Mages

Undeniably the greatest power within the City-States Region - and possibly all of Lasair - the Council of Mages is charged with the control, teaching, and policing of arcane Magic throughout human lands. From their position as the truest nobles of those lands, they watch over the City-States, their power ensuring a level of peace between the various cities. The region has prospered under their stable and otherwise hands-off rule, surpassing five centuries since the founding of the Lasair Compact - the guiding document of the region.

History

The history of the Mages begins well before their order was formalized as it is today - with the very first Humans to be taught how to access magic. In the earliest days of the Imperial Era, formal relations between that Empire and the floating cities of the Elves were established. Thanks to the first emperor's fondness for elven culture and philosophy, the ancient power of the elves saw the rising Empire as worth assisting in its ascendance.
Part of that assistance came through teaching the first human magic users. Magic, in a technical sense, is the manifested result of a practitioner tapping into invisible and natural energies that pulse through the world like a heartbeat. Magic infuses the world, binding life together, and while very few individuals have the ability to see that energy it is possible to be taught to touch it and to draw from it. A selected number of promising students were selected from the Imperial nobility, and fostered with the elves for a magical education. While only a few of them were successfully able to achieve the rudiments of magic, this was sufficient to begin a long tradition of magic use being a noble pursuit.
Magic grew slowly within the Empire. Learning the ability to harness arcane magic is a long and fraught process, and where the immortal elves could dedicate centuries to mastering its subtleties, humans were much more impatient. It took several generations of experience and refinement for an understanding to arise regarding the ideal curriculum for teaching human mages.
And then the Dragonscourge fell upon the world.
In the ensuing conflict, the Empire was utterly destroyed, along with much of the land. Humankind was scattered across Lasair; magic-users of all kinds were targets. Few managed to survive the war. Those that did largely hid from those who began to scrape together an existence in the shattered post-scourge world. Instead of seeking out the slowly-building settlements, they would find isolated and protected spaces, within which they would create repositories of their personal knowledge.
Then they would seek out apprentices. A mage would find students through means intended to protect their secrecy and exile. Some would watch growing towns to see who may frequently wander into the wilds - those who exhibited the right sort of curiosity might find themselves face to face with a cloaked figure in a wood, being invited to leave their home behind in exchange for power. Some would creep into towns at night and observe through windows, looking for children who would stay up late reading by candlelight, recruiting them with magical letters delivered by a bird. Others still would simply kidnap infants, raising them and teaching them at the same time.
Regardless of the methods, the number of magic users in the lands slowly grew. As they became aware of each other, after initial bouts of distrust, they would begin to correspond and meet regularly. These were the beginnings of the council that would one day formalize the rules and structures that guide arcane magic use within all human lands.
When the City-States Region, the largest concentration of humans on Lasair, appeared to be set to collapse into all-out war, the council took it upon themselves to intervene. Several Mages, now using a formal title and presenting themselves as a unified organization, stopped the onset of war and guided the region into the formation of the Lasair Compact - a guiding document which stands to this day and preserves peace within the region. As part of that negotiation, the Mages secured a permanent home for their order, which would soon grow in number as the noble and wealthy from throughout the City-States sought to have their own number be apprenticed to the powerful Mages.

The Council of Mages

The Council, or simply "The Mages", is the collective term for all sanctioned arcane magic users within human lands. Every mage has been apprenticed to a master, all of whom are organized into various Schools - a categorization of different magical disciplines. Whether a mage has been taught evocation, druidry, transmutation, artifice, or bardic magic, they have been taught their abilities through the organized and branching structure of a mage school.
These Mage Schools are not necessarily a formalized place of study - a "school" simply refers to the traditions and members of a given form of arcane magic. Each of these schools maintains a hierarchy - generally with the most senior mage within their order at the top - and most will ask their membership to maintain specific responsibilities that help the school continue to teach students and to maintain their position within the political maneuvering between the schools.

The seven Mage Schools are:

• Elemental magic
• Nature magic
• Martial magic
• Knowledge magic
• Spirit magic
• The Art (focused on general applications of Magic)
• The Dark Arts

The Senior Council

[Main Article] The seniormost member of each Mage School - or their designated replacement if they wish to decline the honor - is considered to be a member of the Senior Council of Mages. The Senior Council is the guiding hand behind all magical policy within the order, and by extension into the entirety of the City-States. In practice, the senior council rarely performs any command role, as their number is generally fractious and full of political rivalry as bickering factions maneuver for advantage - and to ensure that no one member gains too much personal power.
When they do take it upon themselves to issue proclamations, however, these are considered to be absolute and will apply to every Mage within the larger council. Rivalries between senior council members exists wholly between each other and their schools. To the outside world, though, the Mages appear largely unified in purpose.

Sorcerers

[Main Article] The single most important thing that is enforced by the existence of the Council of Mages (and the Order of the Virtues) is that all magic performed within human lands is that which comes from intense study and focus. All sanctioned magic use is required to be produced by repeatable action. Any spontaneous or random magic is seen as the product of dragon's blood - that of Sorcery. Sorcerers, or "The Wurmborn", are a dangerous remnant of the Dragonscourge, scions of draconic power, who once infiltrated human cities and contributed to the destruction of that conflict.
Sorcerers will occasionally be born today out of an unseen confluence of blood, magic, and other unknown factors. When these Wurmborn begin to manifest magic, they almost always cause destruction and danger to those around them. One of the duties of all Mages is to be aware of the possibility of sorcerous magic to exist - and to destroy it wherever it is found. Every Mage is empowered to execute a suspected sorcerer - and while they are required to then report such execution to the senior council, the council grants significant leeway in that duty.

Mages in Lasair

Today, the Mages act as a form of supreme nobility within the City-States Region. They do not directly rule any cities or lands (other than the Mage Islands) but the Lasair Compact grants them a high level of power within those lands. Likewise, the desire of the cities' nobility to potentially have their children fostered within the Mages - a great honor - allows the Mages to easily call upon favor with many lords in the cities.
Mages have another level of direct power - the Compact grants every mage the ability to requisition the service of any member of the Mercenary Guild - the military defense force of the region. The threat of a mage's arcane fury, backed with the swords of the Guild, makes for an extremely intimidating thought for any to face.
The common folk of the City-States (and to a lesser degree, the Fertile Lands) largely see the Mages as figures of myth and awe. They are easily spotted through their robes - only a Mage is allowed to wear such garments - and stories of their capabilities linger within tales passed down to many youth. Very few have seen a Mage in action, but they are greeted with fear and curiosity in equal number whenever they pass through the smaller towns within the region.

Apprenticeship

When a Mage chooses to take an apprentice, they choose a promising child that meets the criteria they consider important to their school. In some cases, they seek out a curious child; in others, ambition. The pool of candidates that most mages select will invariably come from the wealthy or noble, though this is not absolute: there are plenty within the council who ignore such things and instead seek apprentices from within the poor. Not every mage will select their own apprentice - some Schools (particularly the School of Knowledge) will assign apprentices to masters which they feel fit the needs of the student best.
Apprenticeship utterly consumes the student's formative years. Simply learning the magical language of Arcana (see Languages) takes some years of study. From there, the student is taught the rudiments of magic, starting with extremely simple techniques and gradually moving from there over a number of years. Some masters teach their apprentices entirely within a physical location on the Mage Islands; others opt for a more mobile practice, taking their apprentices out into the world with them. As an apprentice reaches closer to the end of their education and approaches the time where they will become a full-fledged Mage, their master will often send them out on their own, subjecting them to arduous and dangerous tasks intended to truly test their meddle.

Game Information

The following section covers game rule information relevant to Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. See Races and Classes - Rules for additional information

The term "mage" is a huge catch-all for a number of classes and specializations. In addition, while the base setting considers arcane vs. divine to depend upon the supernatural source of one's magic, in Lasair a class is defined more from the way in which that magic is harnessed. Divine magic (that of The Virtues) comes from intense internal discipline; arcane magic is that which comes from study and technical execution. There are some classes, then, which are considered "arcane" for purposes of the setting. If a game rule, however, refers to "Arcane" or "Divine" magic, use the game rules to determine the effects rather than that of the setting. See Mage Schools for a full detailing of the various schools and how player classes fit into those.

Who Knows This?

An Intelligence (Arcana) skill check will bring to mind the following depending on the character's roll:

• DC 5 (Common knowledge):
  The Mages are strange and powerful figures to be treated with respect, they are recognized by the robes they wear.
• DC 10 (Could hear it from travelers):
  The Mages are the basis of law within the City-States, often seen in the company of Mercenary Guild soldiers
• DC 15 (Education covered it):
  The Mages are organized into schools, based on the kinds of magic they use, in which masters teach apprentices 
• DC 20 (Learned Historian):
  The Mages were responsible for the creation of the Lasair Compact and the formation of the City-States Region 
• DC 25 (Subject Matter Expert):
  The first law of the Compact, regarding sorcerers, is enforced by the Mages with a ruthless efficiency. A school within the order is dedicated to the detection and hunting of sorcerers.
• DC 30 (Directly Acquired Knowledge):
   There is a strong rivalry between the schools of the Order. Some are friendly and honorably competitive - between those looking to prove their schools are better. Others are potentially deadly, as the most powerful members of the schools seek out power.

Notes

• Mages of Apprentice level will automatically know the third and fourth.
• Full-fledged Mages will know the fifth.