Wielder (Lorica)

Wielder
A wielder refers to a spellcaster who is given a battlestaff by a guild. This is short for "wielder of the staff". They essentially act as the operators of the guild's high-end military spells (as contrasted with the standard spells of the holders). An analogy may be, wielder is to tank driver or tank gunner as holder is to policeman.

Wielders usually will "only hold one piece of the puzzle", that is, they cannot use their spell without collaboration from others in the same guild with access to the other "pieces" of the spell. This is to prevent a wielder from simply turning against the guild with such a powerful arsenal already at hand. Thus the spells that wielders use tend to differ between different sub-roles with the overarching "wielder" role, as well as between guilds. Wielders primarily reside within guild halls, emerging only to do battle with other guilds. Thus, they do not see much regular action, but the times when they do see action, they are tactically important and often determine victory.

The staff that they are given holds these spells, as well as a spell to self-destruct the staff. In battles between guilds, capturing an enemy wielder with the staff intact, can provide a technological advantage going forward to any guild who pulls it off. The other side of course has an interest in "liberating" captured wielders or at least destroying their lost staves.