The Assembly was the ruling council of Greater Path magicians on the world of Kelewan. It resided in the City of Magicians. Each Greater Path magician was a member of the Assembly and as such had a vote. Decisions were usually made by majority vote. The Assembly was under its own government and could not be compelled to act by any person within the Tsuranuanni Empire as Magicians were outside the law.
While historically, all magicians are under the province of the Assembly, women were forbidden to be members of the Assembly. Any woman found to be able to cast magic were swiftly and covertly murdered, their bodies teleported to the bottom of a lake along with other initiates who failed. Also considered taboo are nonhuman magicians, such as the Cho-ja. A secret truce between the Assembly and the cho-ja forbids any cho-ja magician within the borders of the Empire, while the others are allowed to live and serve the Empire as foot soldiers.
History[]
The earliest ancestors of the Tsurani came to Kelewan via a world-spanning Golden Bridge, created by the greatest magicians of their empire. After successfully escaping "The Enemy", the only remaining magicians are the apprentices and Lesser Path magic-users. Centuries later, a magician discovered that Kelewan is on a collision path with a star. Due to politics, the fact was ignored until Emperor Sudkahanchoza ascended the throne. Within a few years, the magicians of the Empire successfully moved Kelewan away from the collision course. The Emperor then proclaimed that all magicians would forevermore be the Great Ones, outside the law, so that they would be able to better serve the good of the Empire. To that end, they established the Assembly of Magicians as the governing authority for all magicians in the Empire.
During the Riftwar the Warlord Almecho once tried to compel the Assembly into aiding him in the war against Midkemia and the Kingdom of the Isles but he was swiftly rebuffed.
The tradition-bound Assembly came to an end beginning with the Riftwar, when the barbarian Pug became the first non-Tsurani member of the Assembly, who joined with the name Milamber. Unfortunately, the mistreatment of the Midkemian prisoners-of-war led to him denouncing his status as Great One, and fled the Empire. Later, Mara of the Acoma managed to discover the Assembly's practices of murdering female magicians, and their truce with the cho-ja magicians. As a result of Mara's actions, the Assembly is now required to accept women, and other changes have been instituted as well.