The Six Guilds

The Six Guilds of Magic ("The Guilds" for short) are a collection of the strongest and most skilled mages in Maesia. At their core, each of the six guilds are run by a single mage - each guild has a unique title for their leader, and each leader runs their guild slightly differently. The Guilds play an important role in Maesia, as they act to both train mages of enough skill, and to govern Maesia in times of large-scale peril or strife. In recent decades the Guilds have retreated from government to allow federal legislators to run their own systems, turning instead to focus on training and on their newest role - that of identifying, locating, and detaining highly dangerous criminals.

A mage who is a member of a guild is called a guildmage.

=Guild Heirarchy=

Below any guild's given leader, there is a series of "tiers" or "rings" of mages of varying skill and tenure. The high-tier is the only tier to directly communicate with the guild's leader - some leaders select a single advisor from the high-tier, other leaders will go to the high-tier as a whole for governing decisions.

At the lower levels of the guild are the new applicants and trainees. New applicants must go through a rigorous test, known as a "Trial" to display their abilities and prove they possess enough magical prowess to hold a place in their respective guild. Once accepted they are sent to one of the many guild embassies located throughout Maesia, where over the course of several weeks their skills are honed and enhanced with the help of specially-appointed trainers. Once training is complete, they are ready to prove themselves in yet another Trial and advance to the level of guildmage.

Guildmages complete missions assigned by their given tier's commander, under they have proved themselves worthy to advance to the next tier, and so on and so forth. Each tier's missions are of a progressively greater importance, thus requiring mages of more skill. Guildmages in the lowest tier often are sent on simple quests such as gathering magical supplies, whereas higher-end mages are often sent out on missions to locate and/or capture the criminals to be detained within the main headquarters of the Guilds - a massive architectural wonder known as the Centrum, located on the international waters of Lake Terani between Ruai, Keleta, and Valencia.

However despite the gravity of some higher-tier missions, the Guilds value quality over quantity, and do not advance mages that are undeserving of a heightended post. Many new applicant mages are not of enough skill to even pass the entry Trial, and some can spend their whole lives trying unsuccessfully to be accepted into a guild. Those who do achieve the title of guildmage oftentimes are happy to remain in the lowest tiers, not having enough time to invest in missions and not wanting to deal with more difficult or deadly orders. =The Guilds=

Guild of Earth (Terra Guild)

 * Element: Earth


 * Leader Title: Kraenohr (cray-nore)

Jordas forced his way into the position of Kraenohr. It took him thirty years to get accepted into Terra Guild, and he was not pleased about it when he finally got in. He had learned many tricks during his extensive decades-long training to better himself, most of which he picked up from freemages or figured out himself. Very few of his abilities were even known about by the guildmages, and he used several of them to his advantage during his Trial, to the amazement of the observers. He officially challenged the Kraenohr, Lachlann Elliot, less than a month after becoming a guildmage. Elliot knew most of the techniques Jordas used, and was able to counter with even stronger and more exotic spells for the most part. Yet after a long and drawn-out battle, Jordas managed to bring the much older, wiser man to his knees, much to everyone's surpirse. Elliot respectfully surrended the position of Kraenohr to Jordas, taking the position of advisor as is customary for an overthrown guild head.
 * Current Leader: Jordas Basilla (male, human)

Guild of Air (Auras Guild)
Auras Guild has always been headed by the Vandermeulen family of winderwalkers since its creation. The guild's previous Lasuen, Dekerd Vandermuelen, was to be succeeded by his son Rafael, however the heir was involved in a near-fatal accident that put him into a deep coma from which he would not wake. With his son unable to take his place, Dekard was left with very limited options, as Rafael was his only child. Not wanting to surrender the guild's command to another family, he broke a generations-old pattern of Lasuen and offered the title to Rafael's only child, Caesi. Not only was she a woman and therefore the first female Lasuen on record for the guild, but she was also not a complete windwalker, her mother having been human. To complete the trifecta, she is also the youngest head of any guild within the last century.
 * Element: Air
 * Leader Title: Lasuen (la-sue-en)
 * Current Leader: Caesi Vandermeulen (female, human/windwalker)

Guild of Fire (Ignis Guild)
Bax joined Ignis Guild in his mid-twenties, becoming a registered guildmage and quickly rising in rank until he sat in the coveted seat of advisor to the Maadral, at that time an elderly man by the name of Elian Nehilias. Nehilias was a truly skilled and powerful mage who had won his position of power decades ago by challenging the highest powers within the guild, and in the years since his ascension he had focused his magic into a deadly force. Yet in spite of this he still respected Bax and his own mastery of the element. Over the decades that Bax served under him, he came to treat the man as a son and taught him many things that other mages had either neglected or ignored in their own teachings. Thus, with Bax's magical knowledge unsurpassed by any other than the Maadral himself, it was only natural that when Nehilias passed on, Bax rose to power in his place.
 * Element: Fire
 * Leader Title: Maadral (mah-dralle, "dralle" rhyming with the name "Al")
 * Current Leader: Bax Teralen (male, human)

Guild of Water (Aqua Guild)
A freshwater teiha, Nhiloe had been accidentally snagged in a fisherman's net at a relatively young age and was kept as a pet by the man for many years until her eventual escape. Unable to find any form of water in her escape, she was slowly dying from dehydration until she managed to run into a guildmage from Aqua Guild. He used his magic to save her life, took her in and taught her of the world and magic, which she turned out to be especially proficient in. As teiha by principle always repay their debts, she promised that she would assist him in any way he needed as compensation for his generosity in saving her life. When they returned to the guild's Headquarters, they learned of the Rileran's resignation from her post, causing mass panic amidst the ranks of guildmages, as they had no leader. The mage with her was, thankfully, of one of the highest ranking tiers, and suggested that, since she was so proficient with water magic, she could take the helm as Rileran and lead the guild. Happy to oblige to fulfill her debt, she allowed the mage to put in his recommendation and she was soon accepted as Rileran with little to no resistance due to the disorder of the guild's heirarchy. As teiha are very long-lived, she has been leading the guild for close to a century, honoring her promise to the mage who saved her even though he is long dead.
 * Element: Water
 * Leader Title: Rileran (rill-er-ann)
 * Current Leader: Te'Ranaica Nhiloe (female, teiha)

Guild of Light (Aegis Guild)
Tanick spent a fair portion of his life as a sacred healer for his tribe, the Ah'Teyaska, who live in the forests of south-central Orsonth and Siontru, trying to avoid the horrible war between the two countries as best they can. Tanick was quick to find casualities of the war, and despite being told otherwise, used his healing white magic to assist any injured he found. He soon learned the primary issue associated with extensive magic usage - the horrible physical strain it put on his body. After collapsing and not waking for almost a week, he came to a realization which he stated was brought to him on the wings of his guardian spirit (in Tanick's case, the owl). He could not save all the sick and injured alone, he would surely die himself before anyone was truly saved. He needed to seek out aid in his quest, so with a heavy heart but best wishes from all, he left his tribe. His journey brought him to Aegis Guild, where his strong sense of conviction and selflessness quickly put him in the high-tier of guildmages. At that time the Quenra was a wise old woman named Shiana Cardenay, who believed in a fair, democratic approach to leadership and never made a decision without the approval of her high-tier. As per Aegis Guild standards, when Cardenary stepped down after her decade-long term, she returned to the high-tier and a new Quenra was to be voted on from the selection of high-tier mages. To his surprise, Tanick was selected, and he has ruled ever since, doing his best to aid all but following his original goal and largely assisting the Orsonth-Siontru war casualties.
 * Element: White
 * Leader Title: Quenra (kwen-rah)
 * Current Leader: Tanick Lo Soraen (male, human)

Guild of Shadow (Dolor Guild)
Within a matter of days, Dolor Guild's Haenge Roche Bedoyan fell ill and lay on his deathbed. The high-ring tier of mages quite accurately suspected foul play, as the black magic element the guild specializes in covers the affliction magic of Arcana, which has the ability to render targets deathly ill and (for highly-skilled mages) can strike the target dead on the spot. They began a guild-wide search for the perpetrator, and were unable to locate the source of the affliction in levels lower than themselves. A violent bought of infighting ensued within the high-ring, ending with most of the members dead or dying. The last surviving member of the ring was a darkling woman named Ashai. At such a time, darklings were new to the world and treated with a fair deal of disdain, but despite the suspicion she was dealt she took care of Bedoyan in his last days, and when he did pass she dutifully stepped into his place mere hours after his passing, claiming to be following his last wishes. When met with a horrible backlash, she proposed a solution. Being extremely skilled in both arcana and necromancy, she summoned Bedoyan's soul back to his lifeless corpse and reinstated him into the role of Haenge. Despite still demonstrating some semblance of free will as well as his past persona, it is understood by the guild that Bedoyan is merely a puppet, and Ashai is pulling the strings.
 * Element: Black
 * Leader Title: Haenge (hai-eng-gey)
 * Current Leader: Roche Bedoyan (male, human) and Ashai Muirana (female, darkling)