Mages Association

The foremost international magical organisation, which protects the advanced magical community from the affairs of the nations of the world. The Association's primary focus is that of maintaining and improving the understanding of the magical world, as well as keeping advanced and dangerous knowledge and items away from the possession of those who are unprepared or unwilling to use it. There is no area of research that is forbidden in the Mages Association, only the application of said research.

It has many laboratories and research bodies that seek to advance the progress of Magic and Spell-Craft, as well as institutions that transmit their secrets to the next generation of Mages. Although the emphasis lies on the pursuit of knowledge, the Association also seeks to increase its own military strength and reserves the use of force to protect itself from entities that threaten its existence, other mage organizations, such as the Asmori Magisterium, supernatural forces seeking to punish mankind for meddling with areas that should not be touched, and individuals who hunt that which they consider taboo.

## History

Throughout the vast majority of history, those of a significant magical level have found themselves pressed into service or required to support their nation in all manners and conflicts as well as a variety of internal matters. This pushed many of those in the magical communities into increasingly isolated regions, for those who wanted to do pure magical research or maintain the strength of their bloodline often found that maintaining a presence in much of the developing civilisations would force them to be involved into affairs they were not interested in. Wizards and sorcerers began to realise during the early part of the era of the Dragon that true independence from the nations of the world was the only way to guarantee security and as well as a way to maintain the order and strength in which they possessed. As such a number of important masters of the arcane from across the Asmori empire, as well as its newly developing neighbours, decided to found an independent government to represent their interests and to guarantee that personal security and with that, the Mage's Association was born.

### Rise of the Association

the Association grew rapidly amongst the highest members of the mage classes amongst much of Asmor, especially from those who happened to like a noble title, and began to represent a real threat to the stability of the Western half of Skorea in the eyes of the empire. This only became the greater issue when members of the Association began to recruit mages from across the entire continent, going as far as Tyrisias to recruit members into the fledgling state. The magisterium, the heart of the mage aristocracy of Asmor, especially began to see the new association as a direct threat to its dominance of the arcane over much of its perceived world and began a direct and hostile campaign against the Association. It has been long argued that the conflict between the magisterium and the Association is one of the most important reasons for the collapse of the empire at the time, as it further separated the arcane community from the rest of the empire's work, and even brought the small number dragons that existed in the land into conflict with each other. This period of conflict, known now as the 'Aracan Wars', lasted nearly 40 years before some kind of truce and later peace treaty was declared between the two states with significant casualties to both the Association and the magisterium. Rumour has it it was the discovery of the first magic that really bought the war to an end, but such a rumour has yet to be confirmed by either faction. The treaty declared that the Association would never exist in the Asmori heartlands, as well as it would be unable to recruit from the arcane houses of Asmor to be representatives inside the organisation. Furthermore all current arcane research within the magisterium would be kept by the empire and not made available to the Association in any form, but it declared that the magisterium would recognise existence the association and no longer consider it a hostile organisation.

### The Association in the world

For well over a millennium, the Association has expanded across the world to represent mages of all calibres who do not wish to be involved in the affairs of modern states. Various institutions and organisations inside the Association have developed to give specialist study or research in specific branches of magic, leading it to be the foremost centre of research and understanding in regards to the arcane. It is said that all the founders of the five types of true magic were members of the Association and many of the most famous philosophers and Arcanists in its history have considered themselves Association members. The independent nature of the Association has not prevented itself being involved in a multitude of conflicts however, as various factions inside the Association have been willing to work for all manner of organisations and nations in regards the world's affairs. For example it is not unheard of for individuals to be sponsored by nations and then to become full members of the Association and to then defect to a nationstate to be a mage warrior or representative to guide their particular state. The Association has done very little to prevent this for it considers those willing to defect from the Association not worthy of membership in the first place, and as such not worth trying to keep.

The association has also had issues in the form of a specific development of a nobility systems side of its organisation, with the personal power of a family or individual becoming more important over its history. The obsessive hoarding nature of most practitioners of the arcane has led to specific developments and schools of thought unique to different parts the Association, meaning that the education of a mage in the Clocktower can be fundamentally different to a mage's Association training school in Tyresias. A multitude of specific arts and trains of thought to the arcane, have developed due to the secretive nature of the Association, at it is not unheard of for many powerful lineages of Mages having entirely unique styles of casting spells that would confuse any other practitioners. Due to this familial focus, many of the younger families or new members from no arcane heritage find it challenging to find advancement inside the Association due to the well entrenched nature of its politics.