Mages Guild

The Mages Guild is a guild dedicated to the collection, preservation, and distribution of magical knowledge with an emphasis on ensuring that all citizens of Tamriel benefit from this knowledge. Members of the Guild receive many benefits, including training, services, and education in the established laws regarding the proper use of magic. There are small guild halls in all of the cities in Cyrodiil. But the Guild's main building, the Arcane University, is located in Imperial City. In Skyrim, the equivalent of the Mages Guild is the College of Winterhold.

By game

 * Mages Guild (Arena)
 * Mages Guild (Daggerfall)
 * Mages Guild (Morrowind)
 * Mages Guild (Oblivion)
 * Mages Guild (Online)

Origin
The Mages Guild started in the early years of the Second Era. Previously, the only organization with a similar aim and structure to the Mages Guild was the Psijic Order of the Isle of Artaeum.

Vanus Galerion, a Psijic of Artaeum and student of the famed Iachesis, began organizing users of magic from around Summerset Isle at the urban city of Firsthold. At the time, this gathering and conduction of magical experiments in populated areas was considered unacceptable. Even more shocking, Galerion proposed to make magical items, potions, and even spells available to any member of the general public who could afford to pay.

Galerion was brought before Iachesis and the King of Firsthold, Rilis XII, and made to state the intentions of the fraternity he was forming. Although it's not recorded what he said to convince them, the charter was approved, and the Mages Guild was born.

Expansion
Like a tree from an acorn, the Mages Guild grew branches all over Summerset Isle and gradually the mainland of Tamriel. Although initially the Guild was rejected in some areas of Tamriel, eventually it was accepted and became a powerful force in Tamriel. There have been only a few rare incidents of the Mages Guild actually becoming involved in local political struggles. On these occasions, the Guild's participation has been the ultimate decider in the conflict.

Infrastructure
As begun by Vanus Galerion, the Mages Guild as an institution is presided over by a supreme council of six Archmagisters, with subsequent masters over certain Areas, creating a pseudo-bureaucracy. One need not be a member of the Mages Guild to know that this carefully contrived hierarchy is often nothing more than a chimera. As Vanus Galerion himself said bitterly, leaving Tamriel to travel to other lands, "The Guild has become nothing more than an intricate morass of political infighting."

Morrowind
There is a Mages Guild in Morrowind, lead by Arch-Mage Trebonius Artorius. Mages Guild chapters are "established in Guild-owned, free-standing guildhalls in the towns of Ald'ruhn, Balmora, and Caldera", with additional guildhalls existing in Vivec City and Wolverine Hall in Sadrith Mora". The most notable event from this province was the discovery of the reason for the Dwemer's disappearance. They also are often in conflict with the other Magic-users of Vvardenfell, House Telvanni.

Cyrodiil
In Cyrodiil, the heart of the Empire, the Mages Guild is headed by the Arcane University. With exclusive and selective membership, the University is a place of learning for mages both experienced and not. The Council of Mages, centered by the Arch-Mage, leads the Arcane University. Each city in Cyrodiil, excluding Kvatch, hosts a guildhall of Mages. Each city specializes in a specific School of Magicka. Entrance into the Arcane University requires associates of the guild to receive recommendations from the leader of each guild hall. In 3E 431, Arch-Mage Hannibal Traven instated a highly controversial ban on Necromancy, which inevitably lead to the returned presence of Mannimarco, King of Worms. The guild was dismantled sometime during or after the Great War of Tamriel. Members of the guild split into the College of Whispers and The Synod.

Skyrim
No official Mages Guild exists in Skyrim, although The College of Winterhold is begrudgingly considered its counterpart. Led by an Arch-Mage and a Master-Wizard, the guild accepts new students based on spell-casting merit, which must be demonstrated upon entrance into the college. The guild holds a fluid stance on the practice of necromancy, unlike the Arcane University, although its practice is considered taboo outside of the college. The College dates back to the Second Era, and sometime during the institution's history, it acquired the Ysmir Collective, a library dating more than 700 years. After Morrowind was invaded by the Argonians and the Red Mountain erupted, several Dunmer refugees emerged at the college. Sometime there after, a cataclysmic event known as the Great Collapse destroyed Winterhold, the city surrounding it. Many speculate aftershock from Red Mountain's eruption caused the event, while most blame the mages of the college, causing much discord between the citizens of Skyrim which persists even into the age of the Dragon Crisis.