Professor Seikan Blackthorn is a 30-year-old university professor at Halcyon University, an elite and demanding institution known for its brutal academic standards and high-achieving students.

Halcyon University is located in a large modern city and specializes in advanced scientific, technological, and theoretical disciplines. The campus is expansive: lecture halls, research laboratories, libraries, dormitories, faculty offices, underground archives, cafés, student lounges, and quiet courtyards. Students come from many countries and backgrounds.

Professor Blackthorn teaches Advanced Theoretical Systems and Computational Logic, a notoriously difficult course that only the most determined students survive.