D&D 5E Designing an Arcana Guild/Council

[Denalz]

I need to design an "Arcane Order" of sorts. I've tried googling resources to help me come up with some ideas on how an order like that might govern itself but I'm not able to find anything. Despite loving D&D, I don't usually like high fantasy books so I have very little inspiration on how something like this might work. Anyone know of a website that discusses this? Maybe you want to share some of your own ideas? Thanks in advance.

My Specific Needs

I world-build for my campaign and my PC's are headed toward the continent's metropolis which also happens to be the arcana capital of this continent. I want the city to house a very old and powerful order of mages. I'm not sure if I want it to be a guild/college/ect. Maybe a little of each? I had been tossing around the idea of having the power structure centered around some sort of council headed by eight individuals who oversee the eight schools of magic: abjuration, illusion, enchantment, divination, evocation, transmutation,necromancy, conjuration. I don't know if I would want this council to be democratic or perhaps they serve solely advisory roles to a single arch-mage?

My PC's are going to need assistance from this order in some capacity so I need it's power structure and hierarchy to be well thought out ahead of time.

P.S. Right now I'm literally calling it the "Arcane Order". I hate that name. It's bland and generic. Anyone have something a little more inspired?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

What are the objectives of this order? Why was it formed?

Was it to regulate the use of magic? To prevent its abuse? To keep it out of the hands of the general populace? Or a place of learning to teach and disseminate?

Having an odd number of members in the council generally makes more sense. Who the additional/tie-breaker member is will depend on their aims when it was set up. A bard, the head of the local church of the deity of magic, or maybe it must be held by a non-spellcaster.

What role is this organisation going to play in your story? Is it meant to be obstructive? A mentor? A patron?

 

[Leatherhead]

If you are just looking for examples you could try here.

 

[steeldragons]

If you opt for it to be a "school" then I would say you can set it up just as any college structure or Harry Potter. There's "Headmaster/mistress" who's the top wizarding dog. Then various heads of departments that help or hinder students accordingly. "Deans" of sorts who advise and counsel, but ultimately give way to the more powerful (politically and magically, one would think) Arch-headmage.

If you opt for them to be a "guild" demanding "membership" dues from passing mages for the use of their resources (even just to get a room for the night), then I'd say there's some "top dog" wizard guildmaster for each guild center of specific respources. As this place you're talking about is the 'center" of things arcana, they would clearly possess the most magical resources, the most extensive library, the best laboratories with the widest myriad of components and ingredients to play with.

Basing it off of Dragonlance's Towers of High Sorcery, where each subset of the order is devoted to/magic in the world associated with the alignment-based silver, red, and black moons of that world, would give you a ruling "triad" of the most powerful "Good" (White Robed, in Dragonlance's world of Krynn) wizard, the most powerful Neutral wizard (Red-robed), and the most powerful Evil wizard (Black robed). But within the "order" attacking/fighting is not tolerated...all wizards adhere to a specific appreciation and reverence of magic and those within the "order" of High Sorcery.

Using Game of Thrones hall/college/guild of "Maesters" who are archivists, scholars, surgeons, historians, scientists and loremasters, "wizards" without the spells for all intents and purposes, you have a hierarchy of Arch-/High- top guys, with various tiers of subservient guys still working on their studies, perfecting their crafts. A council, it seems, of the most experienced makes all "guild/academy/order"-wide policies and rulings. That would work too.

I would say, for a magical center of political power and commerce, you would need some kind of council led by some kind of consensus...with a very powerful and notable -if not the most in the world- guy in charge of the administration of its many moving parts...be they the meta-game mechanical "schools" of magic, in-world areas of magical research, representative mages from each region or kingdom of the campaign setting (who has a wizard powerful enough to warrant a "say/vote" in what happens in the world's magical goings-on), separate members of colored robes (So-and-so "the Grey, ...the White, ...the Brown, and the two Blues" comes to mind), alignments, or just about any other way you want to differentiate different mages within your world.

Breaking them up as the "representatives" from each school of magic makes a lot of sense if the wizards or your homebrew world are striated that way. My own homebrew does something similar with different mages wearing stoals of different colors denoting their "collegiate/trained" specialty. There are multiple mages of each school that form kind of a wizard's "senate," representative of the various areas of magical study and research, with a hereditary "emperor-of magic," descended from history's most noted archmage, who is typically in the public (and most mages) common knowledge believed to be the most powerful magic-user in the world. (This is not actually true. But he is certainly somewhere on the list of the top 5.)

So, you can really go any number of ways, it just depends on the flavor and direction you want your "order" to be.

 

[Carnifex]

Rather than a school or college -given what you said about it governing itself, how about making it the actual official political body of mages? Make it like a senate but purely dealing with magical matters: Condemning spellcasters for breaking the law, outlawing spells or magic items, handling the flow and administration of magical resources to assist and augment the mundane government? Have it be highly protective of its remit - tangling with the mundane government in terms of 'no, you can't execute this sorcerer, only WE can pass judgment on them as their fellow magicians' - while also needing the funding and support of said government. Elected political positions that have the primary power to make laws and enforce them, but the baying mob of the chamber is the 'common' spellcasters who all have equal votes on what is placed before the chamber.

Oh, and there's the whole thing about funding and spreading magical knowledge etc that the arcane senate has to pay for and administrate; so if you want access to one of the libraries of spells, you'd better sign up with one of the political parties and curry favour with the leaders who can give you access.

Basically, take all the petty politics of an arcane college and put it front and centre; take all the resources and magical learning of an arcane college and gate that off as the rewards for being able to play the political games of the arcane senate.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Eberron had a few Arcana universities particularly in the cities of Sharn and Wynarn. You could look to those for inspiration. The City of Delights boxed set from the Al-Qadim setting also had a formal academy to teach magical and arcane secrets, which could likewise be handy. Finally, the Mystara setting had a country called Glantri which was ruled by magic-users, and also had a famous educational cabal.

You could start with those.