I thought the whole time mage was a little too extreme. But, if you want, you can be a different mage, and then your crystal power will be that you can control certain parts of time, to a limit.

Perhaps this would be the kind of spell that requires preparation time, rune circles and scrolls to cast?

Name: Kenyu "Ken"
Class: Mage
Staff Crystal: A brass turner attached to a brass capped quartz hour glass. the sand in the hour glass is finely ground ruby quartz (quartz because watches use it to keep time)
Special Power: Your clock allows you make people and parts of the environment older or younger at will.
Appearance: A young man with a runner's physique of intermediate height. He has long black hair, and brown eyes.
Items: A long light brown leather coat, a blue shirt, khaki pants, a pack full of maps, a pen and ink kit.
Bio: Ken is a map maker, well at least map making is his hobby. He has made maps of almost every inch of the land, no mean feat for someone of his young age. Originally he showed great magical talent, but when he went to school he showed no skill in any school at all. So he went to study in the great libraries, In them he found his passion maps, and his skill time. he found dusty tomes on a useful but under developed part of magic, time. He found he had a knack for slowing or speeding the ticking seconds, he crafted his head piece which even allows him to turn back the clock. An ability he has used to make enough money to buy his neccessary supplies. He's used his skill to help him make extensive maps.

Jad: Your crystal represents the Holy Clock of the Gods. Supposedly, the gods have a large clock in their hallowed halls that slowly counts down the time until the end of existence. Your clock allows you make people and parts of the environment older or younger at will.

And Jad, there technically isn't a class for a Time Mage, or else there would be a Time Sage on the council. How about you put it that you're a mage, but you were never really any good at casting spells of any school. So, you were shunned, but your crystal allows you to control parts of time.

That works. actually that's what I really wanted from the beginning.

edit: I don't think it's too god moddy though. Haste and slow with out support are actually quite useless. By himself their only use is to run away.

Yeah, but then there's the temptation to send the whole world into rewind, or freeze the entire field, or something.

You get where I'm coming from?

Raiden, can I PM you a few suggestions for the dark magic? We dark mages must have our secrets...

And how is having two of a mage going to work? The OP mentioned "the best", yet when there are two... well, you get the idea.

Like I said, you guys will have to decide who was the one that was the "best". The person or people that are not the "best", will have to come up with a story as to why they're there. (They're a relative of the "best", they're the best friend of the "best", they're the official bodyguard of the "best".)

I don't care what story you have, but give a reason as to why you're there.

Edit: Sure Dante, send as many as you want.

So, I get hurt when casting any spells, or just the ones I made?

Other than that, I have no more questions.

If you cast ANY spells, you get hurt. Unless you use your crystal. Then you can cast a couple of them without feeling any pain.