Thread on the original forums: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24852
Also of note, the Empire factions as a whole: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24271
Guild Guides and Mages Guild Locations
Preferably we have 5 guild guides per region, as the travel system in Morrowind is built to accept no more than 4 other travel locations.. As seen below, many of the regions still need guild guides assigned to them.
Another proposal is that all the “capital” cities should have a second guild guide who links just these cities together. These cities being Vivec, Firewatch, Old Ebonheart and/or Mournhold, Tear, Narsis, and Baan Malur (Blacklight). However, this is 6 cities, not 5, so one needs to be cut out. Suggestions: Vivec, because we don’t touch Vvardenfell (IMO, this make travel to and from the mainland more irritating), or Tear, under the logic that Dres don’t like Mages Guild.
a. Vvardenfell
Ald-ruhn
Balmora
Caldera
Vivec
Wolverine Hall Note that there are no Imperial guilds in Sadrith Mora, and that instead they are shacked up in the Imperial hall; also note that it's called a hall and not a fort, though going by its visuals those are just semantics; also note that Sadirth Mora is the Telvanni place for receiving outlanders.
b. Telvannis
Firewatch
Bal Oyra? The questionmark mainly being there because it's a small town in Telvannis; I have no idea if there were any radical ideas for Bal Oyra or anything.
Helnim? The questionmark being there because I have no idea whether we'll end up making Helnim Telvanni, Imperial, or who knows what.
c. Mournhold
Akamora
Andothren
Llothis? Several questions here; will it exist, will it have Imperial guilds. Probably best discussed in the thread for that settlement, as it has one.
Mournhold
Old Ebonheart
d. Deshaan
Tear? I'd say one guildhall in Dres lands, at most, and Tear is where the Dres deal with undesirables/outlanders.
e. Narsis
Kragenmar
Narsis
...?
f. Velothis
Baan Malur
Cormar
Kartúr?
Kogotél?
...?
Mages Guild Plotline/Characterization
The guild contrasts to House Telvanni. House Telvanni is typically portrayed as the “Evil” or at least “Antihero” group of wizards, while Mages Guild are the “good” wizards beset by inner corruption.
On the surface, the Mages Guild is devoted to gathering all magical knowledge and disseminating it out among the common populace. In RL terms, it could be understand as one of the most “liberal” of the factions, second only to the Twin Lamps.
However, the ideal and the reality doesn’t match up. There is a history of corruption and self-interest among the upper ranks of the Mages’ Guild. This plays to the theme that the Empire is failing, the Mages Guild’s original aim of spreading knowledge is now falling by the wayside and being lost as their mages pursue their own purposes. The Mages Guild also concerns itself a little too much with mages that are not within the guild, seeking to bully them into joining or silencing them as competitors. This is one of the major points of contention between them and House Telvanni, once you get away from the Evil vs. Good trope.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 15 hours ago
Another neglected Imperial faction. Marking the summary as tentatively complete.
If you see anything I missed, please add it. Otherwise, all new ideas and continuing discussions should go here: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/mages-guild-brainstorming
2015-12-12 23:47
3 years 2 months ago
By the way TR Travels should be mentioned here, as some of the locations and networking of guild guides has been done there.
Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 15 hours ago
Can you throw me a link for that?
2015-09-28 20:13
2 years 6 months ago
It’s a plugin in the main release. It was introduced in TR1512 and the most current official map of its travel lines is here.
The mages guild hubs (Vivec, Baan Malur, Narsis, Almalexia, and Firewatch) each have a secondary guild guide which lets them travel to the other hubs.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 15 hours ago
http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24850
To quote Gnomey’s post:
“The Mages Guild, while having many more-or-less decent members, tends to be aggressive, selfish and unscrupulous in its over-all behaviour. It has basically become too powerful and influential within the Empire, with nobody to effectively check it, and is apt to act like a spoiled child as a result.”
This contrasts with the Imperial Archaelogical Society, who are typically well-meaning but may get in over their heads out of naviety or not having as much power. The Mages Guild is also interested primarily in the magical aspects of ancient history, with the IAS interested in everything else. The Mages Guild further attracts those scholars with an ambitious bent, while IAS gets those that are more interested in knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
The two factions may then be rivals, each trying to access the research of the other for their own ends.
Mages Guild may at some point look into corpus and the Blight’s magical aspects.
Another suggestion is to tie in the Mages Guild plotline with the King of Worms. Criticism: Too similar to Oblivion’s questline, Mannimarco not be heavily involved in any of Morrowind’s doings, may be better explored through the IAS faction.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 15 hours ago
All references dredged out of the old forums here http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/reference-link-repository
More may be in other parts of the old forums.
Marking this as complete a secoond time.