8.3 THE LUSTERNIA SYSTEM OF GUILDS
The Guilds of Lusternia are powerful organizations with varying motives.
You may only join one Guild and many demand a lifetime of allegiance.
While it may be possible to break this oath, the cost is often high.
The benefits of joining a guild are mainly:
a) 3 additional skills, called "guild skills". These skills are based on
the guild's archetype and may include a choice among specializations.
b) Being included in a community of like-minded individuals.
c) As each guild is an integral part of the city, your membership can
also be considered a political faction, as the guildmembers vote for
a Guildmaster who represents the interests of the guild in the city
or commune governmental process.
Guild Structure
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A Guild has a formalized structure to it. There are twenty guild levels,
differing in name from guild to guild. Furthermore, there can be but one
level twenty player in a Guild. Each guild has three elected leaders: (1)
the Guildmaster who represents the guild in the governmental process; (2)
the Guild Administrator who runs the training of guild novices; and (3)
the Guild Champion who is charged to protecting individual guildmembers.
Each position is a mark of respect and leadership, and it is important
that they can work cooperatively in order for the guild to function in a
healthy manner.
HELP GUILDS will list the various guilds of Lusternia as well as showing you
who the Guildmaster (if any) is. HELP <guildname> will show you
information on that guild.
Joining a Guild
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In your journey through the Portal of Fate, you may have already
remembered which guild you belong to. However, if you do not have a
guild, it is important that you find which guild you wish to belong to as
soon as possible. Then, contact the Guild Administrator, a guild
secretary, or guild undersecretary of that guild and seek information on
how to join.
Once in a guild, you may see your rank in the guild (recall that there
are twenty guild ranks, plus Novice) under your SCORE. HELP GUILDRANK
will show you a list of guild ranks below and including yours.
GUILD PRIVILEGES will show you a list of guild-related commands that your
guild-rank gives you access to.
If, for some reason, you become dissatisfied with your Guild, you may
QUIT GUILD. If, in SCORE, it says that you are still a guild novice,
however, then you will _lose_ your guild skills, though you will gain
back the lessons (approximately) of what you put into them. Although your
skills may be fully functional if you quit a guild after novicehood, it
is important to note that this is conditional only so far as you are
still a member of the guild's city or commune. If you quit the city or
commune your guild is connected to, you cannot access any skill that
relies on its nexus powers.
If you have quit your guild and wish to join a new guild, then you need
to forget those skills that are incompatible with your new guild.
FORGETTING SKILLS WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOSE LESSONS. As a rule of thumb, you
will lose minimal lessons if joining a guild of the same archetype, but
rather a steep lesson loss for guilds of a different archetype. For more
information, see FORGETTING SKILLS and LESSON POOLS.