From the first-year handbook, revised edition. Students are reminded that the Biblioplex reading rooms close at midnight.
Strixhaven was founded by five great dragons, the Founders, each of whom saw one face of magic and argued, for several centuries, about the others. Velomachus Lorehold, Galazeth Prismari, Tanazir Quandrix, Shadrix Silverquill and Beledros Witherbloom agreed at last to build a single university on the plane of Arcavios where every argument could be had in good faith, and most of them have been had since, loudly.
At the heart of the Biblioplex, in the Hall of Oracles, hangs the snarl: a luminous knot of raw magic that the Founders tamed and which, the handbook assures you, is perfectly safe. The Oracle keeps it. Students may not touch it, look directly at it for longer than a minute, or attempt to braid it.
Every graduating class is named for the arch under which it first entered: the Class of the North Star, the East Star, the South Star, the West Star and the Heart. The arches turn in order, one class to each, and have done so without interruption since the Founding.
A note pencilled in the margin of the Biblioplex copy, in neat old handwriting: There are five arches and six arch-names in the oldest graduation rolls. Ask what the Class of the Fifth Arch was. Ask why there is a year missing from the Founders' Day list of graduates. Ask, and then watch who changes the subject.
Ten deans, two per college, govern by committee and very rarely agree. The Founders hold a veto they almost never use. The Oracle advises everyone and is answerable to no one but the Founders.