"...magicians are strange as well. The Academy is both the most famous and the most opaque institution in the world. It is a miasma of secrets, hidden motives and inexplicable actions. One basic contradiction lies at its heart. Despite its theoretically unchallenged authority, despite the tentacles which stretch to every corner of the continent, it has very little actual power. Its threats are a bluff which is all to easy to call, as it is limited by its own strict rules of when it can and can't use its limitless powers. In practice the Academy has always had to rely heavily on the voluntary co-operation of local governments and people in order to meet its needs. The needs of the Academy are many. It needs to quickly detect anyone born with the Gift of the Gods and bring them into its exhaustive training programme before they can do any harm. It needs to keep a very close eye on the assorted Academy-trained wizards who have gone freelance and check they are still playing the game. It needs a free hand to take what reprisals are necessary against those violating regulations. It needs to monitor the numerous and potentially dangerous magical artefacts which circulate Teraf. It needs to ensure that all of its taxes and subscription dues on magical activities find their way into Academy coffers. It needs to constantly encourage voluntary contributions so that the great institution can continue its work. Magic alone cannot achieve a tenth of these goals. Instead it relies on a network of senior and middle-ranking wizards who operate from the regional bases across Teraf. These representative wizards, whilst continuing their sorcerous work, also act like ambassadors from a foreign nation. They deal with the local authorities, state Academy directives, report developments back to their superiors and take direct action when they can.
"Given the aforementioned need for co-operation it might be expected that the representatives are selected because they are tactful, diplomatic, sagely and venerable. Most of them are haughty, inflexible, indiscreet, small-minded bullies. They irritate the authorities, scare the local people, meddle with the merchants and pick fights with the priests. The result is that the Academy has most influence in nations where fear alone can guarantee assistance. This isn't a fear of direct Academy reprisals, more timorousness that one day magical assistance will be needed and it will be refused. Wizards most commonly help in engineering projects and in alleviating the effects of plagues, droughts, floods and other natural catastrophes. The reliance on magic is therefore less in countries which are rich, secure and have sufficient technology for minimising disasters. Countries like Christoté for example. In a nation where Academy not only has minimum bargaining power but many of its values (foreign interference, limiting personal freedom, old-style patrician authority) are at odds with local culture, it's obvious that especially careful diplomacy is needed. Accordingly, it is to Christoté that the Academy sends its most conservative and opinionated aristocrats.
"The decline had started a long time ago. The Confederacy of Christoté, formed in 967, rapidly grew in pride and prosperity. Before long it was flexing its muscles, shaking off the chains of traditional authority and defining its new culture. In came its four-tiered democratic system, its progressive taxation and its liberal crime laws. Out went much of the rights of unelected foreign bodies. The Academy whined, the Christotan government and people alike told them were to go and the Academy whined some more. The considerable egos of each side helped worsen the relationship and stretch it to its limits. The situation can be summed up by saying that formal diplomatic ties have never quite been broken off, and hearing this fact always astonishes people. In the process the Academy has almost completely lost control of magic in Christoté. It has little legal right to force the Gifted to submit to its training and certainly no right to chastise sorcerous wrongdoers. None of its cherished registration systems (which ought to operate from full wizards down to herbalists) are enforceable. Senior magicians regularly give grave warnings about the box of evils Christoté is allowing to be opened. Christotan politicians wince at the sight of a pointed hat, and when the Cities is feeling restless the Academy building in Yaleth makes a fine target for stoning. Occasionally gestures are made towards reconciliation, usually gestures whose sweeping, public nature make it all the more embarrassing when they end in disaster and acrimony.
"Whether Christoté actually gets the worst representatives out of the whole bad lot is debatable. However, the ultra-modern bent of the Cities makes the archaic, authoritarian wizards jar particularly with the culture. The most reactionary of kingdoms are still able to find presentable ambassadors who can knock off a speech on the rights of man to send to the Cities. What does the Academy offer? For example, take Pol Fannian who managed to spark off widespread panic in the early 1200's by forecasting an imminent apocalypse, incorrectly as it happens. Or Ghalag the Green, convicted of murdering at least half a dozen unlicensed magicians. Or Uhan Elcco, who took it on himself to criticise Cities women for being morally lax, not subservient to their husbands and daring to take paid employment outside the home. Every time a new supremo arrives people say "Well, at least he can't be as bad as the last one", and he's usually worst."
(from A Shining Light)