History.

The History of the guild. In any given group of people there are legends. For us they start with Mazda, the legendary thief who stole fire from the gods themselves and brought light to the disc. In the beginning we were aware of his accomplishments. As a guild we were closer to our gods than we are today and some say our strength was drawn from faith as much as from the covert arts. Today a statue in silver on our guild floor reminds us of Mazda, and whispered within these walls are other names. Ask to hear stories of this guild and you will Learn a great many of these names. some lost from us, some who live in infamy, some who will never fall from the shadows of our mind. The lesson is this, What makes the story of the guild of thieves... are its members.

To research the history of the guild, one must dig into old archives. Between musty bookshelves and old archives I'm afraid I have inhaled enough dust to last me a lifetime. Several members of the guild have helped out, slipping notes of old maps, lineages and other assorted knowledge into my hands. So where to start?...

Humble beginnings.

I guess that for the guild, the story starts in Rime Street, in an old building called Ymor's Tower at the end of the small street just off Short Street. The street layout has changed since then, but some maps remained in the back of a particularly cobwebbed shelf. This is where we got started, with a few rooms for fencing and trading. Kordane was with us from the start, sitting in that small room joining up the sneaky and the dextrous, the silent and the scheming to form a guild.

Early structures.

Looking through the mottled pages in the library one realises that the structure of the Thieves Guild is one that has been in place a long time. Our line of Guildmaster preceeds all others, and it is older than some of the other guilds themselves. Even before there was an official structure, the guild sought out a leader, and her name was Scarlett.

Now, there is some dispute as to wether there was someone before Scarlett. Some say that a thief named Simidh ruled before her, but this piece of lore was not supported by Simidh himself, who contacted me from an undisclosed location to tell me that he was not GM, but served as an enforcer under Scarlett. This information has since been updated by Scarlett, who informed Simidh that he was indeed the GM before here and had simply forgot (or repressed) the memory. (thats right kids, Scarlett is still watching us ;)

Movin' on up.

Like I said, the Guild Master was in place even before we moved on up in the world, but the big change came when this guild moved from its humble locations on rime street and took up office in the current guildhouse on Alchemist Street. Here, the spacious offices allowed for a more structured book-keeping and organisation. We hired more hands to work within the administration and official titles were put in place, among them the Guild Master.

In the beginning the Gm had no official assistant, but as the guild grew the structure would expand, but more on that later. Another thing that happened along this period was that a second guild dealing in darkness and stealth appeared in Ankh-Morpork...

The other guys...

Ah yes, the Assassins. They like to flaunt their heritage and breeding, but the fact that they are the upstarts of the covert sector in AM is something they talk about to an even lesser degree than the whole business with the pink underwear. When they first appeared on the scene, certain factions of the guild viewed them on a spectrum from annoying, to moving target practise. (A sentiment held by individuals of other guilds as well.) It was felt that they infringed on the covert scene and among some who worked as enforcers it was an insult to take up a practise they had already been carrying out for a long time.

Naturally, this led to a certain amount of bloodshed. This time in AM history is probably one of the reasons why terms like "guild wars" were taken into the language, but it is uncertain to what extent it was an official declaration of war from the Guilds themselves or simply a quiet blessing on the more agressive-minded members in their endeavours to spread fun and mayhem.

Lineage.

Here follows the lineage of early Guild Masters as I have managed to piece them together. It starts with Simidh and Scarlett, first in an unofficial capacity and later with Scarlett as the first official GM.

When she retired after a long reign she appointed Pepsi as her successor, and he brought in Chowmein as his Assistant GM.

Pepsi later stepped down, and Chowmein took over with me as assistant GM for a short period before Pepsi came back during a phase when the guild was going through some changes in its structure, implementing possible voting etc for guild positions.

Pepsi this time took on Cold as assistant and the latter subsequently took over the reins with dantheman as his assistant.

Later, Dantheman took the GM seat and is worked alongside Hinge who he appointed as his assistant. (this section is right now more than a wee bit outdated and will be kept current as soon as the scribes are whipped and paddled into submission.)

Phew, now memorize those names as they will be on the exam later... Apart from the GM and Assistant GM we also have monitors, which brings us to the subject of specialisations.

Branching out.

As mentioned above, the guild grew with its move to a bigger venue, and as we opened up branch offices in various towns around the disc our members started to assume certain roles within the community. At one point this evolved into distinct specialisation and people started focusing their training on specific tasks. With this came the monitor positions, a head of each specialisation appointed by its members to oversee and help their particular breed of thief.

The monitors have a rather loose work-description at present with the one clear imperative to act as a monitor not only for the guildmembers but for those leading us. The ranks of the monitors are not always complete as some specialisations draw too few members to its ranks and in some cases fail to motivate their brothers and sisters to appoint one.

Democracy?

All things evolve, and for the Thieves Guild the system changed from having the GM choose his or her successor to having the option of simply stepping down and letting the position go to an open vote within the guild. This change was not without controvercy but after much debating a descision was made that while a vote is a good thing to have in case of emergencies it would be up to the GM to choose wether or not this would happen at the changing of Guild Masters. Only at a vote of non-confidence can a vote for a new GM be forced, and these have to be initiated by the monitors. This new structure is more flexible but allows the guild to retain the policy of leadership which has proven to be a very effective one over the years. To date, No vote has been held for the GM position, all have been appointed at the discretion of the former Guild Master.

Present course.

Today, we are still adjusting to a new world. According to a few notes swiped from the UU lecture halls, it is clear that the disc recently went through some form of magical field, which would explain the very odd feeling we all had waking up that morning. It seems that the scholars figure the very basics of reality shifted, but according to the priests, the gods seems to have granted us a chance to change with these new conditions. Perhaps the influence of Mazda has not diminished completely, something to take heed of when passing that statue in the hall.



In conclusion, I would like to help the guild for assisting me in my quest for our past. Special thanks must go to Simidh, who provided a lot of information from the days of old. Hope you enjoy it, And any information that you feel is missing can be slipped into my mailbox for due consideration.

Regards, Mimer.

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