Ruled By: The Circle
HQ: The Spire, The Capital, Generica

Tropes: Magical Society; Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering; The Order; Warrior Monks (Eastern); Weird Trade Union; (Group) Wizards and Witches

The Wizards' Guild is a noble order of magic-wielding protectors—united by their ability to use the Source—who have upheld peace and justice throughout Imperia for over a thousand generations. As keepers of the peace, the Guild undertakes diplomatic missions at the request of the kings of Imperia, and pursues dangerous criminals across national borders. In contrast to the Enemy, the Guild's historic foes who harness the dark side of the Source, the wizards draw their power from the light side of the Source. The Wizard Code serves as the mantra of the wizards' way of life, governing the behavior of individual wizards to the philosophy and training regimen of the Guild as a whole.

Origin and History

Back to the beginnings of recorded history, before the rise of the Marisu Empire, before even the Druidic Order, magic-users sought the secrets of the Source, and would pass what they had learned of it to other magic-users when they would meet. Many of these early wizards stood with the Emperor against the encroachment of Evil™ around 3000ya, and were afterward afforded an exalted status in the Empire. As the guilds formed (2000ya), the wizards organized themselves into a guild of their own and were given official charter within the Empire to keep the peace and dispense justice, and often stood as a secular balance to the Imperial Church. As time went on, Guild wizards began, one by one, to be seduced by secretly-returning Evil™ and manipulated their way into positions of power within the Guild. When their conspiracy was eventually discovered, those wizards were cast out of the Guild and dubbed "The Enemy," traitors to the Source, and the two factions struggled for power in a Secret War that would ultimately result in the collapse of the Old Empire (and the disappearance of the Imperial Isle) around 1000ya. The Secret War continued, waxing and waning, until the Nefarian Conquest of Mankind (100ya), when the Enemy joined the the Overlord's Black Army, and were defeated. All of the Enemy were believed killed and condemned to the Abyss, never to return; the Secret War was ended. But the Guild has grown self-obsessed, blinded by hubris to its own corruption, and heeds not ridiculous rumors of the return of Evil™ or its insidious influence within the Guild.

Locations

• The Spire

Ranks and Forms of Address

• (Master X) The Most Honourable X, Master-Wizard of the Guild Council
• (Master X) The Honourable X, Seneschal/Marshal of the Wizards’ Guild
• (Master X) The Honourable X, Tower Master of the Wizards’ Guild (or [Town Wizards’ Tower])
• (Master X) The Honourable X, Master-Wizard of the Guild
• (X) Ser X, Knight-Wizard of the Guild
• X, Apprentice-Wizard of the Guild
• X, [Officer] of the Wizards’ Guild (or [Town Wizards’ Tower])
  • Master-Sergeant
• X, Sergeant/Man-At-Arms/Initiate of the Wizards’ Guild

Practices

General

TBD.

The Wizard Code

The Wizard Code was a set of rules that governed the behavior of the Guild members. It taught its follower to not give in to feelings of anger toward other lifeforms, which would help them resist fear and prevent them from falling to the dark side of the Source. Amongst other dictates, the Wizard Code forbade Knight-Wizards and Masters-Wizards from taking on more than one Apprentice at a given time; and forbade wizards from forming attachments, such as marriage, and other specific, individual bonds, such as family and romantic love. Few understood that this practice of nonattachment did not mean the Jedi were strangers to compassion when, in fact, they believed that all lives were precious. The code also forbade the wizard from killing unarmed opponents as well as seeking revenge.

Sorcerers and Non-Guild Wizards

The Enemy

• Sort of a "Saruman" thing: Guild wizards seduced by Evil™ to work against it.

Rumor Has It…

• The Overlord is rumored to be a former Master-Wizard of the Guild turned to Evil™, but records of such a person are impossible to find
• It is whispered that a ranking member or two of the Guild secretly serve the Enemy, steering the Guild toward its own doom

Behind the Scenes

• Obvious Jedi ripoff is obvious; also a bit of a SHIELD/Hydra thing
• Low-level initiates get tasked with mass-production of common magic items
• The Source (=The Force)
• The Circle=Jedi Council