Superheroes first appeared a little before World War I. Mutants and other empowered individuals began to appear more and more often as the century rolled on. By the sixties, a group of heroes and villains came together to create a safe, neutral high school where newly-emerged mutants could learn to control their powers. Mutations typically become evident at around puberty, often signaled by a change in eye color and other physical changes. Some mutants became fantastically beautiful. Some became hideous. Some changed sex. Many were rejected by their families and friends. To protect these children, ease their transition, ensure a future legacy for “their kind,” and guard society against rampaging adolescent godlings, this group of heroes and villains created a secret boarding school covering all four years of American high school. On the surface, this is a normal private boarding school of around 650 students, nestled in the remote hills of New Hampshire. It is known as "Whateley Academy." Unknown to the world at large, this school trains the future leaders of the world – both heroes and villains. And while the school attempts to maintain a strict neutrality on the good vs. evil issue, the individual students have no such requirement.

This is the foundation premise of this closed shared universe of fiction. Nearly twenty authors involved in creating canon stories since 2004 have developed a rich, involved world with (at current) approaching 12 million words ( 120-150 paperback novels) of published material. Dozens of additional authors have tried their own hand at non-canon stories that complement the canon collection while honing their craft and trying to sneak in the door to canon status. The current storyline is split into two main time frames, the 'original timeline' which began with the Fall of 2006 has now advanced to the second school year and sits in Mid-September of 2007. A more recently started Gen 2 (second generation) project shares the same continuity with the original stories but focuses on protagonists in the Fall of 2016.

We currently release approximately 20-25k words of new content on Monday evening and Friday afternoon. If our pipeline has sufficient items in it, we post a second / additional release on Monday.

In universe, the Crystal Hall is the geodesic dome cafeteria facility that appears in many stories that take place on campus. For the community, the Crystal Hall represents the common ground and meeting place where fans and authors come together to share our love of this story universe. Primarily the name of our forums, it also doubles as the site name... and used to be the domain/URL of the site. While it is possible to read the stories and comment on them (and even read through much of the forums material) without registering, to prevent spammers/advertisers, we do require site registration to be able to participate actively in the forums.  

We hope that you've found us as a result of looking for something to read, because that's where we've got a lot to offer. You can freely read the entire canon, in the vicinity of 13 years of universe development and approaching 12 million words of published work. You can also read community produced non-canon Whateley stories, and delve into our library of other works by our canon authors, some of whom also have books on the public market at Amazon and other book stores. We also invite you to comment and respond to what you've read, register on the site and participate in discussions with the fan community, chat with the authors, and offer suggestions to further develop the community.