Professional Guilds

Craftspeople and merchants organize in professional guilds and follow official charters. Unofficial guilds are technically illegal, but in the Outer City, such informal guilds are common. Most professional guilds operate in the Lower City, but prefer to provide their goods to the wealthy patriar families of the Upper City. Commoners grumble that they can’t even buy from their own neighbors, with the choicest items and freshest food traveling up the hill. A laborer might toil all day at a fishmonger’s shop, then be forced to take their pay to the Outer City and buy yesterday’s catch from an unlicensed seller.
In many cases, guilds intersect with crews. Such groups take an interest in their members beyond a professional level, working to assure that they’re safe on the streets and at home so they can return to work the next morning. Those who mistreat a guild member might find themselves ostracized by all members of that profession, or even find themselves cornered by members of the guild’s associated crew, their most menacing tools of the trade in hand.