Valley Guilds
The Valley Guilds is a collective term that refers to the numerous skilled craft-guilds of the Zindush Valley. These guilds and their masters are the most prestigious in Maletsok Islands thanks to centuries of careful honing and selective recruitment. Their crafts are the best in Maletsok, and are even of fine repute among the Empire.
The guilds represent most skilled crafts. The largest guilds are the Stonemason's Guild, Metallurgical Guild, Smith's Guild, and Carpenter's Guild. Other guilds exist in the Valley, but larger examples are better found in other regions (the Miller's Guild and Brewer's Guilds in Uremseach, for example).
The Guilds enjoy a great amount of prestige and political sway, with their masters acting within the Gunzadhur Council as the second house of government. In this capacity, they control much of the economy within the borders of the Gunzadhur lands, and even without to a considerbale extent.
History
The Valley Guilds were born of the Ethelan-Maletsokish War roughly 980 T.E. The Maletsokish Contingency Protocols channeled many of Maletsok's brightest and most skilled craftsmen into the Darbreduun Valley to build fortifications and arm soldiers against the new EthelanĀ settlement in the Northern Wetlands, Laffalameaivet.
After being called to serve in Valley, the craftsmen -- most of whom came from well beyond the Maleseachean Mountains, and as far as Ilemer -- were grouped together by the Maletsokish Confederacy in order to more effectively coordinate their work. Craftsmen who failed to maintain the emergency standards for the war were sent away to support in less pertinent areas of the front. This early high-standard of work began the tradition of the guilds being highly selective of entrants, and an admirable level of excellence.
The defeat of the Confederacy at the Battle of Urazinar ended to the government control of the proto-guilds, relinquishing them to the laissez-faire attitude of the empire (after swearing loyalty to the Empire). This freedom allowed the guilds to grow and diversify, becoming not just skilled craftsmen but artists. The influx of immigration from the Empire brought with it international craftsmen, which gave the guilds the ability to raise their standards even higher, especially considering Ethelan standards of beauty. By the Twelfth Century, the Valley Guilds had become massive institutions with great political and commercial sway, and thousands of aspiring applicants.
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