The Circle of Trades

This article is a work in progress
The Circle of Trades are the seated leaders of the most prominent guilds in the Republic of Askalia - the Guildmasters. Each Guildmaster is elected by members of each guild and intern is granted a seat in council with the Nation's ruler. The exception to this rule is The Platinum Eye. The Platinum Eye hold legacy seats, passed down by the founding Guildmaster, the original guild leaders. Each Guildmaster in The Platinum Eye is chosen, personally, by their predecessor.  

The Circle of Trades

The Platinum Eye

Ruled by the Grand Overseer - a seat which is typically granted by the Nation's ruler and acts to encourage cooperation, order and loyalty among the Guilds. Acting with superior authority over all other Guildmasters. SInce the assassination of King Briar Remonnet, a new Grand Overseer has not been elected. Aubrey J.Cresswell has held their seat for twenty-seven years.

    Banking Guild

    The Banking Guild is one of Askalia's oldest guilds, founded to store and keep safe the riches of the nation's rulers. Be they King or Queen, Duke or Duchess, the Banking Guild ensured the safety of their assets and kept meticulous notes on deposits, withdrawals and estimated values of the Bank's holdings.

    Monster Hunting Guild

    Founded by guardsmen, hunters and soldiers alike to capture, study and kill or relocate dangerous beasts and infected creatures. This guild is responsible for the allocation of Juggernaughts to key areas as well as ensuring they receive the best training and gear.

    Forgemasters Guild

    The Forgemasters Guild is an elitist group of blacksmiths across Askalia, Forgemasters are often quite vocal about their rank within the guild, encouraging more money to their own businesses and therefore making the Guild more money, as well as keeping the level of talent expected from a member to a high standard.

    Carpenters Guild

    The Carpenters Guild was formed in order to standardise as well as pass on knowledge and methods of wood-working to create tools, furniture, buildings and more.

    Stonemasons Guild

    Much like the Carpenters Guild, the Stonemasons Guild was also formed in order to standardise as well as pass on knowledge and methods of construction.

    Farmers Guild

    Farmers across Askalia needed a voice, to be able to enforce change in ways they were unable to do alone. As such, the Farmers Guild was formed.

The Golden Circle

    Alchemists Guild

    The Alchemists Guild is a conglomerate of Alchemical doctors and scientists, often working as local healers and sellers of concoction to heal ailments of the mind and body.

    Tailors Guild

    The Tailors Guild is an esteemed group of artisanal crafters of fine fabrics. Utilising an internal ranking system, the guild is able to distinguish from the basic every-day clothes maker for the common folk, to the eloquent crafter of silks and inlaid gems or metals for the highest of nobles.

    Guardsmans Guild

    Those who protect the towns and cities, typically ex-military personnel all under one private entity. The Guardsmans Guild was formed out of necessity to ensure allegiance to the crown and senate. Any who did not join the Guild, were no longer allowed to work or earn profit from acting as a gatekeeper, bodyguard, peacekeeper or any other role of that nature.

    Shipwrights Guild

    Ship builders from across the nation formed this guild mostly for the sole purpose of pooling resources to fulfil large orders from tyrannical and war-mongering nobles who wished to venture overseas and plunder for sport and profit. The guild enabled the shipwrights to organise who needed to build what and allocate resources to them to do so, also enabling ships to be built far away and then sailed to a desired location.

The Silver Circle

    Glassworkers Guild

    Deep in the woods and forests of Askalia, hot kilns turn molten wood ash and sand into glass chalices, vials, windows and more. These glasshouses were extremely varied in the quality of product they produced and after seeing so many other industries form guilds, the Glassworkers Guild was formed.

    Tanners Guild

    How do you turn the flesh of a beast you've never seen before into something usable? That was a question that many tanners found themselves faced with after members of the Monster Hunting Guild or Pathfinders Guild turned up on their doorstep with all manner of dead creatures expecting results. So, the Tanners Guild was formed. Knowledge of these strange creatures was disseminated amongst the Tanners, less material and time was wasted and profits boomed.

    Hunters Guild

    With the constant threat of Demons on the horizon, every hunter had to be extremely diligent with where they hunted and how quietly they could do so. Before the formation of the Hunters Guild, countless men and women alike died from ignorance of their surroundings and the risk before them. The Hunters Guild seeks to change that, working in tangent with other guilds to ensure the safety of the hunt as well as reporting back any sightings. This has led the Hunters Guild to be a stepping stone for those who wish to join the Pathfinders Guild.

    Miners Guild

    The Miners Guild - what started off as a way to consolidate the different mining organisations under one roof and pool wealth into one place as opposed to letting it be split among the many, this guild eventually came to be a benefit to the miners themselves and ensured they were paid properly as well as being kept as safe as reasonably possible.

    Fletchers Guild

    The Fletchers Guild was founded after a series of failures on the battlefield from inconsistent crafting of arrows, often not performing as intended or falling apart before being fired. As such, the Fletchers Guild is relatively new and was founded under the previous King of Askalia.

The Copper Circle

    Brewers Guild

    Poisoning from poorly made alcohol was once very common in Askalia. With the formation of the Brewers Guild, the number of deaths from incompetence has significantly declined and the flavour experience of these beverages has greately increased. Often still just producing your basic ale or wine, the Brewers Guild has allowed some of the more successful breweries to experiment with flavour combinations and create drinks specifically for nobles.

    Whalers Guild

    The Whalers Guild is more of a badge-of-honour than a regulatory body. These rugged mad-men and women of the sea, hunt giant prey with spears and nets. Dragging their kill into port with hook and chain. They don't really share techniques with each other as this is a highly-competitive guild and the larger the whale you capture, the more money, status and power you receive.

    Fishermans Guild

    To prevent overfishing, whilst also meeting supply demands, the Fishermans Guild was formed as a managerial body. Organising fishing ship rotas and routes and policing who is permitted to fish in certain areas. As an unintentional bonus, the guild also allows for techniques and skills to be shared among the guild members, improving efficiency and catch-rate.

    Pathfinders Guild

    Founded by Pathfinders as a way to reduce the amount of Pathfinders travelling the same routes and making duplicate maps or notes on an area due to the lack of information sharing, the Surveyors and Mapmakers Guild was able to collate thousands of maps and notes from its members and quickly produce maps that contained more detail than ever previously done.

    Historykeepers Guild

    The role of history keeper was once left to individual people who were hired by the nobles to record the noble's family history, any great deeds and so forth. In time, overlaps of history between nobles became commonplace and people were unsure who's accounts to believe. As such, a Guild was formed and a great bibliotheca was built to store the miles and miles of parchment and tapestry and organise it.

    Porters Guild

    The Porters Guild started off as simply a union of workers within King's Cliff who wanted to be paid better for their work. As such, the first iteration of the Porters Guild was formed, it has only grown since then and expanded to other cities.
Circle of Trades.png
Circle of Trades by Me (Fall)
Headquarters
Republic of Askalia
Current Grand Overseer
TBC
Founding Date
Organisational structure
  • The Platinum Eye
    • The Golden Circle
    • The Silver Circle
    • The Copper Circle
All artwork that isn't an original creation by myself (@Bladeswillfall) will be replaced with either original pieces or commissioned art.

History

Founding

The Circle of Trades was founded by the original Guildmasters - the first people to form guilds and standardise their industries. These Guildmasters where; Balthasar Rolland of the Banking Guild, Fainnear Morgan of the Monster Hunting Guild, Iomhair Grayriver of the Forgemasters Guild, Liliana Dusksong of the Carpenters Guild, Rania Liafiel of the Stonemasons Guild and Talan Umber of the Farmers Guild. These seven individuals would go on to create a legacy of guilds and guildmasters within Askalia.

Notable Events

    Assassination of the King

    King Briar Remonnet was assassinated by members of the Circle of Trades during a coup d'état, spurred on by members of the Senate and guildsmen of the Circle.
 
[TBC]


Cover image: Untitled by Jodie Walton

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