Difference between revisions of "New Arindell"

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(Magic Guilds of Arindell)
 
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==Magic Guilds of Arindell==
 
==Magic Guilds of Arindell==
[[Magic Guilds of New Arindell]]
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{{:Magic Guilds of New Arindell}}
  
 
[[Category:Course Books]]
 
[[Category:Course Books]]

Latest revision as of 19:19, 18 October 2022

Officially called "Arindell" some scholars use the colloqual "New Arindell" to describe the city as it was reconstructed following the Long Night. Only four original structures survived: the Arindell Necromancer Temple, the Tabernacle, the Library, and parts of Valley Gale Keep.

Construction

When Stormreaver Valley was being surveyed for resettlement, it was discovered that signficant portions of the old city were largely intact beneath 30 feet of accumulated hard-packed earth.


The New Day reconstruction of the city center was built roughly sixty feet higher than the old city to preserve the ruins. The new city used a series of utilidoors beneath the surface, allowing many services to be kept out of site as well as providing additional space. This brought the valley floor roughly level with the Keep, changing much of the character of the city.

Districts

Arindell has three major city districts: the City Center, Travel Town, and Dragontown.

Dragontown

Dragontown is unique for being the one part of the city with highrise construction. Every where else has bans on building height in order to preserve the iconic skyline, but in Dragontown several very tall skyscrapters were constructed. These house the headquarters for High Mountain Bank and Trust as well as the seat of power for the human commissioners of the Trans-Draconic Federation. Dragontown is also home to an array of lavish mansions owned by various dragons, and is conveniently adjacent to Dragonland amusement park.


Gate House is the terminus of the Triumph Road and scene gateway to the city of Arindell. It is one of the denser populated areas outside the city center, home to an enormous train station and rail yard. This is where nearly everyone comes or goes from the city, with trains departing for Boarder Watch roughly every five minutes.

Conveniently nearby is a section of the city with many hotels and other amenities, as well as housing for employees in the rail industry. This area is affectionately known as "Travel Town" for its association with the rail industry and its role as the first stop for most travelers into the city.

Museums

Culture

Rec Center Network

Education

Education is important in New Arindell and significant public funds are invested in it. Most children attend small neighborhood schools, and in the suburban areas there is typically K-12 education available within walking or bike riding distance.

Unique Laws

While never a government official, Conri Jusenkyou made a number of edicts during his life which were essentially treated as laws. These are mostly known as "The Conri Laws" and cover many things related to education and youth.

Magic Guilds of Arindell

New Arindell has three major magic guilds founded when the city was rebuilt. These are the Mages' Guild, the Wizards' Guild, and the Healers' Guild.

Healers' 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 healers' 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.

Wizards' Guild

The Wizards' Guild (not to be confused with the old Alliance era Wizard's Guild of Aren) 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 Wizards' 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 Wizards' 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 Wizards' 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 too, 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 altogether.

Over time, the Wizards' 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.

Mages' Guild

The Mages' 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 Wizards' Guild, the Mages' Guild does own a guild hall ostensibly to be used for formal meetings. Unfortunately by N.D. 250, the membership had outgrown 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 Mages' Guild passed a law stipulating that no mage could teach magic in the city without holding a membership in the Mages' Guild. The law originally meant to curtail the power of the rival Wizards' Guild by barring 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 interesting 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.