Origin of the Mages Guild
From Oblivion Mod Wiki
| Author: | giskard |
| Thread(s): | http://www.theengineeringguild.co.uk/showthread.php?377-Origin-of-the-Mages-Guild |
| Version: | 7.2 |
| Last Updated: | May 19 2010 |
| Requires: | Oblivion 1.2.416, CURP V2.2, Shivering Isles |
| Download(s): | The Guild (http://www.4shared.com/archive/5ZwZoxqa/origin_of_the_mages_guild_731.html) |
[edit] About Origin of the Mages Guild
Important: This is a strict Lore Mod and is designed primarily for lore fans and the type of game they usually play, please be aware that the 4th Era features are still lore based but contain a degree of guess work due to the limited information available about the 4th era at the time of writing. Any player can play this mod, Audio speeches exist for all areas covered by this mod so you can use this mod to brush up on your game lore if you wish. More detailed information is found mainly in various lore books in the game. Any info not found in books is found in the game by talking to various NPCs, doing various quests, finding various notes in secret places. Also the addon Vile Lair provides some lore for this mod but that plugin is not required by this mod. I would recommend you get it if Vampire lore interests you. For lore purposes, consider Vile Lair to be a Black Marsh Clan Addon due to the sleeping NPC and it's location in the Black Marsh.
This mod allows you to Restore the Mages Guild back to its former glory after Travens years in power had brought it to the brink of ruin. The mod is based on the book "Origin of the Mages Guild" and it is the guild described in that book that you will be recreating in this mod. By completing various quests you will see the Guild slowly live again, with visitors, students and others coming and going as old areas are reopened, new staff hired and new research implemented for the good of all.
The mod will work right from the start of the game and if enabled when you create a new character will slowly reveal areas of the guild that got shut down as a result of Travens Policies. If enabled it after you become Archmage, access to most areas is granted but if you lack the right skills, some areas may remain off limits until you reach at least Apprentice in all schools of Magic. By the time you are Archmage, you will not only have a reason to study magic but you will know what you want to restore and when you finally have the power to do it. I present you with quests that allow you to do just that.
Before the end of the last quest you will have a fully function STRICT LORE Guild to be proud off and will have been introduced to several lore based topics via audio briefings available from various characters through out the mod.
The other thing you may stumble across is a few FREEPLAY quests that just happen when you stumble upon them. All come complete with extra Audio to explain game lore and all can be done by anybody, even players that never joined the Guild. One adds the Cyrodiil Vampire Clan back to Oblivion so they finally have a real presence in side the Imperial city as they should have and explains Vampiric Lore and the differences between various clans.
You will end up wishing some of the improvements where available to you when you did the recommendation quests but this hind sight and desire is perfectly ok, it shows you finally understand how far the guild had fallen before you came along and fixed it.
Expect to see lots of Necromancers, Ghosts, Zombies, Skeletons and Vampires are you progress through this mod, as well as the usual go here, do that type quests.
[edit] About Game Lore
During my research I found 75% of all Oblivion lore is outside of Books and desperately wanted to use all the game lore and not just the 25% found in the books that tell about previous games lore. I was keen on making a modern lore mod, one that understood what was happening TODAY in the Imperial city and rather than one that told about what happened 30 years ago in the Imperial city.
But lore fans could not agree on Modern Oblivion lore so I had to stick to OLD MORROWIND STYLE BOOK LORE for this mod.
2 areas I refused to give up on were Mannimarco GOD OF WORMS because it was clearly explained 3 separate places in Oblivion (that I found) and in Necromancers Moon, a book that any player doing the Mages Guild mod must have at least opened once to advance the quest. So this point is proven and all aguements about Daggerfall endings have been answered in Oblivion for those who care to look. There is infact a wealth of information on this, presented in Oblivion, enough to create an entire sub story behind the King of Worms story we all played in the quests. The Akatosh Jills, Dragons Break (Warp in the West) and the Numidium. Its scattered all over the play so you can have fun following the trail of clues I left in this mod for lore fans to follow.
The other is Daedric Summoning lore which only appears to have been debated when I brought it. I expected this to be old news, known to everybody but it appears not many had even thought about it. The Everscamp quest, Daedric summoning clues, rumours and notes and several books including "The Doors of Oblivion" as well as the Mages in those ruins called Conjurers that look like exiled Mages Guild members and Summon Daedra was considered by some lore fans to be areas Beth screwed up in. But after doing some research and after looking closely at the facts and talking to other lore fans, I found it all made sense.
Daedra are summoned inside Guildhalls like Chorrol and Bruma, but never outside by members of the guild. Members of the guild who try and help others who summoning daedra like in the Everscamp quest outside the guildhalls clearly feared being expelled from the guild. Were as those who did the summoning and were not mages only feared being branded a Daedra Worshipper by others. The conjurers who look like Mages Guild members were clearly not members any more. To me this was an untold story, probably one Beth never finished and it was clear to me the Mages Guild had rules about this sort of thing being done in public and "The Doors of Oblivion" seemed to provide the rules they followed and the conditions where Daedra Summoning was considered acceptable, even if beth had not fully implemented it in Oblivion. The Imperial charter for Guild comes up in one book as allowing Daedra summoning within the Empire so the Mages Guild can continue to study Daedra. So it all fitted pretty neatly and was not a screwed up idea as some had suggested. At least I did not think it was screwed up.
Some very knowledgeable Lore fans help me Iron out the facts from the fiction and the version presented here is in line with the facts fans could not blow apart with counter arguments. I consider this to be strict lore even though its not explained in any single book. Facts for this are spread all over the game and thus some lore fans may or may not have seen all the clues. But now they have the chance to check my facts, its all presented here, there's even a library in the Daedric studies department to help them.
The thing I want players do here is question the daedra summoning rules within the Mages guild and look at the proof they see in the game and draw their own conclusions about it as I have. My own pet theories are much deeper than the ones presented here, the one you see above is very simple and easy to follow compared to my complicated version that I believe is true. But the version above still tells the same story minus the detail that may or may not be right. So enjoy and if you feel like talking over these points with me, just make a post in the forum and tell what you think.
BTW if you have no theory of your own or have nothing to add but just wish to rip in to other peoples work, then do not bother. I am interested only in talking to people with alternative theories they wish to share.
[edit] 4th Era Lore
At the time of writing we know only a few basic details about the 4th Era lore surrounding the mages guild and those details are that the Mages Guild was dissolved and replaced by the College of Whispers and Synod. Beyond that we are left in the dark. Since "dissolved" sounds like a voluntary act on the part of the mages guild and colleges are teach establishments and Synod means Council or Gathering. I have used a little common sense to fill on those blanks.
So whilst the 4th era stuff is based on lore, it is still mostly guess work. I doubt we will know the details until the Elder Scrolls 5 is released.
