Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - S&R - GUILD

In most fantasy we see this "institution" and most of the time we just accept it like it is presented to us but we don't move very far away from that so... for this topic I'll use a "Q&A" like format.

WHAT IS A GUILD?

A guild is an indipendent organization that have various branches, normally the head office is located in the capital of the country, the reason of this is that the government sometimes ask help to the guild so it's logic keep the head office of the guild where the governement reside.

THERE IS ONLY ONE GUILD?

This depend on the author, a guild is basically an organization that don't really side with a country and is not part of one in particular, for this reason is possible that:

* Each country have a guild on their own, each of them are independent and are friendly with each other.
* There is only one guild in all the countries and the head office is located into a little independent territory that basically is a small city.
* There is more than a single guild and all of them just move with their own works, some may close because they loose their "customers" or for whatever other reason... so is possible that in a single country there is is Guild X specialized in collect herbs while Guild Y is specialized into monster subjugation.

THAT WASN'T MY QUESTION, I WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE TYPE, THERE IS ONLY ONE TYPE OF GUILD?

Ah... this too depend on the author.

Since a guild is an organization is not impossible that there are various type of guilds, the most common one are:

* Adventurer guild, a "generalized" one where is possible encounter any type of person... like a twin tailed little girl with mask and whip and a big macho that love be hit... no comment and NO, I don't have such tastes.
* Magician guild, usually unite all the various magicians and is normally specialized in researches and potions, in a way such type of guild can be considered too a research organization.
* Merchant guild, unite all the merchants of various places, in some work they can even manage things like licenses and similar things.

Each guild have their own standard for take in new members and for this reason they are independent from each other especially because the members are representative of that organization.

HOW SOMEONE CAN BECOME A MEMBER OF A GUILD?

This depend on the type of guild in fact the requirement that are necessary change not only from author to author but from guild to guild too.

In the adventurer too I usually see that you just enter, talk with an employer and after filled a document with your personal data you are a member of the guild... after that the guild staff forge some kind of proof (a card, a tag or whatever one choice) that can't be falsified, in the various stories I saw that the cards are the most used and use magic connected to blood so that none can use it aside the owner.

The magician guild is a little particular because you need to prove that you are able to use magic but that is not all infact since in fantasy alchemy is put under magic than if you prove that you are an alchemist than you can become a member too.

Merchant guilds are another thing too, as the name imply is a commercial guild so a requirement you have to show is the ability of buy and sell, this imply be able to estimate the value of something.

CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT KIND OF JOBS THEY DO?

This is both simple and complicated because the presence of different guilds influence the situation in various way so I'll put aside the common "adventurer guild" and first I'll talk about the magician guild and the merchant guild

The magician guild is a guild where, for be a member, you must prove to be an alchemist or a magician.

From what I saw this type of guild is basically a place where magicians and alchemists can reunite and create things.

Once a member is possible do various things:

* *Laboratory*, every office have laboratories that the members can use, since the guild buy the materials itself a little quote is need.
* *Common board*, it's a board where a magician can write an experiment or an idea, for example write a possible alternative recipe of a potion, this notes are registered so that no one can stole it.
* *Patent record*, basically a member go there and register a new product or a variant of it, for example if I make an alternative recipe for a healing potion or a new pottery piece using magic or alchemy than it will be recorded and then spread in the time to the other guild's offices.

The merchant guild is a guild where, for be a member, you need to prove that you can act and have the skill of a merchant.

In the story where I saw this guild there was the particular trait that licences and permissions where used too... basically work like this, you want to sell something and want to open a temp stall then you go to the merchant guild, buy a temp license and make your stall.

Now I'll list what type of function a merchant guild have, keep in mind that every function is local and this mean that work only in a city or a territory and only under the :

* *License*, the guild manage the presence of merchants and any type of seller releasing permits and licences, they can be temp or stable.
* *Tax collection*, the guild collect the taxes of the merchant and then send it to the city lord making too all the relative documents and making signing a receipt to the lord in person.
* *Support*, travelling merchant that earn moving from a place to another that don't have the time or the will of open a stall can sold their goods to the guild that then will sell to the local merchants or buy the info about the best merchant that can buy them so if, for example, I'm a merchant that want to sell my goods to a shop I can go and ask to the guild if they'll buy my goods or can tell me who can buy them.
* *Warehouse*, travelling merchant can go to the guild and rent a space in their warehouse for temp deposit their goods.
* *Provide protection*, this is a feature for traveling merchants too, basically the merchant can ask to the guild to hire some guards for a traveling merchants.

The adventurer guild is basically the classic guild we see in all the stories, be a member of this guild is quite simple... enter the guild, ask to a receptionist to sign, fill the document, recive the item that prove that you are a member of the guild.

Before say the type of job this guild provide to their member I want to list the service this guild offer:

* *ID*, in various stories the item the guild give to its members can be used as document when entering a city.
* *Information*, in certain stories the guild sell information to their members.
* *Bank*, in a couple of stories I saw that the guild can store adventurer's money plus their card were used as some type of credit one where basically you go in a shop and in the card is recorded your credit, at the end of the day the shop owner go to the guild and take the money.
* *Safe*, I remember that I saw this but don't remember in which series, basically the guild keep the belonging of the adventurers in boxes.
* *Discount*, certain shop have a deal with the guild and offer discounts to the guild's members.

This are just some examples of the services that an adventurer guild offer and now, without a pause, I'll list the type of jobs the guilds take:

* *Harvesting*, this jobs involve the adventurers to go and harvest materials and is divided into:
	+ Plants, pick herbs or any other type of plant material.
	+ Monster, defeat monster and take back the usable materials. In games we encounter this type of quests ase repeatable one, their functions are mainly for earn money or crafting materials, in novels is more common quest about plants while normally the monster material collection is grouped with the subjugation quests.
* *Subjugation*, this jobs involve the adventurers go in places or areas and kill certain monsters, this type of job have basically the purpose of take under control the monsters and kill the ones that give problems.
* *Crafting*, jobs where one make items and take them back, normally this type of job is see in game stories where player ask for items via quests. *Bodyguard*, this job involve the adventurer go with the client and protect it while the client do whatever it have to do so the jobs are like escort a merchant to a village or protect an alchemist while pick erbs.
* *Exploration*, jobs where the adventurer is sent to explore a particular area, I saw this job in stories where dungeons appears or ruins are discovered, the main objective is "secure" the place so that other adventurers can enter.

Normally the reward is left to the guild that then pay the adventurer but is possible that the conditions require to talk with the commissioner for complete the quest... in all of this one can think "where is the guild's earning?" well, this is never clearly said but from what I understood basically a commissioner pay a quote for put a job in their boards plus the guild earn from buy and sell materials from the adventurers.

In some novels I saw that if an adventurer quit a job or fail it will have to pay a quote as compensation and the job is put on the board again, this quote can be a fixed percentage of the rewards or a fixed sum based on the rank of the quest.

Both jobs and adventurer are ranked, from one side we have the logical reason "this way a noob don't take a job for an expert" and from the other we have the author reason "I can use the rank up in guild as part of the main story"... whatever is the reason we can encounter one of the following ranking method:

* *Letters*, the rank is gave using letters that are, from highest to lowest, S – A – B – C – D – E – F – G, in some cases the rank can be more short so instead reach G it stop to E or F.
* *Colors*, the rank is gave by the colors that are, from highest to lowest, Black – White – Blue – Green – Yellow – Red – Silver – Gold.
* *Numbers*, the rank is gave using numbers, in this case the highest the number the lowest the rank.
* *Metals*, the rank is gave using the rarity of metals so iron, copper, bronze, gold, etc.
* *Crests*, the rank is gave using a crest that can differ in shape and material based the rank, normally we can se this in games where an arena is present, plus normally we can se too roman numbers but in games is normally used the name of the metal so we have Bronze III or Gold V.

The first listed method is the most common used, and I'm sure that some of you are thinking is someone can skip ranks and the answer is yes, when one sign in the guild can eventually ask for a rank up and the guild will test the new guy... normally this test is a combat of some kind.

The method for increase a rank can differ from story to story so here I'll list some methods:

* *Number of quests*, an adventurer rank up once it complete a certain number of quests, this method normally imply that the number and type of quests change based on the rank, for example for move from F to E rank an adventurer need to complete 50 F rank quests.
* *Type of quests*, in a work I saw, an adventurer can be promoted after he/she complete a certain number of quests of 2 different types.
* *Exams*, an adventure can ask to do an exam for increase it's rank, the nature of the exam change based on the rank up one want to do but mainly one need to prove both knowledge and strenght so normally the most common exam are fight against a teacher or a more high rank adventurer.
* *Achievement*, is possible that if an adventurer achieve something big like prevent a monster outbreak or solve a situation before become very dangerous, can rank up due merits

After said all of this is possible that someone can say "why use adventurers for jobs and not mercenaries?" and the answer is quite simple... mercenaries are more combat specialized and work on contract, since single mercenary or groups of mercenaries are on their own, there are no guarantee that the job will be done as requested