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Guild of Wizards

You are a GM…. The Guild of Wizards goes WAY out of its way to maintain the mystique of the all powerful spell caster. The ruling body of this organization is referred to as the Center. The Center is always composed of:

  1. Highest Ranking Air Mage
  2. Highest Ranking Archiving Mage
  3. Highest Ranking Divine Mage
  4. Highest Ranking Earth Mage
  5. Highest Ranking Fire Mage
  6. Highest Ranking Water Mage
  7. The Seventh: A mage elected by the other six whom epitomizes the principles of the guild and who has made the largest contribution to the art of wizardry.

In the event that The Seventh is elected from within ranks (hard to do since it is expressly forbidden to vote for ones self) then The Seventh is allowed to appoint his replacement (which may mean they are not even close to the highest ranking in their field, but The Seventh is trusted to know best in such situations).

Cost

For a sum of ten-thousand silver to join and per year any person with the demonstrated ability to cast spells may join the Guild of Wizards. The fee to join must be paid either via silver or items. The ability to cast spells is an absolute requirement. This demonstrates that someone is at least willing enough to endure training for as long as it takes to cast a rank 1 spell. You cannot buy your way into the Guild. The annual fee will be waived in exchange for two weeks of service per year in one week time blocks which the guild will schedule in advance.

Benefits

The Tower

Sure, sure… in this modern world magicians living in towers seems a bit old fashioned and trite. However, there's something about a Wizard's Tower that calls up visions of power, mystery and elitism. Exactly the image that the Guild wishes to convey.

The tower was the brainchild of Guillarmo Demonsbane* a wizard of small talent but great aspirations. While he may not have been the most powerful wizard of his time, he was unquestionably the biggest poser, possessing an almost unnatural flair for the dramatic. Most, non-mages, of the day were convinced that Guillarmo could split the planet with half a thought. While other mages might have possessed more actual spell casting ability they were also very jealous of Guillarmo's fame and wealth. When Guillarmo put forth the idea of building his greatest vision yet, wizards from all over threw their resources behind the project… hoping for fame through association. The Lords of Centralia gave their blessing to the project and construction was started in X and completed Y years later in Z.

* (thankfully today's mages have mostly given up the fanciful names… if only the warriors would take the hint there wouldn't be 5000 guys wandering around calling themselves Mighty Vlad the Kingslayer)

Any member of the Guild may request temporary work or sleep space within the tower. Members of long standing have permanent rooms, workplace and servants assigned to them (even the servants must be spell casters but work off their annual fee by acting as menial servants and test subjects for the masters of the tower).

All members are encouraged to show up for Guild parties and meetings (there is a meeting annually on Obern 1 to handle Guild business).

The Entrance - A relatively small room with an intricately carved wooden front desk similar to a hotel… No non accompanied spell casters allowed, and only one may travel with each mage.

The (Smoking) Lounge - Mostly a place where older mages discuss former glory, although very relaxing with couches and comfortable chairs. Lively conversations do occur and useful knowledge is often passed between adventuring and research mages. While food is served and eating common, sleeping in the room is considered rude unless the person is old.

The Board - a board where items, high level spells and adventuring mages (help wanted/offered) are posted.

Library

One of the primary purposes of the Guild is to acquire, catalog and cross reference knowledge of a magical nature. A long time ago it was decided that no one was yet qualified enough to determine what will or won't be useful to magical research so now they pretty much just accumulate everything. All members are required to maintain journals which are sealed by magical means until 100 years after the mages death. These journals of the mages life, experiences and research are fascinating material and are among the most read volumes in the library. The Guild is always trying to acquire more books/scrolls/etc…

The first thing you'll notice upon entering the library is that it appears way more vast than should be possible. Indeed several years back the original library ran out of room and an Otherworld portal was setup in the doorway. The Otherworld let to a gigantic rock of a dead world. The mages set to work hollowing it out, constructing shelves and setting up the appropriate protection and archival spells and wards. Once those tasks were completed all library materials were carted through to their new home. With so much extra space the mages went crazy trying to fill the library for a while. Then they got bored and went back to picking up cool material as they happened upon it.

The Guild has a very sophisticated system of cataloging and checkout. They have built entire spell groups around the process of keeping track of where their materials are (both while they are in the library and when they are on loan to Guild members).

In addition to the public section of the library, the Guild has a restricted section the is only available to the Center and mages specifically given the job of archiving the information within it. This library typically hold records that are still sealed, but may also contain information that the Guild feels is too dangerous for the general public.

Observatory

The top section of the tower is reached via a winding staircase and ultimately a ladder (a wizard could just “Arise” of course but tradition dictates that's rude (for unknown reasons).

Within this section, dubbed the Observatory, are a myriad of telescopes and other equipment for studying the night sky and surrounding areas. There is a subsect of Wizards who are strong believers that the celestial bodies guide and foretell our fates.

More mainstream Wizards make star maps and chart the movements of asteroids and other heavenly bodies for more mundane purposes such as pursuit of knowledge and to determine if their movements have any effect (scientific or magical) on Jaern.

A couple of Wizards keep an eye on Bastador to have an early warning in case of another invasion.

Meeting Rooms

The Guild has several meeting rooms. A small number, currently three, are available for public meetings if they are pre-scheduled and are either hosted or sponsored by a guild member. This restriction can be circumvented by paying the booking clerk as he will then put his name in as sponsor.

The guild will also allow for anonymous meetings where the records are restricted and the occupants assigned randomish numbers. Depending on what the host has requested the Guild will arrange for the hosts features to be blurred, or everyone attending the meeting. A good example of when this is used is when an anonymous employer wished to hire a group. He will post a notice and say to go to the CGoW public room #2. The guild will list him as Employer #124654 and blur his features for the duration of the meeting.

Magical Research

The Guild encourages all of its members to expand upon their current branch of knowledge and delve into new areas of magic. To this end, the guild has extensive research facilities on the third floor that allow mages to perform research without paying the standard monetary costs associated with it. The Guild allows all mages to use its research facilities (assuming they are available) on the condition that the Guild receives a copy of all research journals and notes which are placed in the restricted library and will only be reviewed for public release upon the death of the mage or with explicit permission from the mage allowing a public release at a certain time.

Guild Market

As an additional method of making money for the guild, the guild has provided a method of selling and buying magic items, spells, and incants. A member simply signs up with the guild as being able to offer a service or item and the guild will take care of the rest include pricing. The guild gets a 10% cut of all transaction performed in this manner, but will reduce the fee to 5% if a party uses guild credit in place of silver. Non-members are charged an additional 20% and cannot use guild credit.

The services offered are: casting spells including spells above rank 12, the creation and selling of magic items, and the purchasing of nomadic incants. The prices change frequently based on the number of people offering a service and the number of people requesting services.

Wizard University

The Wizards University was proudly opened during the 3 day holiday of the Festival of Foretelling (At'ena) at the end of the year 10070. During this time, there was huge celebrations, sharing of knowledge, public lessons for lower ranking magic for free, grand repairs and upkeep of the entire city of Centralia, and large feasts held every night for everyone to attend.

The Wizards University is located partly in a large, ornate, building which has been placed directly behind the Wizards Guild tower. Inside, the guild puts on display some of the lesser artifacts and magic items they have, to promote a sense of awe and wonder with the guild, and the capabilities of magic. This is also to the extent where the front half of the building is more of a museum, than a school.

The school itself is located in the building, as well as past a plane shift ring which leads to a much larger castle on a magically charged world, named Amarsonia. Inside the Jaernian building is located the lesser classrooms, which are specifically set aside for non-mages and commoners to learn their first spells. This is one of the few places non-mages are allowed without constant escort. Once it has been proven that a student in one of the base classes has learned their first spell. They are allowed to enroll in higher classes, as well as buy their way into the guild if they so choose. Other classes that take part in this area of the building are basic courses in Core Elemental Magic, Air Magic, Earth Magic, Water Magic, and Fire Magic. All these groups are only taught up to 12 ranks in the outer building. Psionics are also taught on a rotating monthly schedule, with the order going: Clairsentience Metacreativity Psychokinesis Psychometabolism Psychoportation Telepathy

Psionics are also only taught up to a maximum of 12 ranks here.

Once it has been clear that a student has shown magical potential in the form of learning up to rank 12 in a spell group, has purchased their entrance to the guild, as well as has a recommendation from a previously accepted, well standing mage, they are allowed to enter Amarsonia.

Amarsonia: Amarsonia is the place that most college mages strive to get to, and can be obtained by anyone who puts forth enough effort. Inside, there is a grand castle that stretches for mets in each direction. To this day the mages guild still hires parties of adventurers to investigate the deeper and farther halls of the castle. It was previously owned by a Hirudo lord, but was reclaimed. Inside the castle, many more classes are offered, with mages specially taught to teach every spell group, as well as a special section dedicated to mages who are learning new and upcoming (public) spell groups, so that they may offer classes and training in those spells. Adventurers (PC's) are commonly asked to also visit and teach their spells, or just assist in training of younger students. There is also a section of the castle marked off for more research of new spell groups, due to the 3rd floor of the guild's tower becoming cramped. There is also a section of the castle set off for housing and rooming, with each mage being granted a room, that from the outside looks small, but is significantly bigger on the inside. They come complete with running water, and electricity upon request.

Amarsonia has some special attributes to it, in that people on the plain have the ability to alter overload checks by 1 passively, regain units at a significantly accelerated rate of 1/minute, which greatly assists in training, because this allows for much more trial and error, rather than having to get it right the first time. These units are temporary and cannot be transferred off plain by spells or magical effects. Lastly, the mages guild has set aside 3 central large rooms, one of which is encased in teresium, which has a major function. It works as a holding cell for rogue mages, since it drains units incredibly fast (20/round). The second room down the hall also has warning signs on it, and inside is a “no magic zone”. meant to remove or temporarily alleviate magical effects should a spell have gone horribly wrong. Lastly is a room marked for infirmary, which is directly across the hall. It is constantly staffed by at least 3 Isisites, and has significant warding and effects on it, all of which when combined, make death inside the room near impossible by normal means. It is also a clean room, and is quarantined from bacteria and viruses.

There is a central area near the entrance that is set aside for teleportation magics, meaning that this is where all planeshifts and otherports will end up, even if the chosen destination was somewhere else. This can be bypassed, but it requires proper approval from the authority figures of Amarsonia.

Section for PC's: The guild will offer silver CREDIT at a rate of 5000 per month for dedicated teaching of spells, with researched spell groups being in high demand. Teaching spell groups also may count towards the 2 week service time yearly to the guild. Teaching spells will essentially take all the time between games that a PC has, with the only time off being adventures themselves. The guild expects to be notified if possible.

Magic Item Identification

The guild offers magic identification services to any individual for at the following prices depending on the level of identification you wish to receive:

  • 1,000sp gets you a basic identification (the lowest spell on the item and it's trigger, no curse detection)
  • 2,500sp gets you a more advanced identification (all spells on the item, curse detection, and triggers)
  • 5,000sp gets you the previous level of identification (non-standard items (artifacts) can be identified to a certain level, all of the above effects are also revealed. In addition items flaws are also revealed.)

Members receive a 20% discount on all identification costs.

Other Services

The guild provides many other services, listed on this the Other Wizards Guild Services page.

Guild NPC's

Donningham Vadon - Currently a mage serving in the guild as one of the research assistants. He will commonly help out other mages with their journals and menial work, such as documentation and cleaning. All in all, hes also a great help to have around, as well as someone nice to talk to, as he has seen his fair share of 'weird' in the past.

Greg Davis - Greg is one of the bookkeepers that takes care of the office work for the guild. His name appears on far more rental rooms than he has ever actually used. In all, he is a very honest mage, and keeps his head down to avoid ruffling too many feathers.

Joanne Louis - Joanne works in the guild as a direct assistant to the highest ranking air mage, hoping to one day ascend to the position herself. She is very proficient in all air magics, as well as has been researching the dimension magics and a new group of “storm magic”, which is meant to control the weather.

Sylvannis Hedron - Sylvannis is a psionic prodigy who has been a part of the guild for years, donating her research in psionics and researching her own groups. She has been going for position 7 in the arch-mage council for years, but has been declined several times. Within the past year, her presence has all but disappeared from the guild, which has been written off as “field work”. She is a very tall half elf, half human, with a pale green tint to her skin, and silver/blonde hair. (this NPC is in use, please do not use without contacting Dan W)

Markov Steele: Markov is currently one of the higher ranking mages, not quite yet a part of the council, but he is in charge of the University. He is the one that people need to speak to for changes and alterations of Amarsonia, although menial tasks are generally passed down to his assistants. He is a very proficient fire mage.

settings/jaern/therhine/centralia/centralia_gow.txt · Last modified: 2023/10/31 14:42 by quiddlesticks