90. Treants

If you weren't rich enough, just conveniently invent some new tax to shave  a layer of wool off those fat and greedy merchants to fatten up your pockets.

What? Those pesky merchants dare fight back?

Charge them with treason for attempted murder of a noble and directly exterminate their family, taking all of their hoarded wealth for yourself. 

Even those talented peasants who were accepted by the magic tower were often generously sponsored by wealthy nobles, so why would they rebel?

The untalented ones weren't sponsored, and those vindicated ones would sometimes join the revolutionary army, but this led to another problem.

If they weren't talented, how could they become a Master level Mage?

It was things like this that made lack of, Master level mages in the Revolutionary Army a reinforcing loop.

It was also as a result of this that the one Master level Mage in the revolutionary army had quite a high status.