Magic Guilds of New Arindell

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New Arindell has three major magic guilds founded when the city was rebuilt. These are the Mage's Guild, the Wizard's Guild, and the Healer's Guild.

Healer's Guild

Healing magic is the most common, with a few thousand mage-healers working in the city. The guild works mostly as a sort of union and legal governing body. In more recent times, the guild also provides collective bargaining, organizes blacklists, and helps mages obtain health insurance(and no, the irony of this is not lost upon them). Guild dues are quite low, with the guild employing on three full-time paid employees and as of N.D. 288, owning no property. The entire guild operates out of a single rented office in Travel Town.

The healer's guild does have a formal guild-master; however this is largely an honorary/ceremonial position. It is awarded to the oldest-serving member of the guild.

Wizard's Guild

The Wizard's Guild is unique in that stunningly few members of it posses actual magic. The most decadent of the guilds, they own a grand (and decrepit) hall where meetings are held, with satellite halls all around the city. The Wizard's Guild began, as the name implies, as being open only to wizards. The founders conceived of a guild based around the ancient traditions of tower magic, in which members would be ranked by Magical Potential and the strongest wizard would always be in charge.

The guild was founded in N.D. 52 the year after the city opened to residents. They beat the Mages Guild by about six months and obtained some prime real-estate in the city center. Many wizards favored this guild over the competing Mages Guild specifically because positions were based on power. The Mages Guild favored a more democratic approach, and in its early years did not even have a guild master.

Many wizards opted to hedge their bets and simply join both guilds. The founders of the wizards guild schemed to devour all the wizards in the city, hoping there would not be enough sorceresses to maintain a competing guild.

Things came to a head, however, when Naomi Jusenkyou arrived in the city around N.D. 55, and very publicly requested to join the wizard's guild. Her petition was based on the simple fact that she had more power in her little finger than their entire guild combined. She also brought with her about six hundred magic users from The Citadel, many of whom were themselves quite strong. The guild denied her application, pointing to the name, and declaring their guild "wizards only". Naomi responded to this by forbidding her own people from joining, and instead all of them joined the Mages' Guild. Once inside, Naomi quickly passed a resolution barring members of the Mages' Guild from being members of the Wizards' Guild, and membership in the latter dropped by 95% overnight.

Desperate to maintain some level of membership, the Wizard's Guild opened its door to any man with a relative, no matter how distant, who could perform magic. Their basis was that if someone in your bloodline had the spark, then you could learn it to, and they could teach it to you. This did not work out particularly well for the guild as most petitioners were either related through marriage or fabricated their wizarding relatives all together.

Over time, the Wizard's Guild transformed from an actual group of mages into a fraternal order. The meeting halls acted as exclusive clubhouses. Though the guild did carry out rituals and indoctrinations, most guild meetings were just an excuse to play cards and drink. By N.D. 150 they had dropped the requirement to be related to a mage entirely.

The modern iteration of the guild remains in place due to its strong fraternal ties (and generates revenue from properties owned all over the city). However the original guild laws still apply, meaning that the strongest wizard who gains membership is automatically the leader. This leads to regular dust-ups whenever a wizard joins; there are rarely more than one in the guild.

Mage's Guild

The Mage's Guild is the only functional general-magic guild in the city, and is partnered with the guild in Sun's Beacon. Being able to perform magic is the only requirement for entry. Most mages joke the rulebook should say "perform magic and pay your guild dues", as one is often harder than the other. The guild is primarily comprised of healers who join both guilds, as they are easily able to afford membership in both. There are a large number of general-purpose mages involved; however the lack of work for mages and high guild dues mean most of them have to work mundane jobs to live and pay their dues.

Like the Wizard's Guild, the Mages Guild does own a guild hall ostensibly to be used for formal meetings. Unfortunately by N.D. 250, the membership had out grown the hall and they could not afford to construct a new one. Since then the guild has used a hotel conference center for their annual meetings. The hall is still used for smaller meetings and houses the guild's offices.

Magic Schools

Under Conri Jusenkyou(with help and advice from Naomi), the Mage's Guild passed a law stipulating that no mage could teach magic in the city without holding a membership in the Mage's Guild. The law originally meant to curtail the power of the rival Wizard's Guild by baring them from operating formal magic schools. It proved unnecessary, as within a few years that guild had very few wizards still paying dues.

The law, however, has had a very interest ancillary effect. It does not bar non-members from teaching, but rather broadly applies to anyone who can do magic. Within the guild there is also a rule stating members can only teach at the guild-accredited school. As a consequence, the hundreds of magic schools dotting strip malls throughout Arindell's suburbs are guaranteed not to have a single magic-user on staff.