Guilds! Guilds! Guilds! : Minrothad Politics revised
by Marc SaindonWell, Minrothad loves its guilds. Which as a over-used term in the setting can lead to confusion. Family Guilds, Political Guilds, Guild Guilds...
To simplify, I suggest the following retcon:
1. “Houses” (or alternately, Clan or Family) are the “family guilds”. So House Hammer, House Verdier, House Corser, House Meditor and House Quickhand are the 5 factions that form the ruling families of Minrothad.
2. “Councils” are “political guilds”. So the Mercenary Guild becomes the War Council, local governments become Town Councils or City Councils, shipping is watched over by the Fleet Council, etc. (the Thieves' Guild can be replaced by a more legal Facilitators' Guild)
3. “Guilds” proper are your job. So if you're a carpenter, you're in the Carpenters' Guild, under the authority of House Verdier, and you might sit on the Town Council of Malfton.
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Another suggested retcon change is a permeating political ideology called the “Great Work” (“Magnum Opus”), a Minrothaddan masterplan, social project and utopia that the majority adheres to. If Darokin is fantasy capitalism in which all the rich folks are surprisingly generous and well-intentioned, Minrothad is its fantasy proto-socialist rival. The Great Work is a complex ideology to which all VIPs at least pay lip service to, but no one is quite sure what the program is: mercenaries might see it as a Manifest Destiny in which Minrothad conquers the world, merchants can grasp it as a commercial supremacy across all markets, mystics can see as a means in which new Watchers will regularly integrate with the Twelve as new Immortals, diplomats can envision it as having Minrothad be the central hub of a great U.N.-like league or alliance. All Minrothaddans publicly agree to the Great Work as a common cause, although the details and end goals tend to vary on whom you're asking, and may lead to some heated arguments about what is part of the Magnum Opus or not. Some believe Minroth and other Immortals have the full plan in front of themselves, letting only parts of it trickle down among mortals when needed. Privately, many might just assume that its a wild goose chase to keep the masses busy, but they keep those thoughts for themselves.
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A third suggestion of retcon is in regards to the Tutorial Guild. Tutorials are a disliked part of most video games, so maybe a name like “The Magisterium” can encapsulate all at once law officials (magistrates), wizards (magicians), and teachers (magisters).
