Mages

History
The Mage Families were formed shortly after the War of the Heroes, when the original heroes split into the exorcist and mage factions. Since then they have held considerable power in the world, and have off and on been seen as one of the world's great threats. Their power crumbled when the families were forced to disband after the Inquisition-War ten years ago, and were reformed into the Exorcist Association (basically by force). Since then they have worked independently of the Exorcist Guilds, though under close watch due to lingering distrust. Before the disbandmant of the families, Mages were divided into over two dozen large families. These families held a pyramid scheme based on age, closeness to center of bloodline, and sheer sorcerous power.

Hierarchy
Mages of the Association work in a similiar manner to the Exorcist Guilds. However, their system of power is distributed based on birth and political influence rather than individual merit. Those who hail from the more influential and powerful Mage families hold most of the authority. Back during the time of the Families, there was no regulation as to the practice of Magic, allowing for seriously immoral and twisted experiments and practices to take place. Under the authority of the Exorcist Guilds, the Association has formed codes of conduct and also restricted the private practice of magic to those who have earned the right. Many Mages are intensely dissatisfied with this, as they are heavily restricted by the "safer" research methods of the Association. The ruling body of the Association is the Bell Tower, made up of the most experienced Mages. Most of these are original heads of the old Families.

The ranking system for the Association is as follows.

Disciple- A Mage in training. Generally always a child.

Magus- A full-fledged Mage, certified to practice Magic by the association. They are allowed at this stage to conduct their own private research.

Executors- Mages who are trained for a more combat focused role. They deal with Mages who act in opposition to the Association, and also with magically caused threats such as escaped demons. In other words, they are the Mage Exorcists.

Baron- A high ranking Magus who has contributed something of great worth to the Association, such as a new magical discovery of some kind.

Duke- One of the highest ranks of Mage, these individuals make up most of the presiding Bell Tower.

Magus Supreme- The five highest ranking Mages, who control the Association as a whole.

Skills/Abilities
Mages wield great power, capable of various forms of conjuration, necromancy, elementalism and mysticism. Each Family possessed unique spells and styles of magic, though there are common methods employed by them all with few exceptions. They are most noteable, and different from exorcists who employ magic, in that they had the tendency to enslave spirits and use their power as their own to fuel their great levels of magic. This was seen as a dangerous and amoral act, which caused centuries of dissent between the Mages and their Exorcist counterparts.

The Classes of Magic are as Follows. Note that most mages study more than one school, but it is very rare for more than one to be mastered.

Sorcery- The summoning of spirits or objects from the Fable, the world of Spirits. Not only entities, but ethereal weaponry or other such objects can be summoned through sorcery.

Thaumaturgy- The oldest and most rare form of magic. Thaumaturgy allows, functionally, the ability to alter existing things with magical power. For example, an ordinary arrow could become a sword mid-flight or a rock could be transformed into diamond. It is an extremely difficult and rare form of magic, as it is essentially seen as "miracle-working" and requires enough power and knowledge to alter the very fabric of reality.

Alchemy- A more scientific form of Magic, Alchemy allows for the creation of artificial lifeforms such as Homonculi or various potions with enchanted effects. It generally works with natural elements, rather than drawing othewordly energy like sorcery or thaumaturgy. Alchemy is almost purely a non-combat type magic, though many exceptionally skilled mages have found rather ingenius uses for it.

Elementalism- The use of magic to manipulate natural forces, such as fire. This is the most common form of magic, though also seen as the most crude due to its almost purely combat focus. Many Mages, being intellectuals, tends to scoff at this school and it is primarly used by Executors.