Morrowind:House Telvanni

:''The wizard-lords of House Telvanni have traditionally isolated themselves, pursuing wisdom and mastery in solitude. But certain ambitious wizard-lords, their retainers, and clients have entered wholeheartedly into the competition to control and exploit Vvardenfell's land and resources, building towers and bases all along the eastern coast. According to Telvanni principles, the powerful define the standards of virtue. — Great Houses of Morrowind

:"House Telvanni matches the disposition of my brother Sotha Sil -- iconoclastic, profane, unconventional."'' – Vivec

House Telvanni is one of the Great Houses of Morrowind. It governs the Telvanni District of eastern Morrowind, and administers the eastern portion of the Vvardenfell District from its council seat in Sadrith Mora. The house comprises mainly highly egocentric and ambitious mages, and is known to many as the house of the master wizard. Here, it is common to rise through the ranks by eliminating or otherwise 'indisposing' other members. Of the Telvanni lords, only Master Aryon of Tel Vos - the youngest and newest councilor - seems able to look beyond the end of his own nose and at the concerns of other people; the rest want little more than to be left alone to their research and ambitions. The other members are similarly isolationist in outlook and do not intend to be presided over by any of the other institutions, predominantly the Guild of Mages. 

The Telvanni, in general, do not interact with other Houses or Guilds, nor do they have many enemies save for Abolitionists and the Imperial Mages Guild. On the other hand, the Telvanni do not have the usual hatred of vampires that most other factions have, and some of their lords and Mouths are willing to speak to them; wizards do not fear vampires nearly as much as others do. 

Joining House Telvanni
To join House Telvanni, travel to Sadrith Mora and speak with the Mouths in the Telvanni Council Hall.

Normally, you can join only one Great House in the game, but there is a way in which you can join both House Telvanni and House Hlaalu. For details on how to do this see the Glitches article.

It should be noted that House Telvanni is the only house in Morrowind to tolerate vampires and even let them join their ranks.

Expelled from House Telvanni
If you are expelled, you can make amends with anyone ranked Mouth or above, except Therana.  You can rejoin as many times as needed.

 
House Telvanni Ranks


Note that you do not actually have to satisfy the requirements for Magister or Archmagister; as soon as you meet the requirements for Master, you will also be given the option to advance to Magister (which begins the quest Archmagister Gothren, automatically advancing you to Archmagister on completion.)

Bug: Some people have reported reaching the rank of Master in the House, then being unable to advance any further. For more details and tips on how to solve this, see below.

¹ Requires completion of Stronghold Phase 2. Until it completes Aryon will tell you that you must complete more quests.
 

House Telvanni Members


Telvanni Master Bug
The bug occurs when you try to advance to the last rank in the House and are told you cannot. It is supposed to start when you advance from the rank of Wizard when speaking to Master Aryon (in Tel Vos), use topic Magister:

:I can grant you the rank of Master now. That will give you an equal place on the Telvanni Council. But if you aspire to a higher claim, I can also grant you the title of Magister. By accepting the title of Magister, you are announcing that you deserve the title of Archmagister more than Gothren who currently holds that rank. Which will it be?

However, some people have mentioned that they have problems advancing to Archmagister even if they did not choose to have the one time advance to Master, which leaves them stuck at the rank of Magister. This problem comes from getting too many advancements.  In particular, when you ask for advancement after you are a spellwright, but before you have recruited a Mouth, Master Aryon will promote you to Wizard.  Then when you recruit your mouth, you'll be advanced to Master, and the game will assume you didn't want to be magister.

If you have the patch, an expansion, or Game of the Year Edition, there is a way around this.  Speak to Aryon again (topic Magister again).

:You have foresworn the title of Magister... But perhaps you have changed your mind. Will you fight Archmagister Gothren and claim the title as your own? 

You should choose to fight Gothren, kill him, and return to Aryon to be named as the Archmagister.

The last option for those playing the PC version of the game is to use the console. Open the console using the ~ tilde key and enter the command:  

Telvanni Wizard chores
When asking for advancement at rank Wizard, Aryon will say "You must perform more chores before I would be willing to consider you for the highest ranks of House Telvanni". At this point, doing more chores for the other Telvanni will change nothing: what the player has to do is complete the first stage of the stronghold to make Aryon's chores available.
Though not game-blocking, this is in a way related to the previous "Telvanni Master bug": if the player has completed the quest to recruit a Mouth before asking Aryon for advancement, Aryon will never mention having to build a stronghold. The player needs to speak with Llunela Hleran of their own initiative.

The Telvanni vampire bug
If you are playing as a vampire, you can join House Telvanni and advance in ranks, but only as far as Spellwright. The reason is that the quest Wizard Spells relies on a custom greeting from Master Aryon to check if it is completed. If you are a vampire, Aryon will not deliver this greeting, but rather a standard vampire greeting. 

In general, you will be able to attain the ranks of Mouth and Spellwright but not build a stronghold (Duke Vedam Dren does not speak to vampires). But if you want to advance further, you will have to seek a cure from vampirism, in order to get the correct greeting from Aryon.