Magicians' Guilds

Magicians' Guilds are organisations set up within states that have Honours as government. They number the same as the Honour (and so every other Honour or Guild in the world). The members of these Guilds are the only individuals whose magical practice is legally mandated.

Pre-Treatise
Before the Incursion, magic was totally unrestricted and disorganised. Magicians were only as good as they thought they were, and there was little that those talented enough to express proficiency in magic could actually do to develop it further. There were, of course, certain magicians who were incredibly able and they didn't require help or study, such was their skill. However, these were far rarer than they are today.

The rise of the Guild Masters
At the time of the Treatise, several able magicians were in the service of, or were in fact, ruling regents of various nation states. It was decided that for the good of the many, magic should be reined in and kept organised. There would be progress for progress' sake, rather than individual training to become incredibly powerful sorcerors. The original eighteen Guilds were mostly without leadership; merely half had immediate masters, all of whom were involved in the writing of and the signing of the Treatise itself. Over the course of ten years, the other guilds found their own leaders.

Magic's Golden Age
The organisation of magical talent and prowess was a breakthrough for the development of magical ability and skill. Never before had such a grand endeavour been undertaken by so many at once, and it was paying dividends: every nation with an Honour had a Magicians' Guild, leading to large numbers of proficient people joining hands and making great leaps in the magical arts: several legendary magicians grew from the early guilds. It was a time of wonder for magicians. Many guild scholars speak highly of the terms laid out by the Treatise for magical humans as it allowed them to enter the academic and practical equivalent of an era of plenty.

Organisation
Magical Guilds are perhaps the least consistently organised groups of the three Treatise guilds. While Honours have the duty of serving a nation's political needs and Machinists' Guilds study Incursion artefacts, Magical Guilds are mostly groups that serve their own purpose, to further the proficiency of those within the guild. As such, no two Magicians' Guilds are alike; some have regimented groups of magicians-in-training headed by experienced sorcerors who themselves answer to a master, some have several tiers based on natural talent, and others are little more than disorganised mobs with a leader who answers to the Honour. Unlike Machinists' Guilds, whose members may leave at any time, magicians are normally bound to their guild for life as practice of magic tends to become a large part of the lives of those in the organisation. From a cynic's perspective, it is also much easier to ensure that a retired Machinist would never dabble with Incursion artefacts ever again, and a lot harder to do the same with a retired Magician. Whilst there is an inherent level of trust in these guilds (after all, all Magicians applied for admission, rather than practising in secret), it was simply not thought plausible for a practised Magician to ever "retire". As such, Magicians are incredibly committed individuals, and every single one commands a great deal more respect from the commonfolk than a Machinist simply by dint of giving their life to a creed. Of course, the commonfolk would believe such things; in truth, every Magician is happy to be part of a guild because it gave them a liberty they would otherwise never have known.