In the world of Evylos there are many schools and academies teaching skills useful to adventurers, heroes, and villains, but there are only five that are prestigious enough to be considered universities: 

• Courvana
• Steinreich School of Mining
• Bingham Warfrost Academy
• Thul Parv a Tovon Golodh
• Blackrun Academy of the Arts.

These five have collaborated to create a conference often referred to as The Big Five. As part of that collaboration, they have created teleportation networks for students and faculty between each of their campuses, often exchange professors, and convene to hold a yearly competition to celebrate their best and brightest. This competition is the Show of Five Colors. 

Note: These schools are intended to mimic the styles of early universities, where classes are more like lectures given by lofty professors rather than classes with tests, homework, and teacher’s assistants. Think early Harvard in the 1700's rather than a modern state school.

While in the past The Big Five had been mostly signaling for the children of royalty, adventuring colleges and academies are beginning to transition to a necessary step on the path to specialized education in this modernizing era of Evylos. This change is driven by the continuing evolution of monsters and threats facing modern adventurers. Today’s magical beasts are the descendants of those that have survived, the current villains are using failures of the past to improve their schemes, magical equipment is becoming more complex, and a more connected world is less willing to tolerate oafish or bumbling heroics.

Most students stay for only one or two years, before they either find employment offers to their liking or wander off to make a name for themselves. One is considered to have graduated when their name is acknowledged and added to the list of alumni by whatever leadership form the university has, whether by demonstrating the individual has learned all they should from the teachers present or showcasing the equivalent prowess. It is rare that individuals are removed for anything but fraud from the rolls of alumni, the bulk of removals are for direct hostility to the university itself.

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