Professional Guilds of Aeonite Craftspeople

Considered the most autonomous out of the other factions in the Patrokonoi-Hellecia, the Aeonite guilds are a loose amalgamation of mercantile guilds from various industries across the Hellecian Sector.

The various guilds operate as a professional union of sorts to accumulate collective bargaining power to protect their interests on the planets they operate within, to regulate their industry, to support their various member companies during unforeseeable hardships & to act as a meeting ground to eire grievances within the community.

That being said, the guilds are not civil government institutions.

They do not provide any social programs for citizens, they are subject to the laws and regulations of the planets they operate under, and are not accessible to the public or non-guild members.

The guilds exclusively service their particular own industries and are not a unified inter-guild entity (even if an Aeonite queen sits on the Diarchy of the Lanaxdrian Warrior States). Each guild operates under their own bylaws, collect dues & dispense justice over violations.

The only commonality between the guilds are the fact that guild leadership is almost entirely made of Aeonites. And the only common law (unwritten among all Aeonites) that can levied on an inter-guild interest is loss/exposing an individual guild's founding codex.

If anything the Aeonite guilds resemble the mafia. Their secretive nature and devious tactics in exerting control over their various industries. Using ambition, fear, corruption & brutality; the guilds coerce rival companies to join the guild or meet unfortunate accidents if they refuse.

Origins:

Like most of the other member states of the Patrokonoi-Hellecia, the Aeonite guilds were created by their progenitor: Aeonia as a means of assisting her in the forge with her father Hephaestus.

Once they escaped Karoj-Menos, the Aeonites spread throughout the sector and integrated with their sibling patrokonoi. Their specialized talents & devious nature allowed them to manufacture COAG weapons and ships under the noses of their Mycestian magistrates. 

Once the invasion of Karoj-Menos began, the Aeonites were the most successful at infiltrating the Mycestian infrastructure. And were the primary reason why the Mycestian colonial fleets were unable to reinforce the Pantheon during their invasion.

But, following the destruction of Karoj-Menos, the brutality of the Aeonites in slaughtering the Mycestians was another chief cause in the resulting Age of Anarchy.

As the galaxy pieced itself back together, the Aeonites consolidated control over their Mycestian assets and various Aeonite raiding parties around the crucial Kothrian Pass.

Being the only DST Accelerator Lanes passing between the Asteroid Range of the Taygestronese. The earliest guilds were Aeonite raiding parties, providing stability to the sector by offering work/training in their various industries and defending their members from outlaws and competitors.

The Lanaxdrian Revolt:

During their service as the Underground Resistance against the Perxis-Sadem (when it suited them), the guilds formalized their bylaws and established their traditions to protect their intelligence from the Perxis drones and "Medimized"/compromised Hellecians.

After the invasion, these bylaws and traditions were adopted by nearly every Aeonite guild. Leading to the secretive nature of their meetings and earning Aeonites the reputation as "double-speakers" or half-truth tellers.

For a time, there was peace and stability. While there were few instances of inter/intra-guild conflict, it was mostly business-as-usual for the guilds and their economic empires.

That is until the Delothian Collective was born. While the Aeonites and their guilds were malleable to most regional governments. The Delots and their DTOS made it very difficult to circumvent without exposing guild operations to scrutiny and audits.

As a result, most guilds despised the Delots. Even calling together the first summit of all Aeonite guilds in the history of the Sector. The Aeonite guilds unanimously backed the Lacdrians when overthrowing the encroaching Ionite pilgrims from the Taygestronese.

After relocating their Lacdrian brethren to Thessalis-Prime, the planet became a hotbed of unrest and civil disobedience against the encroaching Delot oppressors.

So when the Lacdrian princess was assassinated during the Festival of Shattered Gold, the guilds were instrumental in hijacking Ionite ships and spiriting most of the Lacdrians off-world.

While the Aeonites and their guilds are indispensable allies to the Lanaxdrians in their war against the Delots. Many aren't convinced the events leading to the revolt didn't happen the way history remembers.

In fact, a small minority suspect the Aeonites were responsible for orchestrating the princess' death to instigate the Lanaxdrians to war. However, this group of dissenters seems to get smaller and quieter as these Hellecians are met with "unfortunate accidents" and "mysterious disappearances."

Organization:

A typical guild is ruled by an oligarch of board members, made up of the member corporations' CEOs. Followed by each board member's hierarchy of captains, enforcers, collectors, persuaders, union supervisors & toddies to enact their bidding and guild rulings from the various chapters of their respective guilds.

While profitability of the member corporations is the primary concern of the guild. Competition and in-fighting is encouraged to keep a fresh supply of "blood boiling" to keep guild leadership resilient and eager for decisive action.

Most governments acknowledge the existence and cooperation with the Aeonite guilds to promote economic stability, intra-cluster commerce & laws that benefit the merchant class and their customers.

However, the relationship between the guilds and the local clusters with mixed species corporations is "strained." As guilds wage cold wars on competing corporations to coerce them into becoming guild due-paying member corporations. Or bribing politicians to pass legislation giving Aeonite guilds a "monopoly of necessity" to force all businesses to become due-paying members. 

The following is a short list of industries with an Aeonite guild monopoly:

Weapons Smiths

Armor Smiths

Warrior Scale Smiths (or heavy infantry combat shields)

Intra Cluster Shipping

Slaughterhouses/Meat Packing

Textiles

Jewelers

Courtesan Escort Services

Music/Entertainment Industry

Banking

COAG Refinery

Scale Hunting (tracking down deserters)

Fulcrum Operators

Star-Deck Shipwrighting (outside of the Attican Core Worlds)

Atmospheric Re-Engineering Machinery

Hunting & Service Animal Training 

Farming Equipment

Military Rowing Schools for Organics

...and several hundred more disciplines

While the Collective is the evil empire and the outright villains who want the entire sector to fall under their hegemony through cultural coercion through technology. The guilds are just as, if not more, devious than their robotic competitors.

While governments and tyrants come and go, the Aeonite guilds seek what's most profitable for their industries. Even though they are linked to the Lanaxdrians (through the Aegeix line of Aeonite queens) as their naval allies, merchants & compliant subjects.

The guilds have no allegiance but to themselves and their economic holdings. And would gladly sell out their allies to become the economic hegemons of the sector.

Progenitor: Aeonia

Defeated Gods/Possessed Ichor:

• Hephaestus
• Aphrodite
• Apollo (parts involving the sun, archery & music)
• Artemis
• Dionysus
• Hera

Greek Comparison: Peloponnesian League (mostly Corinth & various allies other than Sparta) 

Homeworld: N/A (mostly concentrated around the Kothrian Pass; individual guild headquarters vary) 

Type

Financial, Merchant League