Deer College

Biodata

Background and History

Deer College pioneered the integration of occult studies into a liberal arts curriculum. Its educational reputation rests on high standards of thaumaturgical practice, creative thinking, and active multiversal citizenship. Students combine traditional majors with occult concentrations or pursue established interdisciplinary programs, culminating in a capstone project 6.

Unlike the Fog City Clock Tower, the college does not prioritize bloodline or supernatural aptitude in admissions. It accepts ordinary people with distinctive talents, including exceptional literary ability, and educates holders of different lineages. Four of the Clock Tower’s twelve seat holders studied there 6.

Its alumni also include several senior Wand People executives and that organization’s highest-ranking True-Named. Stephen, later the Blanc Gang’s leader, was formerly a ghost representative at the college before leaving for Fog City to study Portrait Manifestation Thaumaturgy 7 45.

Admissions

Entry Routes

Recruitment and Orientation

• Recruitment range: One announced recruitment drive covered all twenty-six countries of the Youyang Alliance 5.
• Fog City intake: Recruitment began on Terra Calendar 1589.2.9 after negotiations with the Clock Tower. The intake comprised fifty-six students, eighteen admitted through recommendations 9 11.
• Spirit Recognitions: Owl-shaped ether spirits from the Ether Sea serve as college familiars and escort recruits. Some unwilling students are physically dragged to orientation 11.
• Inclusive enrollment: Students include humans, ghosts, and nonhuman beings; the incoming cohort includes a three-eyed girl, a fish-person, a puppy on a flying carpet, and a four-armed, eight-eyed gentleman 11.
• Initial procedures: Freshmen receive a Meme Vaccine, connect to the college’s lineage, and gain authorized access to its shared knowledge base 11.
• Family support: Students abducted by the owls may apply for financial subsidies for their families 11.

Academic Organization

Deer College has two academic divisions, each containing four groups with its own head 12.

First-Year Requirements

Teaching and Assessment

• Albert Lauengen: Teaches introductory thaumaturgy, including reality alteration through ether analysis, the Four Great Seals, and the dangers of mutation, loss of control, and demonic possession 14 18.
• Professor Byron: Teaches Thaumaturgy Overview and gemstone-assisted casting; gives students rubies to examine Fireball’s structure 24.
• Professor Dylan: Teaches Numbers and Science and sets the first monthly mathematics examination 24 39.
• Professor Tom Humphrey: Lectures on dimensional formalwear, shrinking pockets, and their historical association with the Heaven Lineage 48.
• Practical coursework: Students must master at least one applied elemental thaumaturgy within a month, supported by a Common Seal Construction Method attachment 18 21.
• Examination security: A screening field blocks students’ lineage connections during exams, which are personally invigilated by academic-group professors 39.
• Post-assessment schedule: Specialist courses begin after the first monthly assessment, while other required subjects receive fewer hours to leave time for experiments and clubs 40.

Lineage and Research

Deer Spirit

Deer Spirit is the college’s lineage think tank, represented by a virtual fawn. Lineage think tank development and artificial intelligence are primary institutional research fields 12.

• Assigns customizable AI sprites to assist students throughout their college lives; Xia Xiu names sprite Number 10086 Jarvis 12.
• Provides housing information, course selection, textbooks, maps, email, messaging, and campus-forum access 12 14 21 22 23.
• Analyzes registered clubs and assigns tasks suited to their capabilities 45.
• Verifies access to controlled areas and can forcibly log users out during runaway meme contamination 49.

Cross-Lineage Access

• Students with existing lineages can access Deer College’s shared knowledge base through authorized peripheral connections 11 12.
• Xia Xiu’s initial connection displays a 7% rejection rate 12.
• The peripheral automatically disconnects more than ten kilometers beyond Three Portlands 12.
• Users are instructed to disable the peripheral when casting through their own lineage to avoid increasing rejection 12.
• Xia Xiu cites an Ether Sea-backed handbook contract requiring outside-lineage students who link to the college to graduate before leaving voluntarily 32.
• Student lineage affiliations are recorded in the college’s student system and are not treated as secret information 42.

Memetics and Security

• Meme Vaccine: Administered to incoming students during orientation 11.
• Sword of Judgment: Jarvis activates it to purge Xia Xiu’s high-risk Life Guide application 17.
• Memetic products: Deer College and the Three Portlands City Council do not readily sell them to outsiders 16.
• Containment capability: Xia Xiu trusts the college to contain him if his Divine Feast ritual causes him to lose control; this is his assessment, not a demonstrated guarantee 20.

Campus and Facilities

Teaching Complex

The main building is an aboveground cathedral, with administrative, teaching, research, and security facilities distributed across four basement levels 14.

• Wonderful Science District: Contains student clubrooms, scanning systems, and restricted areas. Its entrance displays the holographic slogan “For science!” 45.
• Surface transport: A concealed teleportation array connects the college to the surface 25.
• Wing E containment: Steel corridors contain metal doors over twenty meters tall. Chamber 0-66 houses the Black Demon Hound 49.

Residential Communities

Student Services and Rules

• Dining: The cafeteria operates twenty-four hours a day, with both free and paid food; familiars can deliver meals for a fee 12 14.
• Uniform: Students must wear magic robes to class. Xia Xiu receives three sets fitted with dust-repelling circles 14.
• Schedule: The college generally follows six days of classes and one day off 44.
• GPA Wraiths: Low-flying black “Chatterclouds” haunt campus, obscure hallway lights, and gather over the library 11.

Student Council and Clubs

• Diabolo serves as student council president and welcomes new students through psychic resonance and memetic attention redirection 11.
• New clubs require five members and Student Council approval 22 23.
• Approved clubs must register their names with the college think tank before receiving matched tasks 45.
• The House of Languages, cooperative apartments, Canyon House, and Haunted House issue community tasks that award grade points 22.
• Freshmen commonly create temporary clubs because earning points in established upperclassman clubs is difficult 22.

Documented Clubs

External Relationships

• Three Portlands — Hosts the college; its movement carries the institution between regions during recruitment and study 5 39.
• Fog City Clock Tower — Shares a Blue Book-centered lineage orientation. The institutions arrange recruitment access and research exchanges despite differing attitudes toward bloodline-based admissions 6 9.
• Heaven Lineage and the Sanctum — Heaven members have studied at the college, including Xia Xiu. Ximen Fulica disparages the institution and repeatedly urges him to return to Sanctum training, but Xia Xiu chooses to remain 32 35.
• Wand People — Has prominent Deer College alumni and provides navigation services within the Wonderful Science District 45.
• Vortex Music — Supplies Xia Xiu with an unofficial memetic antibody when institutional restrictions prevent him from obtaining the desired product through official channels 16.

Story Role and Major Arcs