Mage's Society

The Magic & Arcanist Guild Esoteric's Society — the most prestigious guild of its
kind, teaching alchemy, research, and spellcasting. Dragged into the Orathi conflict
against its usual diplomatic neutrality by a subclause of an ancient treaty: it cannot
afford to appear as though it does not honour its agreements.

• Trains Practitioners (war magi; standing goal: kill Laewendas, aid the Siege
  of Cathalon) and Researchers (standing goal: understand the Veilwood curse)
• Signatory of The Coalition; represented by Archmagus Bartholomew Mandrake
• Recruited Fenric: Adept Lysandor Quill found his forty years of curse field
  notes invaluable and traded spellbreaker training + sigil-archive access for his
  return with the reclamation force

Session 5

• ~5 members dotted around Port Quaybay for the departure; one elder (father of
  apprentice Liam, shipped out to prove himself) gave Silithane a free Guild
  component pouch and the official memo that mages should never be hit.
• Demonstrated faction muscle: counterspelled every one of Kain's firebolts,
  then banished him to a bouncy-castle punishment demiplane for 2 minutes when he
  drew a weapon ("You threatened a man of the major society, you'll go to the bouncy
  castle"). The demiplane recreates itself between uses.
• Has a seat among the war planners on The Expedition Ship's top deck.

Session 8

• Carmelia (Seventh Circle) publicly reaffirmed the Society's treaty obligation —
  the treaty is 15,000 years old — to retake Cathalon and kill Laewendas,
  "who murdered the original rightful king."
• Society discipline on display: members follow the Reclamation Agreement to the
  letter (no attacking anyone who hasn't attacked, borne arms, harmed an innocent,
  or been pre-approved), advance through colored robes and circles of membership
  with forbidden-library access — and mages island-wide flee Fenric on sight.
• Bulk-enchants the Reclamation Signets (+3 max HP) for the whole expedition.
• Standing orders to members: stay 20–30 miles clear of Cathalon until the siege;
  leave Euphemia Fayeth to the Society — orders Carmelia is now bending by
  pointing Fenric at her.

Session 15

• The party visited the Society's Gwyndinas tower (open only ~8 months) on the Eastport side of the city, chasing the Smiling Sam case. Members carry photo ID cards noting role and rank (Fenric's reads "Mage Hunter / Spellbreaker").
• Three staff interviewed: soul-teacher Louis (one of two soul specialists, alongside researcher Ella Stray), who established that the victims' souls are free, not captured, and debunked demon involvement; the liquid-specialist Professor Wind Douglas, who confirmed blood is trivially removable and conjured Ashlyn a day's substitute blood; and (via Wind Douglas's scrying) the absent blood mage Rhys Wengler the sangomancer.
• The Society earlier took over the city's resurrections and Speak-with-Dead for the case after the Deacon of the Ziggurat's church fell under suspicion — and got identical (screaming, refusal-of-return) results.

Session 33

• A glimpse of the Society's legitimate commerce arm: Renforth the Wysand, an owl member, runs a scrupulously legal magic shop from a tower in Ponterford, considered a "one-stop shop between settlements" whose main customers are other "majors." His chief mark of legitimacy is the identification slip under every item — what it is, what it does, who identified it, and a notarized cross-signature from a second wizard — plus a full creation/ownership pedigree (the same paperwork culture the party first saw with the proper Society).
• Members cannot sell weapons (Renforth declines, citing his non-warfare standing) but stock potions, components, and protective magic items freely. Renforth taught Silithane the conjure-a-tower spell in a mutual spellbook exchange.