All has been peaceful with the MIF, right? Wrong. There was a chapter in our history that was somewhat turbulent due to one person - Strawbrain. Back when Torko was the archmage if the MIF he had two firstmages - Lexington and Strawbrain. However, somewhere along the line for reasons I do not claim to know (I am not Torko, you know), Torko chose to replace Strawbrain with Furchin. Strawbrain was very angry at this and resigned from the MIF, claiming things like how Furchin had turned Torko against him.

Now, having said this, we fast-forward a few months. Torko was on his way out of office and Furchin was the obvious favorite (Lexington had already served as archmage and did not want the job again). Basically, it was more of appearances that there was an election - not functionality. About this time Strawbrain (who I had remained friends with to keep and eye on him - plus if you got around his rantings about Furchin being the antichrist he was a nice guy) began to say how Furchin would run the MIF into the ground. Basically the guy made lots of trouble for Furchin. One thing of note was that he had never removed the title that stated his rank and specialty (potions) in the MIF.

And so Furchin won the position of archmage. And Strawbrain schemed. I do recall one time he asked me if I would support him if he tried to take the MIF from Furchin by force - claiming he had Torko's blessing. I told him flatly I would, "do whatever was the best for the MIF" and nothing more. Basically I did not buy into his idea. Now I recall him saying he was testing me... to see if I'd be "worthy" to keep the MIF afloat after Furchin was through using it. He also claimed he was testing Furchin to make him a better leader - I guess keeping him occupied and unable to change anything in the guild.

Whether Strawbrain actually believed this or not is debatable, but he was a bit obsessive over the MIF. And considering how inactive he was as a firstmage this was ironic. However, the story did not end there. Furchin got in touch with Manatoba and requested he remove the part about MIF from every person's title that was not in the MIF. He claimed it was confusing and that they did not deserve to have that in the title if they were not part of this (this was back when only deputies could change titles and dear dear Furchin was not a deputy yet - that came after he pawned the MIF leadership off on me). And so Manatoba did this. And then it happened.

Strawbrain came on and was enraged his title was changed against his will. And that was the last night he ever came to Karchan (at least as Strawbrain). And yes, since Strawbrain did not go quietly, this made for bad press for the MIF. Therefore, as a responsible firstmage, I contacted all the active members of the MIF I could and laid out a proposal to them. We would take a vote to judge Furchin on his action - to see if what he did was right, within his power, and called for, and if not, what to do with him. I did not know what to expect, and planned for everything - up to and including removal.

To state it for the record, every person I contacted with the proposal - including myself - voted unanimously that Furchin acted within his power and was justified in his action, and therefore we should show our support in him as the archmage. However, this never was mentioned to Furchin - it is kind of hard to inform the leader he was evaluated behind his back.

Recently while shifting through the many scrolls I keep on my desk (yes, Eternals have desks, we just hide them where we hide ourselves so those pesky mages can't find us - that was a joke) I found a copy of the proposal I had filed after sending it. Feeling that this was an important historical document I chose to submit it to the archmage officially, and you can read that document in an unedited form within.

Excelsior! Estlor, Eternal Fire; Warlock of Air

Now to the link for the actual document concerning Furchin and Strawbrain