House Telvanni

House Telvanni is not particularly well-disposed toward anyone, but don't let that put you off. If you like reaching the stratospheric heights of power by climbing over the corpses of those who stand in your way, House Telvanni is definitely the place you want to be. These are the Mages of the Great Houses. You may read about House Telvanni in "The Affairs of Wizards". There are 47 copies just laying around, most Booksellers will have a copy or two in their inventories and I snagged one just so you wouldn't have to do the legwork.

Members of factions receive different types of welcomes from members of other factions, depending on how they get along. The formula is (Faction Reaction * 5)*(0.5 +(Faction Rank *0.5)). In plain terms, this means that as you attain higher ranks in your faction, people with negative modifiers will like you less and people with positive modifiers will like you more. This does not mean that everyone will start attacking you on sight, nor does it mean that they are going to fall all over themselves to be helpful. It does, however, modify their initial disposition toward you. This initial disposition will be further modified by your Personality, your overall reputation, your Criminal Status, whether or not you are Diseased, what kinds of favors you have done for the faction you're dealing with, etc. The other person may wind up liking you a lot or not liking you at all, but your faction and rank can impose a serious modifier.

House Telvanni Reaction toward Other Factions
Hated Enemy (-3)	Enemy (-2)	Hostile (-1)	Indifferent (0)	Friendly (+1)	Ally (+2)	Beloved Ally (+3)
Mages Guild		Imperial Cult Temple House Hlaalu House Redoran Vampires Ashlanders Imperial Legion	Fighters Guild Thieves Guild			House Telvanni

Advancement within House Telvanni will depend upon your skill level in three of the following skills:

Rank	Willpower	Intelligence	One required Skill at	Two other required Skills at	Minimum Faction Reputation
1 - Hireling	30	30	0	0	0
2 - Retainer	30	30	10	0	5
3 - Oathman	30	30	20	0	10
4 - Lawman	30	30	30	5	20
5 - Mouth	30	30	40	10	30
6 - Spellwright	31	31	50	15	45
7 - Wizard	32	32	60	20	60
8 - Master	33	33	70	25	80
9 - Magister	34	34	80	30	100
10 - Archmagister	35	35	90	35	125

Of course, these promotions don't come just based on your skills. You must perform quests to gain reputation and rank within the House. You will typically receive 5 points of faction reputation for each successfully completed quest. Just ask about "chores" to anyone who has it in their conversation threads and you'll either be given a task to perform or pointed toward someone else.

I'd recommend talking to any of the Mouths in the Council Chambers to join Telvanni and then going to do Baladas Demnevanni's first quest. You'll need to raise Demnevanni's disposition for several other quests where he pops up. His first quest can be expensive and/or dangerous, depending on your approach, but you'll get 30 points of disposition boost out of it. Note that killing any of the existing council members will remove their Mouth from the game (that's 3 quests you'll miss out on).

In no particular order because most of them are all in the same room, the House Telvanni quest givers are (talk to any of the first five to join House Telvanni):

Typically, each rank requires two or three successfully completed quests in addition to the minimum stat and skills requirements. When you are promoted to Rank 5 (Mouth), you will be given a minor magic item called the "Silver Staff of Peace". Don't lose it. You will need it when it comes time to recruit your own Mouth in order to be promoted from Rank 6 to Rank 7.

When it comes time to advance beyond Rank 7, you must decide whether you want to be the Archmagister or just remain a councilor. If you choose the "Master" option, that's it. You will not be able to advance beyond that rank (you might be able to change your mind - I haven't tried it, but the dialog options are there). If you choose the "Magister" option you can advance to rank 10, but Archmagister Gothren is going to know that you're after his job and will not be too happy with you. Good thing he doesn't have any quests for you.

To advance beyond rank 7, you must build a stronghold (you may expand it once before reaching Rank 8/9). Once you advance to rank 8/9 you can improve your stronghold and turn it into a true Telvanni wizard's tower. You can start the initial construction after reaching rank 5, but you'll start getting hints at rank 4.