City and Guild Chapter Three: Guilds
With the rise of city populations and the increasing governmental autonomy of many urban centers, medieval craftsmen have developed organizations to protect and provide for their common trade. A guild is a community of workers, both employees and employers, who all engage in the same livelihood. There are three types of guilds: craft guilds, service guilds, and merchant guilds. Craft guilds are groups of craftsmen who produce finished goods, and service guilds are groups of laborers who provide a service. Merchants also band together in guilds, but these differ slightly from craft and service guilds and are detailed in Chapter 7: Trade.
A guild exists to protect its members. It stipulates the manufacturing process, protects its members, and regulates the prices of finished items. Medieval guilds are corporate organizations that include every person involved with the production of the craft, but membership numbers are restricted, allowing specific numbers of apprentices, journeymen, and masters. Craft guilds include blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, clothiers, bakers, dyers, and armorers, just to name a few. Service guilds include wood cutters, wine callers, servants, muleteers, and traveling companions.
Guilds are a common feature of urban society. Many towns have at least one guild, overseeing a single trade or merchant group. The largest towns have several guilds. While this profits the guild members, it also confuses long-set notions of medieval society. The traditional idea of a three-fold society – those who pray (clerics), those who war (nobles), and those who toil (everyone else) – is becoming muddied. Some guild masters are wealthier than nobles, their financial success giving them as much or more political power than their former lords. Coupled with the rise of heresies, the recent movement of mendicant preachers, the failed Fourth Crusade, and the distasteful Albigensian Crusade, the emergence of guilds further stirs an already turbulent social environment.
Guilds are powerful political and financial contributors to the town in which they exist. Guild dues and levied fines accumulate into a considerable sum of money. From this pool of money guilds build guildhalls, grandiose buildings used to hold their many business meetings and celebratory feasts. No expense is spared on the guildhall, as the ornamentation and architectural decorations reflect the prestige and importance of the guild.
Guilds also provide limited incomes for destitute and disabled workers and their families, as well as pay for the funeral services of deceased members. They conduct religious ceremonies for their patron saint, and some even run schools for guild members’ children. Additional funds are used to make sizable contributions to the town, which uses them to build city walls, guard towers, and bridges, as well as for other urban renovations. Some towns make further demands on the guilds besides these financial contributions, demanding that every guild member spend a set amount of time patrolling the city walls at night. Though they are not capable warriors, these lookouts can still watch over the sleeping town and keep an eye out for signs of trouble, such as fire, thieves, or invading nocturnal armies.
While all guilds operate using the same principles, not all guilds are equal, and a hierarchy of guilds exists. Those guilds that produce a more expensive item than others have more political clout within their town. The dean of the wool merchants has a more respected voice in town councils than the dean of the belt makers. Financial success provides social status.
Guilds are not international entities. The Guild of Blacksmiths in Paris has much in common the Guild of Blacksmiths in Venice, but they are not connected in any official capacity, and a Parisian guild member is as forbidden from working in Venice as anyone else who’s not in the Venetian guild.
Finally, guilds are more than just organizations of workers in the same trade. Members live in the same neighborhood, worship at the same church, and adopt the patron saint of the guild. The attachments of these extended families surpass the workshop, and members eat, worship, and play together. As well as providing a secure work environment, a guild also instills a greater sense of identity in its members. Members march together in parade festivals, competitively decorate their guildhall during holy weeks, and possess the same political agenda as their fellow members.
Guild Member Ages & AbilitiesMuch of a guild member’s rank depends on his age, which should also indicate the number of years he has been working at his craft. The following chart provides a rough guideline for appropriate Craft Ability scores for a guild member depending on his age and rank. It also suggests a secondary Ability necessary for certain ranks of guild characters. It can also be helpful in determining a starting character’s appropriate Craft Ability. These are only suggestions and should not be used to impose arbitrary limits on any troupe’s saga.
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Guild Members
Guild members are divided into apprentices, journeymen, masters, senior masters, and the master of the guild, the dean. Guilds elect their own leaders from within their membership and obtain the legal right to hold their own courts, where litigation between members and from dissatisfied clients can be adjudicated. To ensure that all guild members are following proper procedures, guilds have a board of officials whose responsibility is to police its members. Guild officials are selected from the ranks of the senior masters. These officials are called a variety of names by different guilds, and while “alderman” and “bailiff” are common titles, many guilds merely refer to them as “officers”. They regulate both the internal activities of the guild and its external concerns.
Each member of a guild signs the guild roster, which states his name and rank in the guild. It may contain other information, depending on the guild, such as the number of years the member has participated in the guild, his shop’s location, and the number of apprentices and journeymen in his shop. Having his name on the guild roster is a critical mark of membership, and the removal of his name means he has been stricken from the guild, with the severest of consequences.
Several new Social Status Virtues exist to allow troupes to incorporate guilds into their sagas. If you want your character to be a guild member, you must pick an appropriate Social Status Virtue. If you want your character to join a guild during his career, you should choose the Social Status Virtue: Craftsman and have him join the guild through stories.
Besides a Craft Ability, guild members require scores in other Abilities as well. Journeymen need at least a Guild Lore score of 1, masters need a 2, and senior masters and deans must have a Guild Lore score of 3. Leadership is important for guild members who intend to employ multiple workers in their workshops to meet their guild requirements. Artes Liberales is required for master guild member characters, who deal in written contracts, itemized inventory lists, and a large accumulation of guild regulatory documents. These documents are primarily written in the craftsman’s native vernacular, so a score in Latin is not needed, although it is handy for the proliferating trade manuals written by ecclesiastical craftsmen.
Guild LoreGuild Lore is an (Organization) Lore Ability that covers the rules and bylaws of the guild. Characters can make Guild Lore checks when curious about aspects of their trade or their fellow guild members. They can also use Guild Lore when inquiring about other guilds. A successful Guild Lore roll can indicate knowledge about any number of things: whether another guild is growing in power, whether a recently hired journeyman is worthwhile, how prosperous the dean of the guild is, rumors about a competitor’s source of raw material, and what dire events might have led to the removal of a fellow master. Specialties: apprentices, journeymen, masters, roster membership, working regulations. |
Guild Apprentices
Guild apprentices are young boys who are learning their trade from an experienced guild craftsman. Most apprentices learn from their father and so carry on the family occupation. Both guild members and non-guild craftsman train and use apprentices. Young laborers also perform a sort of apprenticeship, working under a skilled mentor to learn their profession. Guild apprentices are part of the formal organizational rankings of a guild and exist under much stricter regulations than nonguild apprentices.
Starting guild apprentice characters must buy the Minor Social Status Virtue Guild Apprentice. Non-guild characters must have the Free Social Status Virtue Craftsman. Both types of apprentices should be between the ages of 10 and 18, although rare cases of a character starting his apprenticeship later could occur. Since an apprentice lives with his master, he is not eligible to receive the penalty or benefit of the Poor Flaw or the Wealthy Virtue until he has become a regular craftsman or journeyman.
Apprenticeship lasts for seven years, during which time the apprentice lives with his master, performing tasks as the master assigns, including all sorts of menial drudgery. If the apprentice is the son of the master, life might not seem so different. He sleeps under his master’s roof and eats at his table. Conditions may be worse for unrelated apprentices. Since apprentices have no legal rights, they are powerless against the imposed rules of their master, and some apprentices live little better than slaves.
During these seven years, the apprentice receives training from his master and continually works at his craft. Working closely with his master, the apprentice learns little by little to become a competent craftsman. To abstractly reflect this learning process with the regular advancement rules (see ArM5, page163), an apprentice character receives two seasons of Exposure experience, one season of Practice experience, and one season of Training a year. Assume that the master has a Craft Ability of 5, so that the season of training yields 8 experience points, and that the season of Practice yields 4 experience points. An apprentice thus finishes his apprenticeship with a score of 5 in his Craft Ability. Apprentices learn more than just the basics of their trade during their tenure with their master. You may apply any Exposure experience points to the following Abilities: Bargain, Carouse, Charm, Concentration, Craft, Folk Ken, Guild Lore, Guile, Intrigue, and Town Lore. You may not apply any of these experience points to Academic or Arcane Abilities, buy you may apply them to any Supernatural Abilities the apprentice might have due to other Virtues.
Abusive Lengths of ApprenticeshipSome guilds demanded longer lengths of apprenticeship from the young men learning their trade. Instead of the regular seven years of apprenticeship, use the lengths listed on the table below. Once past the regular seven years, apprentice characters receive two seasons of Exposure experience and two free seasons per year. These free seasons usually yield Practice experience points; characters do not receive additional Training experience points. The experience points from these extra seasons of apprenticeship can be applied to the character’s Craft score, but should also be used to boost his Guild Lore and Leadership Abilities, as well as a second or even third Living Language. This is an abuse of the guild’s power, maintaining skilled workers to augment the master’s coffers.
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Characteristics: Int –1, Per +1, Pre +1, Com 0, Str +1, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik –1 Julian is a carpenter’s apprentice. Despite his natural proclivity for abandoning his tasks, he has performed well for five years and anticipates becoming a journeyman in two more. Perhaps he was selected by his master because of his innate ability to sense enchanted items, rather than any sign of extreme competence. Julian’s curiosity is a good way to get him involved in a story. He quickly notices strangers in a crowd, especially if they have a suspicious air about them (such as The Gift). He also roams far from town, following an odd inclination or magical scent. He is bold enough, or foolish enough, to act on his visions, which could bring him to the covenant. Julian is suitable as a player’s character, although you should either replace his Story Flaw: Visions with another appropriate General Flaw in that case, since grog characters should not take Story Flaws, or upgrade him to a companion. |
Guild apprentices not following their father’s trade participate in some formal type of contract. Apprentices are “sold” to a master, often to erase debt. If a family cannot pay off its substantial debt to a carpenter, he may accept their son as an apprentice as partial or full payment. Some families “buy” an apprenticeship, offering a master a sum of money to accept and train their son in the ways of the craft. Finally, a clever child may be noticed by a master, who then decides to train the adept youth in his field.
Apprentices can be dismissed as easily as they can be accepted. If for some reason — any reason — the master no longer wishes to train the apprentice, he throws the youth out of his workshop. If the apprentice is part of a guild, his name is removed from the guild roster. The only thing that would prevent the master was if he entered into a contract with the youth’s parents, accepting a certain amount of coin to take the child as a guild apprentice. The master can return this sum, or claim that the youth was too inept for training and that his parents forfeit the fee. Masters can also trade apprentices to other masters, buy an apprentice from another master, or simply give them away to another master in the guild. The apprentice has absolutely no say in this matter.
Guild apprenticeship ends after seven years. Some masters set a test for their apprentices before recognizing that their apprenticeship is over, requiring them to make an apprentice piece, an item of their craft made solely by themselves. The apprentice makes a Primary Characteristic + Craft Ability + stress die roll against an Ease Factor of 9. If he succeeds he has demonstrated enough expertise to advance to journeyman.
| Apprentice Piece | Craft Ability + Primary Characteristic + Stress Die Vs. Ease Factor 9 |
An apprentice piece is a shoddy product, and would never be offered for sale. It is a usable, functioning item, however, and may be used by the apprentice or given as a gift to a young peer.
The unlucky few who fail when making their apprentice piece continue to serve their master for another season, at which point they may attempt another piece. If an apprentice cannot pass this test by the time he is 20 years old, he is dismissed as incompetent. He gains the bad Reputation of Incompetent 3 in the town he apprenticed in. Such unfortunates sometimes find themselves employed at a covenant, willing to work for the unsavory Gifted overseers rather than face a life of not working at all.
Journeymen
Journeymen are craftsmen who have been trained as apprentices by a guild master and legally empowered by their guild to practice their craft. Journeymen own the tools necessary for their trade and have the legal right to work to make a living. Each journeyman has his own personal stamp to mark the goods that he has made. As a member of the guild, a journeyman may work for a master, making a binding contract with him for a set wage over a stipulated period of time. He may supervise the master’s apprentices and sell his crafts in the master’s shop.
Journeymen characters must buy the Minor Social Status Virtue Journeyman. They should be at least twenty years old at character generation, and there is no upper limit on a starting character’s age. A starting character’s Craft Ability should be at least 5.
Journeymen cease to live with the masters who trained them. As young adults, they are responsible for their own living accommodations and meals. Routine aspects of life invade their attentions, including looking for a spouse, starting a family, and participating in their community as responsible citizens.
The all-important aspect of a journeyman’s life is his wage. Daily wages vary considerably, dependent upon the type of craft, the length of the work contract, and the negotiating prowess of the journeyman. Age and skill do count for something, and experienced journeymen earn more than their counterparts fresh from apprenticeship. Wages are set by a contract. Contracts last from one to several years, depending on the type of good, the rapport between the master and journeyman, and the prevailing economic conditions of the town.
Bargaining for a good contract is an essential skill for every journeyman. To receive a favorable contract, a journeyman’s player makes a Communication + Bargain + (Age / 10, rounded up) stress roll against a variable Ease Factor. The guild sets the maximum wage allowed a journeyman, and better rolls receive a better proportion of this amount, represented by the number of Labor Points gained. A journeyman’s contract also affects the number of Labor Points he earns in a season.
| Making a Contract | Communication + Bargain + (Age/10, Rounded Up) + a Stress Die |
| Roll Result | Journeyman’s Labor Points |
|---|---|
| Botch | Master refuses the contract |
| 3 | -2 |
| 6 | -1 |
| 9 | 0 |
| 12 | +1 |
| 15 | +2 |
Contract Modifiers
+1 Journeyman apprenticed under the master and has a good relationship with him
–1 Journeyman apprenticed under the master and has a poor relationship with him
+1 Appropriate Craft Ability is 6 or 7
+2 Appropriate Craft Ability is 8+
–2 Journeymen has had fines leviedm against him by the guild for poor practices
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Each guild craftsman has his own personal stamp with which he identifies items he has made. This stamp, also called a “seal” or “frank” in the Northern countries, is a small character or stylized letter that identifies the craftsman to the guild. The finished item is stamped with this seal, or embroidered, carved, or cut into the item depending on its nature. A craftsman gains his stamp when he becomes a journeyman. Masters gain a new stamp when they achieve that rank, one that indicates their level of expertise and allows them to sell their products for higher prices. Stamps can be forged, allowing unqualified craftsman to sell their goods under another’s name. Anyone caught doing this faces a severe fine, confiscation of his goods, and expulsion from the guild. Deceitful craftsman might sell inferior goods using another master’s stamp to damage the master’s reputation. A stamped good serves as an Arcane Connection to the crafter, something most mundane craftsmen don’t consider but magi are very interested in. The length of time the Arcane Connection lasts depends on the time it took to make the individual product and on whether it has supernatural qualities or not. Items that take a few days to make are an Arcane Connection that lasts a week or two, items constructed in a week last for a month, and complicated items that take seasons form an Arcane Connection that lasts a few years. The Arcane Connection to a supernatural item also lasts for a few years. Stamps can be forged by Hermetic magic and existing stamps can be easily altered. Journeymen stamps can be changed into master stamps, which would allow the item to be sold for a higher price. This is a base level effect of 1 for Rego Animal and Rego Herbam magic, and a base level effect 2 for Rego Terram magic. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to mimic an exact stamp; this requires a Finesse roll against an Ease Factor of 18. |
The guild rigorously controls the number of journeymen that can be employed by the masters as a whole. There may be cases where a journeyman is capable and amiable enough to find gainful employment, but the allotted number of working journeymen in the town has been filled. Unable to work in his home town, a journeyman may travel to another city to find employment. If the new town doesn’t have a guild for his vocation, he can set up shop and work accordingly. If the town has a guild and room for another journeyman, he can request membership. This requires that he make an apprenticeship piece to show his skills, just as he had to do to pass his apprenticeship. The Ease Factor for this piece should be increased from 9 to 12.
Moving from the rank of journeyman to master is an expensive proposition. Guilds require masters to pay an enormous sum of money, and while this varies from guild to guild, most require a sum equal to the journeyman’s annual income. However, money alone won’t make a master. Since the numbers of members are controlled, the journeyman needs a master to advance his case in the guild. The senior masters vote, and a majority of them must accept the journeyman for him to gain entrance. This is a complex operation, muddied by personal relationships, past experiences, and one or two discreet bribes, and would make an ideal story for a journeyman player character.
A journeyman must pay an annual fee to his guild. The fee varies among guilds, with more lucrative guilds requiring higher annual fees. Journeymen who fall behind in their dues are expelled from their guild and lose the right to work.
Journeymen characters advance in season experience points just like any other character, receiving two Exposure and two free seasons of experience points per year. One of their Exposure seasons will typically be spent training one of the apprentices working for their master.
Story Seed: “No Work, No Pay”A distraught wife shows up at the covenant asking for help. Her husband, a journeyman goldsmith, has been ill for several months. His contract, like most journeymen’s, states he must work a certain number of hours per day, six days a week, and that he does not get paid when he doesn’t work, whether through illness, religious festivals, or other mitigating circumstances. Doctors can’t relieve his illness and his health steadily deteriorates. His wife is sure that a local woman put a hex on her husband, and asks the magi to remove the disastrous spell. She could be wrong, and her husband might be healed by ritual Creo Corpus spells. But if the local woman actually did put a hex on the husband, is she a simple maker of folk charms or a more powerful sorceress operating in town? Perhaps something more nefarious is going on, and another journeyman or hostile master has paid the woman to hex the husband. |
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Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre –2, Com +1, Str +3, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik –2
Soak: +3 Obano works in town for a master whom he is quite content with. He is proud to be a member of his trade, and thinks that working for the guild is a position of much esteem. He is so happy to be a guild member that he bristles if someone speaks disparagingly of the organization. He has been involved in several drunken brawls with craftsmen from other guilds, especially those who precede the Swordsmiths’ Guild in religious parades. His former master dealt illegally with his suppliers, and Obano has evidence of this shoddy practice. His former master knows that Obano’s knowledge could lead to trouble, especially now as he rises in prestige among guild members. Since the master is well liked, Obano knows that other guild masters won’t necessarily protect the journeyman from the master; his Social Contacts provide him with work, little else. Both the former master’s desire to erase Obano’s memories and Obano’s desire for protection could involve player characters. |
Guild Masters
Master characters must have the Minor Social Status Virtue Guild Master. They should be at least twenty-five years old at character generation and have a Craft Ability score of 5 or higher, as well as a Leadership score of half their Craft score. Other guild characters replace their Social Status Virtue (either Guild Apprentice or Journeyman) with the Guild Master Virtue if they attain this rank.
Like journeymen, masters have the right to practice their trade and own their own tools. A master may also build a workshop in which he trains apprentices and employs journeymen. A master can employ a number of apprentices and journeymen equal to his Leadership score. He and his journeymen and apprentices work side by side, using their combined efforts to sustain the workshop’s prosperity. An understaffed master, who employs fewer workers than his Leadership score, generates fewer Labor Points a season. Subtract 3 Labor Points for every absent worker from the number of Labor Points the master accrues in a season.
Masters have a voice in the guild and are expected to express their views. They have the right to attend guild meetings, although they are not required to. Most do, since every guild decision will ultimately impact their lives. They are not required to travel, meaning that guild members who live outside town do not have to journey to the town for guild meetings. Masters are not reprimanded for not attending meetings at the guild hall.
Masters are expected to pay annual dues to the guild, and masters that fall behind in their dues are fined. If his dues aren’t brought up to date, a master could be expelled from the guild.
It is rare for a master to live at a covenant, since his guild operates in an urban setting and he is intimately involved in his craft, guild, and town. Having his workshop at the covenant would require a close proximity between the covenant and the town. It is more likely that a master character lives in the town and has other ties to the covenant. He could contribute funds to the covenant in exchange for magical assistance, based on familial connections, or through other political or past obligations.
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Characteristics: Int +1, Per –1, Pre +2, Com 0, Str –1, Sta –1, Dex +3, Qik 0 Doolin is a master clothier, living in Paris and prospering at his trade. He has been a master in good standing for eight years and has his eyes set on being a senior master. Because of his skill, he has regularly been able to make excellent quality clothing for several years. Doolin is interested in hiring new staff, having fired his old staff in a frenzied move to “find new blood.” He has his ear to the ground looking for new clothiers. Assisted by a vagabond faerie named Argantael, Doolin could become aware of an excellent crafter bound to the covenant. He would also be interested in draping the magi in his exquisite, and costly, clothes. Argantael tells Dooling that there is a society of wizards who surround themselves with a mysterious display of pomp. He whispers about grand meetings where wizards from all over Mythic Europe gather, and Doolin dreams of monopolizing the formal attire of such functions. However, he would not be interested in leaving Paris, so might need a merchant partner if his clothing enterprise becomes a reality. |
Senior Masters
Senior masters have been practicing their craft as masters for ten years or more. They continue to have all of the rights they had as masters, the biggest change being the weight their opinions carry in guild meetings. These are the men to whom other members defer to when faced with perplexing or complicated guild dilemmas.
Senior master characters should be at least thirty-six years old at character generation and have a Craft Ability of 7 or higher. Their Leadership Ability should be half their Craft score, and they should have a score in both Bargain and Guild Lore. They must have the Major Social Status Virtue Senior Guild Master or have achieved their rank through play.
Senior masters have the option of owning more than one workshop, a very lucrative operation if managed correctly. The typical scenario is for a senior master to run one workshop, staffed with journeymen and apprentices, and oversee a second shop that is run by a journeyman foreman. There are several ways that a senior master can obtain an additional workshop. First, he may simply build one if he has his guild’s permission. Or, an expelled master’s workshop could be given to him by the guild. Alternatively, a master fallen on hard times might offer to sell his workshop to a senior master, serving as its foreman for the new owner. Finally, a prosperous senior master could also buy out another master, offering a lucrative sum for his workshop. Character senior masters may effectively operate a number of workshops equal to one half their Leadership score rounded up.
Guild Officials
Senior masters serve as guild officials, men who are selected to oversee the regular operation of the guild and to ensure that guild members adhere to guild rules. The guild officials approve the acceptance of both journeymen and masters, legally recognizing their position at the request of another master. They witness the newly appointed craftsman’s signing of the guild roster and accept his registration fee. They are also responsible for collecting other dues guild members owe, including annual dues and levied fines. Complaints about masters are brought to the officials, who have been authorized to legally deal with such suits. The most common complaints are that a good is inferior and below standard guild quality, or that a shipment of delivered goods was less than the specified amount. The complaint is either brought to an individual guild official or the board of officials. An official is assigned to investigate the complaint, using whatever resources he has available, before the board determines the guilt or innocence of the accused master. The officials levy a fine or, in the most extreme cases, expel the master from the guild.
Guild officials are empowered to make contracts with other guilds, secular lords, and other outside parties. Many guilds’ raw materials for production are supplied by another guild. The stonecutters guild supplies the masons, the blacksmiths supply wrought iron to the armorers, and the wool producers supply the textile guilds. Contracts between suppliers and producers are exacting documents, which determine the amount and time of delivery of raw materials, as well as the cost, in minute detail.
Guild officials also make contracts with mercenary companies employed to protect the guild’s interests and investments. Guilds often have the right to hire mercenaries, who serve as guards and enforces for individual masters. It is not an odd sight to see a pair of hired soldiers lingering in the shadowy periphery of a blacksmith’s forge, or a small gang of well-equipped guards riding alongside a delivery of silk tapestries. Mercenaries, by their nature, can cause certain problems, and are a rich source of stories and adventures.
Each guild chooses a handful of masters to serve as guild officials. Most guilds have six officials, but more or fewer are not unheard of. Guild officials are chosen in a variety of ways. In some towns where there is a powerful lord, Paris for example, guild officials are chosen by the lord, pulled from the available pool of masters that comprise the guild. Guild members have no say in this appointment and must accept the lord’s choices. In other towns the guild masters choose the officials, who must be approved by the lord before accepting their position. In towns that have achieved a balance of power between the town rulers and the secular princes, guild members are elected by the guild itself. Masters are nominated for the office and must win a guild election to claim their seat.
Guild officials retain their office for six months, at which point they return to the pool of senior master candidates. A new board of officials is then selected following whatever procedure the guild uses. Masters stepping down from the board of officials are eligible to immediately return, effectively being re-elected. Some guilds limit the number of consecutive terms a guild official might serve, but most don’t. Guilds in the Republic of Florence are notorious for rigging guild elections, allowing the same guild officials to manage the guild and steer it towards courses that are advantageous to their own personal fortunes. In theory, every master of the guild will eventually be a guild official for a term or two. Since memories last longer than terms, this encourages guild officials to deal fairly with their fellows, who may very well judge them in the near future.
The guild officials have the power to “defrock” masters. This term, borrowed from the clerical orders, means that a master is expelled from the guild and loses his right to practice his craft. His tools and workshop are confiscated. Although he owned them — having purchased and built them, respectively — the loss of his guild membership means he is unable to use them legally and they are forfeited to the guild. His workshop is awarded to another master, typically a senior master who can manage multiple workshops. His apprentices are placed with other masters or simply fired, and his journeymen must make new contracts with other masters to secure work. This is a drastic procedure and used only against the worst offenders.
From among the guild officials, one or two are selected to serve as inquisitors, whose primary responsibility is to make regular inspections of guild members’ workshops and wares. Inquisitors discuss their inspections with the other officers, and the group decides if any fines should be imposed on possible malefactors. Decisions of the guild officials are determined by a majority vote, with the dean serving as the tie-breaker if necessary. This is performed with the utmost seriousness. Inquisitors make unscheduled inspections to catch masters unaware and off guard. Substandard goods are confiscated on the spot, with a fine equal to the goods’ value imposed on the master.
If you wish your character to be a guild official or an inquisitor, he must have the Major Social Virtue Senior Master. Since most guilds change officials frequently, there is no other game mechanic necessary. Your storyguide can either run a story or two in which your character achieves his goal, or merely allow him to already be in that role. Stories involving your character as an inquisitor can be just as entertaining as a story about how he got that position.
Guild Dean
At the head of every guild sits the dean of the guild, a senior member chosen to represent the guild politically. Different guilds use different titles to designate the dean of the guild; “hansgraf” and “doyen” are popular titles in the north. In some areas, guilds are often referred to as the (Craft) House, and the dean of the guild is known as the Count of the (Craft) House.
A dean is selected through one of several means, usually depending on how autonomous the government of the town is in relationship to powerful neighboring nobles or kings. A completely autonomous town allows the guilds to select their own deans. The senior masters and guild officials elect one of their members to rise above the rest. In towns that are controlled by a secular lord, the ruling noble picks the dean from the ranks of the senior members, with the guilds themselves having little say in the matter.
Deans are removed in the same way they are selected, either by the lord who placed them in their high position or a unanimous vote of the senior masters. While this might seem clear cut, it is often difficult to enact, and most deans retain their position for life. Most deans are astute enough to keep the wheels of political influence moving in their direction, and often the only way to remove a disruptive dean is through scandal or premature death.
Character deans must start with the Major Social Status Virtue Guild Dean, or have achieved that status through several episodes of play. If creating such a character at character generation, he should be at least 50 years of age, have a Craft Ability of at least, 7 and have Bargain, Leadership, and Guild Lore scores of 5 or more. You should also select Virtues and Flaws to represent the political connections of the character that helped him to his station.
A dean receives a large annual stipend from his guild. This stipend runs from 20 to 40 pounds, and can include properties like a large house or an additional workshop. Deans are some of the wealthiest individuals in town, and at first sight can be mistaken for minor nobles or welldressed clerics.
The life of the dean is spent meeting with officials, guild members, town governors, ecclesiastics, and secular nobles. He negotiates the many contracts and privileges his guild desires, dealing with the aforementioned parties to increase his guild’s stability and revenues. He signs every guild document and contract, and is responsible for every outside interaction the guild participates in. He and his personal staff organize feast days and holy day parades, debating his guild’s place in the parade with the other guild masters. He is interested in how parallel guilds operate in other towns and travels to or entertains foreign guild masters who share his trade.
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Characteristics: Int +2, Per –3, Pre +2, Com 0, Str –2(2), Sta –3(1), Dex +3, Qik –2(1)
Soak: –3 Banco is a member of the great Roman Savelli family, as is the current Pope, Honorius III. Banco has been the Goldsmith’s Guild dean for two years, having gained the appointment due to his crafting skills, his three prosperous workshops, and the influence of his family connections. His clientele includes bishops, cardinals, and the pope himself. Banco spends much of his days meeting with guild members, overseeing his own shops, interacting with his family, and personally following his own ambitious plans. Because of his skill in making wondrous goods, Banco is interested in other enchanted items, particularly those made by Hermetic magi. He would love to learn how to make genuine magic items, and secretly sends guild members to investigate other methods of magical production. He would certainly visit nearby covenants and possibly host visiting magi, plying them with fine wine and stronger beverages to pry loose their secrets. Banco is a suitable companion character for a player. |
Craftswomen
If a woman wants a trade, she had best become a nun. — Pope Eugenius III in 1145
Guilds are segregated by sex, with only a small percentage of them accepting female members. Most guilds accept only male members, the exceptions being the textile and alcoholic brewing guilds. The process for a woman joining one of these guilds is the same as a man, through the regular avenue of apprenticeship and journeyman status. In guilds where women are allowed, their advancement is limited. It is rare for a woman to become a master and own her own shop. Even if a woman gains the status of a master, she is legally forbidden the opportunity to be a guild official. Of the few that become masters, fewer still become senior masters. It is nearly a unique event for a woman to become the dean of her guild.
Yet even in this overly limiting working environment opportunities exist to circumvent guild restrictions and rise through the ranks. The most common method of entering a maleonly guild is through nepotism. Every master has the right to train his children in his craft, regardless of whether his children are sons or daughters, so a master may accept his daughter as an apprentice. Legally, he must enter his own name in the guild roster in his daughter’s stead. Membership is thus always through the father’s name, which occupies two entries on the roster. Through her father’s name, the daughter participates in the guild just as any male member, with the same rights, obligations, and benefits. For as long as her father remains a guild member in good standing, she may use his name and rise to the very heights of guild management.
The second avenue for women to enter restricted guilds is through marriage. If her husband is a guild member, she may enter the guild by using his name on the register. While she may be coming late to apprenticeship, she has every right to learn the guild’s trade and to eventually become a journeyman and perhaps a master. As long as her husband remains alive and in good guild standing, she may practice her craft.
Such women always need a male name on the guild roster. Once on the roster, the actual male name can change, going from a father to a son or a husband to a brother-in-law. Some women have managed to transfer their membership from their husbands to their sons, whom they have accepted as apprentices and who, as male members, are allowable male sponsors for their mothers. Clever women find many ways to remain on the guild roster despite their sponsor’s death, when the names under which they are registered are removed from the guild roster.
Opportunities for advancement are actually better for women who practice in a male-only guild than for those in guilds that allow female members. To the guild, the member is considered male despite her actual gender. Advancement through the guild’s internal organization is based on skill, quality of products, and political clout and maneuvering, and there is no limit to the heights to which these abilities can raise a female member.
For your Ars Magica saga, this means that any character, regardless of sex, can play any craft role the player desires. The free General Virtue Male Guild Sponsor allows female characters to participate in any guild of the player’s choice, selecting any guild Social Status Virtue. Since the character is attached to the male name on the roster, this also provides the storyguide with possible stories, as the threat of the male guild member losing his membership will directly affect the character.
Non-guild craftspeople can be of either gender, determined solely by the player creating the character.
Craftsmen Social Status FlawsSome craftsmen have fallen on hard times or made awkward decisions in the past that have negatively affected their social status. You may select one of the following Flaws instead of the nearby Virtues for your character’s social status. Remember that every character must have either a Social Status Virtue or Flaw. Failed Master (Minor): Either through faulty management or illegal business practices, the character has run his workshop into the ground. He must work as a journeyman if he wants to practice his trade legally in town. The character has a bad Reputation of 4 in town, and it will be difficult for him to regain his legal status as a master. Failed Journeyman (Minor): The character has been expelled from his guild due to past illegal or questionable practices. He may not practice his trade in town nor sell his goods there. The character is expected to find another means of livelihood, although no other guild will accept him, so many such men must find a way to practice their trade illegally. He has a bad Reputation of 2 in town. |
Craft Guilds
Craft guilds exist in urban centers with a prosperous economy and a predilection for a particular craft, often based on local resources. The most prestigious, profitable trades are run by guilds. Similar guilds that exist in different towns are not connected, although they possess similar regulations for their members. Thus, there is not one international Wool Makers’ Guild with branch guildhalls in several towns in Flanders, but rather a number of separate guild entities each comprised of their own masters. The single exception is the Masons’ Guild (see Masons, later in this chapter).
Craft guilds are centered around a specific Craft Ability, although they may include workers with auxiliary skills. For example, the Guild of Metal and Wood Workers includes blacksmiths and carpenters, each of which might specialize in a particular aspect of his trade. As your saga progresses, guilds may narrow their range of accepted crafters, with other guilds springing from those crafters no longer included in the original. For example, by the end of the 13th century the Blacksmiths’ Guild may only accept blacksmiths, excluding nail makers, buckle makers, and locksmiths, each of which has to form its own guild.
Not every craft trade in a town is governed by a guild; only the most lucrative or obvious merit this level of organization. In the historical 13th century, this changed as the years went by, and the success of the organized guild was adopted by almost every type of crafter. The nearby table offers a rough guide to the number of guilds in a given town, based on the size of its population. This is highly approximate, since other considerations such as the location of the town relative to popular trade routes play a role in the number of guilds a town may have. In addition, the events of your saga may have an influence on the adoption of guilds in a particular area. Typically, the first recognized guild in any town is a merchant guild, followed by craft guilds and then (much later) service guilds.
Guilds that deal in large-scale operations that produce common goods are likely to develop before guilds that deal in specialized items. Masons’, Wool Producers’, and Blacksmiths’ Guilds are good examples of guilds likely to appear early on in a town’s history. Other examples of possible guilds in a sizable town in 1220 are Shoemakers’, Tailors’, Jewelers’, Carpenters’, Weavers’, Coopers’, Bakers’, Scabbard Makers’, Saddlers’, Meat Butchers’, Brewers’, Painters’, Judges’, and Doctors’ Guilds.
For sagas starting in 1220, guilds generally correspond directly to a particular Craft Ability, and allow all the workers who practice that craft to be members. For sagas set in the late 13th or early 14th centuries, guilds are increasingly defined based on Craft Ability specializations. For example, 1220 sagas might include a single Blacksmiths’ Guild, whereas a 1300 saga could instead have Locksmiths’, Horseshoers’, and Nail Makers’ Guilds. Similarly, in 1220 a Scribes’ Guild might include percamenarii (makers of parchment), copyists, illuminators, bookbinders, and booksellers, but by the end of the 13th century, each of these divisions of labor may have its own guild. The same might be true for a Wool Producers’ Guild, which might separate into Shearers’, Bleachers’, Dyers’, Weavers’, Fullers’ (who fold and press the cloth), Tailors’, and Second-Hand Sellers’ Guilds.
| Population | Guilds in 1220 | Guilds in 1250 | Guilds in 1300 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 or less | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0-3 |
| 10,000 or less | 0-3 | 3-5 | 5-10 |
| 20,000 or less | 5-10 | 50-200 | 100-300 |
| 50,000 or less or less | 5-20 | 50-300 | 100-500 |
Guild Social Status VirtuesThe guild system introduces several new social divisions among craftsmen in Mythic Europe. The following new Social Status Virtues incorporate guild positions. For completeness, all available craftsmen Social Status Virtues have been included here. Laborer (Free): The character is a trained worker who practices a trade that is a valuable service to his community, but by which no finished good is produced. Unlike a peasant, who is an agrarian worker who works at a variety of jobs, a laborer concentrates on one specific endeavor to earn his livelihood, be it hauling wood, washing clothes, cleaning latrines, carrying luggage, or serving food. Craftsman (Free): The character is a general craftsman, as described in the core rules (ArM5, page 41). He is either an adult practicing a trade or a youth learning it from his master. He may live rurally or in an urban environment. If he lives in a town, his trade is not represented by a guild. The character may be either male or female and any appropriate age. Male Guild Sponsor (Free, General Virtue): The character’s father or husband is a guild craftsman and she has been allowed entry into his field of work, which is otherwise restricted to men. The character may work at her trade, following the same procedures as the regular male workers. Every guild allows such members, so she may practice any craft she desires. The character must select a separate guild Social Virtue as well as this free General Virtue to represent her status in the guild system. Guild Apprentice (Minor): The character is a youth between the ages of 10 and 20 who is learning his trade from a guild master or journeyman. He has entered into a contract with his master that guarantees his training. The character is not able to benefit from either the Poor Flaw or the Wealthy Virtue, since he is essentially the property of his master, until he moves to the journeyman rank. Most of his time is spent in ways determined by his master. Journeyman (Minor): The character is a trained guild craftsman and may practice his trade in town under guild supervision. He works for a master for a wage. Guild Master (Minor): The character is a guild master and may legally practice his trade in town, and hire journeymen to work for him. He participates in guild activities and is considered a member in good standing. You may select Academic Abilities at character generation. Senior Master (Major): The character has been a prosperous guild master for a number of years and has risen to a position of authority in his guild. He has knowledge of guild affairs and participate in the self-governing of the guild. He may own multiple workshops and employ a large number of workers. You may select Academic Abilities at character generation. Guild Dean (Major): The character is the ultimate authority of his guild, the man who decides many of the important decisions that face the guild and represents it politically. The character is involved in town politics, long-term trade contacts, and negotiations with other guilds and local craftsmen. The town’s population views him as an important and prestigious member of their community. You may select Academic Abilities at character generation. |
Service Guilds
Service guilds are organized around a particular service provided rather than a good produced, but despite this obvious difference, they operate similarly to their craft guild brethren. The earliest service guilds, sometimes called professional guilds, were for doctors, lawyers, and judges. These well-trained men provide specialized and expensive services, and have banded together to make sure that they get paid a reasonable fee. Operating in such lucrative fields and being highly educated, these men have the financial and intellectual wherewithal to form guilds. In addition, many of them have ties to wealthy nobles, merchants, and other urban governors, which also facilitated their guilds’ early development.
Service guilds for lower, more menial professions did not historically develop until the early 14th century. The guild model proves so financially successful that every group of professions wanted to copy their system of regulated labor, and the late 13th century saw a cascade of professional service groups organizing themselves into guilds, starting with the most prestigious and moving down the social scale. Though historically anachronistic, there is no reason that your 1220 saga could not include a fledgling service guild or two, especially if you deem that such groups will add to your saga. These types of guilds might organize porters, innkeepers, laundresses, bleachers, restaurateurs, link boys (who carry torches to guide travelers at night), prostitutes, maids, wet nurses, barbers, or water carriers.
Characters participating in service guilds should conform to all of the regular rules of craft guilds, including the ranks of members, lengths for apprenticeship, and rights and responsibilities of each type of member. Replace the requirement for specific scores in a Craft Ability with a requirement for the same score in a Profession Ability. Rather than workshops, service guild characters operate labor pools, which are gangs of employees who assist the master laborer.
Specific Guilds
The sections that follow detail a number of guilds that can be found in any urban environment in Mythic Europe. Space precludes detailed treatment of the hundreds of guilds that exist in Mythic Europe, and this section provides merely a sampling.
Blacksmiths
Blacksmiths are steeped in the mystical power of iron. The blacksmith is frequently the strongest man in the village, and is often the most virile. Some blacksmiths are believed to be able to cure or curse with a touch, while others can change the weather. Each blacksmith is a master of forge and bucket, of bellows and hammer, and he makes other people powerful.
Blacksmiths make tools, which means they render other people capable of fantastic feats. A child with the right piece of iron can cut down a tree, till a field, or slay a wolf. The power of iron, harnessed by blacksmiths, is that a human can impose his will on the world, provided the iron is an appropriate shape. Faeries shun iron, because it expresses human desire to reshape the earth.
Blacksmiths work iron ore into tools, horseshoes, and other finished hardware. They also supply armorers and swordsmiths with steel rods and wire. Only a few areas mine iron, which is primarily extracted from alluvial deposits in swamps and romantically called “bog iron.” The raw iron is placed in a pit, covered, and smelted down with charcoal. Drains built into the pit allow the molten iron to run out and be collected. The smelted iron has some carbon in it, making it a crude type of steel. Medieval blacksmiths cannot control the amount of carbon included in the iron, and it is only by happenstance that some of it is strong enough to use for weapons and armor.
A blacksmith’s shop is smoky, smelly, loud, and hot. The iron is heated to become malleable and then hammered into shape, usually taking several sessions of heating and hammering. Beside horseshoes, blacksmiths make nails, bolts, wheel rims, cooking pots, and plowshares. They also make the many farm implements used by medieval society: sickles, scythes, and axes. Most of these goods can be purchased directly from the craftsman, with a good blacksmith having a variety of items ready for sale. One of the most important things a blacksmith makes is wire. Hot lumps of carbonized iron are pulled through a board with a hole in it, pulling it into rods that are again pulled through smaller and smaller holes until the desired thickness is achieved. Wire is sold to armorers, who weave it into the steel links that make a suit of chainmail.
Story Seed: a Thief in the NightA blacksmith is plagued by a faerie, who routinely sneaks into his shop and steals one of his tools, replacing it with a replica made of clay. Because of the many sorts of punches, awls, and hammers that the smith uses, this substitution is not immediately noticed, and the smith has no idea how often the faerie visits. The theft is noticed when the blacksmith uses one of the forgeries and it breaks immediately. He asks the magi for help in dealing with these thefts, showing them the replacement tools he has found. A quick investigation shows that the unbroken tools contain a pawn of Rego vis each. This should create conflicting motives in the magi. The blacksmith is a long-standing friend of the covenant and needs their help, but the lure of vis might make the magi want the faerie to continue stealing the blacksmith’s tools. Clever magi will find a way to satisfy both desires. |
Because of the noise from their shops, the guild prohibits blacksmiths from working before dawn or after dusk. Special restrictions also surround their forges, since an outof-control fire can reduce a town to cinders in a matter of hours. Guild inquisitors inspect the blacksmith’s workshop, tools, and raw material, as well as the quality of their finished goods.
Apprentices are not required to provide an apprentice piece or pass any sort of final examination. To become a journeyman, an apprentice only has to complete the length of his apprenticeship.
The patron saint of blacksmiths is Saint Dunstan, whose feast day is May 19.
Tanners
Tanners work in offal and excrement to make leather out of skinned animal hides. Wealthy residents demand that tanners work outside towns, because of the smell of the tanning process. The moment the process is finished, however, rich people buy leather copiously. Potential buyers can find their way to “Tanners Street” by following their nose. Tanners know that every shoe, every book, every bridle, was once covered in shit. They tend to be cheerful souls, not given to idolizing the rich. God Himself is, after all, a tanner (Genesis 3:21).
Tanners buy raw hides from hunters, farmers, and other rural folk. The hides are laid over a wooden beam and the fur and hair laboriously removed with a blunt knife. Once the hair is removed the hide is softened by rubbing it with pigeon or dog dung, which is then washed off in tubs of fermenting bran. If the leather is desired for an especially soft garment, a noble’s tunic, for example, the process is repeated. Finished leather is hung outside the tanner’s shop for customer inspection. It takes a long time to produce finished leather using these methods, and a typical tanner happily takes more orders for his goods than he can fill. His leather is sold to shoemakers, saddle makers, scabbard makers, and armorers.
The guild inspects the tanners’ workshops for quality and safety. Barrels of dung should be covered and the acidic fermented baths should be contained. The quality of the raw and finished material is minutely inspected for flaws, unnoticed hair, and small tears from the knives. Any suspect goods are confiscated.
Tanners’ apprentices must be able to tan hide by themselves by the end of their apprenticeship, and must produce a finished piece of leather before being released from apprenticeship.
Tanners are useful to a covenant because they are guides to a community that lies hidden in every city. This legal, but disdained, group recycles waste. The richer the city, the more waste it produces, and the larger this community becomes. These reviled people dwell in spaces made secret by polite society’s deliberate ignorance. They perform functions that are vital to the city’s health and life, like removing sewage and sweeping the streets, and yet because they work with muck, they are forced to live on the city’s fringes, or operate at night. Tanners can assist covenants to make contact with and navigate within this community.
The patron saint of tanners is Saint Bartholomew, whose feast day is August 24.
Glass Makers
Glassmakers practice the art of fragility. Glass is destroyed, in its creation and during its use, with a moment’s inattention. It is the material of ephemera and reflections. The rich use it for beautiful adornments that might, with a single slip or blow, be destroyed.
The people who make glass do not share the characteristics of their material. The great empires of Mythic Europe have always been the source of the finest glass: the craft is shattered with each empire. In 1220, the finest glassblowers in Europe reside in the Serene Republic of Venice. The glass of Venice requires the finest potash from Asia, and this has led to war with the Genoese and Romanians. Before Venice, Constantinople was the source of the clearest glass, and before it, Imperial Rome. Glassblowers are meticulous, aloof people who stare silently into flames for hours each day, then shape liquid fire with their breath.
Glass is made from heating mixtures of ash and sand in a series of three different types of furnaces. The first furnace heats the mixture, contained in white clay mixing-pots. When the mixture is molten, it is spread out in the annealing, or cooling, furnace. The third furnace is used for flattening and spreading out the glass, as well as blowing glass vessels. The cleanliness of the workshop and the purity of the ash and sand are of the utmost importance.
Glass is produced in large, flat sheets, which is then sold to glass painters, glaziers, and others in the building trades. Vessels are produced by specific request, so that a glass maker might only have sample vessels on display rather then readymade vessels ready for immediate sale. In Mythic Europe, magi are among the most frequent customers of glass makers, who produce the variety of flasks, alembics, and containers necessary for Hermetic laboratories.
Because of their work requires multiple furnaces, glass makers do not work in the town itself. Their workshops are located outside the walls, usually in a nearby forest where raw materials are plentiful (beech wood ash) and the threat of their forges minimized. The masters and journeymen live in town, returning to their houses and leaving their apprentices to safeguard the workshop over night. Apprenticeships are long, eight to ten years in length, and the apprentice must produce a finished apprentice piece before being considered for journeyman status.
The patron saints of glassmakers are Saint Luke (feast day October 18) and Saint Mark (feast day April 25).
Story Seed: An Insidious PossessionA glass maker has a reputation for making exceptionally durable goods, and is commissioned to supply a maga with her Hermetic glassware. After working for a few seasons in her newly constructed laboratory, the maga realizes that her finished activities are slightly flawed. Invented spells have a sulfurous odor when cast and created items have malevolent side effects. Investigation finds that most of her glassware has a slight Infernal taint. When confronted, the glass maker swears his innocence. Unbeknownst to the glass maker, a demon inhabits his furnace, beguiling him and hoping to tempt his soul to hell through arrogance and greed. The maga can ignore the situation, buying her glass from a more distant craftsman, or attempt to destroy the demon. Perhaps there is a way for the furnace to retain its ability to make superior glass without the Infernal influence, which would be the most preferable outcome. |
Armorers
Armor symbolizes the barrier separating the nobility from the rising merchant class. The armorer is usually forbidden to use the product of his labor. While a glassmaker may drink from a glass, or a weaver wear clothes he has made, armorers do not have the right to wear armor. Many urban communes impose restrictions on who can legally wear armor, and only the nobility and the town authorities have that right.
Armor is the uniform of authority. It represents the wealth of the landed class. Many merchants attempt to have their sons knighted, because true power, in Mythic Europe, is sustained by force. Even God has an army of angels. The faith of the pious is like armor, as noted in Ephesians, so God himself is an armorer.
As Europe has become richer, and armies have become larger, many common people have been encouraged, by their rulers, to wear armor. Some merchants are already wealthy enough to maintain small retinues that do not have the authority that armor embodies. When large groups of merchants pool funds, they are capable of creating small armies, which entirely lack the font of honor that flows through chivalric links to kings. This poses a moral question for each armorer: should they sell only to those who have the legal right to wear armor, or to those with the money to pay?
Armorers buy steel rods from blacksmiths, heat them in a forge, and then coil the steel around iron bars. The coils are then cut to form the hundreds of steel rings necessary to make chainmail, the most popular type of armor and the most profitable. The rings are then linked into interlocking patterns to form shirts, hauberks and full suits of mail. An armorer’s workshop looks and sounds much like a blacksmith’s, with a forge, a variety of hammers and tools, and the constant sound of hammering.
Chainmail is not generally custom-fit, but instead formed to fit the average customer. It is intentionally made to be baggy, the loose folds of steel offering additional protection. It can, however, be custom made, and wealthy nobles sometimes commission an armorer to make a suit of armor with an exact fit. Large men must also request a cutsom-sized suit of armor, which routinely costs them five times the amount of a normal suit of mail. Huge men who tower like giants must pay ten times the cost of a regular suit in order to one that properly fits them.
An armorer has two or three varieties of the various armors ready for sale at his workshop, allowing for an instant sale. These display pieces also show his skill and his suits’ quality, making an armorer reluctant to sell the last suit of a type of armor. Still, money talks, and most armorers comply with a persistent buyer.
All types of armor are sold at an armorer’s shop. Certain types of leather and quilted armor are not made entirely by the armorer, who receives these goods pre-fashioned from the tanners’ or cloth makers’ guilds. The armorer finishes the products, fastening pieces together with steel rivets, reinforced joints of steel, or additional shoulder and neck protection. While all sorts of armor may be bought from an armorer, he does not make or sell shields or helmets.
An armorer’s apprentice must be able to construct a full suit of chainmail by himself before he can be considered for journeyman status. Guild inquisitors inspect the quality of the steel links, the individual rivets that hold each link together, and the stock, making sure repaired armor is not sold as new.
The patron saint of armorers is Saint Eligius, whose feast day is December 1.
Clothiers
Clothing allows people to communicate their role and status. This allows other people to defer to them appropriately. The function of clothiers (also known as tailors), then, is to make apparent, through their work, the quality of the wearer. The clothier allows the nobleman to look noble and the priest to display his piety. Clothing hides the body, but reveals the nature of the wearer.
The clothier lies at the end of an extremely complex web of financial and logistical arrangements. Clothiers can claim to be the godfathers of the new age of prosperity in Europe. The textile trades use raw materials from the breadth of the world, and fuel the two industrial regions described in Chapter 7: Trade. Any disruption in these supply channels is reflected in the life of the clothier, and in the economy of the continent.
Clothiers buy finished bolts of cloth from the other textile guilds, the wool weavers and the cloth dyers. From these they make the shirts, pants, tunics, robes, and dresses that clothe the population. Beside basic cutting and sewing, clothiers also adorn their goods with silver and gold thread, fur trim, and other luxurious accouterments commissioned by the buyer.
A clothier’s workshop does not have finished clothing ready for sale. Each suit is made specifically for a customer. Buyers are measured first and their clothes are then made to fit them exactly. While samples hang from hooks, these are only to show the cloth maker’s skill. Cloaks, on the other hand, are available for immediate sale, and a cloth maker will have a variety of them on hand.
The Clothiers’ Guild allows women apprentices and journeymen, but limits master status solely to men. Apprenticeship is fairly short, and the apprentice must pass a test before she can become a journeyman. The test includes sewing a variety of stitches, complicated seams, and working with precious thread.
Clothiers do not repair torn clothes. This task has been delegated to the cloth repairers. Guild inquisitors inspect the displayed clothes to make sure they are new and refurbished suits of second-hand clothing.
The patron saint of clothiers is the recently canonized Saint Homobonus, a tailor from Cremona who regularly gave free clothes to the poor. His feast day is November 13.
Shoemakers
Shoemakers permit travel, which allows people to become greater than ever they could if they remained home. Every pilgrim requires comfortable shoes. Every quester needs stout boots. Every merchant requires durable footwear. Shoes separate people from the earth, just far enough that they can find other places in which to thrive.
In several parts of Mythic Europe, shoemakers are called “cordwainers,” a term derived from the Cordoban leather, or Cordwain, that most shoes are made from. While in years past a shoemaker had to prepare his own leather, the division of crafts caused by the guild system now forces him to buy his raw material from a professional craft guild, usually the Tanners’ Guild.
Medieval shoes are fragile compared to modern footwear. They are made of soft leather fashioned into slipper-like shoes. The hob-nailed footwear of the Roman soldier is long gone. Most people wear through their shoes in a couple of months, and well-traveled people go literally through a pair every four weeks. Consequently, the shoemaker’s workshop is filled with shoes. Some are custom made, called “bespoke shoes,” but the majority are ready-made for mass consumption. The shoemaker fashions a variety of styles and sizes, and customers purchase the pair that fits best. Since they are easily worn out, it is customary for a buyer to purchase several pairs of shoes at once. A covenant, for example, might purchase enough shoes for the whole covenant at a time.
Because of their delicate nature, most shoes are not repaired. Poor customers who cannot afford new shoes take their old pair to a cobbler, a craftsman who repairs but does not make shoes. Most urban people discard their worn out shoes, tossing them along the roadside or into the town’s cesspool. Guild inspectors make sure that second-hand shoes are not mended and passed off as new. If they make such a discovery, they confiscate the shoemaker’s entire supply of shoes and fine him a sum equal to their value.
An apprentice must merely complete the length of his apprenticeship to achieve journeyman status.
The patron saints of shoemakers are Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian, two third-century Roman preachers who made shoes instead of living off alms. Their feast day is October 25.
Masons
Many masons have lives of toil, but also of service. They are the builders of castles, cathedrals, bridges, and all other great architectural works. Each of these buildings has a dramatic effect on surrounding people, and the masons can take pride in what their work achieves. Many sign stones set into the foundations of their buildings, which provides them with a subtle, mystical connection to the site.
The craft of the masons is described many times in the Bible. Some masons believe that the secrets of the craft were given to the Jews by God, so that they could build his Temple. Regardless of the source of their knowledge, masons know far more about the proportions of buildings, the process of assembling them, and the construction of devices to lift and move weights of stone, than other people.
The masons are the only craft guild that operates internationally, unlike the other craft guilds, which only operate regionally. This is due to the nature of their craft and the time that it takes to build the huge cathedrals, churches, monasteries, and castles that they are famous for. Masons travel to where the work is, crisscrossing Mythic Europe in groups resembling small armies. At the job site, they live in wooden lodges constructed near the building site. Since it takes several years to finish a project, these temporary houses become near-permanent residences.
Masons are required to know every aspect of their trade, including cutting stone, working in plaster and mortar, placing stone blocks, and following detailed builder’s plans. At the head of any work force is the Master of the Works, a master mason who has been commissioned to direct the hundreds of workers necessary for a construction. Exceptional Master Builders, as they are sometimes called, have a reputation throughout Mythic Europe.
Masons work closely with the local Carpenters’ Guild, which builds the necessary beams and workmen’s scaffolding that surrounds the new building, as well as the huge wooden crane that lifts the stone blocks to the upper heights. Demand for the blacksmith’s trade also increases when masons are building in town, as they daily sharpen the masons’ chisels and picks. Bakers must produce more bread to feed the workmen, and in general, the building of a church or cathedral is a great economic boost for many of the town’s other craftsmen.
Besides being skilled in the Craft Ability Mason, master masons must also be skilled in Artes Liberales and Latin to read the complicated building designs made by the Master of the Works. These skills are in addition to the regular Abilities required of guild member characters. Mason apprenticeships are quite long, eight to ten years, to adequately teach all the necessary skills of the trade.
Being a mason is one of the most dangerous crafts in medieval Europe. Accidents are common, from the minor crushing of a few fingers under a block of stone to the deadly fall from the heights of the scaffolding. The guild provides masters, and their families if necessary, with monetary compensation in the event of an accident. Apprentices and journeymen do not receive any remuneration for suffering an accident, and many of the vagabonds and highwaymen who prey on Mythic Europe’s roads are former masons whose maiming prevents them from working.
Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is the patron saint of masons, and his feast day is December 26. French masons have also made Saint Barbara a patron saint. Her feast day is December 4.
Bakers
Bread is the foundational commodity without which all others are meaningless. The rulers of most cities ensure that enormous volumes of grain are imported, and that the bakers do not ever strike, because lack of bread panics the population. Bakers know that without bread, a city dies.
Bread is a vessel for the sacred, because it is fundamental to life. Highly literate bakers know Jesus was born in a town whose name means “House of Bread,” but all people know that when He offers his flesh for the sacrament, it has the appearance of bread, and not any other thing. In many places in Mythic Europe, the laity is not offered the chalice of His blood, so the bread is their only method of participation. For a baker it is an honor to bake the bread of eternal life. Many saints’ festivals also have celebratory breads, and their creation is an important part of the communal feasting which celebrates the day.
Learning to bake bread is fairly simple, and apprentices serve regularlength apprenticeships. Because of the demand for bread in town, bakers fill their workshops with journeymen and apprentices. This makes a baker’s workshop crowded and confusing, with a number of lads rushing about following orders.
Guild inquisitors inspect a baker’s bread for the amount of dirt allowable in a loaf, the percentage of which is set by the guild. A small amount is acceptable. During times of famine or war, the guild masters pressure the guild officials to increase the percentage of dirt in their loaves.
The patron saint of bakers is Saint Honoratus of Arles, whose feast day is January 16. In the years to come they will also adopt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary as a patron saint. She will die in 1231 and be canonized four years later. Her feast day is November 17.
Slavers
The Roman Empire and much of early medieval Mythic Europe was built on the sweat and toil of slaves, and though abating, this practice continues in the 13th century. Christian slaves have been forbidden by the Church and many secular rulers since the ninth century, but the sale of non-Christian slaves is still allowed. Slaves come from the Slavic lands, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, and the shores of the Black Sea.
Not all of Mythic Europe uses slave labor, and the northern countries have the fewest, if any, slaves. Italy, on the other hand, still abounds with slaves, and most prosperous households own a slave or two. Slaves have no legal rights and are considered the property of their owners.
The Slavers’ Guild is small, since only a few areas are interested in their wares. It falls in a grey area between a craft guild, since a “product” is bought and sold, and a service guild, since nothing is actually manufactured. Slavers are skilled in Sailing and Leadership, and usually have high scores in Bargain and Guile. The guild inspects the practices of its members rather than their stock, although slaves should not be sick, elderly, or crippled.
Slavers have a mindset that is alien to modern players, but common in Mythic Europe. According to that outlook, slavery is not, of itself, an immoral thing. Saint Paul counsels slaves to obey their masters, for example. Saint Paul, and later the Church, requires that masters not abuse their slaves. Within the Church, slavery is not considered an important distinction between people. Some Popes were ex-slaves. When the Church has sufficient power, it prohibits slavery because of the ease with which it is abused.
As an interim, in many areas the Church prohibits the slavery of Christians, but allows pagans to be enslaved. This is most seen in those states that border the Mediterranean. Jews are usually the property of powerful noblemen. For example, all of the Jews in England belong to the king, and he has recently mortgaged them to one of his relatives in exchange for a loan. Slavery is common in Muslim countries.
Characters desiring to free slaves will find allies in the Church. Three orders of monks have dedicated themselves to ransoming slaves. The oldest of these, the Order of Montjoie, is failing and negotiating to be absorbed by another Order. The other two are the Trinitarians, who have been active since 1198, and the Order of the Lady of Mercy, founded in 1218.
You should be aware that not every troupe will appreciate the inclusion of slavery in their saga, and the buying and selling of human beings could be found distasteful. Players wishing to play slave or slaver characters should consult Guardians of the Forest and use the Virtue and Flaw suggested on page 102.
Attribution
Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.