Dear reader,
Allow me to share with you a brief history of the Wizard Clan, and a possible theory about the Order of Mages.
Many believe that the Order of Mages was started with the founding of the Wizard Clan, but I believe their true origin predates the clan. During the war of Hadrens, before the fall of Adrian’s kingdom, he passed a law which enabled his key advisors, Asbridalias, and Guanis to form a guild of Wizards, Witches, and others who were gifted in the magical arts. This guild, later to be known as the Wizard Clan, would be lead by Guanis who would proceed as the head mage, would act separately from the rest of the kingdom, however, still fall under Adrian’s rule. They created a tower, little ways away from the capital, but still within the heart of the kingdom.
This Wizard clan would survive long past the fall of the Hadrens, as Guanis himself held a major role in Adrian’s fall. Its members would be taught to control their magical abilities and through practice and study they would advance, and excel at their craft. The guild was built with order and control in mind. Originally the goal of the guild was to gain an upper hand in the Hadren war, however, in the end, they became their own group. Their members would seek out others to join them and be taught. They also would solve issues with non-magical folk, and had many traveling members who would move from place to place and help where possible to further advance the name and fame of the clan. They held one of the largest collections of magical records, tablets, scriptures, books, scrolls, and other documents. They also had a wide array of magical artifacts that its members would find, or create and store within the walls of the tower.
There were many different ranks or classifications of magic that the clan permitted within its walls to learn and study. Some more advanced, more difficult, or more dangerous and risky than others. As you would learn and master each of these levels or ranks, you would gain a higher status within the clan, and would eventually be allowed to have apprentices and followers appointed to you. A leading council of the elders and higher-ranked members sat at the top of power. Guanis himself was the top leader of the clan for many years. Eventually, the council overthrew Guanis and banished him from the guild as he had seemingly fallen down a darker path that the rest of the council did not agree with at the time. Namely, his creation of the Drelfs and the sacrifice of many dragons that lead the clansmen to be hunted by some dragons and others alike. This brought the council to banish Guanis and several other key members who were behind the Drelf war as a method of damage control. The Wizards then sealed the strongest of Drelfs and tried to clean up the mess that Guanis and the others had caused. The clan suffered from a very negative public backlash from dragons and elves for many years as a result.
Many, many years later, Guanis would return to take control of the clan once again, he waited long enough for the other council members to have passed away, or to have been replaced with younger members. Since by the time Adrian’s kingdom fell, and the clan had cleaned up its own records of its involvement in the Drelf war, there was no record that Guanis was ever a member, yet alone the founder. Guanis performed a hostile takeover of the clan, killing the council off, and placing himself as the leader. During his second reign as the head mage, he led the wizard clan down a much darker path. New members were no longer welcomed into the clan. If they found children who had potential, they were kidnapped and forced to follow. During this time, the clan allied itself with a dark being by the common name of Zero Cell. Guanis worked with Zero to control another being by the common name of Gaian, a being which turned life to stone and stole away souls. These souls were used to corrupt creation and time. While Zero fed off the remaining souls to gain energy for its own purposes.
It took the combined forces of the Raven Clan and the Destiny army to destroy the Wizard clan and stop Guanis. With the additional aid of Calimas, a fallen Drayhadren who sought revenge against all mages for sealing him away in the realms of shadows, they were able to free Gaian from Zero and Guanis’s control. A final battle against Zero Cell’s, Lazerus core, which cost the life of Calimas took place. Zero managed to escape by possessing stones and sand which were blown away by the wind in the windy valley where the battle took place.
Guanis once again managed to escape, however as a final act, once the Raven clan and the Destiny army seized control of the Wizard tower, Guanis crashed a meteor into the tower and destroyed it, lost with the tower were many of the members of the Raven Clan and Destiny army and including the leader of the Destiny army, a man who only went by the name Blue. Guanis disappeared into the explosion of the meteor crash, never to be seen for many years.
The Wizard Clan believed in a structured approach to magic, and members would follow a set path starting from the root of magic, learning theory and the fundamental laws of energy, transfer, and other concepts before moving on to the practicum. They followed a tree of what they believed was the safest or most useful types of magic to them at the time. Every few years a new form would be added, or revisions would be made to this tree. As one would learn and master a different level, they would be granted higher titles and positions among the clan, and be granted to more and different magic they could learn. They could not learn all types of magic, as once they made a move toward some, others would then be restricted to them. Here is a brief overview of the structure they followed:
- White – Healing, Witchcraft, defensive spells, exorcisms, and other typical “holy” or light.
- Black – Curses, blood craft, binding, some familiars and demonic energy, possessions, etc.
- Blue – Weapons-based magic, training to take an attack and return it, some elemental.
They could only choose one of the 3 for their first level of training. If they choose the option to follow the path of Blue magic, they will remain at that level till what would be equal to the 3rd level of the other paths. Upon completing either Black or White, they would advance to Red magic. Red took what they learned in White or Black, and improved it, adding in some of what the other side had, and also taught them elemental magic. Once they mastered Red magic, they were then moved on to the first level of Gray magic. Grey or the 3rd level of Blue was the tier you required to be to hold the title of Wizard or Witch. Primarily the requirement that you need to be a full-fledged member was to reach level 3. At the first tier of Gray or the 3rd tier of Blue, you were given the option to cross-train and learn the other side (i.e.,.: if you were Blue, you could then begin learning Gray, and if you were Gray you could then switch and learn Blue). At this stage, you were also required to craft your staff, wand, or magic tool or weapon. Then you would be given the following option upon your graduation to level 4.
- Gray 2nd tier – Further advanced white/black and red mastery. This tier usually requires hands-on experience of a few years, rather than training or just study.
- Summoning – The next step to blue magic, the ability to summon creatures, spirits, or others.
If you were following either the blue or gray path, you could switch during this phase as well to jump between gray and summoning. You could choose to remain as a summoner till the 7th level if you desired to, and each level unlocked higher-powered summoning spells. From the path of gray, you had two options from here:
- Energy Magic – Stay as Gray 2nd tier and cross train blue and summon till you were considered 5th tier summoner, and jump immediately to the 6th tier.
- Spirit Magic – 5th level, ability to interact with souls and spirits and other entities.
As a spirit mage, you could then cross-train summoner magic till the 7th tier if you wish. You were also given three other options to advance to the 6th level.
- Energy Magic – The natural flow of energy can be altered if the mage applies his or her will. It was a lot easier for mages first to learn spirit magic and then advance to the 6th level rather than skip and cross-train summoning without that blue mage history.
- Justice/Law Magic – The top tier version of White Magic, considered anti-shadow and light magic, spells to bind and prevent anyone from moving or using their magic or powers.
- Chaos Magic – Top-tier version of Black Magic, considered anti-light magic, basically the opposite of justice/law magic. Chaos and Justice magic could not be learned together and were restricted.
Many of the wizards did not advance past the first 3-4 levels, and those who did were usually stuck in the 6th level or had become summoners. Not many made it to the 6th level, as the 5th level was considered too boring by most, with the exception of summoners. For those rare and select few who mastered those advanced magics, the clan would promote them to the status of council member, and grant them access to the final two levels of magic.
- Time Magic – Once you mastered Chaos or Justice, you could then learn Time magic, which, as the name suggests, the ability to control time and travel through it.
- Physic Magic – Once you mastered Chaos or Justice, you could then learn Physic Magic. Not your typical fortune telling, instead, this taught the ability to mess with people’s minds, as well as advanced telekinesis, matter manipulation, and etc.
- Dragon Magic – This one required you first to have mastered Energy Magic. Dragon Mages’ followed the law of “dragons are the source of all magic.” This special type of magic was later banned and lost after the Drelf war, as it often required dragons blood. Guanis had used this power to create the Drelfs and sacrificed dragons for his own desires. The new council had banned the practice of this magic, however, some mages tried to revive a much cleaner version, and instead of using blood, they simply asked for a dragon’s power or energy, for a blessing to use a fraction of their power without the need for any sacrifice. This clean version was also at one time called “gold magic.” Very few mages practiced gold magic and those who did usually befriended dragons, and often worked with them on a daily basis, generally in mutually beneficial ways.
Once you reached the 7th level, you had the option to cross-train any of those that were considered “end tier” magics. You could learn Dragon, Physic and Time together, and combine them to get some powerful spells. There is another tier beyond this:
- Druid magic – Considered the end-game magic for many, this 8th level involved pure nature magic, and in my opinion, followed not the path of manipulation but the path of creation at its purest form.
- Demonic Magic – Considered the darkest of all magic that was allowed by the clan, it comprised of summoning demons and the undead.
The requirements to reach these 8th level magics were specific. You could only Learn Druid Magic if you had mastered both the Dragon path and the Summoner Path. And you could only learn Demonic, once you had a good grasp of Druid Magic. However, Druid magic at its highest level was equal to demonic, so the requirement is rather specific, you would need to learn some Druid and then corrupt it. Demonic usually required the mage to learn Chaos Magic and Summoning magic to master it.
Be aware that this above structure of magic does not apply any longer as the Wizard Clan is no more.
In addition to the structure and paths and different magic that the clan followed and made available to its members, they also assigned an alignment to each type and level of magic, I will go a little further into this now.
The clan had five different alignment classifications for the types of magic they followed. In my own opinion, these classifications or alignments are incorrect as magic itself can neither be inherently “good” nor “evil,” and it entirely depends on the caster and intention. Intention is everything in magic, and ensuring it is clear is very important, but more on this in another entry, on with the Wizard Clan’s alignments:
- Good – White Magic, typically, the average would fall under good.
- Justice – Justice/Law Magic, the extreme of “good” or “order” where it can be to strict, and to restricting, some would say that this alignment may as well be evil as they accept no compromise, and as the saying goes “Justice can be cold and cruel”.
- Evil – Black Magic, and at its extreme Demonic magic, typically the darker half to good.
- Chaos – Chaos Magic, the extreme of “evil” where it can be to chaotic and will destroy or corrupt anything, even if its on the same side. Proof that even evil sometimes fights evil.
- Neutral – Druid, Dragon, Time and Physic magic, these ones fell more under the laws of nature, and the Wizard Clan did not see them as “good” or “evil”.
The alignments were a varying degree of what they believed their magic and beliefs followed. If I was to use numbers as an example, here is where they would fall: -2 Chaos, -1 Evil, 0 Neutral, +1 Good, +2 Justice. Neutral being in the middle, and good and evil being at opposing sides, and justice and chaos being at their respective extremes. Each side did not inherently work together, in many cases, justice and good would clash, and evil and chaos would also clash. Typically justice was designed to fight chaos, and chaos was designed to fight justice; while everything else fell into a happy medium.
If you noticed, the list above did not include a lot of the other types of magic, and that is because these other ones the clan did not count as one of the above because they technically encompassed elements from all 5 alignments.
- Red
- Blue
- Gray
- Summon
- Spirit
These other 5 technically were alignment breakers, as any one wizard falling into those magics couldn’t be classified as any, because they were classified as all. It was up to the wizard or witch who fell under these 5, or the neutral alignment, to decide where they would sit when alignment-based decisions were made.
As part of the clan’s supposed history and teachings is that these alignments were not just applied to magic, but to life itself. During many wars and other events this alignment tree was often used to determine which side a particular mage would fight on. As you would expect this sometimes caused mages to be on opposing sides and end up fighting each other, which was allowed by the clan.
As a further rule on titles and mage colours the clan assigned these based on what the primary magic was for the wizard or witch in question, for example: Wizard Adam the Gray, would of been a gray mage. If he were a white mage it would be Wizard Adam the White, and so on. Some of these titles changed slightly depending on history, deeds done, and other magics and specifics. Here are a few other examples:
- Wizard Pat the Red – Red Magic.
- Summoner Elliustor – Summoning Magic.
- Julius the Necromancer – Demonic magic, as his title suggests he specialized in necromancy.
- Guanis the Star Mage – Physic Magic, although Guanis was a special case he rose to leader of the clan, and created his own title.
- Kerak the Gold – Dragon Magic, also Kerak of Dragons or Kerak the Draconic.
- Seiana the Mist – As Guanis’s wife, she created her own title, however she was a master in Spirit and energy magic.
- Boshma the corrupted – Chaos magic, other titles would be something like Boshma the Chaotic.
- Krystal of the Dark – Black Magic, also Krystal the Black.
- Nesclair the lawful – Law/Justice magic.
- Grey the Illusionist – Grey created his own type of magic, and was awarded a special title, he was a master of illusions.
- Eleria of Time – Time mage, also Eleria the golden.
- Crizar the Druid – Druid Magic, also Crizar of Nature or Crizar the Green.
- Nykasar the Blue – Blue magic, also Nykasar the Weapons Mage.
Note: Some of the above are purely examples, and are/were not actual members of the clan.
Most of the titles fell in line with what magic they primarily followed, but their was some exceptions. The higher level the magic they were sometimes granted special titles or were allowed to create their own. One that did not follow the rule was the title “The Gold” typically they granted this to dragon mages, but sometimes mages also inherited this title.
As I may have already stated, the structure and classifications of magic the clan followed, does not apply if you were not a clan member, and no longer applies now since the clan is no longer. My apologies to any who may be offended if i used your name as an example member above, this was purely for educational purposes.
The Wizard Clan that I have talked about no longer exists, at least not in the same form today as it did in the past anyways. Of all the things that embodied the clan, the corruption, reputation, structure, and systems the clan had installed, none but its main idea of using magic for the greater good lives on.
There may be a few surviving members of the clan, many who would likely rather keep that part of their past secret. However there are mages who were never part of the clan, and in fact have been around a lot longer and follow a different path than those the clan or its structure and rules. For example, there was a group of creators among the creation plane who were masters of many magics; they had banded together with the idea that they could use their powers for good. Some may say they were busybodies who did not know how to keep their noses out of others business, and others may write tales of their deeds and actions and record them as heroes. Needless to say, they were heralds of great change, and usually were present during times of great conflict.
These mage creators held many titles usually, the individual mage’s title was assigned by the colour of their soul, or some great deed, or the common colour assigned to the spells they were known to cast. An example would be Kerak the red gold, who’s spell circles always radiate with gold light and he commonly takes the form of a gold scaled dragon with red eyes.
It is unknown if members of this group, who I have come to call “the order of mages” actively recruit members or if they just recognize and respect others who have mastered some of the magical arts as one of their own. And no doubt some have fallen astray and walk a darker path seeking personal power or glory or other goals other than to help. It is unknown to me at this time if they are indeed a collective group or just individuals who coincidentally share a passion for magecraft.
Since the destruction of the creation plane, I imagine the group has found another place to call home, or perhaps they have scattered across the new world that exists beyond the veil of the null, or perhaps they have all perished and are gone from this timeline. It may be that, like Kerak, they never had a home and always wandered and moved from place to place…
I would like to thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to read this, and completing this extended entry into the magical index that is the Witches Cauldron. Not much is known about this supposed Order of Mages, much is speculation. As a result, I will update this series in the future if something relevant is discovered in my research or if any events come to pass that will hold some relevant context.
Until next time, may the stars shine brightly for you, and guide your path to a pleasant tomorrow. — Glaesie the Purple Witch
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