I uncover a mysterious giant ball and somehow managed to get it into the college, some random order of mages come out of nowhere to tell me something bad will happen and to prepare for it. The most obvious mage in the entire fucking college tries to have magical sex with the ball, from which the arch-mage dies in a blackout, no fucks are given. I get some magical staff and the other important mage woman dies, no fucks are given. I kill the evil mage and the random order of mages appear again, they tell me the world isn't ready for its power and leaves with the ball, a lovely deus ex machina on top of an already shit storyline. I'm made arch-mage as a means to an end, and no more fucks are given.
It felt so rushed, I didn't get to see the arch-mage die. The other mage woman dies whilst I'm in the Labyrinth place, I don't get to see the evil mages growth in power and her death; it's just explained in a sentence when I come back. The order of mages felt really contrived too, not only because of their role in the plot, but because you can't even join them. It would've been more interesting to be one of them than some mage who happens to stumble across a powerful artifact in an excavation. At the end I couldn't help but question "that's it?" I'm the arch-mage of some shithole college, not worthy enough to be given an explanation for what the fuck just happened, let alone the chance of being something more. In the thieves guild you're introduced into an exclusive group of skilled thieves blessed by Nocturnal herself (the scene meeting her is awesome too), the mages guild is so lackluster in comparison.