This will probably be composed of Fanon, but I'm curious what the overall opinion is and even the official input of GM's. I see a lot of Magisters/Magistrix out there and it's great to interact with them, using nobles or other chars. But I was noticing that there are a lot of differing opinions on what they are. Some see them as politicians, as if they help uphold the law, or help make them. That they would have some sort of political weight or hand in business or any influence with law. Without obviously stretching it or breaking it for themselves unless crooked or w/e. And others say they are just teachers. So I'm confused what they are officially and what they do. Also How do you become one? Any and all feedback would be helpful and if there is a thread I missed just send me to it and I'll gladly gtfo
Magisters are most of the time mages with political influence within Silvermoon. They act as judges and have a say over some of the minor laws [though it's not something we really allow PCs to do for obvious reasons]. They settle disputes between people as well.
You become one by, this is going off the wiki page, becoming a successful and competent master of the arcane arts. From there, the person gets trained in the art of politics and once they get that down pat, they call themselves a magister. I'm unsure how it goes for other classes that become one as the ranks all list mages, but I assume the process is very similar.
The Magisters are supposed to be all mages. As far as I'm aware, there is not a single person who is a Magister who isn't trained in some form of the arcane arts, since they are the top of the food chain when it comes to magic.
As someone who has one my character Strifium was a noble who, because of his parents resources, was able to live his dream of becoming an accomplished mage in the Magistry. But, as Reigen said, I'm sure it's all about being trained by someone in it.
Magisters, Blood Knights'n Farstriders are the big three as far as political(and military) power stands in Sillymoon. Pretty much everyone that can handle themselves in a fight ends up interacting with at least one of those - or with the Engineers' Union or assassins(But those have little to no influence, since it's Silvermoon, nobody takes Engineers completely seriously, as it's a expensive and sometimes eccentric hobby to have, and nobody'd be silly enough to put actual power in the hands of hired killers or saboteurs - so those mostly work for Nobles). There would also be the Spellbreakers but while they still exist and operate, they had to cease official training after the Third War due to casualties, so you'd have to go to a private party(Like say, a Noble House that trains people in such, or find an individual trainer) to actually become one nowadays.
Similarly, the squabbles between Noble Houses for power, wealth or influence mirrors them. Picture if you will, a mish-mash of a popularity contest, a charity ball, good PR(complete with lots of smiles) and secret wars of assassins, and you'll get most of Silvermoon's landscape as regards nobility.
En fin, a position in the Magisters'd be equivalent(in that area) to one in the Blood Knights of similar rank, and that equivalent to one of the Farstriders of similar rank. Depending on who you're talking to, they might be favorable towards you(and the organization in which you have a standing), or they might not. A Blood Knight or Farstrider, or one of their sympathizers might not give much of a damn for a higher-ranking Magister, and vice versa.
As for how you become a Magister - you join the organization, same way you'd get any other job. You'd have to have an instruction in the arcane arts, naturally. And as you'd perform tasks for the Magistry, you'd rise in rank, proportionally to your efforts and achievements. Silvermoon's meritocratic - generally the best people get the best jobs. If you're a spectacularly brilliant person, you'd end up on top quite quickly. If you're a fairly slow individual... well, prospects will certainly not be as bright.
Hope that helps, and doesn't lead to even more confusion(as my input sometimes does. Heeheh).
Magister/magistrix eguals a Blood Knight master/captain(commander out-ranks a magister) and Farstrider captain/ranger captain(Ranger Lord and Ranger-General outrank Magister).
But eguals and outranks is partly irrelevant because it is like saying that a military liutenant outranks a policeman, those two cannot spit out orders to one another because they are two different organizations. Unless there is some special circumstances like war, then its different. And yes, there is war in CotH but Silvermoon is safe atm. So in normal day to day, those two do not boss eachother around and so it is in Silvermoon.
As for politics, you can think of the three(Magistery, Blood Knights and Farstriders) as three political parties that each stand for their own political view. At one point the magistery was the strongest party in Silvermoon but that is no longer. Today, the three are greatly equal in terms of politics. The three have their own agenda and specialty.. the Magistery is the authority in arcane training, Blood Knights are the highly valued Paladins and as such, are the new and fresh addition to the Silvermoon society and the Farstriders are the Spec Ops department, highly regarded specialists of hunters, rangers and rogues. The Farstriders are honourbound and very much tied to tradition much like the Magistery, the Blood Knights being the new comers.
As for what a magister is, depends greatly on what the magister is good at. A magister can be a teacher of arcane, Fel magic, shadow magic or a politican or both.
A Magister/magistrix can also be a soldier in the sense that they are highly oriented to combat casting(this is what I think, not sure though).
To my understanding the Belf government has two wings.
In one wing you have the Farstriders led by the Ranger-General. The Farstriders are tasked with the defense of Silvermoon any general military issues. Hense why the Ranger General commands the whole of Silvermoon's military.
In the other wing is the Magistry, headed up by the Grand Magister. To my understanding they create and interpret the laws of Silvermoon. They likely act as judges and lawyers.
As far as the funny ones. The Spellbreakers were kinda the (not so) Secret police of the Magistry until their near destruction.
The Blood Knights are kinda an enigma, there is not to much going on in lore with them so I don't really know if they fall more under military or political. if political then the Grand Magister would likely be pulling their chain, if military then the Ranger General.
I don't really think Spellbreakers were secret police, more-so that the Silvermoon guard has fashioned themselves off the rather renowned warriors. Do you have anything to back you up?
Regardless, I just like to think of Silvermoon government as some strange and alien system of interconnecting tubes. We could try to make something cohesive out of it. But Blizzard hasn't really given us the tools to work with Elven politics. All we really know for certain is...
'There are three things. Farstriders, Blood Knights, Magisters. They work together, but have a rivalry.'
Well, not to derail this topic but a little on Blood Knights. They were a major player in securing the sunwell and restoring Silvermoon.. Matriarch Lady Liadrin today has entered the realm as a form of egual to Grand Magister and Ranger-General for the actions of the Blood Knights greatly impacted how the whole Kael'Thas and the small problem with the sunwell ended. So even if the Blood Knights are not old like the Farstriders and the Magistery, they are highly respected today.
But yes, Farstriders are the military, Magistery is the arcane and one could say that the Blood Knights have a smaller part as they are solely about paladins. But one could just as easily say that the Blood Knights are a form of new special operations for the belves.
And Blood knights have been around even if backthen they went under a different name:
Spoiler:
As high elves, many future Blood Knights were members of the Church of Light, many of whom became priests and a few became paladins.[1][2][3] Several other Blood Knights were once members of the Royal Guard, proud defenders of high elven society.[4] After the Third War, the vast majority of the high elves took up the name "blood elves" in honor of their slaughtered people, and in the wake of their ancient kingdom's destruction, many of the elves of Quel'Thalas came to view the holy light with contempt. This led to a great number of the blood elves losing their faith, and in turn, their Light given powers,[5] coming to believe that the Light had failed them in their homeland's hour of greatest need.[4] Thus, they needed to find a new way to access the light. They did this by sapping light energy from the captive naaru M'uru held beneath the Blood Knight headquarters. In a mad lust for power, Kael'thas Sunstrider sent the felblood to attack Silvermoon City and seize M'uru for his own personal uses. The Blood Knights vowed to aid A'dal and the Shattered Sun Offensive in defeating Kael'thas, Kil'jaeden, and restoring their homeland to its glory.
With the Sunwell's rebirth, the Blood Knights have chosen to embrace it and to forge for themselves a new identity as they lead their people into a more promising future.[6]
What Xigo said actually.
But we should get back to the topic at hand, although I think its pretty cleared up, no?
(09-11-2012, 04:58 AM)Xigo Wrote: [ -> ]I don't really think Spellbreakers were secret police, more-so that the Silvermoon guard has fashioned themselves off the rather renowned warriors
I don't mean secret police in the traditional sense. I believe the wiki states that they were the military strong arm (in more poetic terms) of the Magestry. I just used the term "secret police" as a catch all phrase... Likely a poor choice of words.
Ok, not the wiki, but I remember reading it somewhere.