The Tenet of Mage Guardians:
[The following writings are bound in a leather tome, roughly the size of hand-held bible, the word 'Guardian' scrawled in fine scripture in it's center. As you open the book you see the parchment is well and magically preserved by a warding of permanence, lending more to the will of the Mage Guardians.]
Tenet:
It is the job of the Captal and their Guardians to protect the people of Lenfell.
-To accomplish this goal by moral means only, we shall not use our magic to manipulate, dissuade, or obliterate the innocent or the condemned, lest there is no option left to us.
We will not cast a net with our magic, but instead build a wall of stone.
-While our enemy has a strong view of magic, we ourselves must rely on the strength ourselves, and not the capture of those weaker than us.
Magic is a gift, not a plague, to us and to the people we are sworn to protect.
-We will not re-enact the events of the Waste Wars, a chapter of Lenfell's life none wish to revisit, and we still seek to repair.
The Captal Muster Survive.
-This is the decision we have made, the strength that holds us together, and the fate of our order. Should the Captal fall with the bequest, all is lost to us.
Forward:
The Mage Guardians have been the protectors of the people of Lenfell from the greed and engaging force of the Mallerissi and their thought that all people and events are by the control of Chevasto's Loom. Long have people been free and given free will, and long unto the days of their death will they be, as long as their is a Captal to hold our ways. We have penned this book in no disillusion and in no effort to sway those to join us who do not wish, but to spread the message of faith in people, and to show our students the path we have chosen.
Chapter One: The Freedom of Self:
The freedom of self is a choice of all Guardians, the freedom to do as one dictates, yet the choice to stand for the Captal and the acquired knowledge of all past generations of Guardians and their Captals. The Guardian chooses where they side as they grow, no matter how much one would argue they are brainwashed by their training and education, the choice to be free is always made by the self. It is this freedom for which we stand, this freedom for all men and women, not just the Mageborne, whereas our sworn enemy, the Lords of Malleris, have made the choice to believe that only the mageborne should be free, and that those without our gifts should be their pawns and playthings. They also believed that magic was something to be bred for, that all things should be in the pursuit of greater magic, and that love was naught for them.
Chapter Two: The Captal and the Bequest:
First and foremost to all chosen Guardians is the understanding of what they have chosen. The eternal protection and safeguarding of the Mage Captal, the very fact of which we have chosen to lay our own lives down for. Within the Captal is a repository of all Guardian Knowledge, dating back to the inception of our order. This knowledge is disseminated amongst us all through their teachings, though not all arts are easily taught nor understood by all scholars, which leaves a vast amount of information to be handled until future generations can understand and expand upon, and thereby expand the bequest itself.
The Captals themselves are chosen by the predecessor, either in time or personal peril or in times of need, such as great age, order of execution, or mortal wounding, though they may also choose to pass the bequest upon their own volition, should they come to believe that it is the best choice for the Guardians as a whole.
The Captal alone is a perplexing position among the Guardians, with the bequest they begin to take on traits of all Mage Guardians, their globe becomes silver, not the Red of a Warrior, the Blue of a Scholar, or the Green of a Healer, yet this single focus can perform spells of any class, which is a notable change, as even a warrior's red globe becomes green when they attempt to use a Healer's spell, a show of the emotion behind the forces called up when creating the focus, yet the Captal's mage globe is always the same silver, only pulsed and veined in the color of their intent. No other mage has the ability to create a silver globe for use in all situations but the passing of knowledge, and even that is a feat only the most learned scholars have been known to achieve.
Chapter Three: On Guardians; The Warded, Prentices, and Guardians:
All mageborne are scouted by traveling Guardians who find them by the magic inherent within. Parents are offered their choice in the child's future, whether it is to have the child warded in permanence, to have them warded until their age of understanding and proper training, or to have them left to be. Each path has its prospective dangers and boons, of course. Warding in permanence can render a child's magic inert as long as the warding holds and is left uninterred, but could be discovered by another mage and forced free, as The Lords have been known to exploit. Children granted the choice are often monitored with the purview of the family, and brought into the academy when the time is right or chosen. Both of these options run the lowest risk of their magic going wild, whereas the final and most dangerous option is to leave a youth unwarded and unwatched. Oftentimes magic in a youth may be forgotten while they do not show signs, past the obvious sheen within their iris, and it begins to show signs in the risk of fires or what many believe to be the acts of wraiths or other poltergeists. As age progresses, if the unlearned does not come to understand or seek information on their powers, the magic can turn inward and go wild within the host, causing rampancy with wild magic. Wild magic accounts for one-quarter of mageborne deaths, scouted and non.
When monitored by Guardians should a child come to age, normally thirteen to fourteen, and the signs of magic become apparent, the nearest Mage will seek to reward the child and ask if the family is ready to relinquish their young mind to The Academy for education and proper training. In some cases they may be denied, in such cases the Guardian will, by honor, re-work the wards on the child and return in six months, to check on their status.
Those children taken to the Academy however, will be entered to the rosters and education board, their name added to the registry of known mages. Students with the Academy are the new Prentice Mages, unconfirmed and still training. Some mages will choose to leave the academy when they have a base concept and control of their magic, while others will find the will to stay. Over time a Prentice becomes a Guardian, through course work, will, defiance of temptation, and rigorous years of practice.
While a Mage Guardian is not required to have a specialization, most will choose one, or remain a Guardian to teach other students and serve to their own will, the Captal and the Warders.
Chapter Four: On Guardians: Healers, Warriors, and Scholars.
For those who do continue their study past the age of Guardian, their await three classifications, the Healer, mender of wounds, physical, emotional, and mental. Artists of Soft arts and Defensive Warding for those they heal, they are paneled with the physicians guild and bare an amazing understanding of the human body in both physical and mental, as well as magical means. Healer's patron color is green, reflected in their calm compassionate or obstinate yet natural demeanor.
Warrior Mages take to their role with magic and sword, using both in fierce defense of the Captal and fellow Guardians. Their red resembles the crimson blood they fight to defend, darker color shows their intent and anger, their emotions echoed fully in their arts. A Warrior specializes in offensive and defensive arts over the art of Warding, though some Warriors take to warding for an added benefit in combat, as rare as it is seen.
And then there is the Scholar, calm and serene blue spheres of knowledge among the tempest of youth and combating magic. The scholar is just as their name says, a student of advanced magics who teaches and theorizes upon the further use of their arts. Scholars use their magic for a myriad of things, from a magical notebook, to complex and intricate wards of various natures. Their serene color shows a lack of deep emotion towards compassion or anger, but a neutral path towards the direction of the Captal. Scholars are often highly regarded for their research, and always travel the lands in search of more knowledge.
