Mages Guild Overview - The Mage Guild In Morrowind Elder Scrolls III - Factions and Guilds in the Elder Scrolls III

2008-10-22

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The Mages guild

The Mages guild is an organisation devoted to the study of the arcane, enchanting and alchemy for the purpose of creating magic. The members strive for ultimate knowledge, which consequently leads to mighty and powerful wizards, but differing from the Telvannis this guild doesn’t seek to eliminate rivals or use their powers for personal gain. There are other major differences from the Telvanni Great House, which creates the strong rivalry; the Mages guild can sell potions and scrolls to virtually anyone who requires them, not solely wizards or members, and moreover any race is accepted as a member.

The guild has a strong presence throughout the island, with branches present in all the major towns. They also offer a quick method of travelling between halls, with a system that involves Guild guides. For a price, anyone is able to be transported to any of the towns which have a branch of the Mages guild. The towns available are Ald’Ruhn, Balmora, Caldera, Sadrith Mora and Vivec.

The headquarters of the Mages guild, or central hall, are found in Vivec where the Arch-mage resides. Balmora has a respectable hall however, as Ald’Ruhn, and generally these are more frequented than Vivec.

Ranks

The Mages obviously favour Intelligence and Willpower as their primary attributes. As described in a previous guide, this allows for plenty of magical energies and high resistance to enemy spells. The major and minor skills are all schools of magic and you can choose the schools according to what kind of mage you would like to play (i.e. Destruction for a battlemage).

The main allies are Imperial guilds such as the legion, the Fighters guild and the Imperial cult. The Mages guild also has an affinity with the Thieves guild, oddly enough, as they often ask for ‘favours’ and value the honour of thieves. They hate House Telvanni with a passion since everything about this Great House is opposite to what the Mages Guild believes in.

The leader is the Arch-mage Trebonius Artorius in Vivec. He is a battlemage and his leadership is often contested by fellow members, as his quests are dangerous and will involve killing Telvanni mages. The Mages guild opposes the idea and you can choose to kill Artorius instead. The ranks are: Associate, Apprentice, Journeyman, Evoker, Conjurer, Magician, Warlock, Wizard, Master Wizard and Arch-Mage.

This post is part of the series: The World of Morrowind: Guilds & Factions

A series of articles on the various factions and guilds in the world of the Elder Scrolls III.