Guilds

The Guilds (like the Cults) are granted their purviews by the Hegemon. They maintain their power by hoarding technology and keeping the secrets of its maintenance and construction. Each Guild has a series of patents or categories of technology that ensure their continued existence.
The Starsmiths are a Guild of ship engineers. Their power comes from having repeatedly been able to produce and control the supply of jump drives. Many drives found on scoundrel or pirate vessels are retrofitted from older ships or derelicts, and maintained by ex-Starsmiths or those that left the Guild for cred or political reasons. Though they’re best known for their ship designs, the Starsmiths also maintain the Hyperspace lane beacons, and the majority of their money and power comes from profits generated by stations between the lanes. Since they build and maintain the Legion fleet, and said fleet is responsible for patrolling and protecting the lanes, the two have been staunch allies for some time.
The Guild of Engineers’ main control is over Urbots. Although many recognize them by the strange gadgets and mechanical limbs their more prominent members might sport, their core patents are for mining among asteroids and inhospitable planets—feats often accomplished through the use of drones and Urbots. Most raw resources delivered to the Core are supplied (and taxed by) the Guild of Engineers.
The Counters Guild is responsible for all legal banking in the Hegemony. Most Cults and Guilds pay in scrip that can be turned in to the Counters for cred. The downside of this is that they frequently notice large sums being moved, leading most scoundrels and lowlifes to manage large credit expenditures on the side. The Counters made their fortune by owning patents to terraforming engines, though rumor has it they can’t produce any more, and simply ferry the existing ones carefully to any new systems found. Although not always friendly to scoundrels and the scum of the Procyon sector, the Counters will build large repositories to store goods (even dangerous goods), no questions asked. If you can meet their price, these repositories (often built in space or in remote locations) are some of the safest ways to hold anything from treasures to illegal goods and artifacts. Plundering such a trove has been the dream of many a pirate and scoundrel, but the few that have succeeded have witnessed the kind of assassins and bounty hunters a Guild that literally controls money can hire.

The Makers Guild is more commonly known as the Yaru. Originally the term “Yaru” was used to identify the clones that they force-grow and train, but has become common parlance for the Guild and all the people in it. The Yaru are incredibly secretive, and unlike the other Guilds, nobody can study to test or apprentice into their numbers (like they can with other Guilds), whose fixed count is set by the Hegemon. When the last Hegemon ascended, the Yaru sided with a competitor, and consequently their numbers have been severely reduced, leading to far less power and prestige. The Guild holds patents on force-growing clones (made in batches and identified by sigils encoded on their foreheads), who are used for menial labor and to fill out low-grade troop counts when needed. Sometimes special batches of designer clones are made as servants for wealthy and influential individuals. The Yaru also provide modified plants for agriculture on partially terraformed worlds.