is that the confusion isn’t so much about a lack of understanding of the mechanics of PK but more so how PK and RP are intertwined within CF. What I don’t think is explained well in the academy, and isn’t immediately obvious to many new players, is that the game has many built in mechanism for encouraging conflict amongst players. The most obvious examples are the cabals themselves, excluding Herald, each cabal has a subset of players that are deemed natural enemies and these people as part of many players RP will be killed on sight. So while it might not look like RP to the victim if a maran storm giant warrior walks in and immediately starts bashing your duergar, it is in fact the standard RP that should be expected between two such characters. I understand there are exceptions but I think this is pretty much the general rule and how the game tends to play out.

So in essence what I think the academy could use is a better introduction to how these conflicts play out in the game. That is making it more obvious that as part of many if not most players RP there will be a PK component. And this component tends to be of the nature of kill first ask questions latter. This is of course just my opinion on how many newer players miss the link between RP and PK within CF and instead come to the conclusion that there is limited RP and just massive PKing on the mud.