Rosemary Tea
Auror
Fantasy mages are based on medieval scholars, more or less. In medieval Europe, universities were essentially monastic, so students and faculty alike were expected to be celibate (an expectation likely honored in the breach much of the time) and did not marry, at least not while in the university community.Ennywhey, the other danger there is for those lands and that office to become hereditary. Ever notice how few fantasy mages are married with children?
Mages also fill a similar archetypal niche to the witch in the woods, who is always solitary, who prefers to live away from people so she can focus on her magic without getting distracted, without getting constantly bugged by people wanting her to do them magical favors. On the second count, it helps that people are afraid of the witch. They won't bother her unless they're desperate enough to face that fear. Fantasy mages don't usually incite as much fear, but they still tend to be solitary.
Spin your world however makes sense!I think there ought to be some, at least in my world.
For mine, I started with solitary mages, though not quite witch in the woods solitary, I guess because the single mage who lives alone with their magic is such a trope. But then, one of my mage characters turned out to be the stepchild of a mage... so, obviously, mages can marry. There are also a couple of minor mage characters who I think of as previously married, in one case possibly still married, and who have grown children, although their children did not become mages.
The way it ended up being when the world really took shape is, my mages are not prohibited from marrying or having children, but few do. Most of them are simply not the marrying kind. And magery is a career that really must be put first, takes a long time to fully train for, and requires intense focus. It usually takes until around the age of 30 to reach full mage status, and then you're the new kid on the block who has to prove yourself, kind of like a new junior partner in a law firm. There just isn't much room for starting a family when you're family starting age.
When mages do have children, their children do not necessarily become mages. If they do, they apprentice to someone other than their parent. Lineage within magery counts for a lot, but the lineage that counts is teacher/student, not parent/child. An apprentice is in the lineage of the mage who teaches them, and can ultimately pass it on through an apprentice of their own.
So, my mages mostly have non-traditional chosen families instead of the traditional kind. Most of them do live alone, unless they're married or have an apprentice living with them, but not isolated, they have close neighbors. In some cases, two or three mages live on adjacent land parcels and share village mage duties.