D&D 5E What kind of warlocks would a Wizard Guild make?

[Ancalagon]

Imagine a powerful wizard's guild. They have the arcane magical monopoly in a large kingdom, or maybe even several kingdoms. All mages are "sanctioned" by the Guild, or are renegades hunted down.

This guild is very influential, but does not rule. Its members are forbidden from holding a title of nobility. So they often accept bastard children, 3rd sons etc. So they are tied to the nobility, and the nobility gives them a lot of money. Of course, the Guild scours the countryside for kids showing magical gifts so they can been enrolled in the guild academy too!

So you have a scion of nobility learning to become a wizard in the guild. What happens if this student doesn't have an inborn gift for magic (isn't a sorcerer) nor is a good student (not wizard material?). Well if it's a petty noble, oh well, it doesn't always work, your offspring is now a kind of scholar I guess?. But what if it's a noble family you cannot let down? Too powerful, too generous...

Well, you warn the student that they are going to get expelled soon, then you let them find out about the "secret book of power" in the "hidden library". The student goes to look for it, aaaand blam, pact is formed. The student is now a "wizard" (or maybe a sorcerer?) and is certainly anxious to maintain the illusion of that. This makes perfect sense. Wizard use arcane solutions to difficult problems. What do you do when you have someone you must turn into a "mage" and they aren't talented at wizardry and have no innate power? Well, "warlock-ize" them! Problem solved!

So I was wondering... what kind of warlocks would a wizard guild/academy create? Clearly it has to be something the Academy feels it can control - a patron that is not a threat to the academy and is instead pleased by the constant stream of disciples.... Genie seems like a winner, but perhaps fiend, or even hexblade?

 

[Leatherhead]

By far, the most "controllable" patron is the Undying, who is basically just a powerful Necromancer.
It is also perhaps the easiest to justify: The Necromancer just biologically modifies the mundane noble into having magic.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I would suggest that it's not which patron the guild feels they can control... it's the patron for whom keeping the knowledge that this "mage" ain't a mage (but is actually a warlock) secret. So in that case I'd say Fiend or Great Old One.

The patron has to be considered evil or disreputable enough that if anyone found out what the wizard guild did there would be a revolt. It has to be a patron that the student themself would want and need to keep secret from friends, family, neighbors etc., otherwise, being a "warlock" is meaningless within the story. There wouldn't be any "secret book of power" because there'd be no reason to keep being a warlock secret.

If becoming a warlock is supposed to be this big no-no in the narrative of this campaign and the wizard's guild are in many ways a defacto villain organization for betraying the nation's trust in this manner by allowing (and indeed helping in this)... the patron has to be something worse than just a genie or a celestial or an archfey.

 

[Aldarc]

A fair number would make sense.

Fiend: pleased because they get new souls or disciples.

Great Old One: The patron is beyond caring, so the wizards view it as free power.

Both of these would work if you want a more nefarious or forbidden feel to the process or book.

I would also consider the Archfey. You can see the potential connections that a student or even wizarding guild would make to reach that conclusion: Arcane Magic -> Magical High Elves -> Fey -> Archfey. The illusion of being a mage is then wrapped into the illusion and enchanting magic of the Archfey. Perhaps this fey tome was how the first wizards of this guild learned magic. They are of course a mage because they can strike terror (like many mages) to others: e.g., Fey Presence.

 

[ppaladin123]

Oh different direction...I thought you were suggesting something like the Guild having an entity magically imprisoned in chamber belo and hooked up to an apparatus of sorts, with students drawing (warlock-like) abilities from the power the Guild is draining from it.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I would take the idea and go in a slightly different direction.

Imagine a powerful wizard's guild. They have the arcane magical monopoly in a large kingdom, or maybe even several kingdoms. All mages are "sanctioned" by the Guild, or are renegades hunted down.

This guild is very influential, but does not rule. Its members are forbidden from holding a title of nobility. So they often accept bastard children, 3rd sons etc. So they are tied to the nobility, and the nobility gives them a lot of money. Of course, the Guild scours the countryside for kids showing magical gifts so they can been enrolled in the guild academy too!

I love this idea, but would go in a slightly different direction.

At some point in the past (recent or distant) the head of the academy went a little mad. You know were this is going! He became more and more powerful, and less and less trusting of his fellows; eventually transitioning to an all-powerful arch-lich.

Since that time, the arch-lich has transitioned the purpose of the academy. The entrance exams are rigged, so more and more of members of shunted into the warlock class - swearing fealty to him, of course, as undying warlocks). Wizards are still allowed, in small numbers, and carefully monitored and controlled. No wizard is allowed to progress beyond a certain ability level (say, 9th level). If they attempt to do so, they are killed. Sorcerers are also severely limited and monitored. Warlocks, masquerading as mages, hold all the powerful positions.

The primary purpose of the academy has been subverted; now, it primarily serves the arch-lich's interests, and hunts down and kills all unlicensed wizards, sorcerers, and warlocks.

 

[aco175]

I would think the warlocks are not tied to the guild. They are more in hiding and maybe hunted down since they are outside the guild's power and ability to control. There could be 'circles' or 'pact houses' that form around each patron and you have a fey group that tries to protect their own and a fiend house that may protect their own to a point, but all of them are against the guild.

Of course, if you are the guild and there is another way to gain magical might, you may try to control the patrons. The guild could have a fey lord that they sponsor and a demon lord that grants power but has his own plans. There could be a guild leader that secretly is a warlock and is trying to create a blend or bend the other powers to his control. Kind of like in most movies where the 'good' leader is secretly behind the plot to destroy the main storyline.

 

[Aldarc]

At some point in the past (recent or distant) the head of the academy went a little mad. You know were this is going! He became more and more powerful, and less and less trusting of his fellows; eventually transitioning to an all-powerful arch-rich.

Jeff Bezos?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Jeff Bezos?

My number one foil; auto-correct.

"And the good king knew something was wrong with the Mage's Guild when they purchased all the green grocers in the land ..."

 

[Ancalagon]

I would take the idea and go in a slightly different direction.



I love this idea, but would go in a slightly different direction.

At some point in the past (recent or distant) the head of the academy went a little mad. You know were this is going! He became more and more powerful, and less and less trusting of his fellows; eventually transitioning to an all-powerful arch-lich.

Since that time, the arch-lich has transitioned the purpose of the academy. The entrance exams are rigged, so more and more of members of shunted into the warlock class - swearing fealty to him, of course, as undying warlocks). Wizards are still allowed, in small numbers, and carefully monitored and controlled. No wizard is allowed to progress beyond a certain ability level (say, 9th level). If they attempt to do so, they are killed. Sorcerers are also severely limited and monitored. Warlocks, masquerading as mages, hold all the powerful positions.

The primary purpose of the academy has been subverted; now, it primarily serves the arch-lich's interests, and hunts down and kills all unlicensed wizards, sorcerers, and warlocks.

This is sort of the reverse of the idea I had, but it's a good one to explore.

What I want is basically the wizards of the guilds going "hmmm, you know this could happen, how do we pick a patron that cannot end in this result".