Age of Exploration

Age of exploration

Rise of the guilds

As cities grew they eventually touched and the city-states became regions of population cores and rural areas between them. As a result of this development the elaborate family structure of the city-state era started to unravel.

There has always been trading from the moment men realized that there was something beyond what the eye could see. But goods procured that way were rare and sometimes very rare. Until the point in history that certain places established themselves as trade posts situated at the crossroad of trading routes. As trading got more organized goods became more available, even goods from faraway places were more procurable.

But goods weren't the only thing that travelled up and down the trading routes. Along with goods, tales of faraway places travelled up and down the route with them. Piggybacking on those tales, knowledge was shared between places.

As trading grew, people started organizing themselves in guilds and soon this became the new paradigm of society. But this also ignited a wanderlust in society wanting to see these places with their own eyes. And so the traders guild and the explorers guild became the most prominent guilds of this new model of society based on guildhood.

Fuelled by the demands from the traders guild and the explores guild, two new vessels were designed. A ship with a large cargo hold so more trade goods could be transported and a ship with a larger storage capacity for supplies and provisions so longer explorations became possible.

Soon we saw the rise of the crafters guild. At first the boat builders organized themselves in guilds and soon other craftsmen followed suit.

Yet some still wanted to pay tribute to Lupus or ask for his blessing before leaving for a voyage, be it explorer or trade. So the wise men of old organized themselves too in the guild of Lupus.

Not one to be left behind, the housekeepers of old also organized themselves in the Domus guild.

With all the new discoveries science soared. So the scientists organized themselves also in a guild namely the Scholars guild governed by the Academic Council.

All guilds followed basically the same organizational structure ... guild members governed by a guild council. Large guilds were subdivided into chapters with a representative of each chapter forming the guild council. A guild council consisted of a minimum of 3 members, either representative of the chapters or elected among the guild members. This also is the reason why large guilds had a minimum of 3 chapters. A representative of each guild council was elected to form the council assembly, a forerunner of the nowadays city council.

A typical region had 4 habitational cores although the size could vary with the geography of the land. Each region was governed by a Grand Council. A grand council was composed of a representative of each guild of the region. A grand council convened each solara in a different core, starting with the most northern one on Lengthening and subsequently following the solaras. As is tradition, the members of the Grand Council were hosted in the grand guildhall of the host core.

The four grand councils took their name from the solaras when they are held. The northern was the Ice Council, the eastern the Dawn Council , the southern the Heat Council and the western the Wind Council. Each council marked the start of a solara with festivities as the Grand Council settled down for a solara at their core. The most important one which was celebrated across the whole region was Dies Feralis when ones who came of age chose his or her own guild and received the title of junior member.

Each Junior member followed an introductory course at the guild school of their chosen guild where they were taught the basic skills of the guild. A precursor of our nowadays vocational education.
After this year they could receive the title of apprentice member.
At this point one could either be adopted (in the case of a pet) or entered an apprenticeship with a senior member. However there never was a rule that forbids both.

Whatever the case, an apprentice member had to succeed in the Guild Trial to become an active member, proving a sufficient level of mastery of the skills required by the guild when tested by the guild. To become a senior member an active member had to succeed in the Grand Trial. For this an active member proved to the other senior members that one has truly mastered the skills of the guild.

Apprentice pet members that weren't adopted or left school with their mentor stayed at the guild school. A guild school also doubled up as a pet center. To assure a certain maturity of potential owners, only active members or higher were allowed to adopt a pet at a pet center.

It was not an uncommon sight to have minors helping out their parents, especially the older ones. The younger ones were often seen in the company of the family pet, especially one of the Domus guild acting as big sister. Maybe taking young minors to the harbor to watch the hustle and bustle of traders loading and unloading goods or explorers preparing to embark on another adventure. Or maybe the marketplace where the goods traders brought in were sold at a plethora of stalls. Or else the Crafters Den where members of the crafters guild plied their trade. Creating something out of nothing ... alright they were no wizards ... they needed raw materials to start with. Or visiting the guildhall of the family pet. Having minors visiting was always a good opportunity for a guild to do some PR.

A typical guild hall consisted of a common hall, dormitory, private quarters for the guild council and (depending on the type of guild) training rooms, library, scopery or other specialized spaces typical for that guild. The really big guilds may even have had chapter houses, a kind of secondary guildhall occupied by a single chapter with a chapter master.

The Minor guild was actually an organizational structure. The guildhall could be best described as a community education center with chapters ranging from kindergarten over elementary school to high school.

There were two guilds with a special status: the medical guild and the guard guild. Both guilds were neutral by design and could be called upon by anybody in need of their assistance. The medical guild had at least a guild hall and a chapterhouse house. The guildhall had the same layout as any other guildhall. The chapterhouse was the precursor of the modern clinic. The guard guild had only two chapters: the core guard and the regional guard. Usually the core guard patrolled the streets of a core and the regional guard the rural areas between the cores. Depending on the size of a core, the guard guild also had a chapterhouse which was the precursor of the modern police station.

Rise of the leagues

As trade picked up, regions with a similar profile started finding each other and so we saw the formation of the leagues. Such as the coastal league, the mountain league, the plains league.

As a result of this a new level of government, there emerged the league council. With this new level a new issue emerged. Even if each guild only had one representative something like a league assembly would have to host a considerable amount of people if one stuck to the established pattern of the region's grand council.

Meanwhile some cores had grown into urban centers while others had evolved to be the center of a rural area. Most urban centers could, with some effort, host a league assembly, but for the rural areas this would be a logistical nightmare. To avoid this scenario, a consensus was reached to elect one place to gather the league assembly. So, in a reversal of a grand council, the league representatives gathered once a year at the league capital to form the league assembly. Smaller, daily issues are usually handled by a guild council, larger ones by a council assembly, still larger issues by a grand council and the truly big ones by the league assembly.

The enhanced exchange of knowledge and experience that resulted of the formation of leagues gave rise to the fact that some craftsmen excelled and rose above themselves and became known as engineers. In time they formed the engineering guild and as a logical consequence the engineering school.

This in turn caused the technology level of society to rise mainly because of the new inventions made by engineers.

It was about this time that On the Origin of Pets was presented at the Auditorium.
This presentation (and subsequent publication) was the result of years of inter-league research into the nature of pethood. It laid the foundation of the three phenotypes we know today and pet studies as a whole.