Guild

**Guild** (ギルド, *Girudo*?) is a union formed, organized and operated by a group of people. The term guild is mostly associated with online gaming groups from YGGDRASIL. But in the New World, however, it is treated as a medieval term that defines a person's association of a trade.

## Overview

All guilds are each led by a Guildmaster, whose main job is to maintain and supervise the internal and external operations of the organization. Guilds can be formed by a wide variety of professional associations, ranging from the likes of merchants to adventurers. In YGGDRASIL, it is even possible for multiple guilds to join together in forming a larger guild such as Trinity which is made up of three at most. Though both in YGGDRASIL and the New World too, however, the one thing that will most likely happen is multiple guilds working together side by side on a common issue they deemed as a threat to their organization. Guilds who were treated as a definite threat with hostility by others were either 2ch Alliance or Three Burning Eyes is a notable example of the enemy's attacks on them.

## YGGDRASIL

In YGGDRASIL, guilds are an association of players that have banded together to be a conqueror of all the secrets within the game. This involves, leveling up, conquering dungeons, participating in-game events and even challenging other guilds. There are invitation scrolls that can be made and sent to players who want to join a guild. The maximum number of members a guild in YGGDRASIL can possess is 100. Equally, new guilds popped up in YGGDRASIL at about the same rate as old ones vanishing.

In order to form a guild, they must first partake on a quest. Basically, one needed to carry out a mission when it came to registering a guild. There were actually eight types of missions to choose from, but only one needed to be perfectly completed. According to Touch Me, by completing the mission, he is able to gain the item which was the scroll. When opening the scroll, a new window will pop up, showing a guild setup request form. This gives the user instructions and the means of entering relevant information to help him or her form their own guild.

Upon creating the guild, the new guild master must make enough invitation scrolls for their required number of members joining it. A bell would ring continuously as the number of guild members kept increasing. While at the same time, however, the territory belonging to a former existing clan will then be transferred over to their new guild. After conquering the dungeon and turning it into their guild base, all the Custom NPCs made by the guild members were also considered to be an inheritance given to the guild.

Guilds serve as a way to make the YGGDRASIL experience more enjoyable with friends while players go on quests, The purpose of a guild in YGGDRASIL not only serves a social one but also out of practicality as the dangers of playing solo. Player-killing, for example, is a favorite past-time for many sadistic guilds that prey on new players to the game. A guild acts similar to a protective umbrella, that protects players from constant harassment and allows them time to cultivate their levels in order to gain more experience.

At some point in time, there were originally thousands of guilds present in the game. However, during the day of the game's shutdown, there are only around eight hundred guilds remaining.

### Guild Master

Normally, one would need developer tools to change a character’s backstory, but through the inherent powers of a guild master, one could directly access a Custom NPC's settings and edit them. This seems to go hand in hand with the guild weapon wielded by them. Systematically, the position of guild master in a guild gives the player full command over the NPCs to do their own bidding. However, if the guild master did not give a specifically-worded command, they would not recognize it as an order. There is the fact that the guild master in question can also exert their authority with what's called the "no weapon loot."

### Guild Weapon

A Guild Weapon can only be used by the master of the guild. It is the symbolic representation of a guild and had to be built from scratch among its members. Its power can be varied by the materials put into making one. For that reason, it is actually possible in making the weapon as powerful as a World Item. If a guild weapon ends up being destroyed, it will signal the dissolution of its guild and possibly also the control of their guild base too.

### Guild Meeting

Meetings were a chance for most of the members of its guild to meet, and thus chances were high that they could conduct large-scale activities like hunting. If there was really nothing planned, later on, it would be the best place to recruit members for a party, so they planned to chat up some people and suggest that they go along.

### Guild Member

Other than the Guild Master, it seems the guild members also shared the same privilege as their leader in creating Custom NPCs and dungeon layouts with settings and backstories. Although the Custom NPCs are supposedly pre-programmed by their respective creators in the guild, they can still be reprogrammed if someone like Momonga holds the position as guild master.

#### Membership

Other than the guild Ainz Ooal Gown, there were other guilds with trial periods that are several weeks long. At the same time, there are all sorts of entry requirements and so on in order to qualify as an official guild member to one.

### Guild Base

A Guild Base is any location claimed by a Guild. Be it a city, a dungeon, etc. any location in YGGDRASIL can be used by members of a guild as their home base if they were the first to defeat it upon discovery. While so, their guild base must be protected at all costs from foreign invaders. For that reason, it is quite possible to later lose control over their guild base afterward if the invader have successfully managed to mount raids against it and laying sieges to their strongholds.

### Types of Guilds

#### PK Guild

A term that describes guilds that prey on players for fun and amusement.

#### Information Guild

A term that describes guilds which specializes in obtaining information, posting game walkthroughs and cheats on free forum websites to assist the younger players and beginners new to the game.

#### Others

There are even guilds that explored and adventured to turn the unknown into the known, traveling on an endless journey with those feelings in their hearts. They were weak in guild battles but threw themselves persistently into the unknown reaches of the world.

### Guild Ranking

Within the ranking, it consists of the high ranked guilds. Particularly, there is a top ten ranking of guilds and it is measured by the number of points they've earned to serve as the basis. These points are based upon the average level of the members, world exploration points, the number of World Items, production points, home base points, shifting of points during PK, unlimited accumulation of points during Guild Wars. According to rumor, the amount of money one spends is also a factor in the ranking.

## New World

The setting of the New World is that of a medieval world. Henceforth, guilds are prevalent throughout the world and play a part in everyday life. They are unions of trade that maintain and facilitate the flow of goods and services throughout society. Each guild occupies its own unique niche in the economy.

### List of Guilds in the New World

* Architectural Guild
* Adventurer's Guild
* Magician's Guild
* New Ainz Ooal Gown (*Overlord Bonus Volume Only*)
* Pharmacist's Guild
* Merchant's Guild
* Thieves's Guild

## Trivia

* Unlike most guilds with a lot of members, Ainz Ooal Gown is a guild with just only 41 players in their numbers.
* In YGGDRASIL, it was quite common to instigate wars with other guilds to weaken the powerful guild's influence.
* Guilds in YGGDRASIL are recognized institutions, though there do exist groups called clan which acted as informal social bodies of players.
* In YGGDRASIL, different guilds do happen to own different parts of "The Seven Hidden Mines."
* According to the YGGDRASIL standard, whenever those within the same Guild or Party tried to deal damage to one another, they would not receive damage from friendly fire. In other words, such a player would not be affected by attacks from the affiliation which one is a member of.
* The only information regarding YGGDRASIL discoveries that could be trusted came from within one's own guild, or from trades made with other reliable guilds.

## References

1. ↑ *Overlord Volume 06 Chapter 6: Prelude to the Royal Capital's Disturbance*
2. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 72: The Capital City of the Kingdom Part 12*
3. ↑ *Overlord Volume 07 Chapter 1: Invitation to Death*
4. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 1: Prologue Part 1*
5. ↑ *Overlord Blu-ray 04 Special: Prologue (1st Half)*
6. ↑ *Overlord Volume 05 Chapter 3: Those Who Pick Up, Those Who Are Picked Up*
7. ↑ *Overlord Volume 01 Chapter 1: The End and the Beginning*
8. ↑ *Overlord Blu-ray 06 Special: Prologue (2nd Half)*
9. ↑ *Overlord Volume 11 Chapter 2: In Pursuit of Land of the Dwarves*
10. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 60: Settings*
11. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 82: Gaiden: Do Your Best Enri-san Part 3*
12. ↑ *Overlord Volume 10 Chapter 3: The Baharuth Empire*
13. ↑ *Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 5: The Freezing God*
14. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 3: Pondering*