The Mages' Guild

The Mages' Guild is the self-appointed regulator and administer of magic throughout Aasha. As such, they often meddle in the politics, policies, and conflicts of the various nations of the world from their floating island city of Adara. Their goal is to avoid what they would call an "arcane cataclysm" although no one can really say what such an event would be.

Structure

The Mages' Guild is directed by a cirlce of mages called the Septus. Each of them the appointed director of the his or her school or college of magic. There are seven schools of magic represented:

• Abjuration 
• Conjuration
• Divination
• Enchantment
• Evocation
• Illusion
• Transmutation

The Septus directs the affairs of the wizards of the land and also administrate the affairs of Adara; however, the Septus doesn't not hold any legislative power. That power is given to the Hall of Mages. The current members of the Septus are:
The Hall of Mages is a group of 21 anonymous mages three selected from each school. Their identities are known only by the director of each school and are not even known to each other. This group of wizards are in charge of creating laws that govern the city of Adara and the members of the guild. Their policies must be ratified by the Septus to become law.
To connect Adara with the various cities across the continent, the Mages' Guild has established guild houses in most of the major cities on the ground. These guild houses function as bases of operation for the guild as well as provide support for local wizards.

Public Agenda

Publicly, all of the Guild's efforts is towards the preservation, regulation, and progression of the arcane arts. With the arcane defined as any magics accessed through spellcraft. As such, the guild maintains the seven schools of magic, and actively tries to find adept humanoids to train in the arcane. Their belief, is that proper arcane training will avoid arcane-related accidents and make the world a safer place. It is this justification that the guild actively searches for and catalogs every magic item it can. Licenses to use such items are generally freely given as long as the user can show proper use of the item and maintains a good relation with the guild.
Any organization, person, or even kingdom that frustrates the guild's efforts to regulate the use of magic automatically harbors the Guild's ire. Some of these organizations include the Kingdom of Camdyn, The Gnomish country of Gnomastra, the School of Necromancy, and various rogue magic "guilds" including the Fraternity of Sorcery.

History

Ever since mortals discovered their ability to cast spells, there has always been gathering of similar people who can do so. If you ask the Guild's historians when was the founding of the guild, he or she would say there was no founding and that the guild has always been. Realistically, the guild in its current, modern form - although old - has not existed forever.
The Sage historians agree that the formation of the Mages' Guild coincides with the establishment of the modern Arcane Academy in Adara 322 years after the War of Ascension. It was in this year that the Abjuration Academy of Camdyn moved to Adara after growing anti-magic sentiment by the royal family. Over the course of the next 120 years schools representing all eight schools of magic either moved to Adara or were established in Adara.
In 565, it was discovered that the School of Transcendence had discovered a secret new form of magic which the Guild refers to "blood magic." News of its use and discovery shook and divided the wizards of Adara. The Guild quickly mobilized to outlaw the practice of blood magic and to exile all of its practitioners from Adara. However, exile was not a harsh enough punishment for these wizards and they formed secret factions all around the world.
Blood magic quickly became a blight in Aasha. Although the practitioners were few, their experiments led to some of the most devastating crisis on the continent. The two largest of these crises are: the summoning of the dead heroes of the War of Ascension the impetus of the Skeleton War, and the summoning of demon Baphomet's demon army - the impetus of the Demon War.
In 822, weary of more cataclysmic blood magic-related events, the Guild issued the Eisodus - the gathering of the Wizards into Adara, and decried that Blood Magic be rooted out at any cost. This was the start of the Magi Inquisition.
Many wizards rebelled against the Eisodus who refused to relocate and live in a city of wizards. Others did not recognize the guild as the foremost body of magical power and formed rebellious splinter guilds. Many of these "Rebels" allied themselves with the Blood magicians and frustrated the plots of the Guild. The first battle between the Rebels and the Guild occurred at Bridgeton in 834 where a delegation of Guild members were ambushed by Rebels and killed. Thus began the Blood Wars.
It was during the Siege of Adara in 838 that the wizards of the School of Transmutation, Conjuration, and Evocation devised a way to lift the entire city into the air and out of harms way. The undead armies of the Blood Wizards ravaged the countryside below, but the Guild survived to eventually win the war in 840.
In the aftermath of the Blood Wars the Guild decides that the preemptively avoid another war, they must regulate all magic in Aasha. In fighting in the guild lasted almost three human generations before the Guild wrote the Articles of Magic for the 1000th anniversary of the War of Ascension. These Articles were a code that all wizards were to live by and outlined punishments for wizards who broke these laws. It established the guild as the only governing body for magic, and the Guild took steps in the next centuries to make sure that was the case.
Recently, in 4772, for their refusal to let adept Gnomes come to Adara to train, the guild has enacted a full magic embargo on the city-state of Gnomastra - the first of its kind. The guild has actively refused to give magical services to any Gnome on the continent as well systematically removing all magic from the city and surrounding area.

Restraint is Power

Founding Date

322

Type

Guild, Mages

Demonym

Mage or Wizard

Subsidiary Organizations

• Septus

Location

Adara

Controlled Territories

• Adara

Notable Members

• Silas Durand
• Tawnee Pebblepelter