We do not know very much about Ramshackle Dorm (as of this writing), but for characters’ opinions we know that Malleus is fond of it (he likes abandoned ruins in general (more here ->)), and Crowley is maybe more ambivalent: he has a dialogue line referring to it as a “dilapidated old–” and then self-corrects to say, “historic building.”
Crowley explains that it did once serve as a dorm for the school, and as for why it was abandoned the ghosts who live there say that everyone got scared of them and ran away, which Crowley confirms.
This is a curious explanation, as ghosts are regular staff members at the school with none of the students seeming frightened of them.
If anything, the chef ghosts are more afraid of Lilia than any of the students are of them.
And there is a fascinating theory by YouTuber Alai Legend (shared with permission):
According to Crowley, he was entrusted with NRC by the chairman of the school, whose identity we do not know. There is also Ambrose the 63rd, the headmage of Royal Sword Academy.
But the theory asks, what if Ambrose’s NRC counterpart is not actually Crowley?
What if it was the Twst-equivalent of Yen Sid, from Disney’s 1940 film, Fantasia?
The animated short revolves around a magician’s apprentice performing janitor-adjacent tasks who dreams of becoming a great mage, while Grim is constantly repeating his intent to become a great mage, having been recently promoted from janitor to student of magic.
We have a comment from Trey that the dorms were constructed in order of Pomefiore -> Heartslabyul -> Diasomnia, which corresponds to those movies’ years of release, but no mention of Ramshackle.
As acknowledged in vol. 1 of the Official Fanbook, Ramshackle has taken a lot of inspiration from the 1936 Mickey Mouse animation “Thru the Mirror.”
Which, in Japan, was released as “The Story of Mickey’s Dream.”
And Snow White, the basis for Pomefiore, was released a year later in 1937.
The theory suggests that Ramshackle is thus older than any other dorm, additionally supported by how it was built alongside the school itself rather than being established in a pocket dimension like the rest, because the school may not have had enough students to require multiple dorms when it first started out.
But if Yen Sid is the founder of the school, wouldn’t he have a statue? Or be acknowledged somehow?
And was he not particularly villainous?
And why is Ramshackle not treated with more respect by Crowley, at least, who is presumably the one person who knows what it used to be?
To counter this the theory asks, what if NRC was not always a villain school? Perhaps it was founded as something else, but at some point there was maybe a shift of power from Yen Sid to someone who decided to go in a different direction.
Someone who really likes the Great Seven. Someone like Crowley.
That could have included a renovation that removed things from its previous incarnation like references to Yen Sid, and abandoning Ramshackle as a relic of what the school once was.
We know that Azul looked through the past 100 years of exam questions in Book 3, the same amount of time that NRC’s student selection process has been in use, the same amount of time that NRC has been losing competitions to RSA, the same time that STYX was established.
What exactly happened 100 years ago?
A ghost mentions being the captain of a spelldrive team back when he was still alive 90 years in the past, so at least one of Ramshackle’s ghosts moved in after whatever that event was.
The theory proposes that 100 years ago is when the school shifted its focus to the powers of darkness, only admitting students with those particular traits and no longer accepting students who would have been sorted into Ramshackle Dorm.
Is it possible that the prefect is someone who would have been sorted into Ramshackle like the students of the past if the school had not shifted its focus?
Is the prefect actually where they are supposed to be, just 100 years too late?
Whatever it is that happened 100 years ago, whatever secret it is about Crowley that Azul may or may not hold, the theory guesses that Ramshackle Dorm is the key. We just do not know the key to what.
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 