Circle for the Promotion of Responsible Vika

The Circle for the Promotion of Responsible Vika (CPRV), or 'The Circle' is the largest and most respected association of magic users in Sammerden. They exist to manage - and hopefully improve - the tense relationship between magic users, the Holy Sanctorum, the political powers, and the common people.
While they are not 'in charge' of mages (they remain a voluntary association), they do issue binding guidance and rules to their members, and provide almost all of the magical education in Sammerden. Additionally, several rulers rely on their standards in their laws - it can be very difficult for a mage who is dismissed from the Circle to reassure the non-magical authorities that they are not criminal. 
The Circle's founding Contract lists six objectives, which the Circle keeps to:

1. To promote responsible, holy, and effective use of magic to all mages, in accordance with the Will of the Creator.
2. To promote among the Creator's chosen rulers the value of this magic, and petition for liberties and regulations to protect mages and non-mages.
3. To educate the mages of Sammerden, and to assure the population of each mage's skill and competence.
4. To explain to the people of Sammerden the truth of magic, its place in the world, and the benefits it brings
5. To serve the Creator faithfully, and the Sanctorum, and repair the sins of our predecessors
6. To aid, however possible, in the reclamation of the Lost Continent.

Though founded 300 years after the Reconquest, the Circle was a response to the Breach of Heaven, and the continuing poor role that mages were cast in in the centuries thereafter. Despite the Creator sanctifying their role during the Exile, and Conrad passing tolerant laws, these were not frequently honoured by later kings, or outside of Weldmere. At the same time, more hostile voices among the mages asked why they should serve a population which hated and feared them - some suggesting total retreat from the world, some an attempt to govern by magic and take political power.
To moderate these voices, and prevent a repeat of the cataclysmic events of the Breach, the Circle was founded to moderate, and regulate, the magic voice in society. As their role has developed, they are now also the dominant provider of magical education within Sammerden, and they are one of the few organisations (other than the Sanctorum) whose sanction is respected almost everywhere in Sammerden.

Founding Date

308 AC

Type

Guild, Mages