Thieves' Guild
It might be slightly misleading to talk about The Thieves' Guild like it would be a well-structured, stable and unified organization, whereas in reality it is more of a blanket term for several ciriminal organizations which vary in all aspects like size, motive, and structure. As a concept, the Thieves' guild has spread all over the world and only the most remote and serene places have been spared. It is taken that when a village is bigger than just a handful of families related to eachother, at some point it will gather the interest of a criminally inclined individual, be it just a jeallous neighbour or a farmed in need of easy profit. Therefore an entity called a Thieves' guild can be born by itself, but it can also spread from a neighbouring town. People are always greedy and unstable times cultivate more crime.
Everyone from the small-town peasant to a wealthy citizen have heard of a Thieves' guild or even seen one of its members, even when it's part of the Thieves' guild's normal agenda to stay hidden. This can vary, as the organizations are very different in, for example, the southernmost parts of Madovar than they are in other side of the world, like in the area of The Old Sea.
The unifying feature between these different thieves' guilds is the common name and the fact that they usually work on the darker side of the law.
Everyone from the small-town peasant to a wealthy citizen have heard of a Thieves' guild or even seen one of its members, even when it's part of the Thieves' guild's normal agenda to stay hidden. This can vary, as the organizations are very different in, for example, the southernmost parts of Madovar than they are in other side of the world, like in the area of The Old Sea.
The unifying feature between these different thieves' guilds is the common name and the fact that they usually work on the darker side of the law.
Structure
The structure of the Thieves' guild is also very regional thing. Somewhere there is nearly no structure and members of the guild do whatever they want, as logn as they don't cross eachother, but on some, usually more populated and 'busy' areas the Thieves' Guild's structure is more rigid and there is a clear hierarchy of the main, inner circle, which is then divided into smaller sub-groups with their own leaders and so on.
Culture
The Thieves' guild is more of a secret society than an openly operating faction. There are some unspoken rules, which may also have local varities, but usually there is only one rule: you do not betray your own, or if you do so, you better have freaking good reason to.
Subsidiary Organizations
