Guild affiliation is completely flexible - players can join a guild one week, quit the next, and a week later splinter off and form a new one. The type of guild affects primarily two things. This is basically a way of us incenting people to roleplay - Crusaders and Prelates get an experience point bonus for being affiliated with a Cathedral, for instance. Wizards and Channelers get a bonus for being associated with a Wizard's Tower. Second, the internal ranking system differs from one Guild to the next.
Experience is gained only through battle.
While we certainly support trade skills to the extent that they relate to Empire building and strategic warfare, they aren't really the focus of Shadowbane. Some of the screenshots allude to a type of radial menu. First off, all of the windows can be open, closed, moved, resized, and made transparent. Buttons can be dragged to the desktop for swift and easy access. They're going to consist of actors and actresses hired by Wolfpack to take on interesting roles within the game world and further the background story by interacting with players at the guild and nation level.