Guilds were a relatively universal concept in Oshmondu. In the urban centers of Goladroe and Boen societies, these were close-knit organizations of skilled craftsmen monopolizing their trade, typically within the boundaries of the city.

Structure and Responsibilities

Function and Legality

The guild's fundamental function - its source of power - was the monopolizing of its specific trade within a city's boundary (Goladroe cities often had a separate, shaman-anointed boundary which did not necessarily follow the walled perimeter). This was a rather trivial matter early on, because there were so few specialist jobs that a small union of them was very natural and the only way to learn the necessary skills, and a very economically significant asset later on. Only the guild's members were allowed to exercise their specific skilled trade as masters, and similarly new journeymen could only learn the trade through guild masters. Guilds were extremely local, as mentioned usually restricted to the city boundary, and sometimes specific nearby areas as well - for instance, shipwrights had separate shipyards also under their responsibilities, and smiths could have all mines of the region. These areas were chosen such that there would be essentially no reasonable place for to actually do the craft outside the guild area.

Guild authority relied either on an implicit contract with the city or religious authorities, or explicit charters or letters patent with the political authority (this was more frequent after 100 b. OW, when powerful clans started taking control of cities). These granted them legal privileges, notably of course monopolies on production and sale, and also the right to enforce professional standards. Common enforced standards were controls on prices, the hours of trading, the number of apprentices, and work methods used. Though the original and dominant form were crafts guilds, there were also merchant guilds that dominated commercial activity and often also urban governance. Guilds' privileges often restricted entry into the specialized trades and strongly influenced urban societies.

Members and Practice

A guild was based on its membership. This was restricted to full "masters of the craft", and their immediate family were allowed to benefit of most services, without being proper members. The assembly of members - which could number anywhere from ten to 200 - had at least the representative right of appointing their grandmasters, or guild leaders. Most guilds had just one, sometimes they shared powers among multiple officials. The grandmasters were responsible for the entire management of the guild, including making policies, appointing officials to do the necessary jobs, managing funds, and representing guild interests to outside. There were typically also other elected offices, like the bookkeeper, who was supposed to oversee the finances, and the hallkeeper, who managed administrative procedures and chaired the assembly. Offices were typically elected every two years.

A variety of jobs required (by city custom or law) a master to do. This was the case for construction, shipbuilding, baking, butcheries, even some notarial tasks. Often, much of the work was done by craftsmen in the master's employ, but still a master was required. For an individual hoping to learn a craft, being accepted for an apprenticeship was the hardest part. This required at least a master accepting them, sometimes also the endorsement of multiple ones, and might come with considerable social and wealth prerequisites. The apprenticeship was then a lengthy process, including mostly practical work under the master and their craftsmen, often with a "journeyman" phase in years 3 and 4, where the individual was expected to work under other masters and even in different places. At the end, the master could make them a recognized craftsman, which allowed them to be regularly employed by guild members. Becoming a master was only possible after more years of experience, and usually required the vote of the guild assembly.

Membership was linked to a great number of benefits. The guild was a very important social network, generally representing the ruling class of the city, which could the member's primary source of friendship and support. There was a simple financial obligation - usually to disburse a fixed fee, or later a tenth of revenues - to the guild, or, in the rarer case where a powerful guild managed jobs, receiving a reduced salary directly from the guild instead. In return, the guild warded its members' political and economic interests, maintained funds for sick or elderly members (and their families), and supported widows and orphans (the main way to become an apprentice was to be a member's child).

Evolution

Emergence

Goladroe was originally an extremely rural society, emerging in an economy where around 90% of the population was engaged in the unspecialized tasks of pastoralism, farming, and textile production. Small cities began slowly emerging on Okken around 870 b. OW with Drubark Nogerfarr and Nevhaven. Turlu already had sizeable cities based on a powerful agricultural economy, but these did not adhere to the Goladroe culture and were generally the "odd ones out" within Drubark; in any case they did not have this form of guild.

The first proto-guild was actually the Craftsmen's Guild in Nevhaven, founded under the auspices of the old Destructivists (they appointed fixed grandmasters from their own ranks) in 840. It had a very broad area of responsibility, essentially encompassing all skilled craftsmen. Its purpose was mostly for control, to allow the Destructivists to manage all skilled labor and training within Urg'Neval's boundary, but it also facilitated their purpose of advancing society.

Increasing specialization of labor led to the founding of other close networks of master workers, such as the Shipwrights' Guild of Nogerfarr in 821. The Destructivist monolith was broken in 805 b. OW, when three separate guilds with less oversight from above were established (and other crafts were fully free in competition for the time being). Still, the guilds were few and far between, even less established than cities. Nonetheless, there was a more or less constant increase in the number of guilds (and a mild increase in the number, size, and specialization of cities) in the entire subsequent period.

High Age

Mercantile guilds emerged slowly after 500 b. OW, with the end of control of naval mercantile activity by political authorities (clans, cities, orders and churches), as there were increasingly wealthy private entrepreneurs able to purchase or charter trade ships. These were called collegiates, but would function largely as guilds. Initially, these were voluntary organised groups of merchant mariners, based out of the major ports. From these, monopolizing guilds developed.

From 300 b. OW onwards, the cities of Okken and the Moonsea were very wealthy and politically largely autonomous and powerful. To a large part, they had their own, often republican governments, and were mostly autonomous. Some of the more powerful clans had a wealthy city serving as their backbone and source of power. For instance, Nevhaven was ruled by the Craftsmen's Council, a semi-representative government in which the Urg'Neval Destructivists had a powerful voice, and the city also served as this powerful order's base. Each city came with its own array of powerful guilds which monopolized most of the trades.

Recession

There were strong tensions between the Bonebreaker state and the autonomous cities and their guilds from 50 b. OW on, and especially during the Orc Wars, when some of the most powerful guilds were broken. Others suffered the fate of their declining cities, as was the case on Turlu, where some cities were outright depopulated due to economic collapse.

Still, the guilds remained a powerful institution until the end of Boen society. Those that fell under the Sun Empire managed to survive for some decades, because they were useful and necessary for the new human rulers, but economic policy went against them and ultimately transformed or disbanded them. They managed to remain in existence for longer in Okken, though there the federated modern economy had a different role for them, and they also evolved in form away from the localized, monopolizing function they used to have.