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  1. Ortherios: Reign of the Wizard King
  2. Lore

The Court of the Wizard King

The Court of the Wizard King

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The Court of the Wizard King

The Arcane Judiciary • The Sovereign Administration • The Living Mandate

The Court of the Wizard King is not a council, nor a senate, nor a cabal.

It is the mechanism by which arcane sovereignty becomes reality.

Where the Wizard King embodies ultimate authority over magic, the Court ensures that authority functions, persists, and does not fracture the world through inattention.

The Court does not rule instead of the Wizard King.
It rules because the Wizard King allows it.

Every member understands that their power exists on borrowed time—revocable at a word, erasable by precedent.


Purpose of the Court

The Court exists to answer a singular problem:

How does one sovereign govern a world-scale arcane domain without becoming a tyrant, a god, or a catastrophe?

The answer is delegation—not of power, but of responsibility.

The Court:

  • Interprets arcane law and precedent

  • Executes sovereign decrees

  • Monitors magical stability across Ortherios

  • Acts when the Wizard King must not

They do not replace the Sovereign’s will.
They refine it.


Structure of the Court

The Court is divided into Circles, each responsible for a domain of arcane governance. Membership is strictly limited; promotion is not achieved through ambition, but through necessity.

The Inner Mandate

(Direct Agents of the Sovereign)

The Inner Mandate consists of individuals who may act with the Wizard King’s authority in their absence.

They are not equals.
They are extensions.

Each holds a Mandate Sigil, an arcane construct bound directly to the Arcane Throne. These sigils allow them to:

  • Override regional magical restrictions

  • Enforce sovereign edicts

  • Temporarily suppress hostile spellcasting

The Mandate Sigils will fail if misused.

Those who attempt to circumvent this do not survive.


The Circle of Precedent

(Arcane Judiciary)

This Circle determines how magic is allowed to function within the kingdom.

They do not invent laws—they determine interpretations.

Responsibilities include:

  • Declaring spells forbidden, deprecated, or conditionally legal

  • Establishing rulings on magical liability

  • Reviewing experimental magic before public use

Their rulings are binding unless directly countermanded by the Wizard King.

They fear one thing above all else: being wrong after precedent is set.


The Circle of Continuity

(Succession and Stability)

This Circle prepares for what must never happen unplanned: the end of the Wizard King.

They:

  • Identify potential Arcane Sovereign candidates

  • Monitor archmages for destabilizing ascension patterns

  • Maintain contingency frameworks should the Throne fall vacant

They are forbidden from acting to remove the Wizard King.

They are permitted—quietly—to plan for it.


The Circle of Silence

(Internal Security and Arcane Counterintelligence)

The most feared Circle.

They monitor:

  • Court members

  • Foreign arcanists

  • Cult activity

  • Unauthorized reality manipulation

Their methods are subtle: altered memories, rewritten spell formulas, vanishing names from archives.

If the Circle of Silence investigates you, you will never be told why.


The Circle of Accord

(Diplomacy and Pact Enforcement)

This Circle handles treaties with:

  • Foreign kingdoms

  • Divine entities

  • Extraplanar powers

  • Ancient magical constructs

They ensure that agreements are not merely honored—but enforced by magic itself.

They are polite.
They are patient.
They are relentless.


The Circle of Infrastructure

(Arcane Systems and Leyline Management)

This Circle maintains the systems that keep Oberon—and by extension, Ortherios—functioning.

They oversee:

  • Leyline regulation

  • City-scale enchantments

  • Emergency magical suppression

They are technicians, not philosophers.

And they understand exactly how to shut everything down.


Philosophy of the Court

The Court’s guiding principle is known as The Doctrine of Necessary Rule:

Unchecked magic creates gods.
Unchecked gods create disasters.
Therefore, magic must be governed.

They do not believe themselves virtuous.

They believe themselves required.


Public Perception

To outsiders, the Court appears cold, distant, and terrifying.

To citizens of Oberon, the Court is simply… there.

Magic works.
Disasters are rare.
The sky does not break.

That is enough.