The nation was stunned when it was revealed that Graydon Creed killed Professor Charles Xavier on live television to prove he was a mutant. Public outcry against the acts perpetrated by the organization known as the 'Friends of Humanity' allowed several laws to be passed in favor of mutant rights. That was more than a decade ago, in that time the realm of politics has come to an impasse. Amidst the political stalemate there was a heavy push by many parents to have mutant children removed from the school systems, that ended with special schools being set up in most major cities. The Xavier School could no longer provide the necessary post secondary education for mutants. Ororo Munroe, the new head of the School, and Hank McCoy went before the Senate and House and asked that a second school be funded on the West Coast a University for continuing mutant education. Senator Raymond F. Donaldson, a democrat from California and the first mutant on the senate, helped to push the funding through. Thus the Xavier Memorial Institute was born.

X.M.I. is set up on a small island just off shore, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. The institute is the home to, and school of mutants who are attending their freshman through senior years of college and grad school. X.M.I. is an accredited university that caters to the specific needs and safety of mutants seeking undergraduate degrees. Graduate programs are available in Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Computer Technology, and Psychology with doctoral programs in Medicine, Veterinary, Physics, Biochem and Cybernetics.

Softened by the death of his long-time friend and rival, Magneto agreed to take up the position of headmaster of the Institute. He has reformed and tempered his more extreme views, now making his best efforts to see the vision of Charles Xavier live on. He governs the school fairly, but sternly. However, while he makes a sincere effort to forgive humans and seek mutual existence, his pragmatism has lead him to create the Legacy mutant team; this group of particularly gifted and devoted students and alumni function as a force ready to ensure the safety of mutants both on and off the island. They are also a public relations effort, using their powers to combat natural disasters and outside threats as well.

Beneath the Institute, there is a training facility much like that of the Xavier Institute, including a danger room where members and the other trainees may hone their skills. That subterranean area is also the home of the elite group of mutants known as Legacy. A team of mutants who protect the school, the island and the tentative peace between humanity and mutant-kind. The institute does not require all of it's members be professors, members of legacy or enrolled students, others may come to stay and study there and all are welcomed so long as they contribute in some way, be it in the cafeteria or as a groundskeeper.