Bruma Recommendation

It appears that one of the Bruma mages, named J'Skar, has disappeared - literally. Jeanne Frasoric will ask you to reapparate him before she sends off a recommendation to the Arcane University. Volanaro will agree to help you find J'Skar, but only if you assist him in pulling off a "little prank". He gives you a spell capable of opening an Easy lock and asks you to head up to Jeanne's desk and retrieve her Manual of Spellcasting from it.

Needless to say, if you don't want to or can't cast the spell, you can feel free to just pick the lock on the chest and get the Manual that way. Bring it back to Volanaro, the witty prankster! Sounds more like thievery to us. Anyway, meet him at 10 PM in the Living Quarters of the guild hall, and he'll reveal to you that J'Skar's disappearance was itself a prank, albeit more along the "huh?" lines than of the "wow, what an awesome prank!" school. Regardless, tell Jeanne that J'Skars back, and the recommendation will be in the mail.

Cheydinhal Recommendation

Falcar, the master of the Chorrol guild, is a bit...intimidating. He seems dead set on denying you your recommendation, but offers you a task nonetheless: you're to retrieve a Ring of Burden that a previous Associate took and threw down the well behind the guild hall. The nerve! If you're familiar with the Burden effect, then you'll know that you're going to face the risk of being over-encumbered when you pick it up.

Not to worry, though, as Deetsan, the guild member that has the key to the well, has your best interests in mind. You'll need to speak to her while Falcar is out of earshot, so wait around inside the guild hall until they're on separate floors, then speak to her again. She'll give you the key, as well as a Bouyancy spell that has short-lived Feather and Waterbreathing effects in it. Will you need them? Seems likely.... She'll also tell you about Vidkun, one of the previous Associates assigned to this task. He never returned from the well, so she wants you to find out his fate. Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?

Welldiving Find the guild's well and head down into it. Now, you're not actually going to need the waterbreathing effect here; the well is very, very small. You will need some kind of Feather effect, though, to actually pick up the Ring of Burden, though, as it weighs 150 pounds. If you can't pick it up with your normal strength, you can either try casting some kind of Feather spell (which lets you pick up more weight than you normally would), drinking a Feather potion or a Fortify Strength potion (you can find one on Falcar's desk in the basement), or just dumping everything you're carrying into a chest or crate in the Mages Guild and heading down there naked.

Poor Vidkun. Oh well, at least you'll do better than he did.

After rooting around in the well for a bit, you'll find Viknud's body nearby, with the Ring of Burden on it. Take it back up to Deetsan, who'll relate a tale: she confronted Falcar about his cruel treatment of Associates, and he stormed off, and seemed to leave the guild altogether. She'll tell you to check Falcar's dresser to see if he wrote a recommendation. Do so, and you'll find...black soul gems?

If you're curious, black soul gems are used by Necromancers to capture the souls of humans. Needless to say, they're bad stuff, especially since the Mages Guild has recently banned necromancy from the land - the fact that Falcar is holding onto them would seem to imply that he doesn't quite hold with this edict. Show the black soul gems to Deetsan to acquire your recommendation.

Bravil Recommendation

Speak to Kud-Ei in Bravil to get this quest. Note that she may have a text prompt for "Henantier" when you speak to her; this is an optional quest, unrelated to the Mages Guild. If you accept it, you may have to complete it before you can take on the Recommendation quest, because that prompt will disappear from her chat options.

Anyway, Kud-Ei will speak to you of a mage named Ardaline, who's in some kind of vague trouble with a man named Varon Vamori, who seems to have stolen her Mages Staff. Keep working through Kud-Ei's chat tree until you get the "Mages Staff" option. At this point, she'll give you a scroll of Charm, and tell you to use it to question Varon.

Head to Varon, who should be elsewhere in the guildhall. If you've got a decent Personality score, he may decide to up and talk without you even needing to use the scroll at all. Otherwise, cast the spell on him, and he should spill the beans, revealing that he sold the staff to his friend Soris Arenim. Quite the fool in love, this one. What's worse, he sold it to some dude in the Imperial City! Time for a little road trip.

Finding the Staff Head up to the Talos Plaza section of the Imperial City to speak to Soris Arenim, who owns a house there. Note that the Beguile spell is only a magnitude 30 charm, so even it might not be enough to get Soris to talk to you about the staff; you may want to Persuade him a bit before attempting to buy the staff back from him.

With a little charmingness, Soris will agree to sell the staff.

At this point, you have two options. You can charm Soris himself, and he'll offer to sell it back to you for 200 gold. Easy enough, if you have the cash. Alternately, you can charm his wife, who should be standing nearby, and she'll tell you that Soris has the staff locked up in the basement. To retrieve it, you'll need to head up to the bedroom, grab the key to the chest from the desk there, then enter the basement and unlock the chest to retrieve the staff. You may want to perform this latter task in the middle of the night, though, when Soris and his wife are asleep.

Either way, grab the staff and get it back to Kud-Ei. She'll send a recommendation off for you, and teach you a low-level Charm spell for free.

Leyawiin Recommendation

If you start talking to the Leyawiin Mages Guild members, you'll learn that Dagail is the only one that can issue a recommendation to you. Unfortunately, she seems to be a bit off her nut, talking about voices that only she can hear, and so on. She seems to want you to retrieve a special amulet for her, and asks you to speak to Agata, another member of the guild. Agata will tell you to interrogate the rest of the magicians in the guild about the Seer's Stone.

No one with this kind of brow could ever be a good person.

Kalthar is the one you want to speak to here, as he has another piece of the puzzle: Dagail's problems are apparently heriditary, and were passed down to her by her father. Taking this information to Agata, and then back to Dagail herself, will point you in the direction of a fort near Leyawiin, where Dagail's father was once stationed.

Fort Blueblood is located to the southeast of Leyawiin, and is currently populated by the rare Marauder enemies. Start cutting your way through them as best you can until you reach the Marauder Warlord, who'll possess the Fort Blueblood Key. Use it to unlock the crypt where Dagail's father is buried, but be sure to heal up before heading inside, as it's guarded by mythic creatures.

When you defeat the creatures and grab Manduin's Amulet out of his coffin, Kalthar himself will appear. At first, he'll ask you to hand over the amulet to him, but then he'll just flip out and start attacking you. Sigh...you can feel better about your needing to kill him since he summons a zombie to help him out. Necromancer! Can't have their kind polluting the Mages Guild.

Kill Kalthar, grab his key, and use it to unlock the path back to the surface. After returning the amulet to Dagail, she'll magically get better - magical amulets tend to do that - and send your recommendation off to the Arcane University, but not before muttering about your fated destiny and all that. Whatev's, cuz, I'm off to the big show!

Join The Mages Guild

All that's left for you now is to join the Mages Guild for true. Head to the Arcane University and speak to Raminus Polus to get your Robes of the Apprentice, and your first task.