The Mage Order
Erewyn De’ta’nith, an Elf of Iramar, founds the Mage Order in 1D 1733. As one of the first two students of Ruric Vilinius (the Valued), the other being Ulthdar Tilius of Thel Emon, she embarks to use her master’s teachings to form an order of her own. Having received Ruric’s blessing and fierce support, she travels across the Melendil Ocean to the shores of Eradell. As her journey takes her further east, she stumbles upon a grotto nestled within the Helin Mountains.
This grotto captivates her immensely. Sunlight is able to enter from above and illuminates a serene scene of small trees, a shallow pool of water filled with critters, a few birds chirping, several patches of green grass and wild flowers in various colors. By all the vegetation she names this the Green Grotto. But something else catches her attention: she feels a draft of air. Using an instrument given to her by Ruric the Valued, she concludes the air is coming from deeper within the Green Grotto.
She begins to follow this draft, and to her amazement, notices birds flying above her. “Where could they possibly have to fly to?” she wonders. Soon enough more light shines through the back part of the Grotto. She is stunned, as she starts to see open sky and what appear to be trees. Erewyn’s mouth falls. She has stumbled upon a gorgeous valley hidden inside of the Helin Mountains.
Erewyn spends weeks observing and exploring this valley, and sees no signs that others have been there before her. Noting the valley has been untouched, she decides to make it her home and calls it Beled Ruun, “hidden beauty” in her Elvic tongue. She gets to work immediately, using her magic to create a seal to the Green Grotto, where only a true Mage would know how to unlock it. With this she created the Atlas, Gylranor’s only map of Beled Ruun, also marking the entrance to the Green Grotto.
Before she parted ways with Ruric, he bestowed upon her a blood-colored jewel, which he called Ruric’s Heart. He had explained to Erewyn that with Ruric’s Heart she would be able to control the elements: earth, fire, air, water, and time. He cautioned her to be wary of using the element of time, as distorting time could have adverse affects. Taking heed of his warning, she opted to focus her efforts on mastering the other four elements.
Having spent several years practicing the use of elemental magic, she now believed herself ready to begin recruiting others to be her students and teach them as she once was taught. They became known as the First Followers. Shortly afterwards she discovered a crystal cave. Though the crystals were beautiful, they were rather worthless, but not in Erewyn’s eyes. She infused them with the essence of Ruric’s Heart and gave one to each of the First Followers. As the Order grew, Erewyn desired to traverse Eradell. She heard reports of the sprawling Masixian Empire of Embazar, the great magicks of the Nelyads, and the newfound elegance of her brethren in Ni’shorus. So, she gathered her most trusted pupils and formed the Conclave of the Elder Heart, to lead in her absence while she was away studying different cultures.
She also knew she could no longer hold onto Ruric’s Heart personally, so she ordered a pylon built to house the jewel. This pylon became widely known as the Obelisk; from it the jewel could easily and equally transmit its properties to all others who were born to harness its elemental abilities.
Echoes of the College of Warlocks entered the ears of the Mages. Tensions arose, and the two factions had growing distaste for the other.
As time reached the final days of the War of the Netherid and the Third Dawn, in order to fully negate an onslaught from the Netherids and their followers, Prime Magus Gyren the Giver commanded the entrance to the Green Grotto destroyed, preventing others from ever finding the location of Beled Ruun. Disregarding any suffering the Mages endured, the College of Warlocks did not relent in their sourness of them. These feelings evolved into bitter quarrels that would last until the conclusion of the Conjurers’ War in 4D 18.
The effects of both wars greatly diminished the ranks of the Mages, ultimately leading to their disappearance from Gylranor with many considering them extinct.
The representing symbol of the Mage Order is rather simple, yet not easily forgotten. The staff is that of the Prime Magus, which they use to harness the elemental magicks of earth, fire, water, air, and time.