Do the mages guild dissolved at the beginning of the fourth era into the synod and the college of whispers right? So when exactly did this happen and why, was it during the stormcrown interregnum or before, and was it due to the banning of necromancy. Also do you think whoever did the mage guild questline (CoC or not) was the last arch mage.

No, I don't think the CoC was the last Archmage. In reality, as soon as he becoms Sheo, he would give up all those other mortal titles. What sane person wants the god of madness leading them?

It could have been the abrupt disappearance of CoC that caused the dissolution of the Mages' Guild. I'm sure that losing two powerful leaders in such a short space of time was quite debilitating for the guild.

Well we don't know it was the CoC who was arch mage, perhaps it could have been them retiring and either a weaker leader came forward or there was disagreement on who should be in charge

This was the problem I was pondering on too. It's a shame we'll never know because of the whole CoC-could-have-been-arch-mage thing.

Seems to me the guild was already on it's last legs in Oblivion. Most of the guild halls were staffed by second-rate hedgewizards and lead by the unwanted or useless. Most of the magical services and talent were locked away behind the walls of the arcane university (completely going against the guild's founding ideals). Traven's reforms ruined the guild and split it internally, the conflict with the necromancers finally sealed the deal. The guild never had the chance to recover, and with the Empire falling appart so did the last threads holding it together.

The Mages Guild was heavily tied with the Septim empire, and without an empire to back up its legal monopoly, along with the increasing amount of rules and regulations they kept making, it fell.

And honestly, I'm [censored] glad it fell.

Agrood.

Mages Guild: "Oh what's that? You wanna' get access to the Arcane University? Well, then we're going to need you to perform these seven errands across the face of the province that we easily could have easily outsourced to local vagrants."

CoW: "Hmh? You want in? Alright, cast a spell or something, [censored] I don't care."

First part of the CoW was good, I did really like how I was to be taken as a student. Too bad pacing went to hell.

[censored], seems like the Thieves Guild was what all guilds should have been like. With them, one knows they earned the title of Guild Master as one had to pour a lot of time and effort into it. All other organizations, it kinda falls on your lap and the story goes from "Do this newbie" to "AAAAH!!! ONLY YOU CAN SAVE US NEWBIE!"

I'm wondering what differences the College of Whispers and the Synod have, or perhaps it's like differences between colleges IRL

"The last inklings of the Guild disintegrate, it was simply insufficient for completing the tasks set upon them by the Council (and with so many of their ranks being indicted under the new provisions against daedric trafficking it was only a matter of time before a split occurred, though there were other reasons)."--Tal Marog Ker, 4E 14

I think there should have been some middle step in the colelge of winterhold where you actually become a full mage not a student, it would have helped quite a bit, and for the companions i wish you could do more of the side quests for them becuase once you did two or three you were forced to do the very short main quest.

No kidding. The other members must be very lazy if all it requires for one to get into the higher ranks is to do two to three chores.

Thankyou. I completely forgot about that...

Using this in my signature

But yeah, I saw the banning of Conjuration as a whole during and after the Oblivion crisis that gave the guild the last enemy it needed to fall...

I wonder if the synod and college of whispers allow conjuration, also who is based in the arcane university, my guess is the synod because one mentioned the orrey.

I don't understand why they tried to force a half-finished epic story into the guild quest. The Mages guild in Daggerfall and Morrowind certainly didn't need one tacked on; why Oblivion & Skyrim?

Because Beth is obsessed with trying to make all of their stories ridiculously epic.
It all seems very forced in Skyrim, making the little things feel less important, and the retardly frequent, epic scenarios become dry...

Oh how i miss the days when you had to... You know... Be a mage to get some headway in the Mages Guild? i think i used spells twice in all of the CoW questline. Once to get in, once to bring down that shield. *sigh*

As for the collapse of the Mages Guild, i think the rise of the Thalmor was also heavily involved. The fall of Crystal Tower would ahve had a detremental effect on the mages Guild as it would ahve resulted in the deaths of many senior mages, and the increasingly insular polacies of the Thalmor would have prevented magical knowlege from leaving Summerset. At the same time, partly in responce to the growing threat of the Thalmor, the Psijics became increasingly insular again, effectivly cutting off the two primary fonts of magical knowlege.

To compensate for the increasingly sparse resources, i imagine many of the Mages Guild turned to Daedric studies, which as the quote previous indicates was illegal.

And Daedric studies even would have become increasingly difficult with the Vigilants Of Stendar breathing down everyone's necks...

Yes... THOSE guys... Of course, theres a touch of irony in the fact that, once upon a time, Stendar was allied with Boethia...

I think the Daedra, some of them at least, have done more to save lives on Nirn than the Divines. Those blighters don't seem to care in the least.

Yeah, I always agreed with the Dunmer on that point. At least the Daedra have a vested interest in Mundus and her creatures. The Aedra always stuck me as more the bad guys then the Daedric Princes, that is of course, aside from the Four Corners of the House of Troubles.

But the Pcyjiics (spelled that grossly incorrect) removing themselves from active duty as it were, is what I think biggest reason the Guild fell. Without new knowledge and a helping hand to control its use, magic seems to have stagnated.

A vested interest like a cat is invested in a ball of string, sure.

The Psijics and the Guild have had little interaction. Even if the Psijics were the innovators you make them out to be, they wouldn't share it with the world. Heck, the CoW questline was pretty much "Psijics think that magic needs to be in the proper hands. Don't you agree? No? How about now after a power-hungry Machiavellian abuses magic?"

Heck, Artaeum basically said they knew this was coming (and mostly could've just gotten rid of it if they really wanted to at any point), but they didn't. I'm not surprised if they were doing it just to get the College aligned with their views on magic.

What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, magickal knowledge definitely seems to have declined since 4E1.

I was, of course, referring to when the Psijic's made their island disappear in the 3E (what was that Isle called?). Before then they had a pretty active hand in the progression of Tamriel's magic, showing both man and mer how to use its power responsibly. Apparently it didn't stick...



Perfect anology...

Probably because of the damn Thalmor.