An Introduction, Some Words of Advice, and a Warning of Irritation
If you’re reading this, you already know that I, Alexan Drytus, was recently promoted within my Mage role at the Grand Celestio Council of Wizards. I’m constantly being sent inquiries from young wizards on how I got this position and asking for networking tips, so I thought I’d lay it all out in a recurring letter format. Please understand that though I am happy to help provide advice, my updates must come after my duties in my new position as a Mid-Level Mage at the Grand Council.
To begin, I know many of you are interested in getting into freelance king advisory, but we can’t all be Merlin. Most of us only lend advice to kings though the councils, and working with them on a corporate level is a whole other beast (mostly metaphorically, unless you get stuck in communication with the Minotaur King of the Western Isles).
A large part of my position as a Mid-Level Mage is interacting with kings who desire magical boons. They sign up with the Council for a fee, and in return, us wizards concoct magical solutions to their problems. Most of the time these solutions are crafted in office and then sent out to the kings, but every now and then higher level mages are sent in person to aid the kings. That package is considerably more expensive so most kings opt to have their magic done remotely.
You’ll find many of the kings have a very difficult time utilizing the communication methods offered by the Council. Even though all they need to do to contact us is throw a coin in a enchanted basin, many old fashioned kings insist on writing letters and sending them in by ravens, which of course makes our jobs all the more tedious as we have to reply by bird when the kings won’t pick up our calls.
Once you’re actually able to contact the kings, you’ll often find they actually have no idea what they want, nor do most of them have a modern understanding of what magic is capable of. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been on a call with a client who just wants “plague.” No indication of whether they want it widespread or focused and contained, spread airborne or by touch, or even the type of sickness they want. All they know is that they need to “plague” their enemies and expect us to read their minds. Of course, it would be incredibly easy to read their minds, but that’s against policy, and I expect I’d get a written warning if I brought it up again.
Additionally, many kings don’t know where to stop when asking us for magic, which can lead to liability issues. We leave notes about certain kings for each other, warning mages to check their recent requests. Far too often a king will ask us for a golden egg laying goose right after we’ve already granted them a bounty enhancement spell to improve their fowl farming productivity. Our policies are in place for a reason, and yet every king thinks they’re the first to try and cheat the system.
TLDR: kings are stupid and don’t understand how magic works, but if you talk to them slowly and repeat their questions back to them enough, you’ll get the information out of them eventually and you can finally get to work on your spell-craft in peace.
I hope I was able to give you a helpful look into the day to day routine of a Mid-Level Mage at the Grand Celestio Council of Wizards. I will continue to send out these letters as long as anyone is interested, so find ways to express your interest in the usual magical ways: raven, cat, wishing well, fax machine, etc.
May the moon shine favorably and without hesitation upon you,
Alexan Drytus
