Faction Brainstorming Session 05 - the Mages' Guild

[Deeza]

The Mages' Guild does have a presence in BM, but I was thinking maybe we should downplay it a little, and concentrate more on the native Shamanic mages (who I believe are more interesting and may have started their own Guild, you'll have to remind me if that's the case).

Anyway, here's my plan:

Unlike the mainstream Guild in Cyrodiil, the BM branch is a much more specialist and highbrow outfit, concentrating mainly on research. Thus, the Guildhouses would be more like live-in laboratories and libraries than the rather dull ones in vanilla Oblivion. Thus, the player doesn't join the faction as such, but rather runs errands for them and assists their research as a paid helper.

Of course, if the player is already part of the Cyrodiil Mages' Guild, they would be allowed to use the facility as normal. If the player has become Archmage or another suitably high rank, it might be funny to have the researchers constantly beg for extra funding whenever you go to visit them.

My idea is that the Soulrest Guild is more of an alchemical research outfit, trying to discover and learn how to use the untapped magic in the many weird plants and animals of Argonia. The location in the mercenary capital of the province fits naturally with this, as they often hire mercenaries to obtain dangerous specimens for them.

The Gideon Guild is a bit strange, and has the most Argonian members. They research the native magics of the province, and rarely contact the rest of the Guild. Some people wonder if they are more a way of the tribal Shamans spying on the Mages' Guild than the other way round.

Finally the Stormhold Guild is mostly a school, teaching tribal Argonians the ways of Imperial magic so that they can bring prestige to their communities and lift themselves out of poverty. This could be a chance for some fun quests surrounding missing students and odd lessons ("go out and kill a crocodile for our anatomy class").

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I like this and it seems the best option unless someone comes onboard with a commitment towards scripting some already conceived ideas of spells they'd like to develop. Only through the use of very unique magics could the Mages Guild quests really take off as the borders between Bhuru and normal magic are the main source of interest here. And I agree that two disciplines should indeed have a kind of 'cold war' relationship between them.... =)

[Deeza]

Good point. The Mages would see the Shamanic magic as being filled with "superstition" that detracts from the more precise, consistent style of magic they prefer, whereas the Shamans would see the Mages as being too reductionist by turning a profound spiritual experience into a series of easy-to-chant spells...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Absolutely... =)

[Deeza]

Stormhold Guild Quest 1 - A Missing Student

Leaflets are posted up around Stormhold, saying that the Guild is understaffed and is looking to employ an odd job man. Interested, the player applies to the Master as instructed, finding him a very harassed man who is run off his feet by running the Guild school. He says that he has plenty of things for you to do but the most important right this moment is that a student has gone missing. He was normally very conscientious, so this is a worry.

The player finds him, drunk off his scaly ass, in the Hole in the Wall bar, a location I will build. The player has to sober him up with one of Periptero's concoctions and escort him back to the Guild.

Stormhold Guild Quest 2 - Classroom Assistant

A comic quest where the player assists one of the Mages with a lesson on practical magic, getting hit first by shock, then fire, then paralysis and so on. If the voice acting of the lecturer was played for laughs this could be quite fun.

Things get out of hand when the player is teleported into a bizarre hallucination where they are an anatomy subject for a class of Daedra and have to fight their way out. If successful, the lecturer apologises and the irritated Guild Master puts the lecturer on probation and gives the player some added compensation.

Stormhold Guild Quest 3 - A Mage's Headache

Merein the Bosmer is the Guild's resident telepath, supposed to keep in contact with other Guilds around the world. Unfortunately, she's been feeling very under the weather recently, suffering from migraines that prevent her from performing her duties. Standard issue medicines are ineffective, but their colleagues at the Soulrest Guild said they were working on a better remedy, a side-effect of their researches into painkillers for Marsh diseases.

Go to Soulrest and introduce yourself as the Stormhold Guild's odd job man/woman. The senior alchemist says he has something that could work but will need to get hold of some ingredients he's run out of, asking the player to fetch them while he gets the rest ready. On returning, he says he's impressed and may have more jobs for the player in the future.

The potion works just fine, though Merein will still be a few weeks away from taking up her duties. The Master says that you've proven to be a reliable and rapid worker, and he has a much bigger job for you...

Quest X - Stormhold Guild: the Guild Guide

Players who are a member of the Mages' Guild get accosted by the local Master as soon as they enter the building, triggering this quest. Non-members need to do a couple of other odd jobs before they are trusted with this quest.

The Master explains that he needs someone he can trust to take a message to the University in Cyrodiil, as the courier service has stopped and the resident telepath has been suffering from migraines that interfere with his powers.

Vital supplies have not been arriving on time, and in particular, the amplifier for the Guild Guide portal that previously allowed teleportation to the University has been broken for months. The player has to take the expletive-filled letter of complaint and present it to the Archmage (if the player IS the Archmage, the Master tells it to your face and tells you to fix it!)

At the University, you need to get the part to mend the Guild Guide portal (a lump of rock called a Lodestone), as well as several other supplies, off the various departments. Your reward will be free instant transport between the University grounds and Stormhold.

A second part of the quest will be to tell the other two BM Guilds that the Guide is working again, connecting all three up to the network.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Interesting. I'm not totally sold on some of the ideas as I'd like to develop a few ideas regarding the shaman (what's the plural - shamans? shamen?). The telepath is kind of nice though....magics such as these are what I'd like to look at more closely. I always considered the 'mysticism' skill to be tragically under-used in vanilla OB....

[Deeza]

As far as I know the plural is also "shaman". I wasn't really sure how to develop them, so if you have ideas please post 'em up.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I'd need to work on it. One of the ideas involves making use of lepers, perhaps even a leper colony....I guess Django's Unique Features mod could be used there....

[kamahl]

Number two sounds great!
Although we'd have to look into whether the guards will barge in on the lecture... (Can NPCs commit crimes?) Temporarily setting everyone involved to 0 responsibility would probably work.

Also, I thought is was shamans.

[jucklesjenk]

When I made the Stormhold Mages Guild interior, I hadn't read this so I didn't create a Merein the Bosmer, but I'll find someone I did create to fill that role.

Also, why don't we make the lodestone idea as part of the Mage Halls, and each piece you find unlocks a new hallway and door. BTW, don't we want to change Cyrodiil as little as possible, so editing the Arcane University could be dangerous. I suppose if we made a new NPC there, though, it may improve the situation.