Ratigan College

Ratigan College is the eleventh founded college of the University of Aldergate.

Tigs are fun. The rumors that Tigs are even more fun than the rest of us suspect is part of what makes them so much fun. If you know Tigs, you understand; if you don't, never mind.

History
Ratigan College was founded during a time of unusual political détente between the University and the Crown. Thomas Cromwell had been made the University's twenty-second Vice-Chancellor in 1532, and many Aldergatians were deeply skeptical of his cozy relationship with Henry VIII.

For all the legends that surround Cromwell's brief tenure as VC, two things are certain: that his efforts to breed ill-will between the King and the Roman Catholic church were immensely successful, and that Henry's dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries resulted in a sudden influx of wealthy and/or highly educated Catholics seeking sanctuary in Aldergate.

The founding of Ratigan College may have been initiated as an act of protest by dissident scholars against Cromwell's royalist tendencies; it quickly became a necessary measure to accommodate the burgeoning population of recusants. Poor old Clement VII - a long-suffering victim of political conflicts with their roots in the Aldergatian network - even tried to re-establish the See of Aldergate (with predictably disastrous results). Nevertheless, Ratigan remains proud of its early history as the "School of Sanctuary," and has long maintained a close relationship with Chamber College rooted in their shared fugitive past.

Architecture
Ratigan’s reversion to an earlier architectural type is no coincidence. The narrow, Gothic lines and castellated appearance create an impression that is half-castle, half-cathedral - indeed, on his one brief recorded visit to the University Hank 8 is said to have asked sarcastically whether he was at Chartres or Chinon.

The picture is of the southwest tower of Ely Cathedral. Throw in a family of carved stone rats hiding mischievously among the stonework and you've got Ratigan down to a tittle.