The Mage in Thardferr
Being a treatise and discourse on the nature of magic, the nature of our
guild, and all things concerning the binding of spells and magics within the
Confederation; and of those things relating to the Imperial Mage and to the
Academy
Thardferr is an interesting place. The use of magic here is illegal, and many of its people fear and distrust it. Only in Edilar is magic cast without any hindrances. In the other 5 realms there is an institution called the Imperial Mages Guild (or IMG). Only if people belong to the IMG are they able to use their magic legally. Even then they are restricted in its use.
The Opinions of Magic
First of all, to understand what PCs might encounter in Thardferr, you have to understand how the people feel about magic. Though it is often said that 99% of the people fear and hate magic, this is hardly true. Below are the stats of the 6 realms. Please note that these percentages are made up of ALL of Thardferr, including the non-human realms. The percentages vary for each individual realm.
5% of the people approve of magic for whatever reason. They feel that the laws need to be loosened and that if they are, the kingdom would be more powerful [Examples: an Elf who travels the 6 realms trying to get the people to like magic, a person who was saved by magic or a magic user, many PCs].
55% feel that Magic should be controlled in some way, and support the IMG. They may feel this way for a variety of reasons. They might feel that there needs to be some defense from the Sythians, or they may fear magic a little and think that there needs to be restrictions on it. Whatever the reasons, they support the Status Quo [Examples: Someone who fought side by side with a Imperial Mage, someone who saw Sythian and Imperial Mages fighting, people that respect the Emperor and trust him when he supports the IMG].
30% mistrust magic in any form. If they had free reign they would make Magic illegal. However, for the most part, they accept magic as a necessary evil. An evil they don’t like, but for the most part, will tolerate [Examples: A fearful guard who saw the destruction the Sythians caused, a person who grew up hearing about how magic is evil and corrupts the soul, someone who heared stories of Imperial mages going bad].
10%, for whatever reason, hate magic. These are the people that will spit on the ground when a mage goes by. These are usually the ones who start mage lynchings and riots, though most do not do anything evil. Some just make life VERY hard for Mages [Examples: a town leader who does not let a group with a mage inside the town possibly sending guards to harrass the party, a bully that hates all he doesn’t understand and beats up young mage apprentices, a bounty hunter who sometimes fails to notice tattoos on the arms of mages, then cries self defense].
