Guilds

Presentation

The action of the Jeu proceeds in an imaginary universe named Cosme. Six typified people live in a Archipel named the Shores whereas a cataclysm occurs: a Raz-de-marée devastates the coasts of the islands. A few months later, it is discovered that a new continent is " apparu" in two months of navigation, concealing mysterious tribes, creatures and powers magic. The players interpret natives of the Shores, belonging to named organizations " Guildes" dedicated to the exploration and the exploitation of the resources of the New World. Environment is very close to the exploration of the America by Europeans, the magic and fantastic side moreover.

The system of play is simple: each character is defined by quantified characteristics (Extremely, Agile, Résistant, Observateur, Savant, Rusé, Talentueux, Charmeur) and competences (Navigation, Médecine, Négoce, Astronomie, Armes, etc). In order to determine whether an action is successful, the sum of two Dé S with six faces, of the characteristic and competence suitable is compared on a table with the difficulty of the action (of " routine" with " impossible"), and a level of success (or failure) varying " success critique" with " failure critique" is then interpreted by the leader of play.

Handbooks and supplements published for Guilds

Supplements of the first edition

Guilds, the Search of the Origins (basic box, 1st edition), which includes/understands:

a booklet of presentation of the play and initiation to the roleplay: " With discovered of Guildes" ;
a file named " Rivages" containing three booklets for creation of characters and guilds, in addition to one chart of the Shores;
a book of rules of the game of 80 pages named " Aventure" ;
a book of 120 pages describing the world, named " Continent" , and containing two scenarios: " The réveil" and another in two parts: " The nave of hiver" and " The giant of Aquame".
an approximate chart of the Region of Gillian

the folding screen also including/understanding corrections of rules and a scenario: " Pearls of Nocte".

the Notebooks Crimsons , a collection of scenarios, including/understanding " The Mélancolique" Oasis; , " The Fall of Icarides" , " Blacker than you it pensez" and " The king fou".

Loom , a book of 176 pages which includes/understands the system of magic, the lists of the fates, turns and magic spells of phyla, and of information on all the phenomena loomic.

two volumes of the Atlas of the Continent . The first details the regions of the Horn of Wisdom, the Stellar Crown and the Steps of Gamba and the charts color of these areas; the second describes the regions of Baronnies Rouges, the Empire of the Sleeping Black and the Cradle of Dana and contains a chart of the six bordering regions.

supplements describing each House of the Shores. Four are appeared: Venn' Dys - also including/understanding details on the guns and the calendar -, Ashragors , Kheyza and Gehemdals .

the Adventurer , a supplement describing recruitment and the formation in the Academies and the Guilds, the navy océane (organization, life on board, vessels…), survival on the Continent, a bestiary, a precis of herb trade, new weapons and armours, continental people (autochtones, transients and mongrel) and containing a long list of equipment and price.

the Requiem of the Shades , the box of the first part of the " Countryside of New Monde" , including/understanding:

the booklet " Region of Gillian" describing the Empire of Phaleen, the Dynasties Phantom, the Principality of Mirol, the city of Rask, the People-Pierre de Lebd, the roads, the Guild of Almara and Scabarre
the booklet " The Requiem of Ombres" beginning the countryside, and containing moreover a system of naval action and navigation, and a system of combat of mass
a chart of the Region of Gillian

the Paddle of the blue prophets , the book of the second part of the " Countryside of New Monde" , including/understanding the scenarios of the continuation of the countryside, of descriptions of Port Agrees, the Senate of the Constellation, the island of Astramance and the town of Snake, like 51 synopses of adventures.

the Fall of the Magi , the book of the third (and last?) part of the " Countryside of New Monde" , including/understanding the scenarios of the continuation of the countryside, descriptions of the City of Jonril and the Order Loomique de Twance, and the revelations (alas always incomplete) on the mysteries of the Continent.

Of the Romance written by Stephan Marsan, the trilogy of the " Notebooks of Constellation" , that is to say the Test of Astramance, the Cathedral of the Summits and the Mirrors of Cosme, and a second trilogy, " The Legend of Shamir" , cash the Gold of Nebula, the Castle of Nocte and Empire of Naufrageurs.

a prozine, Terra Incognita , whose only number 1 appeared.

Of the scenarios in the review Casus Belli:

Fires of the Earth (#95, June 1996)
Fleur-Shipwreck (#98, October 1996)
Only for Erik (#106, June 1997)
Sentinels of Desert (out of the ordinary # July 22nd, th and th 1998)
a robber very indicated (#120, June-July 1999)

Supplements of the second edition

Guilds: El Dorado appeared in 2000 constitutes the basic book of the second edition of Guilds. It includes/understands the new system of play and an evolution of the world by directing its exploration beyond the bordering regions of the Continent.

the Screen on four shutters, taking again side player of the illustrations of the basic book and driving side of play a summary of the rules.

the road of Syrius presents 3 continental jewel cases (areas) explored by Syrius, a missing adventurer, and whom the characters of the players can again survey.

the dream of Octal Silec

triumph of Bételgeuse

strange art

warlike art

art guildien

Description of the imaginary world of Guilds

Historical context of Cosme

What is called Cosme by its inhabitants is the unit of what is essential on their directions in their universe. The sky of Cosme is enlightened the night by the three moons of color bronzes, money and gold whose cycle is not regular and the day by two suns and of strange named moving fringes of light Fire-of-Sky which extend between them. Two areas form part of it: The archipelago of origin of the people of Cosme, named the Shores , as well as a new Continent, surrounded by several oceans which bathes them. For the inhabitants of Cosme, one also includes there the inhabitants, the animals, the buildings and the objects. In the world of Guild, Cosme is thus more or less a synonym of Univers .

The origins of Cosme are described little. The chronology of the places starts with legends describing the Cataclysm, which would have taken place whereas the Fire-of-Sky blazed up, the grounds were burned and that drained oceans. The civlisations of Cosme were then destroyed whereas the men turned over to the state of animals. The cosmology of Guilds tells that only one woman, named Astramance and apparently immortal, would have survived Cataclysm. This woman remains since in one of the islands of the Shores, acting as oracle by stating various omens on the future of Cosme and her inhabitants. For what the inhabitants of Cosme know, its predictions were always carried out, and the members of current Maison of Kheyza are its guards and servants.

The centuries passed, the populations of Cosme were assembled as people according to their physical culture and their characteristics and formed what was going to become the six contemporary Houses of the time of the play. With the growth of the population and the restricted size of the territories of the Shores (what remained grounds after Cataclysm), followed the war. During three centuries, the Houses clashed in various conflicts described like " heroic but barbares". Thanks to their control of the forging mill and metals, it was Gehemdals which left there victorious and which founded what was called the First Metal Empire, which created the establishment of a new civilization. The house of Ashragors badly supported to have to answer their acts Gehemdals, and the Empire, after two centuries of existence, flew in glare for another millenium of war. The second Empire ends up being founded by mutual agreement between the Houses, and an influence equalizes was given to each one of it. This new Metal Empire lasted four hundred years. This time, null revolt was not at the origin of its disappearance. Simply a slow forfeiture, the disengagement of the state, a deceleration of the contacts between the various Houses and, soon, in the facts, the second Empire was nothing any more but one to remember. Several centuries passed, where the Houses were established in States and evolved/moved each one on their side. The exchanges were reduced, and time was not long before each people stagnate, being locked up in the routine and conservatism. Except perhaps Venn' dys, which had banished Strange Arts of their house to devote itself to science and the novel methods.

It should be said that the conflicts and the Stagnation had partly also with the slow decrease of the Loom in the Shores. The loom is magic energy present in Cosme which makes it possible to use the magic, and which is present in six forms indicated by colors: black, yellow, red, green, purple and invisible. All the Natives (thus are named in Guildes the inhabitants of the Shores) except for the members of the Felsin house, have in themselves " the spark of loom" which includes/understands the five visible colors of loom. Felsins, as for them, have in their spark only invisible loom. At the origins of the shores, one could find loom in the plants and the animals, certain special sites, or in his pure crystal shape of color. But the loom became exhausted little by little in the shores, making only exarcerber the engagements for its control, and causing perhaps finally the Stagnation at the time of its disappearance separately the spark of loom of each native supplements. Missings, the powerful Fates of old, only remained the small rounds where the spark of loom was sufficient. But the time of the change arrived…

In 206 of the chronology of the world of Guilds , mysterious events occurred. Firstly, an immense tidal wave swept the shores, causing enormous damage at the coastal towns and killing out of the thousands of people. They is at this time that certain the omens of Astramance of the previous year remembered, speaking about " fish died on the beaches, messengers of the return ". This event, predicts great changes, so outstanding that the calendar was gave to zero and was started again to count the years as from this moment. The time of the first edition of the play Guildes thus starts in " 206 of the age of the Adventure ". Other events quite as mysterious occurred. One night, all Ulmèques made the same dream; Gehemdals again heard the horn of call of their god blacksmith, Liam; Felsins, victims of a curse and afflicted with a collective amnesia concerning their last history a certain date, noted strange incidents in the Temples Forgotten on their territory; the Ashragor country was covered with démoniaques exhalations during one day and a night; all Kheyza were made dumb during one day; certain Venn' dys started to be reached Languor, a disease making amorphous the patient until his pure and simple dissipation…

According to the legends of the Natives, Venn' dys named Orion decided to leave to the adventure, on the other side of the sea Océane, in the search of a remedy for the Languor whose its beloved was reached. If it never returned from its tour, a Ulmèque sailor found however his log book on a coast of the Shores, locked up in a sealed amphora. This newspaper told the history of fabulous discovered: an immense Continent, in two months of navigation of the Shores, had appeared in the sea Océane. So immense, in fact, that nobody still succeeded would be this only to find a beginning of curve which would make it possible to make the turn of it… The Continent concealed a great number of fantastic characteristics: strange people, human and even not-human, with thousand-year-old civilizations although it seemed that the Continent had just appeared; mysterious places and diverting creatures; capricious seasons and with the subtle effects; gigantic resources which only require to be gathered and… of the loom in quantity! Enthusiasm gagnit quickly all the natives, and, following the first adventurers who reflect the foot on the continent and who have the appearance of a legend now, of the many Guilds were trained and continue to be formed with several objectives at the head: to explore the Continent, to exploit its resources of which the loom, to contact new people, to make trade there, to gain there knowledge in multiple fields, to learn there how to extend Strange Arts… Astramance then made its prophecy most famous, speaking about the Continent at the same time like happiness and about a misfortune for the Natives, and that Felsins would find the answer to their curse there.

If the beginnings of the guilds were done in chaos, the competition of influence with the Houses quickly became very strong and of arrangements with these last were established, saying that only the guilds could transport towards the Continent more than one hundred people per annum, and to control that the Senate of the Constellation was established where all Large the Masters of guilds sit regularly. It is besides at this same time that was created a common language to help with the communications between houses, Guildien, and that was struck the first common currency, Guilder. Same manner, to control the practice of Strange Arts was founded the Order Loomique de Twance. Since, the call of the continent, adventure and, perhaps, richness and of the celebrity is made hear for many daring Natives who, after a formation in one of the academies guildiennes, can engage for one of it and leave to the discovery, beyond the Sea Océane.

Description of the six Houses of the Shores such as sights by a native

The reasons of exploration of the Continent are in fact triple: natural interest of the Guilds for its exploitation, the fact that it seems that the solution of a mystery of each House finds its solution on the Continent, and the clean motivation of the Adventurer who pushes it to leave to the broad one. The Guilds need for exploration and the exploitation for the Continent for Natives for all professions, of the craftsman to the warrior, the magus to the brigand, the sailor to the well-read man, the merchant to the juggler. The contribution of members of each of the six houses is also necessary, because they have each one their knowledge, their culture, their character and their Strange Art private individuals. scribe: The authors of Guilds drew their inspiration for Houses of the imaginary or historical people. Although they passably modified them, one will give in short description quisuivent the people having inspired it to give a general idea of the House in question.

Ulmèques

Populate inspired of the former people of Central America and south, especially the Aztèques and Incas.

The natives of the House of the Fire-of-Sky live on the fertile plates dug of canyons and the deep jungles which surround them in the south of the Shores, residences and palates of stones, in cities connected by an important highway network. Sometimes from small size but solid, they are characterized by their basanée and ornamented skin, as well as the atours that they like to carry. Their strictly hierarchical company is directed by the Crowned Dreamers surrounding the Son of the Sun, and by an important bureaucracy of scribes. One says them extremely skilful in craft industry, and which they are jovial people but crafty one, giving excellent advisers or merchants.

Their Strange Art, Oneiric Art, using the green loom, enables them to survey the world of the dreams, which they call Nocte (in opposition to the real-world, clearly thanks to the Son of the Sun). They can then are to modify Nocte and thus to involve themselves in the dreams of the others, or to bring back certain beings or objects of Nocte in our world. With this intention, they use gems of Nocte, invaluable stones brought back of the world of the dreams which they use in conjunction with the loom. Their legends speak about an immense library, containing all the knowledge of the world, which would be located some share, hidden well, and probably on the Continent…

Gehemdals

Populate inspired of the Viking S and Celtes which would live in feudal mode.

The natives of the House of the Imperial Forging mills live in the valleys of the fjords of the north of the Shores as well as the fertile plains which limit them in cities with the impressive walls, country stone houses or castle-forts. Their big size and their often solid physics are raised by fair or russet-red hair and a piercing glance. They live in a feudal mode under the command of the emperor, where dukes and barons do not cease disputing grounds. They honor courage, the great ceremonies and the art of the war, and are recognized for the quality of their blacksmiths and their sculptors, though certain people enjoy not to regard them as very waked up (and they are sometimes surprised).

Their Strange Art, Metal Art, using the red loom, consists of the use of the capacities or resonances contained in various Crowned Metals which they forge out of weapons or amulets. They are the only house to be believed in the developed Pantheon and are convinced that some share on the Continent finds the Earth of the Gods, where they could meet their divinities who do not walk any more among them since centuries.

Venn' dys

Populate inspired of the Vénitiens of the Renaissance.

The natives of the House of the Spirits live in lake cities, often with the mouth of a river, where in the country back-country of the large islands of the west of the Shores. Always elegant, they privilege light, full clothing and indicators. The Doge, elected official with life by the noble ones, chairs intended of people which regard themselves as only truly civilized and refined Shores with their Arts, the Letters, their education and their diplomacy; they lose however much of their rationality at the time of their famous carnivals. One recognizes them like excellent merchants, and they are interested extremely in the technique (not completely with pure science): one owes them printing works, the guns, of rapids sailing ships and even the airships which float in the airs of the archipelago.

Although Venn' dys officially banished Strange Arts of their House, preferring science to them, the few magi who practice Strange Art venn' dys seals some, Art Wizard, succeed in handling the elements thanks to the yellow loom. Since Languor struck them after the first returns of the Continent, learned the venn' dys ardently seeks a remedy for this disease, which is probably from where the Evil seems to come, on the other side of Océane…

Ashragors

Populate inspired of Melnibonéens of the series d'" Elric Nécromancien ".

The natives of the House of Princes Mortifères live in regions of marsh, dark forests, jagged mountains and moors beaten by the elements, in cities with unhealthy architectures. Often large and thin, with the black or white hair, the black or red eyes (as regards the nobility), they affectionnent the capes, full clothing often opposing two colors. They live in a hierarchical company, directed by Pontifex, centered around the Démoniaque Church which venerates a prince-demon named Ashragor. A military discipline reigns in all the countries, whose borders are generally closed the abroads. The other Houses regard them as bad and declining, and are wary largely of them.

Their Strange Art, Art Démonique, uses the black loom in order to call upon demons of other dimensions, or to animate the bodies of deaths. For a long time, the large Ashragors priests seek the gate which would make it possible our world to come into contact with the plan of Ashragor. However, all seems to indicate that it would be on the Continent…

Kheyza

Populate inspired by the Tziganes and a little by the Amerindian of the plains.

The natives of the House of the Guards of Astramance do not have any more grounds with them since they were banished by it by the other houses after having tried to use antiques prohibited technologies millenia ago to try to stop the war having led to the first metal empire. They wander now in the long caravans on the grounds and the seas of the Shores, establishing for a time that and there their villages of tents and roulottes. Racial mixings make that the members of this house have a large physical variety, but are often well proportioned, the skin yellowed or tanned by the sun, the blue, green or gray eyes gilded. All their culture is centered around the wandering, of the voyage, the family, the clan, and the knowledge (thanks to the well provided libraries which they transport in their roulottes). It is said them that they are excellent tisserands, that they make of good riders, scouts, speakers or practitioner of arts divinatoires. They are often treated robbers or birds of ill omen, but much respect their wisdom or their knowledge. They are traditionally the guards of Astramance, from which they protect the access and interpret the words.

Strange Art kheyza, Semantic Art, uses the capacity of Truths Names of the things or the beings at the same time as the purple loom, which enables them to control them. According to them, formerly, Truths Names belonged to the same things as they indicate, but these Names were broken and their totality is found now on the Continent and wait to be redécouverts.

Felsins

Populate inspired at the same time by Eastern and Arab medieval.

The Natives of the House of the Forgotten Palates live in the mountainous islands, the coasts and the mid-ocean archipelagos of the south-east of the Shores, within residences with hurled architecture, glazes of frescos and harmonious colors. Nimble and flexible, Felsin has a physique which appears sometimes strange with the eyes of the other houses, the color of their skin varying from brown-reddish with gray-blue, and the eyes between the green and the purple one with a strange glare. They also have the characteristic to be sterile with the members of the other houses. Their House is directed by a sultan surrounded by various advisers, but the women, mothers with the members of harems, exert a determining influence on their male consorts. They control the craft industries and the raising of the animals, and excellent by their subtlety with the weapons. Their straightness is appreciated but Felsins require it also those with which they treat, and parks with their anger if they are misled.

Their Strange Art, Martial art, is a prolongation of their physical capacities which they increase while taking as a starting point the animal behaviors that they imitate. They carry in their spark of loom only the invisible loom, and cannot thus practice other Strange Arts. Moreover, it seems that one cannot find loom invisible on the Continent, and Felsins thus preserve to them loom only in themselves. Felsins awoke all amnesic on their territory the shortly after Cataclysm, within superb palates, without remembering anything. They regard that as a curse on their people and, inspired by the prophecy of Astramance, seek the reasons of them on the Continent.

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