I wonder how much this would apply to other guilds as well. I wouldn't mind the Thieves Guild and Fighter's Guild going away as well, being replaced with Skyrim-specific mercenary and criminal organizations. The Mage groups being able to mantain a continent-wide operation makes sense with their teleportation and dream-talk, but I dunno if fighters and thieves really benefit from that. It's not like they really had a huge administrative center in Cyrodiil like the mages did either.

I didn't like that either, but not being able to ceate custom enchantments bothered me even more, because whereas only magic using characters who I'd likely join the Mages Guild with anyway can benefit from custom spells, any character can use enchantments, and yer for my non-magic using characters, it doesn't make sense to join the Mages Guild.



Indeed, this kind of thing changes over time. The Mages Guild we all remember may have been around throughout the series, but that doesn't mean it must remain so in the future, especially since there's already been lots of other changes with the Empire collapsing and Morrowind getting destroyed, and two hundred years passing since the last game, a good part of which still hasn't been covered, leaving much room for other things to happen we don't know about yet. Things change over time, this is true in real life, and there's no reason it shouldn't be true in fiction as well, and if the first few decades is any indication, the Fourth Era has brought many changes to Tamriel.

Myself, as long as there's some form of mage organization, I don't mind if it's a different one from the one we're used to, the Mages Guild was a little on the generic side anyway, when you get down to it. It's pretty much what it's name suggests, a guild of mages. I don't really have a serious problem with that, but replacing the old Guild with something new may allow Bethesda to do something more interesting.

All in all, I doubt they included the part about the Mages Guild splitting just to have things go back to the way they were before, so maybe we will see both factions, or maybe only one will be present in Skyrim, but I think we can assume, at least, that there will be a magic oriented faction in the game, and it probably will be a little different from the Mages Guild we're used to.

I remember seeing that line and thinking to myself, "yes, yes it does. Now I want that robe" *pulls sword*

It wasn't that simple. The book was written with much oversight and guidance from Bethesda as well as referencing of the Imperial Library website. He didn't just make stuff up on his own.

Peace, +Petrose

Personally, I think if College of Whispers is based off Telvanni, It'll be a real Mages' Guild. I'm sorry, but House Telvanni was what I view as a Mages' Guild. Anti-social scholars who in the upper ranks, if they even look at you cross-eyed, you should fall over dead. I mean that as a metaphor for how powerful they should be...

Will be fun to see how this unfolds...

If you have read the back material in the games, you would realize the Mages Guild was heavily tied into the Septim empire, with many of the upper crust of the guild being a part of the horrendous bureaucracy of the late empire. Hell, the founder of the Mages Guild, Galeron, left specifically because of that, as the Mages Guild pretty much became a governmental body of the empire, instead of being a school of teaching magic to anyone, as long as they can pay their dues.

To me, with the horrendous amount of incompetent and overzealous leaders, the organization was bound to fail, especially with the end of the empire. Now, there are "Mages Guilds" around, but if TIC is correct, most of them are very defunct, with only hardcoe (and probably really old) "members." The chapters in Black Marsh have pretty much been sold to outside organizations, and it's only in the new owner's good graces that the defunct members are allowed to stay.

Also, the Mages Guild was formed around a century into the 2nd era.

I don't think anyone's reading this topic anymore, but just for the record - Your arguments have swayed me, and I am much more optimistic about having two new mages guilds now...

I just hope there is no "we're the good guys, now kill the bad guys, who steal candy from babies, kick puppies, and engage in necrophilia." I want to see a guild of mages, not necromancer hunters who seem to be extremely holier-than-thou for an organization dedicated to the teaching and practice of magic.

In that same vein, I would be furious if there was a necromancers guild and necromancers are "EEEVIIIILL!!!!" Now before people get really angry with me, hear me out. Make necromancy into a legitimate practice, like it was before Traven's idiotic ban (which caused half the council members to get up and leave, and unleashed an unchecked amount of powerful magic users into a world that despises them, and not to mention they're all pissed off!). Remember people, the practice of necromancy was legal in the Mages Guild before Traven became archmage, and was legal in all areas of Tamriel, save for Morrowind (though some places had heavy amounts of regulation on the practice). Furthermore, necromancers should be much more than the 1 dimensional character who steal candy from babies, kick puppies, and engage in necrophilia.

The reason they did that in my view was:
Because magic is powerful,you should study and earn the right to yeald it's greater power/create it yourself,it makes sense in my book.
Do you not think it would be stupid that some random idiot /or maniac,could just wonder in and make a spell....i do.
What they tried to do made sense.
Wouldn't you agree?

According to Mannimarco, King of Worms, this is a historical fabrication, and that Galerion actually departed to deal with Manninmarco.

I say both, because he was a grumpy old guy.

I believe there will be a Mages Guild in Skyrim because of the deep tradition of the past TES games. I am however hoping just like most of you that there are conflicting guilds like MW.

I wouldn't mind seeing a different joinable magic orientated faction in Skyrim. Like how Morrowind had the Telvanni, which is still my favourite faction of all.

I'm hoping that the Mage's Guild, Fighter's Guild and Thieves' Guild will all be omitted from Skyrim and replaced by much more interesting and numerous joinable factions, with more compelling NPCs and quests that force the PC to decide which of the various factions in conflict with one another to support.

So if you support and join the College of Whispers, can you get a diploma stating you are now an official necromancer? I hope so!

I hope so too. After that, the various governments tend to want to sponsor you, so that way you help them with their bandit corpse problems and you act as a deterrent against severe crimes!

Sounds cool and more interesting and mysterious than "the Mages Guild" however while I hope that both factions are in the game and joinable (preferably with the player making the choice to join one or the other and not both at the same time) the cynical part believes that only 1 will be joinable with the other only making an appearance if they turn out to be rivals. Of course this is all pure speculation at this point as we dont know if either guild will make an appearance let alone more than their names.

Yeah some interaction between factions, whether negative or positive, would be nice. In Oblivion all joinable factions lived in their own little worlds, completely oblivious of each other and the Oblivion crisis, only worrying about their own little problems.

I'm just praying that we will be finally free from hearing random NPCs utter the dreaded phrase "I hear the Fighters' Guild is hiring again..."

(or "I saw a mudcrab the other day..." for that matter.)

I wouldn't mind if the Mages Guild is in Skyrim but I'm not sure if the Nords are going to accept Mages practicing magic in their homeland.

This would be quite interesting and backup what was said in the GI podcast about some guilds returning but some in slightly different form. I'd love for someone to pull an exact quote for me

That's all according to the book, 'The Infernal City', which I don't mean to discredit, but I'm not sure how seriously they take this book.

Apparently it's considered canon, so... seriously enough.

The Mages Guild had a government granted monopoly, its stagnation and collapse was inevitable due to lack of competition.

Now a new dynamic between the Synod and CoW will be most interesting - I wonder what Issues they'll disagree on. I always wished the Necromancers and Mages Guild had been less bipartisan - indeed, we should have been able to join the Necromancer's as an alternative to Traven's beaurocracy.