Windermere

Logo: An Azure Owl
Sports Team: Windermere Silver Wings
Motto: ventis sapientiae – “On the Winds of Wisdom“

While maintaining its reputation as an Ivy League-caliber university, Windermere offers a unique curriculum that includes supernatural history, occult criminology, and practical magical instruction. The university’s luxurious architecture features meticulously maintained lawns, heavy mahogany doors, arched windows, and an unusual abundance of gargoyles perched on its ancient buildings.

Despite its academic excellence, the university harbors a dark reputation. Students have vanished without explanation over the years, certain buildings manifest disturbing phenomena after dark, and nobody could tell you the actual name of any of the people on the Board of Trustees.

Campus Phenomena:

The Thirteen Bells:
The campus clock tower occasionally rings thirteen times instead of twelve, though only select students hear the extra chime. Those who do invariably experience misfortune within seven days.

The Blushing Order:
According to whispered accounts, members of this secret order cultivate careful relationships with fellow students over months, gaining trust and affection before delivering their victims to supernatural patrons. The Fae and Demons they allegedly serve are notoriously selective, making each betrayal a carefully orchestrated affair. This has transformed campus dating into an exercise in constant suspicion.

The Rothman Study Guide:
Somewhere in the stacks of the university library, a peculiar study guide appears and disappears according to its own schedule. Students who use the Rothman Guide report remarkable academic improvement, but at a price they don’t immediately recognize. The guide slowly rewrites its user’s personality, replacing their original self with something else entirely. By the time they notice the change, it’s far too late.

The Velvet Rose:
A rare blue flower said to bloom in the quad gardens under the full moon. Campus legend holds that presenting this flower to one’s beloved guarantees true love. The university groundskeeper zealously guards against those who would harvest it.

The Ghost of Professor Vance:
The spirit of a mathematics professor who took his own life to avoid scandal over an affair with a student. His ghost allegedly haunts the campus, targeting those he perceives as leading others into temptation as he considers himself to have been.

Professor Westlake’s Office Hours:
The course catalog lists Professor Westlake’s office houses every semeseter, despite no such professor ever having existed. While most visits to the office yield nothing, many who attend report profoundly enlightening discussions, though specific details remain frustratingly elusive. All leave with inexplicably ink-stained fingers.

Athletics:
While Windermere’s football team languishes in mediocrity, the ice hockey team regularly dominates regional competition. The swim team likewise excels, possibly in part due to the tradition of their members being forced to train in the Atlantic ocean. The debate society ranks among the nation’s best, and even the cheerleading squad performs with an impressive athleticism that regularly secures state championships. While much of their success no doubt comes from supernatural gifts among much of the student population, the institute is careful to never show off too much and focus mostly on events which draw less public scrutiny.

Student Life:
Campus social life revolves around several key traditions. The student council organizes elaborate balls during each solstice. And almost all college parties seem to involve some sort of bonfire, fires which frequently spiral beyond control and are the most common cause for suspension. Most notorious is Halloween week, when faculty abandon the campus entirely, leaving students to their own devices. What transpires during those seven days remains largely unspoken once November arrives.

Vice:
Senior faculty long ago wove a powerful enchantment preventing sexual activity on campus grounds, those who attempt it find themselves overcome by immediate, irresistible sleep. This prohibition has created an entire culture of workarounds, with experienced students maintaining mental maps of suitable locations throughout the city.

Meanwhile the campus drug trade extends far beyond conventional substances. Dealers slip angel-tear potions into drinks at parties or offer all sorts of supposedly custom and mysterious chemicals like a blend of vampire and demigod blood that they swear will let you ace any exam. Although it must be said many of these supposedly amazing and mystical drugs are just meth shaped into a cool looking tablet.