Wizard circle

A wizard circle is an organization at exists to promote wizardy, further its study, the interests of practitioners and those who wizardry affects. Wizard circles are of key importance in the sociology of magic. The formation of a circle is an important step in the emergence of a new discipline or sub-discipline which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, and practices which may yield a set of social laws, ethics, and a particular lifestyle. Wizard circles also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology.

Most wizard circle activities typically include holding regular conferences for the presentation and discussion of new research results and publishing or sponsoring academic journals in their discipline.

The roles of different wizard circles have been variously defined: "A group of wizards who are entrusted with maintaining control or oversight of magic and arcanists;" also a body acting "to represent the interest of the professional practitioners of magic," and so "act to maintain their own privileged and powerful position as a controlling body."

Such circles generally strive to achieve a balance between these two often conflicting mandates. Though wizard circles often act to protect the public by maintaining and enforcing standards of training and ethics in wizardry, they often also act like a cartel or a labor union for the wizards, though this description is commonly rejected. Therefore, in certain dispute situations the balance between these two aims may get tipped more in favor of protecting and defending the wizards than in protecting the public.

Many wizard circles are involved in the development and monitoring of wizarding and academic universities, and the updating of skills, and thus perform certification to indicate that a person possesses qualifications in the subject area, such as wizard academies. Sometimes membership of a wizard circle is synonymous with certification, though not always. Membership of a wizard circle, as a legal requirement, can in some professions form the primary formal basis for gaining entry to and setting up practice within the profession.

Table of Contents

Wizard Circles


Wizard Circle Specialization Headquarters
Dragon Court Evokers and magic item creation Ilefain
Order of Agapetheon Healing Ilefain
Spiral Dancers Protectors of the Warden trees Tir'Ein
Ordine Astrologi Astrologers, diviners and soothsayers Canstice
Order of the Wandering Torch Transportation and guides Ilefain
Council of Magisters Entertainment / espionage Canstice
Pelargonium Food, lodging, urban information cell-content
Keepers of the Cerulean Sign warding and defeating aberrations and warlocks ?
Maelstrom Witches Air and sea transportation Ilefain
Shadow Path elven high magic Tir'Ein
Whisperers of the Arcaene Bringing magic back to gnomish society Dragonfly Island
cell-content Animal training and breeding cell-content
cell-content Communication and translation cell-content
cell-content Investigation cell-content
cell-content warmages cell-content
cell-content librarians, scholars and riddlers cell-content

In general terms, a guild is a professional association whose
primary concern is fostering the best possible environment
for those who follow a particular trade. Skilled artisans and
experts of all kinds form guilds in various lands; while mages
are fewer in number, their professional needs are much the
same. While people generally refer to such organizations as
“wizards guilds,” the term is often a misnomer; many guilds
make no distinction between arcane spellcasters of different
classes. Alternatively, some guilds are exclusively made up
of a single type of nonwizard spellcaster, and are dedicated
to that class’s specifi c needs.

Guilds usually charge a steep membership fee (often 10 to
100 gp in monthly dues) in addition to a fee to join. In return,
a new member gains the sanction of the guild when casting
spells for pay, creating magic items for sale, and engaging in
other commercial arcane enterprises. A guild often owns a
hall, tower, or retreat where members can reside (at least on
a temporary basis), store valuable but unwieldy laboratory
equipment, or make use of a common library. Any mage
belonging to a guild can use the guild’s facilities (generally
at nominal cost) for magic item creation and spell research.
Some of the most common sorts of wizards guilds include
the following.

Protective Guilds: Guilds formed in order to protect arcane
spellcasters against the suspicion and distrust of nonwizards
are dedicated to the preservation of knowledge and the study
of the art of magic. Guilds of this sort exist to check the
otherwise overwhelming power that a crusading church or
suspicious tyrant might bring to bear against the practicing
arcanists of a realm.

Regulatory Guilds: These guilds are formed to provide a
legal and recognized forum for arcane study, most often in
lands that have stern laws prohibiting the practice of arcane
magic by those who don’t belong to a sanctioned organization.
Under such systems, arcanists are strongly encouraged
to police their own ranks, defending the prerogatives and
entitlements of their guild as they fulfi ll their obligation to
the ruling powers of the land that grant them the privilege
to study magic.

Secret Cabals: Operating below the level of the many guilds
that exist to regulate and protect arcane spellcasters, a small
number of sinister cabals are dedicated to establishing the
primacy of arcane spellcasters over all other folk (or, in
an antimagocracy, to keeping the persecuted art of free
spellcasting alive). Like other types of wizards guilds, secret
cabals offer their members collective protection against their
enemies, access to magical lore and items, and prospective
allies and hirelings. Unlike the open guilds, though, few of
these conspiracies openly proclaim their sometimes dark or
illicit goals.

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