Ivy had to remind herself that she’d agreed to this.
Things were patched up with Gus, that was good. He was still in the Guard, but that was his choice. Last time she was at Runner’s Haven, the two had bumped into each other again.
After a quick catch up, Gus mentioned that he’d had a message from Griff, about some post that his aunt and uncle had sent, but instead of it going to the forge, it was stuck at Mulladún’s Messenger Tower.
“I’ll get it,” Ivy had sighed, knowing where this was going. “I’ve got no messages to pick up here.”
“Thanks Ivy,” Gus sagged in relief. “I don’t hear from them often, so I didn’t want to miss it.”
“Is this why you wanted to find me here? To be your personal courier?”
“No!”
Ivy raised an eyebrow.
“…Maybe. I wanted to spend time with you too!”
“I’m teasing you Gus,” Ivy smiled. “I’ll get it tomorrow. Meet you in Glenbeg?”
“Yeah. Thanks again.”
“Thank me when I’ve done it,” Ivy downed her drink. “I’ll meet you the day after tomorrow, probably in the evening.”
It was only when Ivy got to Mulladún the next day that she remembered how many stairs there were. And guess where the Messenger Tower was?
Otto got bored before she did, landing on Firefly’s saddle, much to the horse’s irritation. Ivy had gotten off before they even reached the stairs.
The next worst point was passing the Guard Coalition hub. Ivy found herself glancing at it as they passed. It was hard to miss, because of course it was. Couldn’t just be a building with the Guard’s emblem on it, no. Griffin gate guards, despite the lack of gate, walls decorated with swords and shields, as if the griffins didn’t give it away.
Firefly didn’t seem so bothered, and Otto was trying to work out how Ivy was so agitated walking past it. He puffed his feathers up and hissed at the obviously offensive building, making Ivy laugh.
“Thanks Otto, you’re right,” she scratched his head, and he leaned into it, eyes closing.
The Messenger Tower wasn’t far from the guild hub. It was backed up against the central keep, which acted as a spine for the entire city. The tower jutted out a little above the keep, and ravens flew in and out of the very top in small groups.
The inside was pretty similar to the Messenger Tower in Fort Stiofán, making Ivy wonder if the latter had used the former for inspiration. One chute per floor was spaced equidistant from each other around the room with a person at each one to sort the messages.
They’ll all have come from the floors above, so they were already sorted depending on where they were going, down here it was just more sorting, depending on how much there was going to one place.
Right at the front of everything, blocking this all off from the public, was a greeter desk, which Ivy made a beeline for.
“Good day, do you have a message to send?” the greeting was probably scripted.
“I’ve come to pick up actually. Weird request, a message to a Gus Graham in Glenbeg?”
“Do you have permission to pick this up?”
Ivy had prepared for this, and slid across written permission from Gus with both of them having their signatures on, just in case.
“Very well,” the clerk had a look at their notes. “Ah yes, we were waiting to send that out with the rest of the post for Glenbeg. It’s a big one with only a few other letters for Glenbeg.”
“I’m heading straight back there, I can drop the rest off,” Ivy oh so subtly slid across her membership papers to the Wander Legacy.
The clerk had a look over them. “I will have to pay you for your services of course, this is a little unusual to get a volunteer,” they looked through their desk and came up with a sum. “Will that suffice?”
“I was doing it as a favour for a friend,” Ivy started, but the clerk interrupted.
“And you’ve added on the rest of Glenbeg’s messages, ergo I should be paying you the same rate we pay for Career Runners. I appreciate you are not a Career Runner, but you are still endorsed by both the Wander Legacy and the Watch, highly respectable institutions”
“Fine, I don’t mind either way.”
“Excellent! If you please wait a moment,” the clerk disappeared for a second before reappearing with what looked like a large box and a small sheaf of letters. “There we go. The box is for Gus Graham, everything else is for Glenbeg.”
Ivy’s eyes had gone wide. She had not expected that, and was mentally trying to work out how in Samwise’s name she was going to get that back!
“A problem there Messenger?”
“…No, no problem,” Ivy took the package and letters. “I’ll send a raven once these are dropped off.”
“Thank you,” the clerk said, who Ivy could just see over the box. “Safe travels!”
Ivy just nodded, leaving the building and hoping Firefly wouldn’t balk at the package. Maybe she could tie to the saddlebags?
(Not much to say here, date is either late 1610 or early 1611 I think)
Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.
Other Posts in this Series
Guilds of Duilintinn Introduction • Fellowship of Thieves • Craftsmen’s Guilds • Merchants’ Guild • Guard Coalition • Wander Legacy • Mercenary Syndicate • Inventors’ Guild • Mages’ Guild • Foresters’ Guild • Keepers of Memory • Scholars’ College • Lifeworker Institute • Order of Stone • Farmers’ Guild • Ocean Men • Artisan’s Guild • Grand Troupe • Bards’ Guild •
In this Post
Summary
Guild Hubs
Apprenticeships
History
Assignments, including a section on Bounty Hunting
Culture
Inter-Guild Dynamics
Summary
The Mercenary Syndicate is a guild for those who want to hire out their fighting abilities without the administrative strings of the Guard Coalition. It is one of the three major guilds of House Jackie
Guild Hubs
The Mercenary Syndicate’s main guild hub is located in the Professional District of Mulladún, House Jackie. While the Mercenary Syndicate conducts most of their official operations from here, they generally prefer to take their training exercises into the amphitheaters of the lower levels or outside the city walls.
In addition, like all of Duilintinn’s officially recognized guilds, the Mercenary Syndicate has a hub representing itself on Guild Row in Cordoire’s Administrator’s District. Here, the guild can advocate for its members in the political sphere of Duilintinn’s national capital.
Apprenticeships
Like most other guilds in Duilintinn, the Mercenary Syndicate connects students pursuing higher education with members who need additional help and/or wish to pass on their knowledge to the next generation. This mostly involves informal training between an experienced fighter and a student wishing to learn a new skill or improve one they have, in contrast to the training drills of the Guard Coalition.
History
Prior to the Waldren Occupation, guards throughout Duilintinn were simply hired mercenaries. Then, a training program got started in House Jackie, and people started only hiring people who got certified. That’s how the Guard Coalition was born.
Hired mercenaries have always played a major role in the socio economic landscape of the Feadhainn Valley. Prior to the Waldren Occupation, the mercenary career was well-respected for the protection it provided in the form of guards, escorts, town defenders, and more. However, at some point during the Occupation Era, a training program was developed to “certify” former mercenaries as official knights under a specific group, which would eventually become the Guard Coalition.
Obviously, not everyone in the mercenary world wanted to give up their freedom for a fancy certification and strict hierarchy of authority telling them how to fight and what jobs to take. Many wished to remain independent, taking jobs as they pleased and remaining accountable to only themselves and trusted compatriots. However, as the occupation continued, people began to only hire guards certified by the Coalition, viewing uncertified mercenaries as untrustworthy and brutish in comparison to the noble, disciplined knights of the Guard.
Eventually, the mercenaries knew that they would have to adapt to remake their reputation. Following the example of the Coalition, groups of mercenaries began to cluster together to form mercenary companies, making names for themselves and carving a niche for their role in the local area. Of course, this wasn’t an overnight change, but a slow evolution throughout most of the Interim Years.
From this point, the bands of mercenaries would develop in one of several directions. Unfortunately, some of these groups devolved into roaming groups of bandits and brigands. Others continued to work as true mercenaries, but would get caught up in the huge power-vacuum conflict taking place in the eastern half of the Feadhainn Valley, essentially becoming a personal army for the various factions in all but name.
However, many groups remained true to their mercenary roots, retaining their independence and abiding by their personal codes without losing sight of the respected role they once held in the land. As a general rule, these mercenary bands heavily disapproved of the power-vacuum conflict taking place throughout the valley; for every group that would get swept up in the fighting, another would dedicate themselves to offering their services to those who were threatened by the conflict.
This all came to a head during the Quest for Duilintinn. As word spread about the group of adventurers who were challenging the warring factions in Cordoire, many groups of mercenaries were inspired to do something of their own. As a result, several dozen mercenary bands gathered in Mulladún and decided to join forces, creating the Mercenary Syndicate. They would eventually offer their aid to the future king and became an important source of strength for the rest of the Quest for Duilintinn. After Duilintinn’s founding, they became an official guild of the kingdom.
Assignments
When you hire a mercenary, where you’re paying for the person’s support. For however long you’re paying them (usually an hourly or daily wage) they will have your back, come hell or high water, like Skyrim followers. This is different from when you hire a member of the Guard Coalition, you’re paying for specific tasks. Once the contract is signed, the knight you’ve hired is only obligated to perform the role described in that agreement. For example, if you hired a member of the Guard to enforce local law, you can’t suddenly demand that they accompany you on a quest across the land, despite the fact that you’re the one who’s paying them. If you want that sort of support, you’d hire a member of the Mercenary Syndicate instead.
For example, say you wanted to take a journey across the mountain pass between Duilintinn and Haneul. It’s a dangerous trip, and you might want to bring some sort of protection. If you hire a member of the Guard, you’d work up a contract where they escort you through the pass and protect you from danger to the best of their ability. If you hire a member of the Mercenary Syndicate, you’d pay them for the duration of the trip, and in return, they’d help with whatever adventures you decided to get up to along the way, no matter the technicalities.
Of course, most, if not all mercenaries have some sort of moral line that they won’t cross in terms of jobs. For example, the vast majority of mercenaries will refuse to kill innocent bystanders. Mercenaries are expected to make these disclaimers very clear in advance, to avoid any awkward conversations mid-job.
Bounty Hunting
Bounty hunting is one of the Mercenary Syndicate's most popular services.
Duilintinn has no government-sanctioned internal or external extradition policies; if you're willing to permanently abandon everything you once called home in exchange for escaping justice, that's generally seen as punishment enough. However, this is only an effective deterrent for people who break regional or national laws; it's not nearly as much upheaval to move to a nearby town to escape local justice, especially if the criminal wasn’t even a citizen of that town in the first place. Therefore, if a victim does not feel as if justice or closure will be accomplished until the criminal is brought back to the town to face legal action, they are within their rights to attempt to drag that person back to the town in which the crime was committed. It's all technically legal, albeit a bit extrajudicial.
However, if the victim and/or their friends can't drag the criminal back home on their own, they will usually hire the Mercenary Syndicate to pursue and extradite criminals who fled the town in which they commited a crime. Communities will often help the victim raise reward money so that the person who wronged them can face justice, both to help them feel safe in their home and to give the town itself some closure. In turn, the Syndicate takes pride in this niche role they have in Duilintinn’s legal system, especially since the Guard Coalition, despite dominating the majority of the law enforcement sphere, has absolutely no extradition powers of their own.
Culture
The mercenary Syndicate is more focused on internal codes over the strict training and organization valued by the Guard Coalition. The biggest rule is to always follow through with the job you were paid for; whether or not you’re willing to take a job is one thing, but once you take the money, you do the job. This goes both ways, and the syndicate provides aid to mercenaries who are taken advantage of by greedy jerks who don’t pay what they promised.
These mercenaries also value resolve and resignation. They’ll like a person who truly believes the job they took was warranted far more than someone who wallows in guilt after each job. If you’re doing mercenary work out of desperation, you’d do better to find allies in the Fellowship of Thieves, but if you take pride in your ability to knock some heads for coin and honor, then the Mercenary Syndicate is for you.
Inter-Guild Dynamics
Unsurprisingly, the Mercenary Syndicate is considered an active rival of the Guard Coalition. While the reasons for hiring a member of the Guard versus a mercenary are different enough that they rarely come into direct competition with each other, the Syndicate’s culture and history lends itself to something of a rivalry. That being said, animosity between these two guilds has somewhat lessened over the years corresponding with the rise of The Watch as the primary usurper of the Guard’s jurisdiction.
On the other hand, the Mercenary Syndicate has no issue with its members joining The Watch. After all, the primary goal of this guild is to help people get work without having to join the Coalition, and what is The Watch if not a job that needs all the skilled fighters it can get?
Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.
Other Posts in this Series
Guilds of Duilintinn Introduction • Fellowship of Thieves • Craftsmen’s Guilds • Merchants’ Guild • Guard Coalition • Wander Legacy • Mercenary Syndicate • Inventors’ Guild • Mages’ Guild • Foresters’ Guild • Keepers of Memory • Scholars’ College • Lifeworker Institute • Order of Stone • Farmers’ Guild • Ocean Men • Artisan’s Guild • Grand Troupe • Bards’ Guild •
In this Post
Summary
Guild Hubs
Name Origin
Apprenticeships
Culture, including news delivery, career running, and horse and raven care
Inter-Guild Dynamics: The Lifeworker Institute, The Watch
Trivia
Summary
The Wander Legacy is the guild for anyone who has a profession that travels or aids those who travel, especially on horseback. It is one of the three major guilds of House Jackie.
Guild Hubs
Technically, the Wander Legacy’s main guild hub is located in the Professional District of Mulladún, House Jackie. However, the Wander Legacy conducts most of its operations from a large stable complex just outside the city.
The guild also has small hubs in every major city of Duilintinn, from which the “kingdom-wide news” is distributed throughout the region to message boards of local towns.
Finally, like all of Duilintinn’s officially recognized guilds, the Wander Legacy has a hub representing itself on Guild Row in Cordoire’s Administrator’s District. Here, the guild can advocate for its members in the political sphere of Duilintinn’s national capital.
Name Origin
The Wander Legacy is named after the legend of Wander and Agro: the same legend for which the Agrona River was named.
Obviously, a guild full of riders and people who run errands for other people is very worthy of carrying the name of this tale's gullible protagonist. More importantly, the legacy aspect of carrying on the ancient memory of this misled but good-hearted figure gives the members of this guild a greater purpose than simply being the “errand runners” of Duilintinn.
Apprenticeships
Unlike most other guilds in Duilintinn, the Wander Legacy does not have a system through which to provide students with an opportunity for higher education. There is little an apprentice can do to aid a messenger; if anything, they'd slow their mentor down during deliveries. As long as you can ride a horse, read a map, and demonstrate your understanding of the culture and expectations of messengers within the guild, you're good. There's not a lot of training required.
Culture
Duilintinn places significant cultural value upon the role of messengers in Duil society, similar to the way other cultures place significance on offering up one's home to those in need of shelter. Instead of offering a place to stay, Duil culture is adamant about ensuring that everyone can keep in communication with the people who are important to them. As a result, happily delivering the messages of others is a cultural aspect of hospitality you’ll find across the kingdom, and the Wander Legacy is perhaps the greatest example of this cultural priority.
News Delivery
The Wander Legacy has the government-mandated duty to collect, organize, and deliver regular “kingdom-wide news” reports to every major city at the same time each day. Members of the guild in these cities will then deliver these reports to the message boards of local towns. Depending on how far away from western House Jackie a city/town would receive their news at different times of the day from ones that are closer to Mulladún and Runner's Haven.
Career Runners
Members of the guild who aren’t hired by the government to deliver news are often employed as “Career Runners.” While finding a traveler to deliver messages is convenient and simple, it’s not the most reliable system. For packages or urgent messages, you probably want to find someone who delivers stuff throughout the kingdom for their job. They are more expensive, but also more reliable. Common practice is to place the payment inside of the package or message, sealed by a unique wax seal. All of this is done in front of the runner and another witness. The recipient will open the seal upon delivery and give the payment to the runner. If they find the seal broken, it’s considered theft. If the runner can give suitable evidence that the seal was broken by accident on the way, they won’t be convicted of a crime, but their reputation as a career runner will still be damaged.
The tradition of career running has existed for centuries prior to Duilintinn’s founding, but it didn’t always have such a good reputation. In the past, some considered the job of a career runner to be lazy and “lesser,” fit only for those with no other skills. Thankfully, most people today respect career runners as an important part of Duilintinn’s economy and culture, to the point where large population centers will often contract career runners to deliver large batches of letters and parcels. Unfortunately (or maybe not?), the stereotypes of the past still hang over those who deliver messages for a living. As a result, career runners are very concerned with their reputation to deliver things quickly and safely to this day.
There are many reasons why one would decide to become a career runner; unlike most occupations, they don’t tend to cluster in any one specific house. Many are people with a sense of adventure or desire to travel who don’t want to join the Guard Coalition or Mercenary Syndicate. Others are people who appreciate the value of creativity, and take part in that cultural scene by spreading the creative works of others across the kingdom, rather than creating things themselves. Many nowadays are simply inspired by the romantic ideal of keeping people connected that is a major part of Duilintinn’s culture.
Horse and Raven Care
Additionally, the use of horses and ravens as steeds and efficient message deliverers (respectively) is vital to the work of the Wander Legacy. Thus, the guild highly prioritizes the study and care of these animals, offering membership to those with careers in these fields as well. Many of its members run stables or ranches to raise and care for horses, while others manage rookeries with the help of a mage capable of animal communication in order to train and care for ravens that wish to be messengers.
Inter-Guild Dynamics
Relationship with Lifeworker Institute
The Wander Legacy is very invested in understanding how to care for their steeds on a practical level. As a result, they often cooperate with the Lifeworker Institute to share what they have learned and ensure they are able to care for their horses to the best of their ability.
Relationship with The Watch
The Wander Legacy’s kingdom-wide news delivery system would be heavily expanded for The Watch’s network of messengers. Actively encouraged by the Wander Legacy and developed with their help during the period from 1599 to 1602, the resulting network of messengers, outposts, and community engagement from within The Watch would eventually evolve into something akin to a postal system. Unlike the Guard Coalition, which resents The Watch for encroaching upon their jurisdiction as the kingdom’s protectors, the Wander Legacy celebrates and continues to support The Watch’s role in the kingdom’s communication network, with many guild members also working as messengers for The Watch part or full-time.
Trivia
The story of Wander and Agro is inspired heavily by the narrative of the video game Shadow of the Colossus, which released in 2005 for the PS2 and is one of the all-time favorite games played by the AU’s inspiration and source material, Sean McLoughlin.
Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.
This is another one that has a fair bit of new lore, albeit in a different way than other posts that had negated the above disclaimer. The concept of the Coalition has been around for a while, and as the rest of the world has evolved, certain details about the Coalition were subtly retconned to better fit. As a result, it’s more accurate to say that the lore below is new in that it is now comprehensive, taken all of the other details about the Coalition into account, reworking ideas that don’t quite work anymore, and adding a few more concepts for context. Enjoy!
Other Posts in this Series
Guilds of Duilintinn Introduction • Fellowship of Thieves • Craftsmen’s Guilds • Merchants’ Guild • Guard Coalition • Wander Legacy • Mercenary Syndicate • Inventors’ Guild • Mages’ Guild • Foresters’ Guild • Keepers of Memory • Scholars’ College • Lifeworker Institute • Order of Stone • Farmers’ Guild • Ocean Men • Artisan’s Guild • Grand Troupe • Bards’ Guild •
In this Post
Summary
Guild Hubs
History
Membership, featuring Training and Certification, Ranks, Honorary Knighthood, and Leaving the Coalition
Assignments, including Knight’s Preference, Contract and Limitations, Year-Long Assignments, Temporary Assignments, and Law Enforcement Assignments
Internal Oversight, with sections on Intentional Wrongdoing, Employed Wrongdoing, and Lawful Wrongdoing
Culture, featuring Free Time, Magic, Uniforms and Equipment, and Attitudes and Traditions.
Inter-Guild Dynamics: The Watch, Fellowship of Thieves, and Mercenary Syndicate
Summary
The Guard Coalition is a guild of trained and organized knights that seek to defend Duilintinn and her people. It is one of the three major guilds of House Jackie.
This guild is sometimes referred to as “the Guard” or “The Coalition,” sometimes capitalized and sometimes not.
Guild Hubs
Technically, the Guard Coalitions’ main guild hub is located in the Professional District of Mulladún, House Jackie. However, the Guard Coalition uses their hub in the city as a status symbol more than anything else, conducting most of their operations from a facility called the Whetstone, located over half a day’s ride to the east, just off the main road to Cordoire.
The Whetstone is the center of practical operations for the Guard Coalition. Knights of the Guard Coalition have been trained and deployed from this training camp for decades, possibly even centuries. As long as the Guard Coalition has existed, so too have the well-worn fields of The Whetstone been trampled under the feet of knights and knights-to-be throughout history.
Finally, like all of Duilintinn’s officially recognized guilds, the Guard Coalition has a hub representing itself on Guild Row in Cordoire’s Administrator’s District. Here, the guild can advocate for its members in the political sphere of Duilintinn’s national capital.
History
Prior to the Waldren Occupation, guards throughout Duilintinn were simply hired mercenaries. Then, at some point during the Occupation Era, a training program got started in House Jackie, and people started only hiring people who got certified. That’s how the Guard Coalition was born. The Guard Coalition had held a major role in the Feadhainn Valley’s socio economic landscape for centuries before Duilintinn was founded. Local towns have been hiring knights of the Guard Coalition to help enforce the laws of their community for as long as they can remember. The Guard Coalition would also play a vital part of The Quest for Duilintinn. After the kingdom was founded, roads were built and word spread about the Guard's role in the quest and their useful services to local towns, especially when the king's government began hiring members of the Guard to aid with law enforcement on a kingdom-wide level, causing the guild's popularity to soar. In the years since Duilintinn's founding, there are very few towns of any size that do not hire at least a handful of knights each year.
Since Duilintinn is protected on all sides by natural boundaries, with mountains to the north and south, an ocean to the east, and a vast, dangerous forest to the west, the kingdom has no need for a standing army capable of fighting the army of another land; only people willing and able to prevent internal violence within the kingdom, to enforce the law, and to protect against the occasional wild animal attack.
When The Enemy became a threat, there was an attempt to adapt the Guard system into an army, but it became clear very quickly that this wasn’t gonna work. the Guard system was simply too spread out. Being based in House Jackie at the center of the kingdom is great when you need to be accessible everywhere at once, but really really bad if you want to defend your borders from an outside threat. When the king was attacked a second time, it became clear that another solution needed to be found, and thus, The Watch was born.
In the three years between the announcement of The Watch in 1599 and its eventual implementation in 1603, many renovations were made to Fort Stiofán and Fort Conchúr, the two future garrisons of The Watch. Since the initial plan was to build barracks-style living spaces, the Guard Coalition were also consulted on how to safely, efficiently, and practically house as many Watchers as possible into the limited space they had in each garrison. The Guard Coalition’s advice would lead to the distinct living quarters between the two garrisons, each designed to better fit the needs of those who would likely be working there.
As the Watch began to grow in its influence, the Coalition began to resent the group for overstepping its bounds over what the Guard believed was their jurisdiction.
In modern-day, the Guard Coalition has a bit of revisionist history regarding Lord Jackie. In his youth, a young Jackie actually deserted the Guard Coalition to become a vigilante once he realized that the life of a knight was more about keeping order than what he perceived as attacking the problems head-on. While he eventually made up with the Coalition during the quest to found Duilintinn, Lord Jackie never rejoined their ranks except in name and as brothers in arms, refusing to take orders or assignments as a member of the Guard. While the Guard Coalition doesn’t necessarily lie about this element of their shared history, they treat Lord Jackie as an aspect of their legacy as if he was always a true member of the Guard and omitting certain technicalities. In all likelihood, the Guard Coalition feels that the reputation of having a Noble Lord as one of their “alumni” (so to speak) outweighs any benefits of or petty desires to nitpick Lord Jackie’s claim to knighthood.
Membership
Training and Certification
In order to be a certified knight and assigned member of the Guard, you have to attend a few years of boot camp at The Whetstone and then return at some point every summer for one week to get recertified. Certified guards are then given their assignments for the new year based on annual reports from each house telling House Jackie how many guards they require and where to send them. After giving them any new equipment they might need and patting them on the back, House Jackie sends the Guards off to do their thing and gets ready to re-certify the group coming in next week.
To ensure that everyone gets properly recertified, there is a record of every guard that has ever completed the first multi-year round of training and where they have been stationed since then. Rather than call in every member of the Guard at once, groups of guards are called in at specific intervals throughout the summer to ensure that nowhere is left completely unguarded.
The Guard takes pride in ensuring that everyone at their post has been properly certified each year, and they won’t let anyone slip under the radar. They even send horse-drawn carts to the further-flung regions of the kingdom to ensure that everyone gets to training on time with as few hiccups as possible. If you do not arrive during your assigned time without sending ahead a message explaining why you were delayed or otherwise occupied, you get a warning. Do it again and you get put on probation.
Ranks
The Guard Coalition has a very strict internal rank that determines one's responsibilities and authority within the guild. While some are tied to age, others require a specific milestone to be reached before promotion.
Children who join the Guard at a young age start out at the rank of a Page. These members mostly run errands around the Whetstone and receive basic weapons training; nothing intensive, just the early basics of combat. In return, they would be given food and shelter. This made joining the Guard as a page a tempting proposition for young orphans or impoverished families, though the practice lessened significantly as socioeconomic conditions improved in the wake of Duilintinn’s founding.
At 15 years of age, members of the Guard are automatically promoted to the rank of a Squire This rank indicates that you are undergoing the intense years of boot camp required by the Coalition before you are officially knighted and able to receive assignments. In addition to the grueling training, squires are expected to help out around the Whetstone in return for room and board. In the last year of this training, squires are paired up with a fully certified knight to shadow them during their assignment for the year. If the squire properly proves themself during that time, they are eligible to be knighted upon their return. If not, they undergo another year of training, then try again the following year.
Since guard assignments always start and end in the summer, this means that the vast majority of squires are officially knighted in the summer months and then immediately given an official assignment. Since several squires might be eligible for knighthood at the same time, this often results in a “Mass Knighting” ceremony, hilariously described by tumblr user @theshapeshifter100 and paraphrased by me as:
With a general wide sweep of a sword, the officer declares, “You’re all Knights, now piss off!”
At this point, all a member of the Guard needs to do to retain their knighthood is to keep their noses clean and show up to recertification every summer.
Higher rankings, such as “Knight Captain,” are optional career paths taken by some knights. Instead of going on assignment, these knights would remain at the Whetstone for further training, probably in a tiny group of 3 to 5 under a single high-ranking instructor. Unlike pages or squires, however, knights seeking additional training for higher ranks must be able to afford their own keep. This is supposed to force a knight to save up their income earned on assignment for several years before seeking a higher rank, allowing them to get some experience first. However, it also creates a class barrier, especially for members of the Coalition with families or other responsibilities to worry about. That being said, the Guard will sometimes require a group in training for higher ranks to take a temporary paid assignment, but not often enough that trainees can rely on temp jobs as their sole source of income. Those who do earn a higher rank can take a variety of roles within the Coalition, such as leading teams of knights on important assignments, overseeing training, handling complaints, punishments, and probations, or taking other administrative roles at the Whetstone. They are also asked to take temporary assignments from time to time, but are not required to take a year-long assignment unless they wish to do so.
Honorary Knighthood
There is one exception to the process of becoming a knight. The ruling monarch of Duilintinn has the authority to bestow upon someone the title of knight for deeds of great merit or service to the kingdom. This title is kept for life, without any training or recertification required.
However, this honor does not automatically grant the recipient membership within the Guard Coalition. The Coalition considers people knighted this was to be knights in name only, rather than the real thing. If one of these “honorary knights” tried to walk into The Whetstone and ask for an assignment like everyone else who had spent years of consistent training to keep their title, they’d be rejected outright with scorn and prejudice.
That being said, if an honorary knight wishes, they can humbly ask to join the guild just like everyone else. They still have to go through the training process, but by merit of their deeds and prior experience, they are usually fast-tracked through the program and highly respected once they earn their official certification as a true knight of the Coalition.
Additionally, if a member of the guild who was in the process of training to become a knight was knighted by the king, the guild would honor that title by fast-tracking the knight through the remainder of the program so they can join the ranks of their fellows knights in the guild as soon as possible. However, knights who received honorary knighthood and also joined the guild, either before or after the fact, still must attend the yearly recertification training alongside everyone else to retain their status as an official knight of the Guard Coalition.
Leaving the Coalition
Unlike organizations such as The Watch, the Guard Coalition looks down on people who leave to pursue other careers. Retirement and temporary leave from assignments is fine, but you’re still considered one of their own. To forsake your duty to the Guard permanently is seen as a direct insult to every knight in the Coalition.
This is in part due to the deep undercurrent of tradition and history that heavily defines the Guard Coalition's culture. The Coalition has been around for centuries, long predating the shift in cultural values brought on by Duilintinn’s founding. Therefore, the traditions of honor and pride that define the organization have continued in spite of the heavy emphasis on finding one’s place in the world in Duilintinn’s modern culture.
That being said, many who leave the Guard will retain the title of Knight if they pursue other fighting-based careers. While the Guard strongly dislikes this course of action, there’s very little they can do about it. Most people don’t think to question the career title you’ve given yourself, and those who do need to inquire about the accuracy of the title (such as potential employers) are more than happy to accept an outdated Coalition certification as proof enough.
Assignments
Knight’s Preference
At the end of the annual recertification training, knights complete an application where they indicate their preferences on where and what type of work they wish to be assigned to.
Most knights, especially those of the younger generations, generally wish to be posted in their Noble House. Out of respect for the Noble Houses members are pledged to, knights who ask to be stationed in their Noble House are almost always guaranteed to receive an assignment in the region. The exception is House Jackie; since a disproportionate amount of the Guard is pledged to this Noble House, it’s not always possible to allow everyone who asks to remain in the region.
In addition, for no more than five years, knights can return to the same assignment they held in the previous year if they received a favorable report from their employer. However, after five years, the knight will have to be assigned elsewhere, lest their loyalties begin to shift in favor of their employer over their duty to the Coalition.
Once those first two categories are sorted, the rest of the knights are given their assignments. While the Coalition tries its best to place everyone in a job or location of their preference, knights are not guaranteed to be stationed at the top choice they indicated on their application.
Contract and Limitations
People or groups who wish to hire members of the Guard will submit an application listing the nature of the job, including size of the area they wish to be guarded and times at which they want guards on duty. These applications also contain a space for potential employers to indicate how many knights they believe would be necessary for this assignment.
First-time employers will often underestimate how many knights are needed for a job, either unintentionally out of ignorance or intentionally to try to save money and pressure the knights to work longer hours than the Coalition denotes on the contract, so the Coalition has its own team that runs the numbers on each of these applications. After assessing how many knights the assignment would actually require, the Coalition responds to the applicant with their recommendation and a price quote.
If the employer cannot hire more guards than they initially indicated on their application, they must edit the job description to something less intensive that can be handled by a team of that size. The Coalition would then review the application again, and the process would repeat until both parties come to an agreement or the applicant backs out. Once terms are finally agreed upon, a contract will be drawn up, the Coalition will be paid, and knights will be assigned to the job.
It's important to note that, when you hire a member of the Guard Coalition, you’re paying for specific tasks. Once the contract is signed, the knight you’ve hired is only obligated to perform the role described in that agreement. For example, if you hired a member of the Guard to enforce local law, you can’t suddenly demand that they accompany you on a quest across the land, despite the fact that you’re the one who’s paying them. Of course, if the quest doesn’t conflict with the existing terms of their contract, the knight in question could accompany you if they wanted to, but they aren’t obliged to. Moreover, knights are heavily discouraged from accepting such proposals, since they can be a slippery slope towards Contract Breaking or Employed Wrongdoing. As a general rule, if you’d like to hire someone who will support you in whatever you do for the period in which they’re being paid, you’d hire someone from the Mercenary Syndicate instead.
Patrons of the Coalition are also expected to provide food and board for the knights under their employ. Additionally, if the contract expects a specific uniform, the employer must pay an additional fee so that the Coalition can acquire the necessary equipment. As a result, most assignments allow the knights to use their own armor and weapons, with the exception of knights hired by the Noble Houses or Duilintinn’s national government to enforce regional or national law, which always pay to have their knights in full uniform emblazoned with the relevant insignia and coloration.
Year-Long Assignments
The Guard Coalition handles its full-year contracts like a subscription service.
Once the terms have been agreed upon and the Coalition has been paid, knights are assigned to the job and sent to their employer for the year, usually beginning in the summer. Contracts that begin mid-year are also a thing, but since this usually requires knights slated for temporary jobs or of higher rank to change their plans for the rest of the year, the rates are usually higher until the “guard year” resets in the summer.
After the year has ended, the employer can opt to renew their previous contract with the Coalition ad infinitum. They can also add additional jobs to the contract, which will still have to go through the same review process, but these addendums are never nearly the same amount of hassle as trying to settle a contract with a first-time guard employer. This is also one of the reasons why the Guard puts all the time and energy into advocating for their knights before accepting an application; the resulting contract could last for years, if not decades.
Temporary Assignments
There are often more knights enrolled in the Guard Coalition than can be assigned to year-long stations. Those that don’t get an assignment remain at The Whetstone to help with training and take on temporary assignments. Colloquially called “Temp Assignments,” these jobs are one-and-done requests for escorts, event security, monster hunting, etc.
Temporary assignments are more dangerous on average than standing at attention to scare off troublemakers, and due to the short term nature of these assignments, the pay is far less consistent than that of a year-long contract.
On the other hand, temporary jobs allow you to travel, get more time off to train or be with family, and avoid the risk of being stuck with a bad boss or crappy guard mates for a whole year. Some knights actively volunteer to be slated for temporary assignments for these benefits alone. The Guard also further incentivizes this option by offering free room and board at The Whetstone to those who remain at The Whetstone for this purpose.
Law Enforcement Assignments
In addition, members of the Guard Coalition might also be hired by local, regional, national governments as law enforcement. As mentioned above, these knights are always outfitted with a specific uniform and equipment with the color and insignia of the governing body they are employed by.
For the most part, these jobs are almost identical to working for a private entity like a landowner or organization. Knights are expected to learn the legal code of that community before they arrive and do whatever is asked of them by their patron. They have to abide by the same rules as other knights on duty and face the same consequences for misbehavior.
In practice, the main difference is size and scale. This not only differs heavily from working for a private entity, but also shifts considerably depending on the level of government the knights are employed by.
For example, a local town government might only hire a handful of guards, which usually get their orders directly from local leadership and coordinate these tasks between each other. On the flip side, the major cities will usually hire a small army, making communication completely different as guards have to report to an internal hierarchy, led by several higher-ranking members of the Coalition who were sent with the group and report to the regional authorities on behalf of the entire outfit.
In addition, the major cities aren’t just the seats of the regional/national governments, but also have a local government for the people living in the city itself. As a result, members of the Guard assigned to these cities often have to balance the difference between an assignment for the local government of the city, versus an assignment on behalf of the regional government. This adds a different layer of complexity as knights need to be aware of what jurisdiction they are supposed to be representing at any given time and how much authority that grants them.
Regardless of where they are stationed, it is a knight’s job to uphold the local laws as the enforcer of the law, not the creator of it. This sometimes includes carrying out the punishments doled out by the local legal system. As a part of this role, a knight may supervise the house arrest of a criminal who is a clear danger to themselves or others. If they are under the employment of the regional or national governments, they might also be assigned to guard the prison facilities in the major city (Monacoil, Fionport, Aghaboy, Mulladún, Noefrach, and Cordoire) of the Noble House they are serving.
However, it is not the responsibility of members of the Guard Coalition to chase down criminals who fled the town where they are stationed. Members of the Guard Coalition who are contracted to preserve the peace and enforce the law in a specific area cannot perform that duty if they are pursuing a criminal who fled that location. Moreover, knights have no authority outside of the town that hired them; a knight stationed in Loburn for the year cannot arrest a criminal in Begdor, even if that criminal had originally fled from Loburn. This rule prevents abuses of power by both the knights and the authorities who hire them. If a town wishes to have a criminal extradited, they would most likely hire the services of the Mercenary Syndicate instead.
For more on how Duilintinn’s legal system works, check out this wiki page: Duil Legal System
Internal Oversight
Despite its intense internal hierarchy, the Guard has very little accountability to anyone but themselves.
Once members of the Guard receive their certification and assignment for the year, they’re more or less on their own until the following summer unless they reach out to the Coalition for support themselves. There’s very little interference or oversight on the part of the Coalition unless the employer complains directly to the guild or if the knight intentionally reaches out to them for support. It's just not possible. Too many knights all spread out and not enough Coalition leaders.
All oversight instead comes from the employers, who write up reports on them and send them to the guild, which does enact consequences for poor behavior. Punishment usually takes the form of a probationary period, in which knights are stripped of their rank and forbidden to get recertified for a set period of time. However, after the Guard completes their probation time and gets recertified, there are no further consequences for their poor behavior. They will receive the same assignments they would have without the strike on their record, and employers will not be informed about their past misdeeds. However, if a guard commits the same offense for a second time within ten years of the first offense, the probation time is doubled.
There are three types of ways a knight could get in trouble as a member of the Guard Coalition; independent wrongdoing, employed wrongdoing, and lawful wrongdoing.
Independent Wrongdoing
Independent wrongdoing is bad behavior done by a knight or group of knights on their own time, of their own volition. The two most common examples of this are abuse of power and contract breaking.
Abusing one’s authority and/or causing trouble for the local population are considered the worst offenses that a member of the Guard can commit because it is the exact opposite of a guard’s job. Guards are meant to keep the peace, but if you cause a bar fight, you are disturbing the peace instead. As such, abuse of one’s post and/or excessive rowdiness will earn you on five year probation.
By contrast, breaking their contract through negligence, deserting their post, or otherwise flagrantly disregarding their obligations as a knight on duty, a guard might be committing an omission of their duty, but they aren’t necessarily guaranteeing that anything violent will happen. Thus, contract breaking only results in a one-year probation.
Employed Wrongdoing
Employed wrongdoing is when a knight or group of knights does something illegal at their employer’s request.
Knights are obligated to follow all orders given by their employer except for those in violation of their contract, and are expressly forbidden to follow orders that directly contradict the laws of the kingdom and/or the Guard Coalition.
Obviously, there are a lot of ways this can be subverted, usually resulting with knights being pressured into Employed Wrongdoing by their employers or agreeing to the deed of their own volition and getting away with it. The Coalition has done their best to mitigate these factors, with varying levels of success.
To pressure a knight to participate in an illegal act, an employer might threaten a knight with a damning report to the Coalition. To counteract this, these reports can be contested with the support of other knights who can attest to the character of the accused. As a general rule, most knights of the Coalition will jump at the chance to defend one of their own against an outsider, especially if they are falsely accused.
On the other hand, if the majority of knights in question do wish to participate in the illegal acts, they can get away with a lot. Obviously, the employer won’t report their wrongdoing, nor will the knights be inclined to incriminate themselves by testifying against the others. Those who do not want to participate in the wrongdoing might be pressured to stay silent or participate themselves, since the larger group of knights would speak up in support of any false report the employer might submit to the Guard.
As a general rule, therefore, teams of knights on assignment are always a mixture of friends and strangers. Ideally, this way everyone will have at least one companion loyal enough to back them up if everyone else tries to throw them under the bus, but no one trusts each other intimately enough to risk trying to hatch a plot to lie as a group. It doesn't always work, especially for smaller assignments where only one to three guards are requested in the first place, but it's the best solution they've got.
Lawful Wrongdoing
Lawful Wrongdoing is a brand of misconduct that only applies to Knights who are hired as law enforcement bodies by local or regional governments. This oxymoron refers to a situation where a knight is ordered to uphold a local or regional law that directly contradicts the higher legal codes that superseded them, be that regional or national law, respectively. This is very similar to Employed Wrongdoing, but far less black-and-white.
Fortunately, most knights will never find themselves in such an ordeal. Most of the local laws that contradict the higher legal codes are forgotten, antiquated policies that no one bothered to remove from the law books.
However, if the knight has the particular misfortune of being caught up in the middle of a situation where they are being asked to uphold a law that goes against the higher authorities of the kingdom, they are obligated to uphold the higher law.
Members of the Guard are expected to make themselves aware ahead of time of the potential conflicts that may arise between local laws and the higher legal codes (regional and/or national) of Duilintinn. the Guard Coalition keeps detailed notes on their clients, especially with information that might lead to trouble, so it isn’t difficult for knights to inform themselves of these conflicts. Thus, a guard cannot expect to be pardoned for Lawful Wrongdoing by pleading ignorance of the higher laws that contradicted their orders.
However, the Guard Coalition does understand that it's not easy to address the awkward situation of pointing out legal discrepancies without being accused of insubordination by the client. In fact, given how quickly these situations can turn ugly, knights who find themselves caught in such ordeals are encouraged to request support from the Coalition and, if necessary, the regional or national government. Usually, the conflict is resolved in the higher courts of the kingdom, at which point the matter is out of the individual knight’s hands.
Punishment for Lawful Wrongdoing varies heavily depending on the situation. If a knight demonstrates flagrant ignorance of the conflicting laws, they’ll generally get one year of probation, the same punishment given to knights convicted of Independent Wrongdoing via neglecting their duties. On the other hand, if the knight can show that they were attempting to handle the situation correctly, but wasn’t sure of the correct course of action and made some mistakes before they were able to reach out to the Coalition for advice, they’re generally let off with a warning. Finally, if a knight was aware of the conflicting laws, yet decided to obey the unlawful orders anyway, they’d be charged the same way as a knight convicted of Employed Wrongdoing.
Culture
Free Time
Members of the Guard are guaranteed a certain amount of free time while on duty. Their contracts generally indicate that, except in emergency circumstances specifically put into writing ahead of time, knights cannot be forced to work for more than eight hours a day. This allows knights 16 hours of free time that they can use as they please to rejuvenate and enjoy themselves.
Depending on where they are assigned, knights will spend their free time off duty in different ways. While some members request assignments near their homes so they can spend their off time with family or friends, those who don’t have any connections at their place of assignment will usually spend their free time socializing at the nearest tavern.
Magic
The Guard Coalition views magic as another form of a weapon, and don’t forbid its use during assignments among journeymen mages as long as they have a focus that lets them control their powers.
However, the Guard is not there to teach you how to use magic, nor should you be reliant on it during training. In order to be certified each year, you must prove that you can rely on yourself and your own strength without magic if necessary. In addition, you're expected to be able to wield a physical weapon, because while your magic might change over time into something less combat-oriented later in life, a weapon is forever.
Uniform and Equipment
As a general rule, members of the Guard are all trained to use the same basic armor, shield, and at least one short range and one long range weapon of the knight’s choice. Even knights who forgo the shield in favor of two-handed weapons are taught how to use one, although they never have to use it.
After being knighted, each member of the Coalition is given a standard-issue version of this equipment and one dress uniform. These items are theirs for life, though they have to pay for repairs and replacements as needed. The standard issue armor consists of an inner padding layer and an outer layer of thin plate or chainmail protecting the most vital parts of the body. This also came with a tabard emblazoned with the insignia of the Coalition, which could be worn as a surcoat over the armor, but was mainly meant to be paired with the tunic provided as part of their dress uniform.
Additionally, some assignments may require a specific uniform for knights under their employ. However, the hefty additional cost this adds to the contract generally means that this option is only used by governing bodies who hire members of the Guard for regional or national law enforcement and/or security. So long as it doesn’t upset the balance, weight, usage, or maneuverability of the item, these governing bodies are allowed to customize the aesthetic of their standard issue weapons and armor in almost any way they wish. Though these designs often change over time, they are always emblazoned with the colors and insignia of the governing body they serve.
Whenever a batch of official uniforms begins to wear out, the Coalition will reach out to inform the governing body, who will in turn commission a lucky blacksmith or artisan to create new designs for the official uniform. The design and a hefty fee is then sent to the Coalition, which uses it to commission craftsmen trusted by the Guard to produce these uniforms in bulk. These new uniforms would then be kept at The Whetstone and used for several years until their efficacy begins to decrease with use, at which point the process begins all over again.
While knights who are given special equipment have to return most of it to the Coalition after their assignment has ended, if they serve in the same assignment under a governing body for the full five year maximum, they are allowed to keep one piece of the official uniform or equipment in recognition. This is a huge incentive for many knights, especially because the Noble Houses have turned the tradition into a friendly, unspoken competition to attract the best guards by providing the best gear.
Equipment and uniforms are delivered to knights as soon as the Coalition knows where they will be assigned, allowing them as much time as possible to get them adjusted for a good fit. Sometimes, a knight will receive their equipment before the official assignments have been announced, giving them a big hint as to the nature of their assignment for the year. Of course, since most knights will be using the same standard-issue Coalition armor or their own equipment, only those who were recently knighted or employed somewhere with a specific uniform will be receiving new equipment at all.
Attitudes and Traditions
The Coalition has a bit of a reputation for being extremely conservative, insular, and close-minded about their traditions. Some blame this fact on the lack of vetting process for who can join the Coalition as a trainee. Of course, one must pass the training program to become a knight, but that’s the only milestone they must pass. Motivations and character aren’t taken into account so long as one can do their job and represent the Guard well.
However, if this were the only factor, then why is this an issue that seemingly pervades the entire culture of the Guard Coalition, rather than the isolated perspective of a few knights of poor character among thousands? The more complicated answer lies in the culture fostered by the Guard itself, not that of those who join. After all, many join the guild out of a desire to do good and help others, without any underlying agenda.
Unfortunately, the culture of the Coalition actively encourages an intense, unquestioning loyalty and pride in the establishment of the Guard as a whole. Loyal to a fault, with a defensive streak that automatically prioritizes their own traditions and knights above all else, the Guard has an extremely high opinion of itself and will do everything it can to preserve their good name. Any challenges to that authority or perception are usually met with hostility, a tendency that has only continued to worsen with the rise of The Watch. As a result, the Coalition could be uncharitably described as an echo-chamber of entitlement, savoir complexes, and power fantasies.
Even among those who join the guild with good intentions, the culture of the Coalition tends to develop this attitude in all of its members over time. Those who try to better the system or break that mold are often bullied out of the program, while the rest either turn a blind eye or actively lean into the Guard’s more negative, self-aggrandizing aspects. Even those who retain their good intentions often have a philistine-level legalist streak that refuses to break guard tradition or question their authorities, while the ones that abuse their power are often completely overlooked if they play their cards right. And because guard tradition hasn't changed in decades.... well, they are very, very good at playing their cards right.
Inter-Guild Dynamics
Relationship with The Watch
Thematically, I’ve been developing the Guard Coalition and The Watch as direct foils for each other. Each organization has the same goal- defending the kingdom- but their methods, organization, legacy, ideals, and just about everything else are completely different.
The Watch was formed after Duilintinn’s founding, while the Guard predates the kingdom by centuries. Therefore, The Watch abides by Duilintinn’s cultural emphasis on finding one's place in the world, while the traditions of the Guard Coalition predate this shift in cultural values. These differences in perspective, culture, and structure cause a fair amount of tensions between the two organizations.
The strict ranking system, certification process, and internal hierarchy of the Guard Coalition is one of the biggest differences between itself and The Watch. The Guard tends to look down on The Watch because of its looser structure and organization, lack of internal hierarchy, and flexibility for individual members.
Additionally, many among the Guard resent The Watch for their rise in influence, believing that the organization has usurped the Coalition’s jurisdiction as the protectors of Duilintinn. Others don’t exactly resent The Watch for their designated role in fighting The Enemy, but distrust how The Watch has gained a powerful hand in other unrelated elements of Duilintinns’ socioeconomic landscape.
On the other hand, the Watch sometimes resents the Guard Coalition because they are the only guild in Duilintinn that does not allow for dual enrollment as both a guild member and a Watcher. The Guard considers dual enrollment impossible, since most knights are employed full time through the Coalition, while some Watchers believe that the Guard should adjust its formula to reflect Duilintinn’s evolving cultural and economic landscape.
Frankly, however, the true root of the tensions lies in the strong sense of identity that both organizations inspire among their members. Many Watchers have their identity wrapped up in The Watch just as much, if not more, than Knights have their identities wrapped up in the Guard Coalition. When these institutions are challenged, those members feel like their entire sense of being is being attacked, and respond accordingly.
In short, the relationship between The Watch and the Guard Coalition is tenuous at best, hostile at worst. Some members of both organizations have a healthy respect for the role the other plays, even if they disagree about how to address the issues at hand. Others have become very defensive and distrustful, feeling like the other organization is actively challenging their authority and identity as a Knight or a Watcher.
Relationship with the Fellowship of Thieves
In many ways, the Fellowship of Thieves is another foil to the establishments of The Watch and the Guard Coalition. All three of these organizations want to protect the people of Duilintinn, but they all go about it in very different ways and with very different internal politics. The Watch is very reactive, with a very casual de facto hierarchy and a focus on investigations and debate. The Guard is very organized, with an iron-clad chain of command and a focus on orders and discipline. The Fellowship of Thieves, on the other hand, is borderline vigilante in structure, with a secretive internal hierarchy and the ability to seemingly be everywhere all the time. They’re in a constant rivalry with the Guard and a tenuous relationship with The Watch.
Relationship with the Mercenary Syndicate
Unsurprisingly, the Mercenary Syndicate is considered an active rival of the Guard Coalition. While the reasons for hiring a member of the Guard versus a mercenary are different enough that they rarely come into direct competition with each other, the Syndicate’s culture and history lends itself to something of a rivalry. That being said, animosity between these two guilds has somewhat lessened over the years corresponding with the rise of The Watch as the primary usurper of the Guard’s jurisdiction.
Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.
Other Posts in this Series
Guilds of Duilintinn Introduction • Fellowship of Thieves • Craftsmen’s Guilds • Merchants’ Guild • Guard Coalition • Wander Legacy • Mercenary Syndicate • Inventors’ Guild • Mages’ Guild • Foresters’ Guild • Keepers of Memory • Scholars’ College • Lifeworker Institute • Order of Stone • Farmers’ Guild • Ocean Men • Artisan’s Guild • Grand Troupe • Bards’ Guild •
The Craftsmen's Guilds are considered to be a single unit of guilds within Duilintinn, one of the three major guilds of Cordoire.
While this large “craftsmen” category covers a variety of distinct sub-guilds- each with a wide range of professions- the relatively smaller size of each individual craftsmen's guild limits their influence individually. Therefore, all craft-related guilds come together under the unified banner of the Craftsmen’s Guilds in an official administrative context.
Generally, these smaller sub-guilds will focus on serving their own, only engaging with the greater whole of the guild when in need of advocacy or when coordinating with the government.
In addition, these guilds will come together each year to coordinate the logistical preparations for July’s Trading Season, specifically regarding hospitality and the myriad of traditional events between Duilintinn’s craftsmen and their foreign counterparts, who share a strong sense of camaraderie after years of annual cooperation.
Guild Hubs
While there technically no singular “Craftsmen’s Guild,” dozens of smaller hubs dedicated to specific crafts can be found clustered together in Cordoire’s Craftsmen’s District. Meanwhile, the guild as a whole has a main hub in the city’s Administrator’s District that manages the overarching affairs of all craft-related guilds in the kingdom.
In addition to those located within the city, the Craftsmen’s Guilds have several secondary guild hubs across Duilintinn that all report back to the hub in Cordoire in some capacity. One of the largest of these secondary hubs is located in the Professional District of Mulladún to support House Jackie’s prosperous weapon and armor smiths.
Apprenticeships
Like most other guilds in Duilintinn, the Craftsmen's Guilds connect students pursuing higher education with members who need additional help and/or wish to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
Well-Known Crafts
Jewelers
Jewelry is one common product created by craftsmen in Duilintinn. While these products aren't cheap, they're not solely reserved for the wealthy. Jewelry is easily affordable for middle-class citizens with the income of some sort of business, such as being a craftsman or owning a farm. Citizens with lower incomes, such as laborers or workers, might need to save up a while to afford jewelry.
Tools for House Brody
House Brody contains few craftsmen; they harvest and distribute most of the kingdom’s natural resources, rather than create with them. Therefore, the regional government of this Noble House will often commission orders of tools directly from the Craftsmen’s Guilds.
Traditional Mage Masks
There’s an entire industry around the creation of the traditional masks earned by mages when they reach journeyman rank (see this post). Many craftsmen can custom make really gorgeous masks for the right price, while others produce simpler ones for those with smaller budgets. It is, in part, the accessibility of such masks that has allowed the tradition to persist into the modern day, though observed to varying degrees of faithfulness.
Smithing in House Jackie
As mentioned above, the smithing of weapons and armor is a thriving career path in House Jackie, largely because that's where the need is greatest, thanks to the presence of both of Duilintinn's militaristic guilds (the Guard Coalition and the Mercenary Syndicate). In fact, smithing is considered one of the major careers of House Jackie, despite the guild’s technical association with Cordoire. After all, a lot of House Jackie's cultural ethic centers around doing something tangible to attack a problem head-on, and for those who can't fight, but still want to be involved in a tangible, immediate way, smithing the weapons we use to fight the baddies is a pretty good option.
Inter-Guild Dynamics
Since the Craftsmen's Guilds and the Merchants Guild both play a role in coordinating aspects of the annual Trade Season, the two guilds will need to coordinate between each other from time to time. However, their roles are generally distinct enough that this cooperation usually only goes as far as trading information about their respective plans.
The Watch is a regular commissioner of the Craftsmen’s Guilds. While every garrison of The Watch seeks to be self-sufficient, this isn’t always feasible. While many Watchers have skills like artistry, carpentry, and smithing, supplementary purchases from the capital craftsmen are usually needed to keep all of The Watch’s volunteers and members fully supplied.
Additionally, some craftsmen are specifically hired by the Mages’ Guild to create masks for their members. However, most who practice the art of mask making tend to do so independently.
Finally, many of the skills practiced within these Craftsmens’ Guilds overlap with the mediums used by the Artisans Guild or the Inventor’s Guild. As a general rule, these three guilds all have unique focuses for their work: Artisans to create art, Inventors to create something new, and Craftsmen to produce a product for practical use. However, all three of these guilds will often exchange information and learn from each other as they each discover or improve upon techniques or products. For example, many inventions created by the Inventors Guild eventually circulate into production by the Craftsmens’ Guilds once they enter into the mainstream.
