Guild Information
The Guilds of Theria
Working Within A City
The guilds maintain their own supply lines and have the ability to cut off the supplies of a city they work within. However, strict guidelines govern the use of this ability. In a monarchy, only a member of the ruling family can initiate a Silent Revolution as this internal siege is called. In a democracy, the majority of the governing system must agree to a Silent Revolution for it to be initiated. HOWEVER let it be noted that a democracy has never requested a Silent Revolution and has no conceivable need to. It is generally asked for by feuding members within a royal family, or a monarch who wishes to subdue the populace.
Guilds maintain their own Houses throughout a city which are specific to the use of their particular guild, and guild Halls are maintained for communal use. The people know of the existence of the guilds but generally have no cause to bother with them except to move to the opposite side of the street when passing an initiate.
Let it also be noted that there is a stigma surrounding guild members. They are outsiders from general society and only in rare situations (such as the opera house of Song Royalle) form real relationships with non-guild members. The city owes a cull of genetically viable children to the guilds in exchange for help in times of war, city defence, aid during famines, etc. (cities with strong functioning guilds are usually more stable) Children are taken by each guild on a first come first served basis. It is up to each guild to discover their own potential members from among the city’s inhabitants.
Guidelines For Interguild Relationships
The guilds are STRICTLY prohibited from open conflict with each other. There are generally veiled animosities between the guilds due to their varied functions, but no guild can pit itself against another.
Only once in Theria’s history did a guild choose to break this law. The Jakha’tzi chapter in Giltherang cut off supply lines to the city in hopes of seizing power. The guilds were divided, siding with or against the Jakha’tzi. This resulted in one of Theria’s most brutal wars and ended with the elimination of all Jakha’tzi in Giltherang. Once again, let it be noted that this was different than the Imperial takeover of Song Royalle.
(The Imperials were A) an isolated guild. They only held power in Song Royalle, and were originally a family who paid a Guild Engineer to change them (the family had a history of genetic viability). The corrupt Guild Executor of Song Royalle supported this formation of a new guild due to bribes from the Imperials.
They were B) subtle. They took over power gradually during the course of 300 years, and during a Dark Age when the other guilds were concerned with survival.
They were C) eventually ruined by their changes, as they were not all fully viable for alteration. Madness took hold in the family and was passed on to every member as a dominant gene.)
Particulars Of A Silent Revolution
A Silent Revolution is not without its costs to the initiator. While it may be used selectively to starve out a public enemy and the people may understand these motives, the price of a Revolution is high. For one week, all laws governing civilian and guild interactions are nullified. Death tolls skyrocket during this time as the Jakha’tzi, Vampirium and Mariners stalk the streets. Some guilds traditionally refrain from partaking in the lawlessness, but the majority do, embittered by the usual harsh civilian attitude towards themselves.
Guild Engineers
Guild engineers or genetic engineers are selected from the best and brightest guild members. Criteria for selection vary drastically between guilds. Interest in the position may also be a factor in engineer selection.
Engineers generally maintain strong ties to their guild of origin, doing the majority of their genetic alteration for said guild. They are generally characterized by a better understanding of civilians than other guild members. In fact, sympathy for the common people is something of an unwritten requirement for an engineer. Despite appearances to the contrary, all guilds are highly aware of the symbiotic relationship they share with the common people and try to maintain a fragile balance with them. No matter how powerful the guilds, the civilians far outnumber them. Engineers are key in maintaining this balance, and are usually well known to the civilians. They keep informed of all issues effecting their city.
Guild engineers in this role are similar to the parliament in a monarchy, their overlord being the Guild Executor. The power the Executor has over its engineers varies depending on the city. While engineers maintain the abilities of their guild and receive new ones, their appearances generally revert to something similar to that of a civilian.
Guild Executors
The origin of Guild Executors is much speculated upon. The two most popular theories are that they are ‘Angeli’ similar to those who frequented Coer d’Angeli before Theria’s nuclear holocaust or that they are indeed human, but Changed to a great degree.
Guild Executors are androgynous and unable to reproduce. Due to the uncertainty of their true nature, no one knows whether this was a safeguard put into place by engineers to keep them from producing a master race, or a peculiarity of their alien species. In any event, when wearing their true forms, Executors are only vaguely humanoid. They have developed flexible, resilient skeletons similar to the Jakha’tzi, have the same lust for blood as the Vampirium, and channel electrical currents as do the Vestells. In short, they possess all guild capabilities at once.
Executors are extremely cunning in a predatory way. While the emotional and logical centres of their brains are poorly developed, they make up for it with a fanatical obsession regarding balance. They care little for civilians and tolerate the guilds because the relationship is mutually beneficial. To the majority of guild chapters, an Executor is more a pseudo-deity than a director. They are feared, respected, served with few questions and occasionally worshipped. However, only high ranking or extremely devout initiates are permitted to know the false identity the Executor assumes while living in the city.
Notably the two guilds who have never worshipped an Executor are the most dissimilar. The Vestells and the Vampirium concede to work with Executors when their purposes align, but refrain from contact with them otherwise.
As stated, Guild Executors are obsessed with balance, and to a far greater degree than the guilds (it should be noted that balance is a primary motive of all guilds). They (Executors) maintain it in their individual cities at all costs, and this is almost always the full scope of their somewhat limited view. The only documented exception to this rule occurred in Song Royalle, when the Executor became fixated on the fact that most of Theria was at peace and bent itself on destruction and pain in the interest of balance. It is believed that this was not an isolated occurrence, as there have been other occasions when an Executor seemed to throw balance within its city to the winds and assume a set position. However, the motives of these Executors have never been definitely ascertained.
The Executors have a lifespan of several centuries.
Guilds
Jakha’tzi (pronounced JaKAtzi)
-shape shifters. They possess particularly resilient, flexible skeletons and so have the ability to manipulate their shapes. Another effect of the Change allows them to quickly grow hair. They are primarily concerned with the manipulation of the physical form. This is the oldest guild and first came into being out of a necessity to survive an ice age. Those with the capacity to shift form survived with greater ease, and assisted civilians in living to see the first melting.
Vestells (I’m sure you can guess how Vestell is pronounced)
-channelers. They conduct electricity and can bend it to their will. Legends that the Vestells also channel the souls of the dead are unsubstantiated. They are primarily concerned with the manipulation of unseen elements, and were formed in the aftermath of the ice age the Jakha’tzi grew from. This guild was formed to aid in the quick redevelopment of cities, and has been the greatest contributor to Theria’s sometimes frenzied and uneven rates of technological development. Guild engineers are commonly taken from the Vestells, as they have a propensity for that sort of work to begin with.
Vampirium (this you can pronounce too)
-the Vampirium is the youngest guild and was first formed on the Eastern Continent of Theria in response to a great need for population control. They are primarily concerned with matters related to death and possess an insatiable thirst for blood. Their growth throughout Theria was exponentially faster than that of the other guilds, and their members are generally quick tempered and manipulative. It is the Vampirium who benefits greatly in the aftermath of a Silent Revolution, and they are the guild who most often breaks the Code of Benignity.
Mariners (It’s a normal word. *g*)
-traders. The Mariners were formed after the re-growth of cities in Theria and were the first guild to be formed because of the need of other guilds, rather than the needs of civilians. They provide extremely reliable supply lines for the guilds, taking commerce across the seas and to the far reaches of Theria. They are a primary source of information for the other guilds and keep chapters in contact with each other.
Dragon Guild
-warriors. The Dragon Guild is an exception to the rule in that it existed prior to any genetic alteration taking place on Theria. It received guild status after the Jakha’tzi and the Vestells during the time when cities began feuding between each other, but its members had been hiring themselves out long before that time. The Dragon Guild is primarily concerned with combat, and are civilian in nature. They walk the line between common life and guild life, and one only needs to possess a minimal ability for genetic change to join the Dragon Guild. It is co ordination and aptitude as a fighter that this guild looks for in potential initiates. The Change that takes place in a Dragon initiate merely enhances strength, reflexes and the abilities of the senses. It also raises the pain threshold. The Dragons were given guild status to provide balance between guild and civilian casualties during civilian wars, as guild members were approaching the civilian numbers. Since the Change of the Dragons it is not unusual for rogue initiates of other guilds to be caught in the cross fire of civilian wars.
Fanged Lotus Guild
-pleasure givers. The Fanged Lotus’ are peculiar in having been the only guild not formed on either the Western or Eastern Continents, but rather in the Southern Islands. Their primary concern is the provision of pleasure for both other guild members and civilians. Every member of this guild engages in some form of prostitution at some time or another, and the Fanged Lotus’ are one of the wealthiest guilds. Members are skilled in intrigue and are known for their great subtlety. Fanged Lotus guilds produce and distribute psychotropic drugs, strange alcohols and civilian prostitutes. They also dabble in poisons and developed the two substances used by guild engineers and occasionally for recreation, these being Chyme and Lotus Blood. The majority of Fanged Lotus initiates are women, but many men have been known to excel in this guild. Along with genetic viability, beauty and cleverness are key to acceptance into this guild. Primary Changes alter members so that they produce colourless, odourless pheromones and can use a certain degree of subconscious suggestion to bend others to their will.
**The following guilds are not given guild status through all of Theria, but only in certain areas**
Imperials
-The Imperials, as stated, were originally an ambitious family. They bought the skills of a Genetic Engineer and became the only guild to pass on abilities through sexual reproduction rather than the selection of new initiates. However, slow degradation of the Change produced a brain imbalance passed on as a dominant gene possessed by every Imperial. By the time of Libretto, no Imperial could escape the family madness. They seized power of Song Royalle and subjected the other guilds in accordance with the Guild Laws (no guild can come into direct conflict with another). As Imperial rule on Song Royalle created poorer and poorer conditions in the city, the remaining guilds did nothing, the memory of the Jakha’tzi wars being too fresh in their collective consciousness. In an audacious move, the Vestells attempted to end the Imperial stranglehold on Song Royalle by Changing a civilian girl, giving her most of the abilities of an Executor.
Fae Mora
-The Fae Morae were never granted true guild status, but existed long before either the Jakha’tzi or the Dragon Guild. They are rumoured to be a second separate humanoid species inhabiting Song Royalle, perhaps a type of elemental, but are extremely elusive. Few have seen a member of the Fae Mora. They are certainly, however, known to exist before the advent of either Executors (who produced the first engineers) or Coer d’Angeli’s fabled Angelus. From what is known of them, the Fae Morae were closely connected with the terrestrial body of Theria itself, effected by it’s needs and geological changes. They had a great gift of prescience by all accounts, and may have continued to exist after the downfall of the other guilds during the Guild hunts. Jessimar Mathison, a historian turned environmental reformer in the years prior to the nuclear holocaust was rumoured to have become a Fae Morae somehow.
Miscellaneous Guild Facts And Definitions
Guild Laws: set of laws governing relationships between guilds. Mentioned in the section ‘Working Within A City’ and ‘Guidelines For Interguild Relationships’
Guild Codes: codes governing relationships between guilds and civilians. Mentioned in ‘Particulars of a Silent Revolution’ and ‘Guilds--Vampirium’. The most important code is the Code of Benignity, which states that a guild member must not harm a civilian unless caught in conflict or sanctioned by both his or her guild head and an engineer. However, enforcement of the codes is far more lax than that of the laws.
Each guild has its own individualized creed of purpose and rules of conduct, and they vary between guilds.
The guilds most sympathetic to civilian issues are the Vestells and Fanged Lotus, whereas those who are most likely to disregard them are the Vampirium and Jakha’tzi (which is no surprise due to their predatory nature). The Dragon Guild is peculiar in being most similar to civilians and yet working for or against them on the whim of each individual member (this guild places the most emphasis on charting your own path).
Working Within A City
The guilds maintain their own supply lines and have the ability to cut off the supplies of a city they work within. However, strict guidelines govern the use of this ability. In a monarchy, only a member of the ruling family can initiate a Silent Revolution as this internal siege is called. In a democracy, the majority of the governing system must agree to a Silent Revolution for it to be initiated. HOWEVER let it be noted that a democracy has never requested a Silent Revolution and has no conceivable need to. It is generally asked for by feuding members within a royal family, or a monarch who wishes to subdue the populace.
Guilds maintain their own Houses throughout a city which are specific to the use of their particular guild, and guild Halls are maintained for communal use. The people know of the existence of the guilds but generally have no cause to bother with them except to move to the opposite side of the street when passing an initiate.
Let it also be noted that there is a stigma surrounding guild members. They are outsiders from general society and only in rare situations (such as the opera house of Song Royalle) form real relationships with non-guild members. The city owes a cull of genetically viable children to the guilds in exchange for help in times of war, city defence, aid during famines, etc. (cities with strong functioning guilds are usually more stable) Children are taken by each guild on a first come first served basis. It is up to each guild to discover their own potential members from among the city’s inhabitants.
Guidelines For Interguild Relationships
The guilds are STRICTLY prohibited from open conflict with each other. There are generally veiled animosities between the guilds due to their varied functions, but no guild can pit itself against another.
Only once in Theria’s history did a guild choose to break this law. The Jakha’tzi chapter in Giltherang cut off supply lines to the city in hopes of seizing power. The guilds were divided, siding with or against the Jakha’tzi. This resulted in one of Theria’s most brutal wars and ended with the elimination of all Jakha’tzi in Giltherang. Once again, let it be noted that this was different than the Imperial takeover of Song Royalle.
(The Imperials were A) an isolated guild. They only held power in Song Royalle, and were originally a family who paid a Guild Engineer to change them (the family had a history of genetic viability). The corrupt Guild Executor of Song Royalle supported this formation of a new guild due to bribes from the Imperials.
They were B) subtle. They took over power gradually during the course of 300 years, and during a Dark Age when the other guilds were concerned with survival.
They were C) eventually ruined by their changes, as they were not all fully viable for alteration. Madness took hold in the family and was passed on to every member as a dominant gene.)
Particulars Of A Silent Revolution
A Silent Revolution is not without its costs to the initiator. While it may be used selectively to starve out a public enemy and the people may understand these motives, the price of a Revolution is high. For one week, all laws governing civilian and guild interactions are nullified. Death tolls skyrocket during this time as the Jakha’tzi, Vampirium and Mariners stalk the streets. Some guilds traditionally refrain from partaking in the lawlessness, but the majority do, embittered by the usual harsh civilian attitude towards themselves.
Guild Engineers
Guild engineers or genetic engineers are selected from the best and brightest guild members. Criteria for selection vary drastically between guilds. Interest in the position may also be a factor in engineer selection.
Engineers generally maintain strong ties to their guild of origin, doing the majority of their genetic alteration for said guild. They are generally characterized by a better understanding of civilians than other guild members. In fact, sympathy for the common people is something of an unwritten requirement for an engineer. Despite appearances to the contrary, all guilds are highly aware of the symbiotic relationship they share with the common people and try to maintain a fragile balance with them. No matter how powerful the guilds, the civilians far outnumber them. Engineers are key in maintaining this balance, and are usually well known to the civilians. They keep informed of all issues effecting their city.
Guild engineers in this role are similar to the parliament in a monarchy, their overlord being the Guild Executor. The power the Executor has over its engineers varies depending on the city. While engineers maintain the abilities of their guild and receive new ones, their appearances generally revert to something similar to that of a civilian.
Guild Executors
The origin of Guild Executors is much speculated upon. The two most popular theories are that they are ‘Angeli’ similar to those who frequented Coer d’Angeli before Theria’s nuclear holocaust or that they are indeed human, but Changed to a great degree.
Guild Executors are androgynous and unable to reproduce. Due to the uncertainty of their true nature, no one knows whether this was a safeguard put into place by engineers to keep them from producing a master race, or a peculiarity of their alien species. In any event, when wearing their true forms, Executors are only vaguely humanoid. They have developed flexible, resilient skeletons similar to the Jakha’tzi, have the same lust for blood as the Vampirium, and channel electrical currents as do the Vestells. In short, they possess all guild capabilities at once.
Executors are extremely cunning in a predatory way. While the emotional and logical centres of their brains are poorly developed, they make up for it with a fanatical obsession regarding balance. They care little for civilians and tolerate the guilds because the relationship is mutually beneficial. To the majority of guild chapters, an Executor is more a pseudo-deity than a director. They are feared, respected, served with few questions and occasionally worshipped. However, only high ranking or extremely devout initiates are permitted to know the false identity the Executor assumes while living in the city.
Notably the two guilds who have never worshipped an Executor are the most dissimilar. The Vestells and the Vampirium concede to work with Executors when their purposes align, but refrain from contact with them otherwise.
As stated, Guild Executors are obsessed with balance, and to a far greater degree than the guilds (it should be noted that balance is a primary motive of all guilds). They (Executors) maintain it in their individual cities at all costs, and this is almost always the full scope of their somewhat limited view. The only documented exception to this rule occurred in Song Royalle, when the Executor became fixated on the fact that most of Theria was at peace and bent itself on destruction and pain in the interest of balance. It is believed that this was not an isolated occurrence, as there have been other occasions when an Executor seemed to throw balance within its city to the winds and assume a set position. However, the motives of these Executors have never been definitely ascertained.
The Executors have a lifespan of several centuries.
Guilds
Jakha’tzi (pronounced JaKAtzi)
-shape shifters. They possess particularly resilient, flexible skeletons and so have the ability to manipulate their shapes. Another effect of the Change allows them to quickly grow hair. They are primarily concerned with the manipulation of the physical form. This is the oldest guild and first came into being out of a necessity to survive an ice age. Those with the capacity to shift form survived with greater ease, and assisted civilians in living to see the first melting.
Vestells (I’m sure you can guess how Vestell is pronounced)
-channelers. They conduct electricity and can bend it to their will. Legends that the Vestells also channel the souls of the dead are unsubstantiated. They are primarily concerned with the manipulation of unseen elements, and were formed in the aftermath of the ice age the Jakha’tzi grew from. This guild was formed to aid in the quick redevelopment of cities, and has been the greatest contributor to Theria’s sometimes frenzied and uneven rates of technological development. Guild engineers are commonly taken from the Vestells, as they have a propensity for that sort of work to begin with.
Vampirium (this you can pronounce too)
-the Vampirium is the youngest guild and was first formed on the Eastern Continent of Theria in response to a great need for population control. They are primarily concerned with matters related to death and possess an insatiable thirst for blood. Their growth throughout Theria was exponentially faster than that of the other guilds, and their members are generally quick tempered and manipulative. It is the Vampirium who benefits greatly in the aftermath of a Silent Revolution, and they are the guild who most often breaks the Code of Benignity.
Mariners (It’s a normal word. *g*)
-traders. The Mariners were formed after the re-growth of cities in Theria and were the first guild to be formed because of the need of other guilds, rather than the needs of civilians. They provide extremely reliable supply lines for the guilds, taking commerce across the seas and to the far reaches of Theria. They are a primary source of information for the other guilds and keep chapters in contact with each other.
Dragon Guild
-warriors. The Dragon Guild is an exception to the rule in that it existed prior to any genetic alteration taking place on Theria. It received guild status after the Jakha’tzi and the Vestells during the time when cities began feuding between each other, but its members had been hiring themselves out long before that time. The Dragon Guild is primarily concerned with combat, and are civilian in nature. They walk the line between common life and guild life, and one only needs to possess a minimal ability for genetic change to join the Dragon Guild. It is co ordination and aptitude as a fighter that this guild looks for in potential initiates. The Change that takes place in a Dragon initiate merely enhances strength, reflexes and the abilities of the senses. It also raises the pain threshold. The Dragons were given guild status to provide balance between guild and civilian casualties during civilian wars, as guild members were approaching the civilian numbers. Since the Change of the Dragons it is not unusual for rogue initiates of other guilds to be caught in the cross fire of civilian wars.
Fanged Lotus Guild
-pleasure givers. The Fanged Lotus’ are peculiar in having been the only guild not formed on either the Western or Eastern Continents, but rather in the Southern Islands. Their primary concern is the provision of pleasure for both other guild members and civilians. Every member of this guild engages in some form of prostitution at some time or another, and the Fanged Lotus’ are one of the wealthiest guilds. Members are skilled in intrigue and are known for their great subtlety. Fanged Lotus guilds produce and distribute psychotropic drugs, strange alcohols and civilian prostitutes. They also dabble in poisons and developed the two substances used by guild engineers and occasionally for recreation, these being Chyme and Lotus Blood. The majority of Fanged Lotus initiates are women, but many men have been known to excel in this guild. Along with genetic viability, beauty and cleverness are key to acceptance into this guild. Primary Changes alter members so that they produce colourless, odourless pheromones and can use a certain degree of subconscious suggestion to bend others to their will.
**The following guilds are not given guild status through all of Theria, but only in certain areas**
Imperials
-The Imperials, as stated, were originally an ambitious family. They bought the skills of a Genetic Engineer and became the only guild to pass on abilities through sexual reproduction rather than the selection of new initiates. However, slow degradation of the Change produced a brain imbalance passed on as a dominant gene possessed by every Imperial. By the time of Libretto, no Imperial could escape the family madness. They seized power of Song Royalle and subjected the other guilds in accordance with the Guild Laws (no guild can come into direct conflict with another). As Imperial rule on Song Royalle created poorer and poorer conditions in the city, the remaining guilds did nothing, the memory of the Jakha’tzi wars being too fresh in their collective consciousness. In an audacious move, the Vestells attempted to end the Imperial stranglehold on Song Royalle by Changing a civilian girl, giving her most of the abilities of an Executor.
Fae Mora
-The Fae Morae were never granted true guild status, but existed long before either the Jakha’tzi or the Dragon Guild. They are rumoured to be a second separate humanoid species inhabiting Song Royalle, perhaps a type of elemental, but are extremely elusive. Few have seen a member of the Fae Mora. They are certainly, however, known to exist before the advent of either Executors (who produced the first engineers) or Coer d’Angeli’s fabled Angelus. From what is known of them, the Fae Morae were closely connected with the terrestrial body of Theria itself, effected by it’s needs and geological changes. They had a great gift of prescience by all accounts, and may have continued to exist after the downfall of the other guilds during the Guild hunts. Jessimar Mathison, a historian turned environmental reformer in the years prior to the nuclear holocaust was rumoured to have become a Fae Morae somehow.
Miscellaneous Guild Facts And Definitions
Guild Laws: set of laws governing relationships between guilds. Mentioned in the section ‘Working Within A City’ and ‘Guidelines For Interguild Relationships’
Guild Codes: codes governing relationships between guilds and civilians. Mentioned in ‘Particulars of a Silent Revolution’ and ‘Guilds--Vampirium’. The most important code is the Code of Benignity, which states that a guild member must not harm a civilian unless caught in conflict or sanctioned by both his or her guild head and an engineer. However, enforcement of the codes is far more lax than that of the laws.
Each guild has its own individualized creed of purpose and rules of conduct, and they vary between guilds.
The guilds most sympathetic to civilian issues are the Vestells and Fanged Lotus, whereas those who are most likely to disregard them are the Vampirium and Jakha’tzi (which is no surprise due to their predatory nature). The Dragon Guild is peculiar in being most similar to civilians and yet working for or against them on the whim of each individual member (this guild places the most emphasis on charting your own path).
posted by Lauralie at 5:54 PM
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