Ancient Order of Most Practical Wizards

The Ancient Order of Most Practical Wizards is the ruling body of the Isle of Wizards, and the the most powerful magical organization at present. It was created in 2.102 ABE by Celin MagTow to organize and centralize the rule of the wizards over the island at a time where the different factions seemed too fractured to agree on anything. They have pledged to protect not only the island and its inhabitants from all dangers, but also to keep the world balance from any magical mishap that happens.
== History ==
The idea of a unified body of wizards has been tried several times throughout history. The earliest attempt, the Four Schools of Magic of the Khenomeric Empire, were mostly institutions of learning and study, but they did concentrate all of the wisest magical minds at the time, before the Magoclergy and the magical purges fractured and scattered its members throughout the step. Other empires have tried and failed to organize such an entity as well. During the 6th Azanese Dynasty, the failing to organize the Tower of Mastrass as a centralized center for magical studies in Azan meant that most wizarding knowledge and teaching became independent and fractured throughout the world.
Meanwhile, many of the wizards of the world began coalescing in the island of Wanaidheain. The island used to be part of the Western Elven Empire, but it had been lost to Azan during their wars. To avoid needless tensions with the population, and as a gesture of magnanimity, the province of Wanaidheain was given plenty of self-governance and a very small presence of the azanese army, just like the azanese-controlled lands of the Hedge. The presence of fey culture, already open to magic, the lax control from the empire, and Wanaidheain’s position towards the lands of the southwest meant that many wizards from the east found themselves in the island. Azan saw this as a boon, but fearful of it growing into an entity similar in power and effect to the Magoclergy, they forbade them the right of assembly. The only true attempt of the empire of dragons to create a unified magical organization, the Tower of Mastrass, was founded in 555 ABE, was so ripe with administrative and bureaucratic control from the Crown that only managed to attract a handful of wizards, and was dissolved less than a century of its creation, in 639 ABE. This meant that either wizards reunited in secret or they built their solitary wizard towers to continue their studies. The island of Wanaidheain became covered in wizard towers, hundreds of high edifications near towns or cities dedicated to whatever studies their owners focused on.
The arrival of the 20th Century ABE was a period of great chaos for Wanaidheain. The increasing tensions between Azan and their holdings in Scimitarian and Wanaidheain translated in an expansion of the azanese military presence in the island, which kept their eyes open for any suspicious wizard activity. In the end, internal unrest would be the least of the problems of Azan, as the invasion of the Witchelven from the west and the Drow Uprising and the creation of the Second Elven Empire in the east would give Azan its biggest existential threat thus far. The violent expansion of the Second Elven Empire in particular saw a deluge of drow expanding throughout the azanese territories in Scimitarian and Wanaidheain. The azanese forces, outnumbered and stretched thin, were unable to defend Wanaidheain, and by 1.939 ABE, the island was fully occupied by the drow. However, the strong resistance from the local population and the increasing infighting between the drow led to their forces quickly crumbling, having to forfeit Wanaidheain in 1.950 ABE.
With Azan still busy with the Witchelven and having to lick their wounds, Wanaidheain was left to fend for itself, and for that, they relied on their many wizards. In a couple of decades, this reliance grew and grew, and finally the wizards became the rulers of the land, something they neither cared for nor wanted in the first place. The wizards just wanted to be left alone to their studies, and things such as administration, economics and politics were just intellectual distractions for their true pursuits. Over time, however, they set a series of systems to allow for a local administration, just enough to let people live their lives, but without any national structure to speak of. The island of Wanaidheain became divided into dozens of different magocracies, with the center of power being the wizard towers. The divisions between the wizards stopped any kind of political unification of the island, and since their debates were more centered around magical subjects, rather than the ruling of the land, the region was left without a central ruler.
That is, until the arrival of Celin MagTow. Celin MagTow was a wizard master in planar magic and metaphysics, but also much more focused in earthly concerns than most of his peers. He saw the need to organize the island, as focusing its resources into a strong state could help the wizards develop their studies much easier. Also, he believed that the world needed a central organization for the study and the control of magic, and thus he began his plans to concentrate power on himself. Through peaceful means, he debated and argued with his fellow wizards to pool their resources and influence together, slowly but surely unifying the island into what is today the Isle of Wizards, finishing the unification by 2.100 ABE. Celin MagTow created the basics of an administration: unified laws, administration, tax collecting, an army and navy… but for the most part, the populations kept most of their independences, since overall the wizards have higher concerns than the rule of the land. In 2.102, Celin MagTow founded the Order of Most Practical Wizards, in theory the central ruling body of the nation, but in reality more focused on the study, the monitoring and the protection of the world from magical catastrophes or mishaps, which it continues to this day.
== Aims and Functions of the Order ==
The Order of Most Practical Wizards is at once a ruling national body, the head of an institution for study and research and a power dedicated to prevent magical mishap in the world. As such, it has many goals and tasks that needs to take on simultaneously, something that can be daunting even for the most powerful wizards in the step. Luckily, the Order has a very efficient administration, set up specifically to divide and compartmentalize the different responsibilities into manageable programs, which leaves the archmages and other brilliant wizards with enough time on their hands for their mystical studies.
The first and most frequent tasks the Order needs to accomplish is the rulership of the Island of Wizards. While the land is not that densely populated, it still needs organization and administration: taxation, protection, armed forces, food production, law… The Isle of Wizards is one of the biggest nations in the world, and as such, keeping it afloat needs a very effective touch. However, this kind of earthly affairs is one of the things the wizards are interested the least, and such, they leave the provinces a fair amount of autonomy to self-rule and self-administrate. Back in the day, Celin MagTow gathered many lawmakers to create a series of easily implemented guidelines, the “Code of General Law”, which forms the bases of the law in the Isle of Wizards. The Order created the Court of Law of the Isle to apply these rules over the entire island, and to discuss matters when provinces have conflicts of interests. The Treasury of the Isle is also another organization working for the Order, exclusively tasked with taxation and finances of the isle. Finally, the armed forces of the Island of Wizards are recruited by each of the provinces, with the wizards being forbidden to have any say within the army whatsoever, as a sign of goodwill towards the rest of the world. The rest of mundane political concerns in the island are tackled by the provinces themselves. This leaves plenty of time and energy for the wizards to continue their studies, though they are allowed to partake in politics if they so choose, though this is rare and seen as an eccentricity.
The other main task of the Order is their more scholar goal of advancing the different fields of magic. The Order does not limit itself to what’s purely magical, it also treats with some areas that are considered outside of the magical realm, like astromancy or alchemy, but they are not the most important voice of said fields. The tasks of investigation and teaching are divided into different branches, three Major Circles and many Minor Circles. The three major circles are the Green Circle, related to magic linked to life and death, which includes druids and necromancers; the Red Circle, related to the study of the elements and its manipulation; and the Blue Circle, related to energy, planar magic and the different ways to bend space. There are many Minor Circles, some of which are the Circle of Demonology, the Circle of Astrologers, the Circle of Alchemy, the Circle of Pedants… Since the resources of the Order are not infinite, they have to administrate their finances carefully, to which they use the Treasury of the Order. The Treasury is not only in charge of finding ways to fund and pay for the expenses of the Order, but also to assign the resources needed in accordance to the potential and the prestige of the wizard in question. The Order also has the task to passing their knowledge to the next generation, to which they will use the traditional system of apprenticeship: each proper wizard choses a singular student and mentors them until the masters think they are ready to go on their own. The Order created a series of trials and tests to the new candidates to see if they are ready to go on their own, but no matter how many tests they pass, without their masters’ approval they cannot go on. This is more complicated than it seems, since wizards who have apprentices put a lot of their prestige and image on the line, and a disappointing student can reflect very poorly on them.
Finally, the Order also carries over their shoulders the protection of the world from magical events that could lead to immense destruction and instability. For this, the Order has representatives all throughout the world, checking if something is amiss. Once some event is decided, the Order reunites the Council of 1.000, composed of the thousand most prestigious and powerful members of the Order. They are given a voice and a vote to decide the course of action to take, but due to the nature of wizards, these discussions can take years to reach a conclusion. If there is a problem that needs immediate solution and all can recognize the urgency of the situation, they request the meeting of the Council of 100, the reunion of the 100 most powerful wizards of the Order, a position available only to Archwizards. They then decide the course of action and intervention, which is usually accepted yet frowned upon by many nations, since they see it as foreign intervention in what could be internal affairs. Another problem is that they can only intervene if the nature of the problem is mystical, being forbidden by their carters to intervene if the calamity was of mundane nature. The most controversial event of this was the refusal to offer aid to the Khenomeric Empire during the War of the Gnoll, indirectly aiding to their demise. After that, they have ended up intervening if they can acknowledge the dangers are severe enough to the world, like the creation of the Wall of Fire to stop the insects of the Squid Peninsula from destroying the ecosystem of the entire Giantstep continent.
== The Council of 1.000 ==
Despite the Order being a wizarding organization, most of its members are not actually magic users: the great majority of the Order are bureaucrats, traders, diplomats, archivists, lawmen, civil representatives… The many duties of the Order necessitates the massive civilian structure to keep the workings of the sometimes-labyrinthine organization. However, when there is something that feels it could become a dangerous magical threat, it will be brought before the Council of 1.000 Wizards. 
The Council of 1.000 gathers the most powerful wizards, alchemists and astromancers of the Order. This Council oversees the entire structure of the Order of Most Practical Wizards, though for most common affairs, they are only discussed once per year, and as matter of routine. The wizards’ true interest is magic, of course, gathering to exchange their developments and researches, as well as to discuss whatever magical anomaly has appeared in the world. They reunite in the Great Tower of Heliotrope, at the very center of the Isle of Wizards, which also doubles as the administrative center of the entire Order and the Isle of Wizards as well. Over the years, the Tower of Heliotrope had to expand to meet the demands of the Order’s growing bureaucracy, and nowadays, the Tower of Heliotrope is pretty much a small city in and of itself. The duties of the Council of 1.000 are to decide a course of action to take once a magical event is discovered. They can discuss the pros and cons of their arguments for months, and even years, all the while new information arrives to the Council and the individual wizards do their research. They are also tasked with judging the infractions of their code of the members of the Order, which in general tends to be a speedier affair. 
Membership to the 1.000 is a rather difficult task. All of the members of the 1.000 need to rigidly follow the ancient rules established by Celin MagTow: they need to live lives fully dedicated to the mystical arts, apart from familiar bonds and the opposite sex. Initially, the Order did not allow female wizards, but they eventually relented, though female members of the 1.000 need to live even stricter lives. They also have to maintain peace and the equilibrium of the world, unable to harm other sentient beings without a good reason. They also have to train at least a singular student throughout their lives, so as to guarantee their knowledge to be passed on. Both members of the Major Circles and the Minor Circles can apply to the Council of 1.000, but they have to pass a series of trials set by their peers, as well as need the general approval of at least half of the Council. 
If the need arose to take a speedy decision or if the situation looked dire enough to take emergency measures, the Order of 1.000 they request the summit of the Council of 100, the reunion of the 100 most powerful wizards of the Order. The 100 are the most powerful wizards from the Order, and also some of the most powerful wizards of the world period. Their council helps to take more concise and immediate action, but they are also only summoned for the most obvious and dire of situations. All members of the Order of 100 are archmages, archalchemists or grand astromancers, and even reaching the peak of their fields, it would take a grand achievement that would prove their wisdom and power. There can never be more than 100 members of the Order Council , and to accept a new member, they need to be approved by the 2/3 of the Order Council . 
== The Order and the Rest of the World ==
The Order of Most Practical Wizards is not the only organization of wizards in the world, but it is certainly the most powerful one by a wide margin. This has worried many nations throughout the step, since many remember how powerful the Khenomeric Empire at its peak was, and they would like to avoid breaking the balance of power. However, the Order’s goals are far from world domination, as one of their vows is to the maintenance of the world’s balance. Many nations keep diplomats and representatives in the Isle of Wizards, and the Order has also helped to train many court wizards around the world. Still, many nations would be careful to rely too much on the wizards of the Order, preferring to use their own court mystics to solve inner problems. 
The Order has also taken a more proactive stance ever since the War of the Gnoll. The rise of the gnoll that eventually took down the Khenomeric Empire was closely monitored by the Order, and many argued whether to aid the khenomeri or not. The final decision to not help the Khenomeric Empire on the grounds that the gnoll were not a magical threat, caused a severe backlash all throughout the world, especially in the nations of eastern Giantstep. The untold destruction and the loss of the many khenomeri archives, full of priceless knowledge, made many say that the Order had broken their bows by inaction. While the debate continues to this day, actions such as the creation of the Wall of Fire to block the Squid Peninsula from the rest of Giantstep indicates that the Order is seemingly more open to intervene in more mundane crisis. 
Category:Society
Category:Magic
Category:Isle of Wizards