Reed in the Multiverse: A Deep-Dive into Deer College
On the SCP Foundation website, many oddities can be found. The website’s motto reads “Secure, Contain, Protect” and catalogs fictional entities and phenomena through a collaborative website, creating creepypasta-style lore about the creatures found within.
Reedies might be surprised to learn that they happen to be featured on the SCP website. Well, not them exactly, but a fake school called “Deer College.” The fictional Deer College is identical to our very own Reed, though this can be explained by the fact that it is based in the “multiversal shadow” of Reed. Instead of being located in Portland, it i’s located in a city called “Three Portlands,” which is supposedly a self-contained pocket-universe of the real Portland, Oregon. According to the website, Three Portlands, impressively, is the largest paranormal enclave in North America with roughly 80,000 residents.
Unlike Reed, Deer College has an official motto, “Ecce Homo Platonis.” The motto references the phrase “Ecce homo,” which refers to the words spoken by Pontius Pilate shortly before Jesus’s crucifixion. Deer College also refers to Eliot Hall as Knorr Hall instead, named after one of the founders and first president of Deer College, Zachary Knorr. The website also lists other presidents, including the real president, Paul Bragdon. Who knew we had a president who was proficient in interdimensional travel? Other buildings include the Wormwood Memorial Library, which is identical to the Eric V. Hauser Memorial Library. Students at the college are called “Deeries,” much like we call ourselves “Reedies.” Similarly, both Reed’s Old Dorm Block and Deer’s Old Dorm Block are simply called ODB.
Deer College was founded by fictional Reed alumni, Zachary Knorr and real Reed alumni, Mátyás Szabó, in response to Reed College’s lack of occult subjects. Its founding is also in the Reed spirit, as Reed itself was founded in response to the predominant pedagogical style of Ivy League schools, which is a primary reason why we do not have Greek life or large sports teams on campus. Interestingly enough, Deer College’s founding also took the work of Simeon and Amanda Reed. As stated on the website, “By summoning the spirits of Reed's founders, Simeon and Amanda Reed, and binding them to the Three Portlands parallel to the land on which their college stood, Knorr and Szabó were able to stabilize Reed's multiversal shadow and conjure from the aether the Deer College campus as it stands today.”The occult degrees that one could obtain at Deer College are numerous, with their own divisions and departments. If you’ve ever wanted to study necromancy, ontokinetics, Druidry, or cryptozoology, while Reed can’t provide them, Deer College offers those as major programs. Aspiring transfers who worry about losing the Quest – don’t fear! Deer College has multiple newspapers to pick from, with Odyssey being the most respected on campus. Articles from Odyssey can be found on the SCP Foundation website. Distributed in the familiar newsprint of the Quest, expat Reedies will feel at home. For fans of the Grail, Thee Alchymyst will be a suitable replacement. While the question of whether Deer College or Reed College has the best Renn Fayre is still to be decided, I’m sure that if anyone could figure out how to enter a pocket universe to find out, it would be a particularly motivated Reedie.