Myriad Academy

The academy is divided into five Colleges answering to five civilisations' arts: the Eastern Lineage, Western Magic, the Indic Mantra-Wheel, Middle-Eastern Star-Sand arts, African Ancestral-Spirit Pacts. The five look at the world in wholly opposite ways.

A white tower at the centre of the academy whose height cannot be judged. There is a bell in it, and the sound comes up from the "bottom" of the academy. On the night of enrolment it rang 5 times—one for each of the 5 Colleges reporting in.

The academy has no single gate. The London clock tower, the Yunjin old temple, the Cairo underpass, the Istanbul arch, the Lhasa stone steps, a Maya temple—every one of those doors opens onto the same academy.

A hidden academy of the arcane that exists on no map. Anyone who has never seen that ring can read its name but cannot keep it—look away and it is gone in under a minute.