It seems a common problem for many DMs to accept the existance of a 1,000 36^th level wizards council in Alphatia. The main issue usually brought up is: how could Alphatia ever loose a war or not conquering the whole world with such an incredible firepower at its disposal.

Many have tried to answer this seemingly endless problem with many solutions, and the most used is the idea that "mage" means instead "spellcaster" and that the Grand Council had clerics and other in their ranks. Imagine 600 wizards, 300 patriarchs, and 100 paladins/avengers, all on level 36, et voilà: the number is not so incredible as before.

Well, as someone who is known as a defender of all things Thyatian and who has a reputation (deserved or not) for disliking Alphatia, folks might expect that I'd rush to adopt this option (after all, it would have the effect of narrowing the percieved gap between the empires, if one assumes, as they might rationally do, that in Thyatis there are the 250 mages of Sclaras, and a comparable number of patriarchs and paladins/avengers/general fighters, for a total of circa 750*).

But I think it does a disservice to Alphatia to make this switch. And if that means one assumes a thousand plus 36^th level mages, circa 300 36^th level priests, and a couple hundred 36^th level fighters exist in Alphatia (for a grand total of aproximately 1,500, or double the "notional" figure I suggested for Thyatis, rather than mearly +25%), then so be it. It is a disservice to the nature of Alphatia to adopt this change retrospectively (I.E. as being the norm, say, pre-WotI).

On the other hand, this concept could be adopted post-Wrath, representing an (enforced?) change in the laws (or the interpretation of them) due to losses during the conflict.

This might be good for two reasons:

1) it helps solve the "problem" of the Wizards over Glantri (as well as the unknown number of those exiled by Zandor). One could assume circa 40% of them lost power while flying (magic dead= "plop"), and the usual Contingencies to insure survival, all based on magic, failed too. Death is unwelcomed, but occurs on an unrivaled scale.

2) it helps those who want to have a significant number of Alphatian Wizards stuck on the surface, for whatever purpose, while not directly contradicting canon (want to assume a hundred survive? two hundred? but on the surface? go for it!)

3) it somewhat lowers the percieved power of Alphatia in the Hollow World. It also represents a potential nascient reform/change, however slight, in how things were done before compaired to how they are done now (thus Alphatia is not some kind of static society, but one that goes through change and growth like any other society.)

This could eventually (decades down the line) open up some new issues, for several reasons:

1) several hundred new members, all at once, with different backrounds and perhaps ideas to match, by itself this will shake things up.

2) as mentioned, many of the old guard (wizards) may have been hundreds of years old, and set in their way. Now gone, or at least their (political) power has been somewhat limited.

3) harkening back to the thread some time ago regarding magical talent and its heritability, one thing that could mean is there is (or, rather, was) a hidden subtext to Alphatian society: if magical talent is (largely) heritible, then social status is (was) largely heritable itself. This means that the aristocracy put on a good facade of being open to anyone, so long as they showed the talent, while in fact being (for the most part) as closed as any feudal nobility (because the talent that is required for access to the aristocratic class is heritable).

Now, all the sudden, they must really open up, bringing in once excluded spellcasters. Thus, Alphatia starts to be closer to its percieved ideal (meritocratic).

4) a hundred or so fighters, and several hundred priests, largely with long backrounds in the servile classes (or gentry), who likely have most of their friends and family still in the servile classes. Over time, eventually (definitely not in the near future) could lead to further changes, opening up of reforms, rights for the commoners, etc. (remembering that in Thyatis one of the main reason that laws limiting the authority of masters over slaves is because over the years a number of prominent Thyatians rose out of the slave class into political power. The same sort of dynamic could affect Alphatian society as well, given time and sufficient preasure).

What with the more conservative "old guard" wizards weakened and or gone, the opportunity for a number of reform movements is great (especially since Alphatians, being chaotic individualists, have a presumption in favor of change anyhow, and social movements/upheavals should be not only possible, but likely in such a society).

So, what I'd advocate is that folks adopt the second version of the Council for post-Wrath Alphatia, opening up some interesting political and role-playing oportunities. With (continental) Alphatia now floating and thus largely isolated, events and adventures relating to it are directed (to some degree) in more internal ways (yes, lots of oportunity for "exploratory" adventures as well, but that might get monotonous). This might also be a way to further diferentiate some of the more bland/faceless Alphatian Kingdoms, as some (I.E. Stonewall, Limn) are more likely to embrace the new reforms and the changes that result from them than others (I.E. Arogansa).

(*) Pointless asside in the middle of the screed: yes, I know that the council of Alphatia is "limited" to 1,000 members, meaning their might be more 36th level wizards et al, just like Sclaras is "limited" to 250 36^th mages, meaning their are concevably more. However, I'm of the opinion that the waiting list to get into either the Council or Sclaras isn't comparable to the waiting list to get, say, Green Bay Packer season tickets. IMO, their are few mages beyond the "cap".