Devblog #100

Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!

Choosing a House in the game is a pretty important part of every playthrough. Not only does that choice dictate how your room will look. It determines which girl you can't pursue. It also makes pursuing some of the girls easier. It changes how some of the events go. It slightly adjusts your starting stats. But it also helps form your MC's identity, and I know for a fact that for many players it is a defining choice.

I tried to give every House its distinct feel, and sprinkle that flavor in as many interactions as I could. There's, of course, the short description and the motto of each House whenever you create a new character. There are interactions during Rest and during the tournament-related events that hopefully give you enough idea of what each of the Houses represents right now. But we never touch on how they came to be and how new students end up in each and every one of them.

Let's start with a bit of history then. When Tír na nÓg was founded there was no school there at all, to be fair. There were just the Houses. The four major clans of the Isles came together and founded a location where young people could learn together. At this point it wasn't even a dedicated magic school - magic was just one of the things that was taught there. It wasn't even a hundred students at that time, so there was no need for specialized buildings. Each of the clans built a boarding house and the students that lived there brought the valued qualities of their clans with them.

Over time, as the number of students grew with the growing population, the school was rebuilt numerous times. New buildings were added and the Houses became dedicated dormitories. At that point in the history of Tír na nÓg it accommodated students not only from the four founding clans, so the dormitories became much more mixed. First it was just the clan's youth and some unaffiliated students, but soon the clans became mixing between the Houses, as the students gravitated more towards the qualities that the Houses and their inhabitants carried.

Nowadays the old clans are a little more than a page in a history book, but the Houses of Tír na nÓg became more or less self-fulfilling prophecies. Students who see themselves as future scholars come to live with like-minded students in Dunagall, and thus Dunagall tends to produce more scholars than other Houses, which in turn makes it more appealing to future scholars. And it goes on and on.

Yes, I said that students choose their House depending on their preferences. If you haven't decided before you come to Tír na nÓg, you are assigned to a House with open rooms and given a two-week time to mingle with other Houses and decide whether you want to switch. Unless there are extraordinary circumstances, you cannot change your House after those initial two weeks. But even if you do know what House you want to join, there are times when you can't. Each House can only accept so many students each year, and if the quota is full before you make your choice, you just have to go with another one. This was actually true with the MC's potential study rival Percival 'Percy' McGinley, who really wanted to join Ruachan, but ended up in Dunagall. He doesn't really regret it though.

I hope you like this little exposition into the history of Tír na nÓg. Tell me if you want to hear more about anything.

I'll see you all next week,
Shady Character One, out!