To join the Mages Guild in Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered, walk into any of the seven guild halls in Cyrodiil, talk to the mage in charge and pick the “Join the Mages Guild” dialogue option; you are an Associate on the spot. The part people actually get stuck on is the next step: the Arcane University, where spellmaking and enchanting live, stays locked until every one of those seven halls has written you a recommendation. Below we cover where the halls are, who signs each recommendation, what the University gives you, how to avoid being expelled, and which patches since the April 2025 launch touched this questline.
Joining Is Instant, the University Is Not
The Mages Guild has a hall in every major city except the Imperial City: Anvil, Bravil, Bruma, Cheydinhal, Chorrol, Leyawiin and Skingrad. Any character can join, whatever their class or birthsign, and you can do it the moment you leave the sewers at the end of the tutorial. Ask the hall’s head mage about joining and you receive the Associate rank, which already gets you free use of the alchemy apparatus lying around the halls and a place to sleep.
What Associates cannot do is enter the Arcane University in the Imperial City. The gate guard turns you away until you have collected a recommendation from all seven halls and delivered them to Raminus Polus at the University. That structure is unchanged from the 2006 original; the Remaster kept the quest design intact and, per Bethesda, focused its changes on visuals, sprinting, combat feel and the leveling system.
The Seven Recommendation Quests
Each hall’s leader hands out one task. Complete it and they send your recommendation on to the University. The order does not matter, and the map markers make travel easy once you have used fast travel to unlock each city.
- Anvil: Carahil asks you to deal with a mage robbing travelers on the Gold Road.
- Bravil: Kud-Ei needs help with a fellow mage caught up in a bad relationship, which involves a Captivate-style charm spell she teaches you.
- Bruma: Jeanne Frasoric wants a missing mage found inside her own hall.
- Cheydinhal: Falcar sends you into a well under the hall for a ring. Falcar leaves partway through, and Deetsan, the hall’s second in command, is the one who finishes the recommendation.
- Chorrol: Teekeeus wants a stolen book recovered from Earana, who has her own offer for it.
- Leyawiin: Dagail needs an amulet retrieved from a fort to steady her visions.
- Skingrad: Adrienne Berene wants you to find Erthor, a mage she banished to a cave.
None of these is long, but a few involve fighting, so bring a healing spell or a stack of potions. Bravil and Chorrol both give you a choice partway through; the guild-friendly option is always the one that keeps the item or the recommendation with the guild. Verified against official patch notes, the Switch 2 day-one update fixed a crash when loading an autosave during the “Leyawiin Recommendation” quest, so save manually rather than relying on autosaves if you are playing on that platform before that patch.
Reporting to the Arcane University
When the seventh recommendation is in, your journal tells you to report to the Arcane University. Head to the University island on the east side of the Imperial City, enter the Arch-Mage’s Lobby and speak to Raminus Polus. He promotes you to Apprentice, hands you a set of mage robes and opens the campus. Three buildings matter most:
- The Chironasium holds the Altar of Enchanting, where you put magic effects onto weapons and armor. Our enchanting guide covers soul gems and costs.
- The Praxographical Center holds the Altar of Spellmaking, the only place in the base game to build custom spells. See how to use spells for how spell schools and Magicka costs work.
- The Lustratorium is the alchemy hall, with equipment and ingredient vendors.
Polus also starts the guild’s main questline, which pits you against the Necromancers and their leader Mannimarco. Progressing it raises your rank all the way to Arch-Mage.
Controller players should note two fixes in the official notes: Update 1.1 fixed being unable to name enchanted items with a controller, and Update 1.2 fixed controller issues in the spellmaking menu and a soft lock in the enchanting menu. The Switch 2 Patch 1.1 fixed a crash when quickly using either altar. If you are on an older build and an altar misbehaves, updating is the fix.
How to Get Expelled (and How to Get Back In)
The guild enforces two rules: do not steal from guild members or guild halls, and do not attack or kill members. Break either and you are suspended and lose hall access. Raminus Polus will readmit you, but only after you bring him a batch of alchemy ingredients as penance, and the second offense demands a rarer batch. A third expulsion is permanent, so keep your sticky fingers out of the halls, especially if you are also working through the Thieves Guild. Necromancy is banned by the guild’s Arch-Mage, and while the game does not police what spells you cast, the story treats it as the reason the guild is under attack.
Crafting Without the Guild
If you only want the altars, the Remaster includes the Wizard’s Tower content in every edition, which adds Frostcrag Spire as a player home north of Bruma. Its own spellmaking and enchanting altars come online once you buy the upgrade that lights them from Aurelinwae at the Mystic Emporium in the Imperial City Market District. That route costs gold instead of seven quests, but it skips the guild’s rewards, its vendors and the storyline, so most magic-focused characters end up doing both. Every other Oblivion guide we have is on the Elder Scrolls hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to be a mage to join the Mages Guild? No. Any race, class or birthsign can join, and a warrior with a single healing spell can finish all seven recommendation quests.
Which guild hall should I start with? Whichever is closest. Chorrol and Skingrad are near the Imperial City and their quests are short, so many players start there and work outward.
Can I use the Arcane University altars as an Associate? No. The University gate only opens once Raminus Polus has received all seven recommendations and promoted you to Apprentice.
What happens if I get kicked out of the Mages Guild? Raminus Polus offers readmission twice in exchange for ingredient deliveries. The third expulsion is permanent for that character.
Did the Remaster change the Mages Guild questline? The quests are the same. Official patches have fixed a handful of crashes and controller issues around the altars and one Leyawiin recommendation autosave crash on Switch 2, but no content was added or removed.