Question A canon rival school in North America.

I was reading non-canon material on another site before I actually started reading canon, in someone's works there was a school in Newfoundland.

Thinking about it, what if there WERE a canon school on this continent? Sure you would still have to deal with the Ninjas sneaking in... but imagine the possibilities. SPORTS!, Pranking, friendly competition! What if it were affiliated with Whateley? Kind of like a Whateley-West.

Guest lecturers from each school, and so on...

the possibilities are endless for interaction with another school.
"Mrs. Carson the kids from Whateley West stole the founder statue again!"

What if there were a mage school that specifically trained baseline WIZ's . I mean being a mage/wizard is already accepted at MIT and becoming a WIZ at baseline takes years of practice so why not start young?

Ebola wrote: What if there were a mage school that specifically trained baseline WIZ's . I mean being a mage/wizard is already accepted at MIT and becoming a WIZ at baseline takes years of practice so why not start young?

I cast Bastardus Latinium!

Think that Circe could be the mysterious headmaster that none of the students see because she is moonlighting at Whateley

nah, you you could get someone else to do it... Merlin, maybe.

Rose Bunny wrote: nah, you you could get someone else to do it... Merlin, maybe.

Would Merlin just be a title or 'The' Merlin

Ebola wrote: What if there were a mage school that specifically trained baseline WIZ's . I mean being a mage/wizard is already accepted at MIT and becoming a WIZ at baseline takes years of practice so why not start young?

Because Whateley doesn't get enough Hogwarts jokes as it is.

Ebola wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote: nah, you you could get someone else to do it... Merlin, maybe.

Would Merlin just be a title or 'The' Merlin

I was thinking the Man himself.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Because Whateley doesn't get enough Hogwarts jokes as it is.

We always need more HP jokes

Rose Bunny wrote: I was thinking the Man himself.

And is it wierd that when you said the Man himself I thought of Macho Man Randy Savage as Merlin

" Ohhhh yeahhhhh" Today we're going to cast...Magic Missile from the top rope!!!!

While non-canon, I explored what this scenario could look like in Homecoming, 2026. In my writing, Homestake Academy is co-located with HPARC and specializes in those powers common among the members of the first nations (Shaman/Wizard and Avatar traits). I also theorized that an international league of elite schools catering to the special needs of mutants would arise. While not strictly catering to mutants, we've already seen 2 such schools in canon - DeVille Academy and Yama Dojo. Both schools put in appearances in Homecoming, 2026 as part of a ritualized exchange of prank teams. I've also conjured another school (Whitecliff Manor), located in the UK and focused on the technical arts (Devisor/Gadgeteer).

What I find interesting is that what we've heard of DeVille and Yama Dojo indicate that neither of them have quite as broad a scope as Whateley. They are more like trade schools than regular high schools - focused on training their students for a specific industry, rather than laying the groundwork for many different paths. And my impression was that that was part of their mission statements, not just a lack of resources.

OK, some 'non-Canon' speculation.

I feel school's such as DeVille and Yama Dojo existed before the current 'Mutant' phenomenon, and they merely adapted to a different source of students. What they had been doing, and why they have been doing it is seperate to the mutant issue.

Similarly, throughout the world, including the US, there are probably hundreds of 'normal' school that knowingly have large Mutant student numbers, not because they are special 'mutant' schools, but because they have a reputation for 'tolerance', and in the same way parents will try to live in certain areas so their children can go to the 'good' school, you'll start seeing parents sending their Mutant children to the 'understanding' school and starting to cause clustering because of it.

I believe that at some point, a second school in North America will have to be constructed. Whateley will eventually run out of room, at least to operate the way it does now.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the general 'tolerance' to mutants and how many normal schools are able to give the lesser mutants a safe learning environment.

Whateley basically has three main purposes, a 'neutral' stance, providing a safe educational environment for the students of criminals, and the ability to handle really strong mutants, especially out of control and dangerous mutants, while they learn to control and handle their talents, and finally a safe refuge for persecuted Mutant children.

In a world of improving acceptance of mutants, the number of students needing Whateley's third service would decrease, freeing up spaces for it first two

Inter-school sporting events would be fun...

"Whateley won't be tough. Look, they have a 10 year old girl playing linebacker."

*Ribbon goes on to flatten the other school's offensive line and record 10 sacks in the game.

We might have a little of that coming our way anyways.

Rises the Sun part 3 wrote: And I do believe you know that school.” Eying her. “When ARE your students going to get payback?”

“Loosing the Outcasts on them for a school competition wasn’t?”

It feels more like the schools of major cities start accepting and retaining the "pretties" that they have if their powers aren't dangerous.

e.g. Colin in Absinthe remains in their school for months after he manifests, and only leaves after he gets in trouble and for his own safety.

Then again, kids with GSD are still shipped off to Whateley for good, even in 2016, like Shisa.

Katssun wrote: It feels more like the schools of major cities start accepting and retaining the "pretties" that they have if their powers aren't dangerous.

e.g. Colin in Absinthe remains in their school for months after he manifests, and only leaves after he gets in trouble and for his own safety.

Then again, kids with GSD are still shipped off to Whateley for good, even in 2016, like Shisa.

IF Shisa's background info, which was made at the time of her creation, is accepted, she's really not a good example of this.
Her past and manifestation is complicated, and her reasons for going to Whateley are far from clear cut.

It's highly likely that an Old World school, probably located in Europe, would be created before a second North American one. It simply makes more sense. There are several good reasons for its desirability:
- Simple logistics, having the kids closer to home
- A more international approach regarding education (consider the cartoon Razorback drew in Imp's class...)
- American politics in general. 'Nuff said.
- American mutant-related politics in particular.
- Avoiding the "powers drain" to the U.S.

The main reason it hasn't happened yet is probably lack of enough demand to justify the considerable investment in several areas (money, politics, recruiting...). Back when Whateley was founded, the demand in Western Europe was small, the Communist countries would have wanted to do their own thing anyway (like China is suspected of doing), and as for the rest of the world, sending kids to Europe or to America is about the same trouble. So Whateley essentially kept an European mutant school effort from getting off the ground.

Now it's a different reality. Demand is growing worldwide, the Iron Curtain collapsed (widening the possible scope of an European school). But Whateley has a lot of traction going for it -- established reputation, established bona fides re: neutrality and such... that setting up an European competitor would be very hard. It would probably by necessity start as a much more modest project, catering to lower-level mutants that currently fall through the cracks of the system -- not enough a problem to justify the Whateley costs, but who still are a bad fit for the regular schools. It could evolve in time to Whateley's level, but it would take time.

Sir Lee wrote: It's highly likely that an Old World school, probably located in Europe, would be created before a second North American one. It simply makes more sense. There are several good reasons for its desirability:
- Simple logistics, having the kids closer to home
- A more international approach regarding education (consider the cartoon Razorback drew in Imp's class...)
- American politics in general. 'Nuff said.
- American mutant-related politics in particular.
- Avoiding the "powers drain" to the U.S.

The main reason it hasn't happened yet is probably lack of enough demand to justify the considerable investment in several areas (money, politics, recruiting...). Back when Whateley was founded, the demand in Western Europe was small, the Communist countries would have wanted to do their own thing anyway (like China is suspected of doing), and as for the rest of the world, sending kids to Europe or to America is about the same trouble. So Whateley essentially kept an European mutant school effort from getting off the ground.

Now it's a different reality. Demand is growing worldwide, the Iron Curtain collapsed (widening the possible scope of an European school). But Whateley has a lot of traction going for it -- established reputation, established bona fides re: neutrality and such... that setting up an European competitor would be very hard. It would probably by necessity start as a much more modest project, catering to lower-level mutants that currently fall through the cracks of the system -- not enough a problem to justify the Whateley costs, but who still are a bad fit for the regular schools. It could evolve in time to Whateley's level, but it would take time.

In Morgana's origin story at the end, they mention some schools for both wizards and mutants in Britain, but the problem is they're rather small without even a quarter of Whateley protection and the mutants are on the low end. So Morgana would be more likely to badly hurt her classmates by accident.

Furthermore, beyond Whateley's presence and reputation, there are a number of other considerations revolving around a multinational agreement. As Sir Lee said, funding, local politics and recruiting are issues that would need to be agreed upon, but so too would be location - and elements such as the curriculum, mission statement, tuition fees, acceptance/rejection. The USA is large enough and independent enough to get away with Whateley being established and its subsequent growth. But for something similar to happen in Europe, it would take a considerable amount of planning and agreement between a number of countries as they as neighbours are very much more involved with each other.

Domoviye wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: The main reason it hasn't happened yet is probably lack of enough demand to justify the considerable investment in several areas (money, politics, recruiting...). Back when Whateley was founded, the demand in Western Europe was small, the Communist countries would have wanted to do their own thing anyway (like China is suspected of doing), and as for the rest of the world, sending kids to Europe or to America is about the same trouble. So Whateley essentially kept an European mutant school effort from getting off the ground.

Now it's a different reality. Demand is growing worldwide, the Iron Curtain collapsed (widening the possible scope of an European school). But Whateley has a lot of traction going for it -- established reputation, established bona fides re: neutrality and such... that setting up an European competitor would be very hard. It would probably by necessity start as a much more modest project, catering to lower-level mutants that currently fall through the cracks of the system -- not enough a problem to justify the Whateley costs, but who still are a bad fit for the regular schools. It could evolve in time to Whateley's level, but it would take time.

In Morgana's origin story at the end, they mention some schools for both wizards and mutants in Britain, but the problem is they're rather small without even a quarter of Whateley protection and the mutants are on the low end. So Morgana would be more likely to badly hurt her classmates by accident.

They also directly discuss the funding and economics of it. The UK has never bothered to try and build up a school like Whateley because their boarding schools cover it for most of their less powerful mutants, and the have a fund to send the kids they can't deal with to Whateley. We've seen similar scholarship funds from the other countries.

There is the possibility of a centralized school in the Europe Union, but the political and regulation nightmare that would result seems to have prevented that so far. France has it's laws, Germany has their own, Scandinavia seems rather reluctant to send their children to 'inferior' schooling systems. Which country would get the school? Which countries would fund it? What general curriculum do they use? The European Commission can't agree on normal funding today, having them set mutant education guidelines would be crazy!

Another angle is that for better or for worse, the US in the Whateley Universe is a somewhat safe place to be, because of the huge legacy of superheroing that goes way back to the 1940s. It's all very public, even if Whateley itself is not. There's the MCO, but also the DPA, a lot of public discussion either way. In contrast, Europe has a longer history with The Bloodline for example. There may be a number of secret "schools" used by not-so-nice organizations that very few know about.

If I recall correctly, the mutant school in Great Britain is focussed on teaching control of powers, and students only attend normally for a semester or two while they learn about their powers. For example Kamura would have gone there, and been done and returned to her former school.

Britain does handle all but a small percentage of its mutants itself

I don't want to go into a massive lecture on how it differs right now (I have pages of notes on this..., but in general they have four groups of mutants.

(1) Low power ones (like Kamuro) who just need a term or two of teaching how to control or hide their powers, before going back into the school system. For ones who are a bit marginal, they have a few boarding schools (still officially part of the normal school system), where little slips can be hidden.

(2) GSD cases. For these, they have some more isolated boarding schools, again part of the school system.

(3) Mage students. The British have been dealing with teaching mages a long time. The school actually is mainly non-mutant mages, but it takes in WIZ (and some AV) kids. The problem is, they tend to get, if not bullied, at least aggravated, and Morgana is too physically powerful - her hitting back would result in serious injury or death. Stray spells they are used to dealing with, someone who can lift a car, not so much. Bianca could have gone to it.

(4) The small number of mutants who cant be covered by the above go to Whateley. This works well, its far cheaper to pay the fees for the small number than set up a UK version of Whateley, and as its in the USA there are no language issues and not huge cultural ones.

Its a practical solution.It also helps keep an eye on the mutants; the British system is to get them into well-paying jobs , suitable for their talents, often in government jobs. A young mutant with a well-paying job and prospects is a lot less likely to turn to crime. It isn't perfect, but they consider it a more sensible solution that the US one. Of course, the Goodkinds were American.

(No, its not mutant heaven, there are a lot of problems as well, but it would take FAR too long to go into them)

I have to wonder, what with the number of Sidhe we've seen that have appeared at Whateley with English, Celtic or Gaelic names...

Reilly... (Fey)
Wylann... (Absinthe)
Peters... (Whisper)
Warrensby... (Sanctuary)
Barrington... (Rascal)
O'Rourke... (Thorn)
Mallory... (Zephyr)
O'Malley... (Selkie)

Just how many more are there that are actually manifesting in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and so forth? And surely every Sidhe hasn't ended up at Whateley. I think that would make it all the more important for some school in Europe to have an at least semi-competant plan for Sidhe students.

Astrodragon wrote: Its a practical solution.It also helps keep an eye on the mutants; the British system is to get them into well-paying jobs , suitable for their talents, often in government jobs. A young mutant with a well-paying job and prospects is a lot less likely to turn to crime. It isn't perfect, but they consider it a more sensible solution that the US one. Of course, the Goodkinds were American.

(No, its not mutant heaven, there are a lot of problems as well, but it would take FAR too long to go into them)

So you're saying:

1) Morgana isn't Hufflepuff material.

2) Most of these UK students get jobs in the Ministry of Mutants

/keeps low in case of thrown objects and flees back to The Colonies!

Katssun wrote:

Astrodragon wrote: Its a practical solution.It also helps keep an eye on the mutants; the British system is to get them into well-paying jobs , suitable for their talents, often in government jobs. A young mutant with a well-paying job and prospects is a lot less likely to turn to crime. It isn't perfect, but they consider it a more sensible solution that the US one. Of course, the Goodkinds were American.

(No, its not mutant heaven, there are a lot of problems as well, but it would take FAR too long to go into them)

So you're saying:

1) Morgana isn't Hufflepuff material.

2) Most of these UK students get jobs in the Ministry of Mutants

/keeps low in case of thrown objects and flees back to The Colonies!

People referring to the Magic School at Hogwarts meet unpleasant (if interestingly creative) end.

We don't actually have things like the Ministry of xxx
Anyway, Mutants would get jobs in the Civil Service where its not obvious. Only Americans use obvious code names...

Astrodragon wrote:
(No, its not mutant heaven, there are a lot of problems as well, but it would take FAR too long to go into them)

I imagine being a mutant in the UK, especially if you have a lot of power, encumbers one with a kind of "social debt" to society simply by being a mutant. Expectations of both behavior, social obligation, and working for the betterment of society over yourself might all be involved. The especially low powered mutants might not face this because they're powers are weak enough to have force obvious questions or solutions, but many of the strongest might encounter such obligations.

As such, there's massive social pressure involved, and any missteps can lead to harsh criticisms and people giving you dirty looks (or however the british handle that). It wouldn't be a lot of fun, I imagine, to have all that heaped on you for something you had no control over. Basically, you would in some ways be a slave to British society, just a very politely treated one...

That's my theory.

Rose Bunny wrote: I have to wonder, what with the number of Sidhe we've seen that have appeared at Whateley with English, Celtic or Gaelic names... [,,,] Just how many more are there that are actually manifesting in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and so forth? And surely every Sidhe hasn't ended up at Whateley. I think that would make it all the more important for some school in Europe to have an at least semi-competent plan for Sidhe students.

I expect quite a few, as well as a fair (pun intended) number in the Scandinavian countries.

Also, "Book of Darwin" gave me the impression that Australia has a disproportionate number of Fae as well, maybe as many as a hundred. It was mentioned that 'yet another' Sidhe started hassling Koala about Fae protocol, in a way that gave the sense that this was a problem for her not only at Whateley but at home, too - and if there are enough Fae just in Darwin for that to happen, never mind in bigger cities like Sydney or Melbourne, well...

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Also, "Book of Darwin" gave me the impression that Australia has a disproportionate number of Fae as well, maybe as many as a hundred. It was mentioned that 'yet another' Sidhe started hassling Koala about Fae protocol, in a way that gave the sense that this was a problem for her not only at Whateley but at home, too - and if there are enough Fae just in Darwin for that to happen, never mind in bigger cities like Sydney or Melbourne, well...

You have to remember she was the daughter of members in a hero team that covered a fair portion of Australia... she's not just bumping into them... meeting young mutants was part of her life.

Also they're Australian Sidhe ... they probably pass her name around and dare each other to just to set her off and enjoy popcorn with the fireworks.

Are the Sidhe resistant to poison?
That might explain why there are more in Australia

Iwasforger03 wrote:

Astrodragon wrote:
(No, its not mutant heaven, there are a lot of problems as well, but it would take FAR too long to go into them)

I imagine being a mutant in the UK, especially if you have a lot of power, encumbers one with a kind of "social debt" to society simply by being a mutant. Expectations of both behavior, social obligation, and working for the betterment of society over yourself might all be involved. The especially low powered mutants might not face this because they're powers are weak enough to have force obvious questions or solutions, but many of the strongest might encounter such obligations.

As such, there's massive social pressure involved, and any missteps can lead to harsh criticisms and people giving you dirty looks (or however the british handle that). It wouldn't be a lot of fun, I imagine, to have all that heaped on you for something you had no control over. Basically, you would in some ways be a slave to British society, just a very politely treated one...

That's my theory.

Its not quite like that.
If you use your powers in a respectable or respected way, it goes a long way to ignoring you're a mutant.
If you keep quiet and don't flaunt things, you aren't likely to be actively sought out and outed as a dangerous mutant.
However using your powers as, say, a vigilante is frowned on by the authorities. Especially if the local Chief Constable doesn't like mutants, or costumed vigilantes for that matter.

But there are differences in British society that mitigate against the worst anti-mutant groups.

Astrodragon wrote: Are the Sidhe resistant to poison?
That might explain why there are more in Australia

They might be, but the more important question is do female Australian Sidhe have pouches?

For Koala's sake, I hope not.

Astrodragon wrote: Its not quite like that.
If you use your powers in a respectable or respected way, it goes a long way to ignoring you're a mutant.
If you keep quiet and don't flaunt things, you aren't likely to be actively sought out and outed as a dangerous mutant.
However using your powers as, say, a vigilante is frowned on by the authorities. Especially if the local Chief Constable doesn't like mutants, or costumed vigilantes for that matter.

But there are differences in British society that mitigate against the worst anti-mutant groups.

Where does showing off to your friends at a pub fall?

Katssun wrote:

Astrodragon wrote: Its not quite like that.
If you use your powers in a respectable or respected way, it goes a long way to ignoring you're a mutant.
If you keep quiet and don't flaunt things, you aren't likely to be actively sought out and outed as a dangerous mutant.
However using your powers as, say, a vigilante is frowned on by the authorities. Especially if the local Chief Constable doesn't like mutants, or costumed vigilantes for that matter.

But there are differences in British society that mitigate against the worst anti-mutant groups.

Where does showing off to your friends at a pub fall?

Depends on whether its a strange pub or your local.

Astrodragon wrote:

Katssun wrote:
Where does showing off to your friends at a pub fall?

Depends on whether its a strange pub or your local.

And if you're ruining Rory Breaker's game of ball.

Still, if it ever came out that someone on Manchester United's front row was a mutant, there's be hell to pay

Sir Lee wrote: It's highly likely that an Old World school, probably located in Europe,

92% chance that school would be connected to Whatly through some randome path through the tunnels.

We could also put one at the exit in the salt flats.

Maybe on a space station or colony. Just ship off the really dangeruses ones to a planet in the Beetlejuce galaxy.

Heh, too true. As for Japan, Japan sees (since it was commented) no reason for a dedicated Paranormal school. That's what they say.
Unofficially: Yama Dojo has been training paranormals (yokai, martial artists of a more 'serving bent', mages)for centuries and adding mutants to the list didn't even make a blip to them outside figuring out how to train gag/devs. WHICH they didn't have to really do, since Japan's MinEdu figured out with corporate help 'ladder' schools, or path schools, and juku to help them. Japan has no need or desire for a dedicated Whateley style school, as long as they can keep fitting the nails that are sticking up out of the system into Whateley. (Those nails have been described before: telepaths/empaths, those of the richest social strata who don't WANT private tutoring, mages who don't want to go the apprentice route or to Whateley...) Frankly, it'd not surprise me if Japan doesn't even have a legal written definition for mutants, ie, they just get lumped with hany'ou or yokai.

RtS 3 comments on this, really, though another one of my stories touched on this. It'd not surprise me more tolerant nations at that level (in fact, it's implied Norway is as well, in El's stories) pretty much ape Japan's pattern, or have done something similar

Side note: Calling Yama Dojo Ninja High DOES get you beat if you are Japanese. Shinobi high gets you "You forgot Kunoichi too..."

What about calling it Furinkan High?

Sir Lee wrote: What about calling it Furinkan High?

Probably get you an epic level beating or looked at funny. No school has that much weirdness, not even Whateley has some of the weirdness that school does.

it'd depend on the mood of the student, really....

in 2017, a good chunk wouldn't get it. Ranma's old school, now...

But a few would be amused...