Messenger's Guild

Emmel    World Encyclopedia    Guilds      Messenger's Guild

The Messenger's Guild delivers anything on whatever scale you need for a price. They are well known for being the fastest and most reliable means of delivery outside of magic and have a very well deserved reputation.

Structure

Within the messengers of the guild there are three tiers in their hierarchy. First is the Street Runners which are tasked with messages within the same city. Every messenger starts out here and after proving themselves and earning a reputation of being trust worthy and reliable they can petition the guild to move up to a City Runner. These runners are tasked with delivering messages or objects between cities - either directly to the recipient, or in a bulk of mail to the receiving cities' Guild where Street Runners can distribute it further. They may also deliver to people outside of cities or to other meeting points. City Runners usually have a rather limited operation radius that they stick to typically by a region or province. Last and the most prestigious is the Courier. They are tasked with deliveries of high urgency on a much larger scale than City Runners - usually continent-wide. Their speed is often legendary.
Behind the scenes are the clerks that keep paperwork moving and facilitate everything needed for the messengers to do their jobs.

Culture

Although not explicitly there is an air of social hierarchy in some of the guild branches. More experienced and older runners usually get first pick on jobs and then the smaller runners after. Some branches however have come up with a rotation system to ensure everyone gets jobs and makes money. Each branch is highly individualistic and the culture varies greatly from city to city. The only exception is Couriers who rarely stay in a city for very long and are on a delivery most of the time. They are revered by their fellow guild members and it can be a big event when one comes to town.
A commonality between all the guild branches however is their competitive natures. Runners inherently want to be the fastest and constantly seek to outdo each other on delivery times, routes, or anything else they can think of.
The guild has many rules that both Runners and clients must adhere to, but the most important rule of the guild is that clients may never use magic on a Runner. The Runner’s Guild contract clients sign states that any Runner affected by spell may refuse to provide services and cancel any request made. Also, it says that anyone who attacks, hinders, or otherwise alters a Runner in the course of their duties can be banned from receiving or requesting any future deliveries. This rule is taken more seriously than perhaps any in the guild. Once banned there is no way to be removed from the blacklist.

Type

Guild, Professional

Demonym

Runners

Location

Dawnkeep