The founding of the Magistratus following the Black Death led to a codification of rules, procedures, and geneology that held sway for centuries. Adherents, known as Old Blood Enchanters after the fact, carefully traced their bloodlines and attempted to arrange marriages in such a way as to combine powerful skills and maintain political power. Naturally, this resulted in an eccentric and inbred population, and the Old Blood Magistratus was reformed under Magistrate Avis II in 1743, abolishing the strict system that had predominated and attempting to build a more practical and egalitarian society. The need for war enchanters at the front in the Succession Wars certainly played a part, as did the tantalizing prospect of taxing enchanters for the first time.

Needless to say, many rejected Avis II’s reforms and declared that they would hold to the original Magistratus. Faced with this uproar and outcry, Avis relented and issued grandfather clauses to all enchanter families who wanted them. But these came with a proviso: once the rolls were closed in 1745, no further names could be added, and any family that broke the Magistratus that they had pledged to keep was then subject to the Reform Magistratus Avis had put in place.

The result was a gradual waning in numbers of the Old Blood Enchanters, as they were not called, over the years. With no new blood entering, and others trickling away, the remaining families tried desperately to adhere to the terms lest they face ruinous taxation.

By the era in question, most of the Old Blood Enchanter families were moribund, many with a single heir.

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