#once again thank you and goodnighty

[liquidstar]

I have an OC ask! Although more specifically, it's a question about the worldbuilding of the setting your OCs are in.

What's the deal with these Guilds that all of your characters seem to be a part of?

Why were the guilds created? What do the guilds do? How does one create a guild? How does one join a guild? How does the ranking system of the guilds work?

(I realize you were probably hoping for questions about specific characters, but all the questions I could think of are worldbuilding ones)

Oh PLEASE don’t be sorry! I absolutely love these questions and I’m SO excited to ramble about worldbuilding!!!! Thank you so much :D

It might be a lot, I’m going to sort of bulletpoint through this to make it easier. Otherwise it’ll become WAAAYYY too long and hard to read 😅so you can just skim!! you’re not under any obligation to read this in detail lol im not heartless

Either way I super appreciate the ask and thank you for going out of your way to send it!!!! it gives me a reason to jot it all down too so tysm <3

Oh PLEASE don’t be sorry! I absolutely love this question and I’m SO excited to ramble about it!!!! Thank you so much :D

I’m going to sort of bulletpoint through this to make it easier, otherwise it’ll become WAAAYYY too long and hard to read 😅 you can skim you’re not under any obligation to read this in detail lol

SO as for how they were created:

★Powers (ethos) started developing in people, not long later monsters started to pop up. Villages and travelers need help as monsters become more and more of a threat. ★A new job, “hunter,” becomes a necessity. Hunters are people with powers who can fight the monsters. Pretty straight forward. Hunters charge money in exchange for their services ★Fees become extortionate since the job is a necessity. Since hunters are still rare it’s easy for one person or group to have a monopoly in a specific area. ★To prevent this, groups of hunters band together to make larger activities centralized to local hubs throughout wider regions. Guilds. ★Eventually the kingdom takes over the guilds itself, making them function as an extension of the kingdom's defense forces. The kingdom heavily pushes guilds but at the same time passes laws to regulate them and have more direct control. ★Groups who refused to participate in the kingdom’s enforcement of these rules were considered illegal- Dark guilds. Because of this they end up taking on more unethical missions, functioning like organized crime rings. In some places they may function as mafia-style protection brackets. ★Individuals are allowed to continue work as solo hunters, however many choose not to because being affiliated with a guild gives way to more benefits (better access to missions, higher pay, often a place to live, and quick access to help from other members). ★Guilds are also considered a potential gateway to becoming a bonafide knight, however nowadays part of a knight’s duty is also to suppress the guilds and keep them in line with the kingdom’s wishes. ★It’s important to understand that the guild system was about control. The laws passed to prevent extortion had become excuses for this, and the dark guilds became examples of what is “bound to happen” when not following this law, when in reality it was the kingdom itself that pushed them there, by limiting options outside of their direct control. ★Control was very important at the start of all this, since there was a lot of panic. Panic isn’t good. Suppression and control are important, things need to be kept under lock and key. It’s really weird that monsters popped up around the same time as the powers did, right? Suppression and control are important.

For what guilds do, (how they’re made, how you join, and the ranking system):

★Like I said above, they’re centralized hubs for hunters within certain regions. But what exactly does that entail? Well ★Missions requests along with rewards will be sent to the guild from other areas within their region. Hunters within the guild will accept them and do the jobs as they need to be done. ★For more immediate problems there may be people stationed at certain “problem” areas. Also, over time, smaller guilds aside from the main one have started to form which can be called on for more immediate help too, they just won’t take on the big jobs. ★Otherwise guild members tend to live at the guild's housing, typically dorms. ★All missions have a star ranking to go with them! From one to five. One star being very easy entry-level missions (Ones where you might not even have to fight anything but just act as a guide) to five star missions being “There’s a very good chance you will die trying. Good luck!” ★Members of the guild are given a ranking of their own by the guildmaster. It’s a weighing of their skill and experience. So if you’re an expert but still a newbie to the guild, you’ll still have to spend some time proving yourself as capable before climbing the rankings. ★Naturally, the more stars, the higher the price, so there’s a lot of incentive for people to work their way up. Five stars might even be scouted as knights. ★When you first join a guild you’re a no-star. You’re expected to shadow people on their missions until you’re a fully fledged member with your own star(s). ★The sign-up process is different for each guild, but mostly it just consists of talking to the guildmaster. Some will let you join on the spot, others may ask for a show of your skills, or even a requirement to pass certain tests. It will depend on the guildmaster and how they conduct things. ★If YOU wanna be a guildmaster there are pretty much two ways to do it. Either you get the title from the previous guildmaster or you go and start your very own guild! Maybe you’ll even grow it big enough to join with the big ones someday. Who knows? ★But the process of actually creating a guild is a lot more bureaucratic. It’s gotta be kingdom approved and everything, and then you have to get people to actually want to join. But it’s been done before, so it’s worth a shot.

OK NOW this part wasn’t really in your questions so I wouldn’t even blame you if you stopped reading here but I wanna ramble about each Specific guilds lore (At least the relevant ones)

★The main guild is Nova Stella, and though a few generations ago it was considered a “rising star,” it’s pretty well established as the main guild of its area by now. The current guildmaster is Venus, and while she can be very particular about how things are run, she doesn’t actually care much for the kingdom’s laws. It’s Venus’s rules here. As a guild, they’re all technically doing a lot of stuff they’re not allowed to be doing. Stuff like, you know, having members who are former pirates or just straight up some mystery guy they found, or taking some mission requests under the table to avoid the bureaucracy which is borderline dark guild behavior. Nova Stella takes a very “people first” approach. Don’t snitch to the knights or else. ★Gladiatoria is the opposite- it’s the current #1 ranked guild and you don’t get that far without fitting into the perfect mold. Its guildmaster, Mars, personally trains all the members with a militaristic philosophy. Might makes right. It’s not an environment suited for most people, there’s a lot of pressure to succeed. People can say whatever they want, but the guild does have the results to back it up- It’s actually relatively new, it was only founded about 30 years ago, and only became a household name within the last decade. The guildmaster is a very determined person. ★Pandemonium has similar aspirations, though it’s technically been around for years it’s also only blown up in notoriety ever since Satrn, the most recent guildmaster, took over a few years ago. This is mainly because his approach has been to challenge other guilds for their control over a certain area- effectively turf wars. Is this ALLOWED? Kinda, it’s an old practice that people don’t really expect to happen anymore. And that’s how you get ‘em. ★Dragon Tree is so much more chill than any of the previously mentioned guilds. It’s not a huge guild, but it’s an old one. It’s been functioning inside of a tree for decades now, since before the current Guildmaster, Uranus, was born. It’s a respected guild, though it has a reputation for eccentric members. They mostly just value nature and want to keep peace, which is a hard philosophy to hate. ★Owl Feather is an even older guild, one of the very first guilds in fact. Since it was founded by a scholar, it became a guild dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge alongside the typical guildwork. Rather, the two go hand-in-hand. Despite the guild’s age, current guildmaster, Mercury, is one of the youngest at only 28. She doesn’t really act like it though, so please do not test her on this. As all previous guildmasters have been, she’s very dedicated to spreading the messages of their founder. ★Lunar Flare is just here for a good time. And that’s not a misspelling, it’s a pun! It’s a guild with a lot of flare, filled with people who love the arts, with a passion for bringing joy to people. To some, this may seem like a simple gimmick to attract attention and missions, but the core belief of their founder and guildmaster, Jupiter, is different. People don’t just need to be saved physically, people need joy, people need art. He believes art is a way to give hope to people who need it, to spread morale. So a guild filled with hunters and artists is killing two birds with one stone. But he would never kill a bird, that’s just mean. ★Cobalt Heart is a fairly old guild and the first official naval guild, though guilds themselves had already been established for a while by that point. All its members specialize specifically in naval and seaside missions, though they may occasionally take on other ones too. Of course the current guildmaster is Neptune, and he’s already training his son to take over someday. Cobalt Heart is also well known for being just really fucking cool.

There’s also guilds that aren’t really guilds:

★The Timber Scouts are kiiiiind of a guild. Kind of, not really. It’s basically just boyscouts/girlscouts, but as a training program for kids who wanna get into guildwork. The current guildmaster (Generous title, they’re more of a troupe leader) is Ceres, who is truly stressed the fuck out on account of The Children. ★The knights, mentioned throughout, are basically who uphold the law and control the guilds, but they’re also the main defense of the kingdom itself. Meaning any mission beyond a 5 star automatically goes to them. The highest ranking knights are the Zodiac knights and the official court of the current ruler. ★Tartarus, a dark guild. Led by Pluto, who stands at a fearsome 5’0, it’s a guild filled with bandits and outlaws. There are no rules for the jobs they take on; they can be your protectors or they can be hitmen. Though it would be pretty hard to feel safe around this group, knowing they might decide to sell your kidneys on the black market. Who knows. The rule of Tartarus is every man for themselves. They aren’t a family, they’re lone wolves who happen to be working together. Don’t be surprised if you end up stabbed in the back. ★The Sisters are… Not really a guild at all. Not even a dark guild. They don’t do missions (legal or otherwise) the same way that any other guild would. So it’s not fitting to call them that. Perhaps an organization, an alliance, people with a common goal, it wouldn’t even really be wrong to call them a cult. They have plans, they’re working towards them. That’s the main thing. Calling each other “sisters” doesn’t help with the cult allegations either. All I can say is someone get that 10 year old outta there.

AND YEAH THAT’S IT.

Unless I have any blindspots but it’s getting very late for me so I should probably wrap up my ramblings. Thank you for reading this far if you did, I appreciate the question a lot and I’m really happy I got to ramble as much as I did <3 ty and goodbyebye