the Arcane Registry

This organization used to be a minor functionary arm of the royal family that is supposedly apolitical, but over time they have grown to become very powerful. Their job is to take censuses frequently to figure out what spells every sorcerer resident and visitor in Sywnfaredia can cast. This is primarily, so the king or queen (and dukes and duchesses) can know what mystic power they can bring to bear to solve their problems and to monitor any magically skilled visitor who could either be an asset or a threat.   Knowledge is power and the Register's hold valuable knowledge indeed. It’s also helpful to know what your allies and rivals can or cannot do so the Arcane Registers are major players in courtly intrigues. Of course many sorcerers choose to lie about their magical abilities to the census takers so the Arcane Registers have to use divination magic to verify what they know or do not know. And of course these Registers would never collect and store any information they come across not related to their official job and keep it for personal use...   Two sorcerers procreating only gives roughly a 50%-60% chance of passing on sorcerous ability to any one child. A lot of superstitions say that certain magical aptitudes mix well in the bedroom and certain ones don’t. For instance, an invoker that specializes in fire attacks is advised not to marry an invoker that specializes in ice attacks. Any event, due to the hundreds of little superstitions, the Arcane Registers have become unofficial matchmakers. Their word is not law when it comes to marriages, but their input is generally considered. And of course who marries who has big political consequences as well as magical consequences.   Finally the Arcane Registry facilitates the construction and sale of magical items, especially relatively cheap and common magical items like potions and scrolls. Sometimes they sell magic items on installment and this practice and evolved that now they also act as generic bankers offering loans to the general populace giving the Masks a true competitor in a field they are used to monopolizing.