The Circle of Circles

The Circle of Circles is a major council that represents the various Mage Circles that are the arcane powers of the Oligarchy. Officially, every sanctioned Circle and mage has a seat and a say at this council, which speaks with the authority of all the mages of the Oligarchy. Though in reality, not every Circle cares enough or has the resources to deal with the endless politics. So, may years ago, the chose to elect eight individuals to represent it among the politics of the oligarchy. These eight are decided upon every ten years, occurring two years before The Conclave of the Nobles so they might have time to work out their differences and present a unified front on the matters discussed there. Among the eight, one is chosen to be the leader/Archchancellor by the other seven. In theory this role is to act as both a neutral tie breaker an face for the council, but in practice this role is often contentious at the best of times. In the event of an assassination, a matter that happens far more frequently than most would care to admit, the other members of the council shall decide amongst themselves as to who to replace them with so that a full meeting of the Circles would not be necessarily. In the past this has been used to systematically stack the council by Noble Houses with those favorable to them.

Currently the eight members are

Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully

Circle: The Circle of Beasts

Personality: A man with the personality, mind and body of a stubborn Auroch. He is a man who took one look at the subtle nature of politics and decided he would have none of it. Instead he simple bowls straight through it with plain speaking, a booming voice and a will made of Iron. Despite his gruff appearance, he is a surprisingly honest and kind man. At least until you make an enemy of him, then he's just as likely to beat you death with his staff as to use it to cast a spell

History: Originally off studying the vicious and deadly wild life of House Gelbvieh lands, he was pushed to election by several houses and witches/wizards with the sole intention of having his killed and replaced at a later date. Despite this, he has proven extremely difficult to kill due his quick wit, heartly health and willingness to beat anyone to a pulp and hang them by the underwear from the top of a tower for attempting to poison him

Goals: As one of the few members not involved in politics, his goals are largely to do away with the mess of all this corruption and actually focus on magic and his love of hunting

Lectern-Resen Runes

Circle: Circle of Runes

Personality: A rotund dwarf with a rather pedantic nature and ability to bicker finely honed by decades of interdepartmental meetings. Often mistaken for a man due her magnificent bear, she is often touchy when someone calls her a man. In such a case, she records it and any other grudges in her own personal version of the Book of Grudges that her house is so famed for

History: A noble of House Grudge, she grew up among the mines of her dwarven kin and focused on their traditional craft of Runesmithing. After a mere hundred years of this, she was declared the greatest of all Runesmiths and founded her own Circle with the goal to create new and more experimental runs

Goals: After many years in politics, most of her goals revovle around spite. She intends to use the power of her position to right as any grudges to either herself or her house as she can

A. A. Dimwittie

Circle: Circle of Potions

Personality: A rather androgenous elvish individual that was driven to madness a long time ago by their Jaspine infused cosmetics. These days, they are barely coherent with out the use of medication made from dried giant toads from the region around Moonband. These medications make them hallucinate themselves as sane for a brief period, allowing them to function as a member of the council

History: Born to the famed House Holbein, they grew up taking their motto of "Art is Pian. Beauty is Duty" to heart. They steadily rose in influence among the various circles for many years before the cosmetics, made from Jaspine that their house is so famed for, began to take a toll. Now it is rumored that they were merely pushed by the Great Houses with the goal of having them assassinated and replaced by a more stable but less popular lackey

Goals: In their brief moments of sanity, they tend to simply favor what ever appears the most stylish at the time

Dean Henry Porter

Circle: Circle of Jaspine

Personality: A very proud man that would appear to take up the space of three. His massive bulk is only equaled by his ego and he tends to act like a petulant child when things do not go their way

History: Born to one of the many vassals of House Lock'aihain, Dean held a gift for magic from a very young age. Because of this, he was often pampered and spoilt by his house. Despite this, he does take his loyalty to both his own and his parent house very seriously. It is rumored that he was intended to become the Archchancellor but lacked the charm, so another was chosen in his place with the goal of assassinating him at a later date

Goals: His goals are said to be that of his parents house, often pushing for things that would exclusively benefit them

The Librarian

Circle: Circle of Books

Personality: The Librarian tends to have a rather mellow and relaxed manor about him the majority of the time, preferring to tend to his many magical texts rather than deal with petty politics or rivalries. There three things that will send him into a frothing rage though. The first is the poor treatment of books of any kind, not just magical. The second is trying to find his true name as he believes that gives power over some one. The third is that after being permanently polymorphed into an orangutan, all be it a magically altered one, he has reacted extremely poorly to being called a monkey. The last to make that mistake was picked up by his feet and bounced bodily upon the cobblestones until he learnt his lesson

History: Most of the librarians early life remains a mystery by his own design. One of the few things that can be sure is that he was heavily influenced by the order dedicated to Rae-Diant known as The Blanks. Seeing nobility in their dedication to their work, he took on a personal variant of their teaching and began referring to himself as the Librarian, as he maintains the largest magic library in the known world. At one point, all the magical texts accumulated in one place began to have odd effects. One such effect was to transform his physical form in that of a magically altered Orangutan

Goals: Popular among the circles for his fierce dedication to preserving magic knowledge, his goals are largely to amas as much as he can while making it free to all among the circles. This has put him at odds with House Mendel who power comes from hoarding said knowledge. That is not to say he is not influenced by the whims of the nobles though

Nearlyapaddlewheel Wheelnameitlater

Circle: Circle of Inadvisably applied magic

Personality: Typically gnomish, She has a fascination with all things magical. Largely this fascination involves all manner of strange and extremely deadly experiments that often result in carnage. Still every once and a while, this leads to a massive break through of magical understanding that can revolutionize the work of mages across the oligarchy

History: Back by House Wheelnameitlater's influence and that of Notaboat Wheelnameitlater in particular, Nearlyapaddlewheel is one of the longest standing member of the council. Though numerous attempts have been made by the other great houses to officially oust her and unofficially assassinate her, she has thus far proved unshakable with the backing of her house

Goals: Her goals are largely to undo many of the regulations around magic and spread the love of her craft far and wide.

Nehe Charon

Circle: Circle of post-mortem communications

Personality: A rather grim and malicious individual, she has long has a fascination around death. She often think about the various way the people she meets could be used to create various undead abominations

History: Born the deadly House Charon, she had a talent beyond many of her peers in her house. Due to this, Charon used their influence to grant her a writ for he own circle where she uses the privilages of both a great house and a mage circle to do many unspeakable things

Goals: Her goals are both to further the influence of the noble houses as a whole, and charon in particular, and to further her necromantic studies by pushing for less rights for Commoners so she may further her experiments on them as most of her Serfs appear to have mysteriously disapeared

Imp Y Celyn

Circle: Circle of Music

Personality: At first he appears to a rather carefree and free spirited half-elf, flitting from one song to another, but this merely hides the shrewd political schemer that was put in power by House Mendel

History: Born to a union between a human woman and an elf brought over from the League via Mendel's exchange, Imp had long been immersed in the carefree attitudes of Mendel's vassals and House Evergarden in particular. When his talent for bardic music was discovered, Mendel sponsored him to join the Circle of Music and ensured that all that would impede his rise to power were deal with

Goals: His goals are to maintain the power of noble houses and to further the goals of Mendel

The responsibilities of the council include the maintaining and creation of Oligarchy wide laws on magic, The granting of writs that allow for new circles and voting on the laws of the oligarchy as a whole