-Battle Mage-

​​

The blue cloaks of the Mage's Temple are the most revered members of the order. They are a rare sight among the membership, as not often will battle mages remain in one place long or linger within the temples for their duties call them away and abroad often. The number of battle mages is also not entirely known, as it is not often that a member of the temple will seek the violent paths of magic and the required trials to become a soldier of the Mage's Temple are riddled with deadly danger.

​

Before the Mage's Temple had become an Imperial institute, it was believed that the grounds of the ancient mages were still used by the battle mages as bastions and fortifications for their purposes, they being the first order of the Mage's Temple that would come later. The fortifications were manned by warrior mages who learned the harsh nature of violence and honed their skills with magics, but they restrained themselves with oaths to the Winds of Magic and also to Aurora, pledging themselves to the purposes of good, aligning themselves against the pressures of evil, and devoting themselves to the protection of the people of Nhearn. 

​

In early times the battle mages were well recognized even beyond the borders of the Empire, offering their services to all of Nhearn in much the same way that courier gray cloaks do. They traveled often, seeking out the ways of evil, especially if the evil dabbled also in the ways of magic, for their knowledge to deal with such things was grand and no less improved with revelations by the Winds of Magic or the Gods who blessed the warriors passage.

​

As the Empire began to rise and the Mage's Temple became a pillar within the broader cultures of man, the battle mages became symbols of might for the Temple. Just as the Auroran cults were allowed to maintain their independence across the realm of the Empire, the battle mages were allowed the same jurisdictions. This allowance did lead to some initial strife between the mages and the church, but during the period of the Great War during the Second Age, both the paladins of Aurora and the battle mages of the Mage's Temple witnessed the ferocity, zealotry, and oathbound nature of the other, leading to a brief respect which waned as the rise of the anti-magic group Rapture began to take power in the mid of the Third Age.

​

In the current Age, the battle mages tend to be more reclusive, not trusting those that they must protect, instead departing from civilized areas to seek out their missions of thwarting evil and taming the use of magics throughout the wild. Because of the reclusive activity of the battle mages they have become symbols of bad omen throughout the Empire, denizens worrying that danger either follows them or that they have come to deal with what might already be lingering amongst them. The reputation of the battle mage is utmost good, similar to that of the Auroran paladins, but their purpose is well known and the severity of their presence is not without reason.

​

Every mage that seeks the blue cloak mantle of the battle mage must undergo the same pilgrimage as all other battle mages before them. A battle mage who has undergone the pilgrimage must lead a fledgling to the site of the First Temple, a place considered most sacred among the mages. The paths are dangerous, wandering for days into the Yellow Desert in Midland where the dunes of sand shift endlessly from untamed winds of the Great Plains. Should a mage arrive to the fabled Temple door, they must then pass through the catacombs of an ancient place, one that is thought to be filled with tendrils of evil.

​

Not all survive this pilgrimage, but those that do return to the Mage's Temple with the symbols of the battle mage; a suit of silvered armor, a sword that enhances the use of their magics, and a cloak of blue that their oath to goodness cannot hide from any who witness them.

​​