Early History
The Guild of Illuminators began around 400 years ago. Many libraries were being re-filled in the wake of
The Fourth Reckoning and the demand for scribes and illustrators was at an all-time high. While engravers focused on mass-producing books with woodblock printing as quickly as they could, illuminators strove to replace the priceless works of art that had been lost. The formed a guild in the town of
Migul, a town in the
Hosquerre Grasslands long known as a centre of art. The Guild of Engravers was also located here, and the two organizations worked in harmony with a common passion for books.
The illuminators had a tough job. While the more skilled members stayed in their guild house with paints, more adventerous types trawled ruins across the country for remnants of books. Any page that had any sort of art or writing was salvaged and brought back to Migul. These salvagers became more like archeaologists than artists, though there are many examples of exquisite art done on the road that prove they were proper members of the guild.
They established branches throughout Hosquerre to support the scattered book finders. Some of these branches were little more than hovels or shacks in the woods, but they were always equipped with at least one set of paints and some paper.
The Migul Publishing Company
The trickle of recovered books gradually faded, but the guild had not lost their thirst for knowledge. In the year 323, they officially joined with the Engraver's guild and formed the Migul Publishing Company which specialized in scientific texts. The illuminators created accurate maps of the sky, the human body and its inner workings, geometric diagrams, or the tiny details of a plant.
Scholars brought them content, the illuminators made the illustraions, and then the engravers copied the text and pictures as accurately as possible into blocks of wood. A single book might take hundreds of wooden slabs, each painstakingly carved to portray the mirrored text and a woodcut copy of the illustration. During this time of cooperation, many illuminators and engravers learned each other's trades.
Book scavenging, too, had never gone fully out of style. A trip to a ruined city was no longer certain to deliver a treasure trove in abandoned libraries, but there were still plenty of members eager to go searching for lost books, always competing to come home with the rarest find.
The Inquisition
For many years, the Migul Publish Company was a popular and respected institution across Hosquerre, especially in schools of higher learning. This all changed after the eruption of Mt. Chola and the subsequent formation of the Hosque Inquisition.
The inquisition didn't like what the guild put out. Science books pried away the cover to leer at the inner workings of the world, intruding on the gods' domain. History books told accounts of Hosque history that were not always positive. They even published translations of foreign books! The guild received a notice: shut down operations, disband immediately, and all members are considered to be on their first strike.
Some members complied. As much as they loved knowledge, art, and books, they didn't love it more than they loved being alive. But others, especially those with a thirst for adventure who spent their days searching for old books among ruins or tracking down foreign books that made it into isolationist Hosquerre, refused to give in. The guild turned in the paperwork to officially disband, but its dedicated members didn't stop meeting. They moved underground and they suddenly became very grateful for their network of rest houses scattered across the countryside.
Present Day
The Guild of Illuminators, later the Migul Publishing Company, and later the Light Bringers (a play on the other meaning of illuminate and their mission to enlighten the restricted society), remains one of the Inquisition's most stubborn opponents. They publish pamphlets full of criticisms of the government and especially of the Inquisition, along with other books they'd held off on before because they were a bit too foreign or radical even for them before the Inquisition.
They're spread out in secret rooms, basement art studioes, hidden caves, and anywhere else you can hide a set of paints. Its members are more intrepid than ever, constantly on a mission to find forbidden knowledge and then spread it to as many people as possible.
Being caught in possession of one of their works is an instant strike two offence, and being convicted of being a member is automatic execution. Both of these things happen, but still they persist. The knowledge must be shared.
