Heavenly Mandate

Heavenly Mandate is a Chinese guild based in the Qinglong Temple of Beijing. It is the oldest guild in existence and in active service, with its origins dating back to the Western Han dynasty of ancient China. Its current guild master is Master Jing.

139 BC, Western Han dynasty
Heavenly Mandate was originally a "secret service" organization that was under the direct command of the Han Emperor. Its members comprised of handpicked and well-trained young royals and soldiers from the army, all equally loyal to the Emperor. They were responsible for the removal of many individuals who opposed the Emperor's rule or plotted against him. It eventually splintered off from the Han government upon the dissolving of Western Han into Eastern Han, becoming a freelance organization that carries out requests given by the community - a 'guild' before guilds.

Modern day
With the establishment of the Magistrate and the slow rise of the "guild" concept, Heavenly Mandate eventually became an official guild, and still continues to carry out requests for those in need. Guild members of the modern-day Mandate are not strictly royals anymore, but martial arts experts and masters of magic from across the country.

Members
In the early days of the guild, members of the Heavenly Mandate comprised of elite, handpicked skirmishers from the Western Han military, and young nobles and royals that were well-trained in the ways of infiltration and combat. After the organization became independent from the government, its member recruitment fields were expanded to include a wider range of members from all walks of life in the country.

Currently, there are around 3,500 members of the guild, but only less than 500 have been officially initiated. Those 500 members are divided into four 'sects': the White Tiger Sect, headed by Jin Guang and focused on hand-to-hand styles; the Black Tortoise Sect, headed by Wujie and focused on weapon mastery; the Vermillion Bird Sect, headed by Xuefeng and focused on alchemy and arcane arts; and the Azure Dragon Sect, headed directly by Master Jing, and considered the 'elite sect' which specializes in every way of art.

There has been a total of 37 guild masters in the Mandate's 2000-year history, some having served for close to 80 years, while others have only served for 20. Shortly after the conclusion of the 2019 Grand Magic Tournament, the 36th Guild Master of the guild passed away, and Master Jing became the new leader of the guild.

This is a list of notable members of the guild:

Arcs

 * Grand Magic Games arc