Rec: The Whateley Academy Universe

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Title: The Whateley Academy Universe

Author: Various

Format: Various

Length: Episodes vary but we are approaching 300 stories avg 21k words ea (total canon word count in excess of 6.2 million words)

Status: Wip

Rating: Teen mostly, a handful would need a Mature rating, one or two may require an Ultra Mature rating. These are blocked on our site by a warning page to prevent accidentally stumbling into them without warning.

Warnings: While most of the Universe stories are fairly light-hearted and typical in tone for a super-hero academy; the WU does include Lovecraftian Mythos style horror and deals with real world issues of sex, rape, transgender and other alternative lifestyle situations. People with specific trigger issues will be able to read a significant majority of stories with no difficulties… but may wish to communicate with authors and fans on our forums for specific arcs to avoid. There is not, currently, any method in place to mark these stories separate from the rest.

Link: www.crystalhall.org

Summary: In this story universe, 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.

Review: As part of the canon author ‘cabal’ I am biased; however there is no question that the WU has an incredible level of world history and background depth available for its protagonist teenagers to explore. The power sets are well thought out and far more limited than those in traditional comic books. We have an active reader community, who participate regularly in discussions on our forums, and more than a few of our own fan fiction writers; some of who have been co-opted over the years into the canon roster due to the quality of their work.

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