Adventurer's guilds

Adventurer's guilds are a type of organization that seek to assist, direct, and sometimes supply adventurers across the world.

The form that adventurer’s guilds take tends to vary highly by region. In some larger states, for example Khapesh and Viridia, adventurer’s guilds are tightly managed state-sponsored organizations. While these types of guilds help adventurers with resources, information, and assistance when required, especially when in unfamiliar areas, by establishing legal oversight and codifying many aspects of the practice these governments are also able to better control those who are overeager and might otherwise turn their activities into little more than looting. To take Khapesh as an example: from the central Khapeshan adventurer’s guild headquarters in Dehenet, updates and guidance are distributed to branches across the desert kingdom. Each branch discourages local adventurers, or those visiting the area, from delving into ancient tombs and complexes that have been deemed off-limits, while instead directing their attention towards more pressing matters and approved activities.

In much of the world, however, this sort of highly organized institution is replaced by some type of much more localized form. For instance, many larger Hellean cities have adventurer’s guilds, but these are broadly unaffiliated with each other - members may be on friendly terms with those in other cities, and share information and collaborate on occasion, but they do not coordinate their activities. This type of guild tends to give far more autonomy to its members, who are also able to influence the direction of the guild to a greater degree.

Finally, a great number of places have no formal institutions for this purpose at all. Any groups for adventuring types in these regions are more ad hoc in nature, created informally as a matter of convenience. In the Arrajan Wilds, it is typical for those who explore ancient ruins and the wilderness to create a loose network of those they trust and view as respectable and dependable, sometimes even coordinating meetings to update each other on their activities. While this is exactly the purpose of organized adventurer’s guilds in many other places, here they are beholden to no one and can easily dissolve and reconstitute in a slightly different form as required.