Great Sage, @TheEdVerse
If there were a mage prodigy who could not afford registering with the Watchful Order, how would its members handle a such a youth living in the Deep?
I’ve need to burn this bridge as I stand on it!
Mystra keep you, as always. 😉— Nicole Martinsen (@MissMartinsen) August 27, 2021
1)
It depends entirely on what the youth does, magically, in public. If they avoid working magic in the streets or before strangers, by daylight, they should be fine (there are SCORES of such folk living happily in the Deep, right now).
If they get arrested by the… 2)
…Watch for some magical activity, they'll get "interviewed" in private by the Watchful Order, who will firmly inform them of what's legal and polite in the way of spellcasting behaviour, and what's not. They will be shadowed (by a network of spies, not a lone…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2021
3)
…Order member) from that moment on, no matter what their response, unless they formally join the Order.
Individuals who lack coin to join are usually offered the opportunity to train, as novices, under an Order minder; the price for this is to participate in… 4)
…halfday/overnight missions with Order members, about once a month. (That way the Order gets to openly watch them, school them on how to behave, and get some work out of them.) If they perform well (eagerly but with discipline, not lazily or sullenly or…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2021
5)
…miscasting magic), they will usually get offered a cut rate annual fee (for the first three years) to join the Order.
What the Order and the Palace want to avoid is a resentful, willful, untrained adolescent using magic on folk around them. Exile is an option.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2021