Rules for usage of Radiance after 1000 AC
by GreenbrierI like your Rafael plan and think that is very plausible...he definitely does have a direct interest in the Radiance and was working with Rad during the war. I could see a timeline like this working with what you have planned as well as the users late canon or fandom gave us (Don Hippolito, Ralindi, Maximilian Hiltier, etc.) -
prior to 1004 - Rad enforces the rules (with the exception of Angus McGregor, if you read the rules as excluding him Micky is working on an explanation why Rad allowed it)
1004-1009 - Rad fears that Glantri will not survive the war with Alphatia and exhorts the Brotherhood to research ways to use the Radiance for national defense. While he doesn't announce any rule change, he wants as many wizards working on this as possible and so he longer issues cease & desist orders to non-ruling wizards who manage to discover and access the Radiance - if they're able to do that, maybe they can help save Glantri!
1010 - 1018 - Rad is gone and the Brotherhood continues to explain the rules to new users...but has no way to know if and when any are violated. The unauthorized users late canon & fandom gave us either were tolerated by Rad during the war, or start using during this period.
1019 - It's been 10 years and Rafael thinks Rad may not be coming back...whatever happened to him is something more than immortal timeout. Recent events in Glantri leave Rafael concerned that too many people are going to find out about and start using the Radiance, with potentially catastrophic consequences for his Shadowelves. Rafael steps into the void and begins to enforce his version of the rules (could be the same, maybe slightly different, I'd expect he'd allow everyone who was already in to stay though and is mainly concerned with limiting additional new users.) I also imagine he'd do it by just pretending to be Rad rather than annoucing himself as the new guardian of the Radiance, I'm sure an immortal can put on a very convincing Averoigne accent. That way if Rad ever does return he can hand the reins back over without any problems, and Rad should be pleased that Rafael stepped up as caretaker in his absence.