Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4616 - 3694 Movie Plan (10)_2
Chapter 4616 - 3694 Movie Plan (10)_2
The entire dome of the auditorium was cast with starry sky magic, and looking up, one could see the beautiful Milky Way. In the center floated the Sun, the star of the Solar System, with eight planets revolving around it, each emitting a faint light, their starry glow resplendent and very beautiful.
At the front on the podium was an arched long table, and the chairs behind were all patterned with starry designs. Above hung a golden beaded curtain in the shape of stars, and behind it was a large Gothic stained glass window, primarily in blue and purple, with no religious patterns, but magical motifs and natural elements like wind, fire, thunder, and lightning.
The fantasy style of the auditorium was very rich, with strong colors, and all sorts of decorations full of fantasy elements. Compared to the movies' Hogwarts, it lacked some of the solemn grandeur of a traditional English castle but had more of a fairy-tale vitality.
The starry sky and celestial bodies were very important decorative elements because the four colleges were named after four planets: Mercury College (Mercury in English), Venus College (Venus in English), Saturn College (Saturn in English), and Neptune College (Neptune in English).
These names are also the names of gods in Roman mythology: Mercury is the god of communication and commerce, Venus is the goddess of love and beauty, Saturn is the god of agriculture and land, and Neptune is the god of the sea and storms.
This actually aligns with the Marvel magic setting. Most powerful demon gods possess some kind of concept, and apart from some exceptionally powerful, independent demon gods, most are related to basic cosmic elements. For the human race, these are the sources of a natural element-based straightforward faith, like wind, fire, sky, earth, etc.
The so-called mage talent is affinity with these elements. Some people are naturally inclined to fire, making them suitable for contracts with demon gods embodying the concept of "fire"; others are inclined to water, which is also a magic talent, but if you ask them to make agreements with a fire god, it would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and both parties would feel uncomfortable.
Moreover, fire can be subdivided into different flames—some flames symbolize vitality, while others represent death and destruction. A mage might gravitate towards one of these. As such subdivisions continue, everyone's magic talents are different.
Finding the most suitable strength for oneself is not easy. Conversely, it's also challenging for demon gods to find a good spokesperson. The purpose of sorting into houses is to roughly categorize each person's elemental affinity, making it easier when they sense power to form a contract in the future.
Therefore, theoretically, there should only be three colleges: one for the sky, one for the earth, and one for the natural elements in between. However, for the sake of film production, some more pleasant names were chosen to facilitate audience memory.
Despite this, there is a college that doesn't fit in, which is Mercury College. The significance of this college's existence is: If you really can't find the element you're attuned with, but you're eloquent, have a silver tongue, and are especially good at business—frankly, adept at "deception and ambush," then you'll be very welcome in the magic family.
After all, Marvel's magic power cannot escape borrowing and lending. If you can hoodwink demon gods with your skills, no one will mind if you form contracts with ten or eight of them. These colleges are reserved for those "greedy students."
Mercury College appreciates smart, adaptable people. High IQ alone isn't enough; you need a business acumen, the ability to improvise, quick-wittedness, and excellent speaking skills—essentially the reserve troops of future key personnel at the Holy Sanctuary.
Venus College prefers those with artistic and philosophical minds. This is crucial because there must always be researchers in mysticism. For scholars of mysticism, inspiration and passion are imperative, and a sensitive artistic mind is their tool for dissecting chaos. Such individuals commonly join the Kama Teji Research Institute to engage in theoretical research.
Saturn College is composed of solid, down-to-earth people like the land. They are also the main force in maintaining the magical defense network in the future. Therefore, a stable contract connection and ample energy are required, with stability being crucial—neither they nor their contracted demon gods can strike lightly and must stand out at every crisis. Their future career direction is mostly the temples around the world.
Neptune College is like a fierce storm on the ocean. They pursue ultimate strength, with the ultimate goal of becoming invincible across the cosmos like The Ancient One—"knock down all the demon gods, no need to bow to anyone," essentially the sword of the magic realm mainly used for exerting military deterrence against demon gods, forming the guard of the Supreme Magician.
To sum up: tricksters, scholars, workers, and guards. It can basically be said to cover every aspect of the magic realm, united, capable of delivering a blow to any demon god, ensuring the stable operation of Earth's magical power system.
Marvel doesn't have something like a sorting hat. Mages are also very averse to tools that can directly read minds; they consider them unreliable. Even if Professor X came, he might not figure out the enigmatic standards mages use for their sorting. So they came up with another method for sorting.
For accuracy in sorting, Strange put in a lot of effort, creating a huge set of test questions, even longer than Shiller's psychological assessment questionnaire, which had already been given in advance to the little wizards. This means they've already been sorted, and the storyline was arranged on this basis.
While the little wizards acted out their first encounter scenes, the professors had to complete this set of questions as well, sorting themselves. However, it didn't really matter and merely added to the richness of the professors' backgrounds. Most people just filled them out casually.
Unfortunately, Shiller didn't even need to fill them out and was directly admitted to Mercury College. In the setting, many black magicians came from this college, it's a bit about being unscrupulous for the sake of power, and there are serious stereotypes about students from this college out there.
Furthermore, because Shiller was a misunderstood character at the beginning, being from this college made it more reasonable for the protagonist group to have a poor impression of him.
Though Shiller felt that, judging solely by his performance during the audition, it didn't seem to matter much which college he originated from. Even if he came from the so-called most righteous Neptune College, as long as someone isn't blind, it's unlikely they'd mistake him for a good person.