From: kjc@apocalypse.org (Kelly J. Cooper) Date: 9 Apr 1995 23:50:26 -0400 Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: ADMIN: Mage Guild FAQ Hello and WELCOME to the Mage Guild! This is an ADMIN post containing general information about the Mage Guild and detailing updates and changes in the political/personal scene. It would probably be very useful for you to read if you plan on having any interaction with the Guild. I had planned to post this on a semi-regular basis (every other week perhaps), with updates at the beginning, but... It gets posted when I think of it. Unless people are interested in seeing it more often. Special Thanks to Steve Hutchison and the Dragon crew who helped tweak this and get it into shape. Last update: 4/9/95 (mostly editing fixes, nothing new) Anyway, on with the show... BRIEFLY _______ Requests having to do with using the Mage Guild: send mail to dragon@callisto.pas.rochester.edu or send mail to kjc@asylum.sf.ca.us (I'm on dragon, so I'll get the mail either way) NPC = Non-Player Character (i.e. most of the Guild Mages) PC = Player Character (a character owned & operated by a specific person) This post: BRIEFLY - Summary portion of the post you are currently reading BACKGROUND - ADMIN-style "who created what" description CHANGES - Summary of recent changes from various threads CURRENT EVENTS - Ongoing stuff at the Guild POLITICS - The Guild as a Bureaucracy APPEARANCES - What the Guild looks like, how it's laid out THE PLAYERS - Thumbnail sketches of Guild members COMING SOON - In the queue under "To Do" CONCLUSION - Final comments * * * BACKGROUND __________ The guild was originally just an obvious part of a magic town, but it has gone through considerable evolution in the last couple of years. Thomas Kettenring created the Guildmaster, Gwaliostrok, but didn't have enough time to maintain the Guild. Around that time, Alfvaen (aka Aaron Humphrey) took over Guild maintenance and, along with Bernie Hsiung, came up with the description of the Guild as well as the ArchMages and their personalities. Stephen Hutchison added detail to the overall atmosphere of the Guild and augmented the development of the NPCs Dasham and Urcohea. Bernie also created the PC Nescie y'Ridalen, the most recent ArchMage of Education and handled most of the Guild responses when Alfvaen's net access drifted. The Guild has gone through considerable change during the [MG] (Mage Guild) and [MI] (Moriarty Investigations) stories (sidebars involving the [R] (Rameshan) and [Storm] threads), involving a LOT of folks at the Inn. The Guild NPCs are now more or less in the hands of a small group of writers -- mainly Steve Hutchison, Liralen Li, and Kelly J. Cooper with input from the original writers listed above -- who can be reached by sending mail to dragon@callisto.pas.rochester.edu * * * CHANGES _______ YUP. ArchMage of Security Urcohea, has been cleared of the charges against him. He was accused of having attempted to affect a guild vote by introducing a clone of ...sage into a protected meeting. During a party at the Lighthouse it was revealed that the clone was the work of Iglyarch, a now-dead bad guy type. Supreme ArchMage Dasham's aging condition (a side effect of a curse placed on her by the previous ArchMage of Research, her mentor Verthax) has been cured by Kardia Xvaramene (Liralen Li's character), a curse breaker contracted by 'Raelf het ae 25. Dasham has also been colonized by nanogolems, a creation of 'Raelf's that work like magic nano-machines, to give her extended life and regenerative powers. Thorn, Archmage of Politics, has been thwarted behind-the-scenes in a few of his plots, and has decided that since he cannot control the current Supreme ArchMage the way he had planned, that he must now begin trying to subvert the office until he can shift the actual power of the Supreme down to the departments run by other ArchMages, where he has planted his own agents. The [MG] thread has effectively ended, with only a few side-effects of the battle with MAR leftover to be taken care of... The notation [MG] now symbolizes any interaction with the Mage Guild itself. * * * CURRENT EVENTS ______________ ...With the climax of the [MG] thread, Supreme ArchMage Delalle is dead (for all intents and purposes) and Dasham, ArchMage of Research, is temporarily acting Supreme ArchMage. ArchMage Nescie y'Ridalen is in a coma-like state of existence, leaving the Education department in some chaos -- currently, Nescie's second-in-command, a distracted young Mage named Charblon, is acting ArchMage of Education. Everybody else is just peachy. POLITICS ________ The Guild has been in a state of relative chaos for the past 20 years -- after Delalle's withdrawal and the incident with the ArchLiche -- and extreme chaos for the past couple months with Delalle's reappearance and his almost immediate death thereafter (among other chaos-creating events). So, some things slip through the cracks. And, as with any large Bureaucracy (one of the archetypes, dontcha know), it isn't necessarily difficult to get around the red tape -- so long as you know who to ask and what to pay. The Guild does maintain a regular monitoring of Generica and environs, but the competent staff members are overworked and under-appreciated, so a low level magical disruption probably won't get you more than an Investigator, if that. However, if the Investigator is hurt or comes under fire, you may find yourself with Alpha Response Team jumping down your throat. Along those lines, anything loud or obviously against Guild Rules will also get their attention and probably elicit a response team to check it out. They periodically do sweeps or send out agents to convince folks who practice magic for profit to register themselves with the guild. They are not the Gestapo -- they don't hurt anyone. They just make it difficult for the individual to continue working without Guild Registration. There are obvious exceptions to this: workers of Magic for good or evil (or neither) who can cloak their activities, or who are considered too strong to be worth the Guild making a scene. APPEARANCES ___________ The main entrance of the Guild is on the West side and opens into a large reception hall where a person wearing "psychedelic" glasses (which grant magical truesight) observes and scans all who enter. This person is usually male, and acts like the grumpy receptionist at the entry to a museum or government building. In addition, each entrance is watched by bound daemons, who are paying off debts owed to various Guild members; these vary widely in terms of attentiveness, job satisfaction, and general trustworthiness, but they _will_ report any real dangers to the guild who come in by the doors. There are four entrances to the Guild (forming one of the classical architectural contructions for gathering power) at the four points of the compass. The building itself looks a little like an Escher drawing, crossed with Big Governmental Architecture. The front of the Guild opens onto the Arcade of Fountains, facing the Great Library directly across the street. Any of the entrances can be set, in times of emergency, to automatically 'gate individuals entering the Guild to a different entrance (for reasons of safety or internal security). The less commonly used North, South and East gates are usually staffed by student Mages under ArchMage of Security Urcohea. Visitors with appointments are either directed or escorted to their place of contact (depending upon how well known/trusted the visitor is). Visitors can also _make_ appointments with anyone who has an office at the Guild. The secondary entrances are often short on Escorts, making them even less popular. When no Escort is available, the visitor is often given directions to follow a "colored stripe." To direct someone to a given area, the Guild has a color system -- variously colored stripes keyed to specific departments -- that are normally invisible, but light up when activiated. The receptionist can trigger a guide stripe and let the visitor follow it to his or her destination. If the visitor strays away from the line, various alarms will sound. Visitors can activate the lines themselves by concentrating on wanting to go to a specific department. (This, however, is not common knowledge.) * * * "I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough." -- M.C.Escher The interior of the Guild is much larger than it appears from the outside. Within, there are any number of pockets of space added on and maintained by spells. Gravity is often tied to the specific area, making it somewhat subjective along the borders of these personalized realities. With this in mind, one may find that a large department is consistently in the same place, but that one's normal access hallway has disappeared and been replaced by something completely different. Apprentices have been lost and never found again. Those that survive to Journeyman status know how to maneuver the halls and take care of themselves. The full Magi and ArchMagi generally don't bother walking, preferring instead to use teleportation spells, or setting up "jumper" points -- connected points in space for their own personal transportation. THE PLAYERS ___________ Thumbnail sketches for the Council of Archmagi, in alphabetical order: ...sage (Archmage Librarian) - albino dark elf PC, keeper of the Library's (across the street from the Guild) Basement. Has Guild privileges (maintains all their general-use wards for them) and can vote in Council decisions, but rarely does because he hates internal politics. There may be some prejudice on the part of certain members of the Council since all the rest of the Archmagi are (were?) human. Private property of Pete Calvert (PCALVERT@ECONOMICS.ADELAIDE.EDU.AU) Dasham (Archmage of Research; Temporary Supreme Archmage) - Very smart. Beautiful but bitchy. Red hair, green eyes. Has been in charge of Research for last two centuries. Very vain, and plans to stay young forever, and may have recently finally achieved that dream. Suffered a serious setback over twenty years ago when she uncovered the Archliche, resulting in multiple deaths among many talented Generican mages -- most mages don't trust her any more, but she managed to keep her position regardless. Also since then, Research has been an extremely neglected and disparaged position. As she is the Senior Archmage, she's temporarily Acting Supreme Archmage until the guild is back under control and stable enough to vote for a new Supreme Archmage. (The Supreme Archmage, Delalle, was murdered by Mar, Servant of the Reaver'sChild -- see the [MG] (Mage Guild) and [MI] (Moriarty Investigations) threads from the late winter through summer of 1993). [Character usually written by Steve Hutchison and/or Liralen Li] Fauteuil (Archmage of Extraplanar Contacts) - Wispy grey hair, bowed posture, dark but dispassionate eyes, appears to be in his 60's. Serious and competent in as much as he choses to do. He is one of Thorn's flunkies and owes his position to Thorn's manipulations. Thorn is using Fauteuil's office and abilities to perpetrate interesting scams in other dimensions. [Usually written by either Steve Hutchison or Kelly J. Cooper] Leonaco (Archmage of Magical Production) - Laconic, brooding, pragmatic type. Dark brown hair, dark brown and bushy eyebrows, hazel eyes, rangy build. Responsible for finding new and better ways to create all those +1 swords, as well as using magic for construction et al. [Usually written by either Steve Hutchison or Kelly J. Cooper] Rivy (Archmage of Bureaucracy) - Pretends that she's just a dizzy blonde, but really she's much more. Only Urcohea knows that behind her bright blue eyes she's actually a match for Thorn in underhandedness, although Dasham suspects it. She is also Urcohea's lover, but they try to keep this low-key. [Usually written by Steve Hutchison, Liralen Li or Kelly J. Cooper] Thorn (Archmage of Politics) - Pleasant-looking, middle-aged man with hard blue eyes. Eloquent, convincing speaker on both personal and group level. Cunning and power-hungry. Opportunist extraordinaire -- and makes his own opportunities whenever he can. Clawed his way to the top. A steel fist in a velvet glove. In charge of relations with other Mage's Guilds on other planes and liaison with non-magical political structures as well, like Generican Merchant's Council and such. Extremely interested in the power that goes with being the Supreme ArchMage, has decided that the position itself is too visible and vulnerable, so he has begun political maneuvers to turn it into a figurehead. [Usually written by Steve Hutchison] Urcohea (Archmage of Internal Security) - A nice fellow, dry and witty, but as hard as nails. Doesn't appear to be much until he begins to speak. Medium height, brown hair, brown eyes, looks a bit out of shape and easily underestimated. But, underestimation is one of his best weapons. Well versed in current Council politics. Was pretty much in charge of the Guild, as Delalle's most trusted advisor, during Delalle's seclusion. With Delalle dead, he is a likely candidate for Supreme Archmage, but doesn't want to gain it in an unethical fashion. [Usually written by either Steve Hutchison or Alfvaen] * * * COMING SOON ___________ History of the Mage Guild * * * CONCLUSION __________ Basically, the Guild does some really good things and the Guild does some pretty bad things. The characters within are generally NPC, although Dasham is mostly handled by Liralen Li and Stephen Hutchison while Urcohea is fronted by Stephen Hutchison and Alfvaen. The Guild is for general use, if you want to make reference to it, walk by it or discuss it. If you want direct character to character interaction, PLEASE contact me or the Dragon list the right person will get in touch with you. It is possible to be a member of the Guild, at any level from apprentice all the way to ArchMage. --- Kelly J. Cooper Writer for Jameson W. Walker Contact for the Generican Mage Guild kjc@apocalypse.org