Order of Magi

The original old Imperial Order of Magi still has at least a single circle active in the Empire of Estheim, how ever separate Order of Magi have risen across the country since the rediscovery of the Source.

History
The Empire didn't fully understand how to use the Source.

The Church of the Imperial Faith gradually took over the aspect of performing the Source, stealing away potential new recruits from the Circle of Magi in the Empire.

The Circle of Magi taught magical means that did not only revolve around Key-mages, they taught alchemy, rituals, conjuration and artifice as well, which any man can technically learn (though it is so much easier and more effective for a Key Mage).

Without any Key-mages the Circle of Magi would have no doubt died out, but fortunately, they could demand one Key-Mage as an apprentice under the Archmage at any given time.

However, the magical traditions of the Circle were snailing to a halt, while the magical traditions of the Imperial Church were flourishing.

The Church mixed magical belief with religion, and surprisingly it seemed to actually work. The circle of Magi claimed that it was because they were drawing on the power of certain Primordial spirits, but this was pure heresy in the ears of the Church.

The church started rejecting the idea that magic powers came from any form of Key-mage status, and shifted it towards pure faith, and when they did this, they stopped actively recruiting Key-Mages, but they also started recruiting a lot of people into the priesthood who were entirely mundane at the same time.

Eventually as a result, the church lost their magical powers, and by then, magic was but a myth in the Westerlands, something that practically speaking only existed in the three remaining circles of the Imperial Order of Magi in Estheim - the last remnant of the old Westerland Empire, and also the direct reason why Estheim was always more advanced than the rest of the Westerlands, that descended into civil war.

In the Eastern Orient, however, tradesmen from the Carnala Republics discovered that the Source was very much alive - the Eastern Orient was a place where the Source had uplifted their society to a point unimaginable by the Westerlanders.

They brought back the Source with them, and the Source experienced a renaissance.

Today, every Kingdom in has it's own Order of Magi.

Key-Mage
A Key-Mage is a character who has more than 10 in their Psionic Attribute. At 11, the Key-Mage is considered an un-awakened Key-Mage.

Ironically, unawakened Key-mages are much more important and potentially powerful than fully awakened Key-Mages (12+), because they are unaware of the dangers of using magic, and can occasionally, as a result, if stimulated the right way, tap into magic powers far beyond their own capabilities.

An unawakened Key-Mage can use any cantrips, but cannot gain any additional advantage from learning spell-schools or rotes that non-key-mages do not already benefit from.

Key-Mages can master spell-schools, something that non-Key-Mages can also do, but Key-mages gain access to spells, depending on their personal level of psionic power, though the abilities are not instinctual - while a Key-Mage (unlike a non-key-mage) can attempt casting any spell "wild" (high risk of unwanted effects), the spells they can effectively and safely cast are limited to spells they fulfill the basic requirements for, and often such requirements are proficiency or skills.

Key-mages also have the luxury of casting spells without having a rote. This is entirely impossible for a non-key-mage. For a non-key-mage, rotes do not grant any advantage, they simply enable casting of any spells that the non-key-mage has unlocked the requirements for, and has a spell-school for.

A key-mage of any level can raise their psionic attribute modifier as they see fit, representing training, unless they are unawakened, in which case they must through a story arc unlock psionic attribute 12 as a legal purchase, and pay for it in advance of actually gaining it.