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Guilds

Notes:

Constant striving of interest and influence between governments and guilds.

Free cities tend to be governed by guilds.

Guild Council in Sartor--like Mage Council, answerable to itself, and not to Sartoran government in law, but not in custom. Most guilds are world wide, but not all. The world wise ones have the advantage of numbers and alliance, but their dues are the higher.

A Guild cannot be expelled by a monarch without the threat of all guilds being removed. This has just about always been disastrous in the short term, and debilitating in the long when the monarch (like the Sonscarnas of Chwahirsland) welcomed the opportunity to get yet more control. Without guild training, knowledge, and custom, skills almost always dwindle.

Guild history is a history of organized labor. Like any human institution it has had its corrupt times and its heroic times. There are many people the world over who regard themselves as members of a family, a guild, and last, as inhabitants of a kingdom. There are countless sayings (often embroidered and on display) to the effect of "kings come and go but guilds last forever."

Clashes between guilds are also part of their history. Not just between unskilled and skilled labor, but as skills evolve into new forms, sometimes those artisans will agitate for their own guild, especially if they feel marginalized by the greater numbers but (as they see it) less skilled members of the parent guild. Probably the longest question to vex guilds outside of governmental sticky fingers is the conflict between a guaranteed wage and pay by the piece. Every time there is famine, war, disaster of any kind, or a radical change in fashion, this question arises yet again.

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Page last modified on January 21, 2008, at 01:37 PM