The various factions in The Elder Scrolls are some of the most important parts of the series’ world. They serve as a gateway to interesting stories, quests, and skills that allow players to build their characters in a constructive and lore-friendly way. Of all the factions, the Mages Guild is one of Tamriel’s most important, and it has been included in some form in almost every Elder Scrolls game. Unfortunately, not every version of the Mages Guild was created equal.
As the name implies, the Mages Guild is an organization of spellcasters, summoners, and sorcerers spread across Tamriel who focus their time and resources on perfecting the art of magic. With the exception of Arena, every mainline Elder Scrolls game lets players join this guild or its equivalent. Typically, it’s the perfect place for players to find new spells, increase their magic stats via trainers, and obtain new magical artifacts for their wizard characters. Likewise, Mages Guilds are often connected with quests and storylines that expand the lore surrounding The Elder Scrolls’ magic and how it works. Some versions of the Mages Guild offer better rewards or more substantial storylines for the player to experience. Of course, this matter is ultimately subjective, but there are still strong arguments in favor of certain Mages Guilds over others.
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Perhaps the strongest example of a Mages Guild comes from Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Unlike Skyrim‘s College of Winterhold, the major questline for Morrowind‘s guild involves meticulous research and varied activities. In Skyrim, the player can become Arch-Mage of the entire College after just a few short hours and without hardly casting a spell. Meanwhile, Morrowind‘s Mages Guild has the player conducting low-level magical experiments, working their way up the ranks before earning the right to replace the Arch-Mage via violent or non-violent means. Additionally, it’s the only Elder Scrolls game to provide multiple options for mage factions, as the player can also join House Telvani, a cabal of powerful wizards.
Why Morrowind’s Mages Guild Beats Other Elder Scrolls Games’
Meanwhile, the weakest example of a Mages Guild in The Elder Scrolls is Skyrim’s College of Winterhold. As previously mentioned, the primary quest for the College can be completed in a short period of time, and the player’s character is not obligated to achieve any sort of expertise in the magical arts. Most of the tasks associated with this questline are fetch quests and dungeon crawls that are closer to the behavior of an all-around adventurer than a mage. There are no real experiments or studies to be had. Even the surrounding side quests, which are somewhat more academically inclined, fail to reach the same standard as Morrowind‘s Mages Guild. The College does still hold some value for Skyrim‘s Mage characters, however, in that it is a good place to find trainers, spell books, and supplies useful for magic-based builds.
Somewhere between these two extremes lie the Mages Guilds of Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. Much like Morrowind, both of these guilds’ questlines require effort from the player in order to climb up the ranks. Daggerfall requires players to complete a series low-to-high-ranking quests, while Oblivion forces players to gain recommendations from each city’s guild chapter before joining. Likewise, Daggerfall‘s quests generally seem to focus on Elder Scrolls lore-appropriate topics of experimentation and magical academics. Rather than serving as just another adventure, these storylines strive to make the player feel like a true mage in the games’ universe.
Of course, there is also the Mages Guild questline in Elder Scrolls Online. Not the flexible and lore-friendly quest of Morrowind, ESO occupies the same general space as Daggerfall and Oblivion. It may not be the best Mages Guild in Elder Scrolls history, but it’s far from bad, and it generally has more rewards and progression than the quick-and-easy adventure of Skyrim‘s College of Winterhold. Still, in a fantasy series such as The Elder Scrolls, few things matter more than the player’s enjoyment. Regardless of the questline or the story, players are entitled to stick by their favorite, so long as it makes them feel like the awesomely powerful mage they want to be.
