The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Mages Guild

Branches of the Mages Guild can be found in Anvil, Bravil, Bruma, Cheydinhal, Chorrol, Leyawiin and Skingrad. The guild headquarters is the Arcane University in the Imperial City. However this is not accessible until you have joined the guild.

Tenets, Explusion, and Re-admission
The mages guild has tenets just like all the other guilds. If you break one of the tenets you will be expelled from the guild. Unlike other guild the penalty for getting back into the guild is based on which tenet you break not how many times you've broken it.

Readmission
If you are expelled from the mages guild you have to bring alchemical ingredients to Raminus Polis.


 * Theft
 * 20 nightshade
 * 20 mandrake root
 * Assault
 * 20 dragon's tongue
 * 20 redwort flowers
 * Murder
 * 20 vampire dust
 * 20 daedra hearts

Joining
To join the guild and get quests you must get a recommendation from the head of each of the guild branches. You cannot join if you have a bounty on your head.

Anvil
Carahil in the Anvill guild will tell you about some murders and kidnappings on the Gold Coast Road. You are asked to act as a lure to draw out the culprit.

Go to the Brina Cross Inn north of Anvil and speak to Arielle. Pose as a merchant and spend a night at the inn. In the morning travel on the Gold Coast Road towards Kvatch, with a mages guild escort surreptitiously following you. Along the way, a familiar face from the inn will attack and your escort will intervene. When Caminalda is dead, you can return to Carahil to get your recommendation.

Note: you can get a key from the Caminalda's corpse which will unlock her room at the inn. If an Imperial patrol sees your escort attack Caminalda he may intervene and kill them. This does not affect completion of the quest.

Bravil
Kud-ei in Bravil informs you that Ardaline is having some problems with Varon Vamari. She even says that Varon stole her staff (some kind of terrible travesty for mages.) She asks you to try and get the staff back from Varon and gives you a Charm spell to help with that. Use the charm spell on Varon and he'll spill his guts all over you (apparently he stole something precious from someone because he cared about them.) Now he regrets it and wishes he could get it back, but he sold it to someone in the Imperial City.

Find Soris Arenim in the Imperial City Telos District. Head into his shop and talk to him. He doesn't want to give it up because he paid so much for it. Talk to his wife and get her trust maxed out and she'll tell you that he has it in a chest in the basement and that the key is upstairs in his desk. Head upstairs while they are talking and grab the key then leave the house and come back in the middle of the night. Break into the house and go straight to the basement. Unlock the dresser with the key and grab the staff. Head back to Bravil and give it to Kud-ei for your recommendation.

Bruma
Talk to Jeanne Frasoric in the Mages Guild on getting their recommendation. you are asked to find J'skar, a Kajiit, that has mysteriously disappeared. Talk to Volanaro along with the other mages to to gather information. Volanaro tells you he can make J'skar show up if you will help him "prank". If you agree he gives you Minor Latch Crack, a spell, to use to pick the locks of the Bruma guild master. Go up to Jeanne Frasoric's room without being spotted. Over at her desk open the lock on the drawer amd remover the Manual of Spellcraft. Bring it to Volanaro and he will ask you to meet him in the living quarters at 10 PM tonight.

You can leave now and return at 10pm any night. Once in the living quarters at 10pm ask of J'skar again... Talk to J'skar. He tells you that they pranked Jeanne. You still managed to make J'skar appear so Jeanne will give you her recommendation once you talk to her about it.

Cheydinhal
When you enter the Cheydinhal Mages Guild find Falcar. When you find Falcar he tells you that another associate lost his ring which is the Ring Of Burden and Falcar thinks the associate threw it down the well behind the Mages Guild. Falcar then tells you to go and see Deetsan for the key to the well.

Deetsan will only talk to you only if Falcar is not around so wait for him to go away then speak to Deetsan. Deetsan will then give you the key and a scroll of water breathing then Deetsan tells you to go in the well and find out what has happened to the associate.

Now before you go into the well i should warn you that you'll be underwater and the ring weighs 150 units so there are two ways of going about this. If you have 25 alteration, use the spell Deetsan gave you to get it and breathe. Otherwise put your items in the counter at the Mage guild and pick them up later. Now go into the well and you will find the associate floating in the water grab the ring then get out of the well and return the ring to Deetsan.

Deetsan then tells you that Falcar has Disappeared then Deetsan tells you to go into Falcars room and see if Falcar has left you a recommendation. You won't find a recommendation but you will find 2 black soul gems (implying that he was doing some necromancy and soul capturing.) Take these back to Deetsan and Deetsan will tell you that she will write a recommendation for you and that Falcar would be fired. Feel free to discard the ring anywhere you want.

Chorrol
In Chorrol the Mage's guild leader, Teekeeus, has some problems with an ex-member Earana. He wants you to be his inside man and find out what she wants. Talk to her and she'll recognize you're a new recruit to the mages guild and assume you're trustworthy. She'll tell you that she wants a book called "Fingers of the Mountain." She'll give you a vague idea of where it is, but not enough to find it.

Once this discussion occurs you should run right back to Teekeus and tell him about it. He'll tell you exactly where the book is and make it clear that you mustn't give it to Earana. Head to Cloud Top, the location of the book, north of Chorrol. When you arrive you'll find a single pillar and the book clutched by a charred body (not a good omen.) Take the book and head back to Chorrol

NOTE: There are a couple ways to complete this quest depending on where your loyalties lie, but if you want to learn the spell Finger of the Mountain then earana has to have it at least for a moment.

Allying with Teekeus
If you're a good little Mage Guild lackey (or you just want your recommendation) then you will give the book to Teekeus. He'll immediately write the recommendation and the Mage's Guild part is done. If you still want the spell then you can steal the book back from Teekeus and give it to Earana and she'll give you instructions to get the spell.

Allying with Earana
If you are tempted by Earana's offer of a reward then you can give her the book instead of Teekeus. She'll give you the spell. If you still want your recommendation you'll have to steal the book back from her room at the inn and give it to Teekeus.

Getting the Spell
Now it's possible to miss getting this spell, but if you do decide you want it Earana will make you jump through a few hoops. First she'll make you wait a full day. Then she'll give you a note with instructions on what to do. You must visit Cloud Top and cast a Shock spell on the central, broken column and have a welkynd stone in your inventory. Welkynd stones are all over the place in Ayleid ruins and eventually you'll have to visit one I suggest you just wait until you happen upon one later and then come back to Cloud Top.

WARNING: Finger of the Mountain is a leveled spell meaning the level you're at when you get it determines how strong it will be forever. There are some user made add-ons for the PC version that remedy this, but for Xbox players I suggest waiting and getting the spell at level 25 when it's the most powerful.

Leyawiin
When you arrive at the Leyawiin guild hall talk to Dagail. She seems to be completely out of her mind muttering something about voices, vision, and an amulet. Talk to Agata for more information and she tells you that Dagail needs here seer's stone to suppress spontaneous visions of the future. Ask around to see what you can find and everyone will refer you to Kalthar. Talk to Kalthar and he'll go on a rant about how neither Dagail nor her father deserved to be leader because they were crazy, he'll then tell you to leave it be in hopes that she gets fired. Tell Agata about this and she'll notice that Kalthar knew about Dagail's father (and he shouldn't have) she'll then refer you back to Dagail. Talk to Dagail and she will tell you "what was once my fathers must be mine." I found this a bit cryptic and useless but the quest log said that we have to go to the fort where her father was stationed and loot his corpse. So off we go the fort is south east of Leyawiin and not very far.

In the fort you'll find it crawling with Marauders. It seems that they've taken this fort as their own and will defend it to the death. Make your way through the rooms as usual try to fight as few people as possible at once, ideally one on one. In one of the later rooms you'll find a Marauder Captain with a key to the next room kill him and take it. In the next room you'll face two creatures. For me at level 7 they were a troll and an imp, but they are leveled so they could be anything. Kill both of them and head up to his corpse. Now before you loot it wait for an hour and save so you're full healed. Once you pick up his amulet and head for the door Kalthar will confront you confessing he stole the amulet and that he was trying to extort Dagail. Once this is said he'll rush you and you'll have to kill him. Head out of the dungeon and give Dagail her amulet. She'll collect her thoughts, give you a recommendation, and then give you a grave warning about your future.

Skingrad
Adrieene Berene in Skingrad asks that you find Erthor one of the mages from her group (it appears that mages get lost quite often.) Ask around and you'll find out that she sent him away to Bleak Flats Cave after he summoned some scamps that went crazy. Talk to Adrieene again to jog her memory and she'll give you a fireball spell and send you on your way (not exactly a good omen.)

Bleak Flats Cave is North West of Skingrad so head on over there and enter the gave. Inside it's pretty dark so get out a torch. You'll soon encounter a deranged zombie (missing it's head and right arm) so it seems that something has gone wrong (presumably Erthor's failed another summoning.) Fight through the zombies and be careful not to face 3 at once as they are pretty tough.

Once you reach the end of the dungeon you'll find Erthor is scared, but safe. Walk down the tunnel and open the secret passage and leave. Fast travel back to Skingrad and go to the guild hall. Give Erthor a minute to talk to Adrieene (you don't actually see this) and then talk to her for your recommendation.

After you have all the recommendations, travel to the Arcane University and speak to Raminus Polus to become an Apprentice mage.

Polus' Quests
You've completed all those annoying recommendation quests and you can finnaly enter the university in the Imperial City. You even get promoted from associate to apprentice (seems like slave to lackey, but thats just me.)

A Mage's Staff
You aren't a proper mage without a staff! To be sent in search of one, ask Raminus Polus for your first quest as a member of the mages guild.

Raminus will tell you to visit Wellspring cave and find Elette or Zahrasha. Your first problem is that just inside the cave Zahrasha is lying dead Search her body and get the Wellspring Key. Setting the pattern for your mages guild quests, several necromancers await you in the cave. Go through the cave and use the Wellspring key to exit from the other side. A few more necromancers are lurking outside. Kill them.

When all the necromancers are dead, get the wood for your staff from the Stone Chest at the center of the island. Retun to Raminus, who will direct you to Delmar in the Chironasium to continue your staff creation. You will be able to chose your staff's effects through this dialogue After 24 hours your finished staff will be in the cupboard at the back of the room.
 * Note: The Staff you select will have stats in comparison to your current level. If you are not in a hurry to complete the Mage's Guild story line, by all means, wait a little while.

Upon recieving your staff and talking to Raiminus you are promoted to journeyman of the Mage's Guild.

A Plot Revealed
Hannibal Traven asks you to go to Bruma and speak to Jeanne Frasoric at the Mages Guild as he hasn't heard from her recently.

When you step inside the guild building, you'll find that it has been attacked and left to burn. Your job now is to look for survivors. Head downstairs initially, fending off the undead as you go. If you find the undead tricky to deal with, lure them outside to get some help from the guards and local citizenry. Eventually you will work your way to a necromancer who has remained behind. Kill her to reveal the sole survivor of the Bruma Guild massacre and hear what he has to say about the King of Worms.

Once you've got J'Skar's information, head back to Hannibal Traven to give him the bad news. After three days to think about things he will ask you to get the Necromancer's Amulet and Bloodworm Helm, quests 8A and 8B below. You can get the items in either order.

The Bloodworm Helm
Go to Fort Teleman and fight your way through the first level which is full of Necromancers. Enter the Order of the Black Rose area. Here there are both Necromancers and Daedra fighting each other. If you can keep out of the way they will make your job easier by killing each other, allowing you to cut a swathe through the winners (probably the Daedra). Its all too late for Irlav Jarol who took the helm. Pry it from his cold dead fingers and exit Fort Teleman.

Either return to Traven or get the Necromancer's Amulet if you don't have it yet.

Once both objects are delivered to Hannibal Traven go and get a promotion to Master Wizard.

The Necromancer's Amulet
Travel to Fort Ontus. Once inside the fort, any of the mages you speak to will tell you to see Caranya. Find Caranya in the fort understreets (use the lever to open the gate to the room she's in) and talk to her.

Alas Caranya is a traitor and planning to give the amulet to the King of Worms. So kill her and take the amulet. She uses a lot of heal spells so you might like to try a magica draining effect on her to shorten the fight. The amulet is a decent item, but you don't get to keep it if you want to finish the guild quests.

All the mages you passed on the way in are necromancers. So once you have the amulet fight your way out and either take it to Traven, or go and get the Bloodworm Helm as preferred.

Ambush
Your penultimate task for the guild is to acquire a black soul gem needed to defeat the King of Worms. After getting the quest, travel to the Ruins of Silorn to lead some battle mages in an attack. Unfortunately the enemy have barricaded themselves behind a sealed door, so you'll have to wait for them to emerge. Direct your troops to their ambush positions and shortly afterwards the necromancers will emerge, led by Falcar. The battle mages can take care of them quite easily. A word of warning: the battlemages are very sensitive to stray blows and will turn on you quite easily, so be careful how you swing!

If Falcar, makes it back inside Silorn you will have to trek through the ruins to find him. The dungeon is large and has plenty of Necromancers. Detour through Silorn Sedorseli to hit the switch which opens the gates keeping you from Falcar in the Silorn Buroseli area

Once Falcar is dead, get the gem, take the shortcut out, and retun to Traven.