The Cartographer's Guild

The name Cartographer’s Guild is something of a misnomer for a variety of reasons. Though this organization does indeed dedicate a portion of its operations to the art of mapmaking and cataloging the wilder reaches of Hesper, it also operates and protects several storehouses of knowledge, investigates new technologies, produces literature (usually in the form of almanacs), and offers services as guides to travelers.
Additionally, the term “guild” does not quite cover it. The Cartographers have several offices in the larger settlements on Venus and dozens more smaller outposts scattered throughout the planet. It is simultaneously united in its purpose while being largely decentralized in some aspects, as the representatives at each outpost are given free reign in the running of their office and their negotiations with travelers.
The final reason that this name doesn’t really encompass the truth of the organization is that it is technically a myrtik hive.

History

The Cartographers are a fairly new organization on Venus, being not quite a century old. They were founded in Cherut Das by a small group of displaced myrtik: a queen and a dozen or so survivors of a colony that was otherwise destroyed. Nobody knows exactly why this group turned their attention to the accumulation of knowledge, but they did so with the sort of single-minded determination only a family could muster. During this time, the founding queen took on the spoken name "Cartographer," and it is after who, specifically, the guild is named.
As the years went by, the colony grew slowly, their scouts ranging far and wide, performing mercenary services in exchange for maps, books, document-making materials, consultations with engineers and scientists--anything and everything they could use to achieve their queen’s vision. As soon as it became outwardly apparent that this group of myrtiks was onto something, they began to attract members from other species, all of whom were welcomed. After all, a myrtik couldn’t easily see a coastline from above, or walk the ocean floor.
It was a full generation before the Cartographers got themselves firmly established, but they have been growing ever since. The first queen of the Cartographers passed ten years ago, and was succeeded by one of her daughters. Naturally, like all myrtiks, this new queen’s true name is impossible to speak verbally, but she is known as Scrivener by all members of the Guild. Her official title is Guildmaster, but many within the organization still affectionately call her “Queen Scrivener.”

Structures and Services

The Cartographers have two types of installation scattered throughout Hesper: offices and outposts. Offices are typically entire buildings and are all established within larger settlements. These contain storehouses, printing facilities, and board for their members. Offices have a wide range of information available, whether they be written records, maps, or technological expertise. They often take payment in terms of money, trade of information, donation of text, or other esoteric means that serve to further their goal of the acquisition of knowledge.
Outposts are often much smaller, and tend to be found at the fringes of where civilization ends and the wilderness begins. Outposts tend to be run by only a handful of individuals and have a much closer relationship with the locals, often working in tandem with guides and hunters to better understand their respective regions. These facilities tend to provide “boots-on-the-ground” services to travelers. They typically take payment in resources that will help with the day-to-day operations of the outpost or the settlement they are partnered with.
One thing both outposts and offices have in common is that every single official branch of the Cartographers’ Guild, from the smallest to the most prestigious, have at least one myrtik related to the current queen on-staff, often as an administrative head, but sometimes as a specialist. Unaffiliated experts are also occasionally contracted out through the guild, with typically much more conventional methods of recompense.
On a more general level as far as services go, the guild, of course, has been fulfilling its namesake since the beginning. Maps of all sorts, in various languages, are available for purchase or commission. Guild members are often traveling to add to, refine, or update existing maps.
A yearly two-volume almanac is also printed and distributed by the Guild. Almanacs are the result of a wide variety of contributions by many, many members of the Guild. They contain everything from simple maps of neighborhoods in the larger cities to notes on political forces in any given area, identification guides of flora and fauna, restaurant recommendations, hunting grounds (both to avoid and to visit), descriptions of local monuments, collated rumors and legends--they’re comprehensive travel guides and encyclopedias all in one.
The two volumes are the metropolitan edition and the pathfinder edition, with the former containing mostly highly-detailed information on larger cities and settlements, and the latter containing information on the wilder and more remote regions of Hesper. Though the almanacs are updated yearly, the changes between editions are not usually so great that older versions of the almanac become useless. Even so, almanacs are printed-to-order only, and as such are somewhat scarce. Because of the information and resources represented by each volume, they come at a somewhat-hefty price, either being monetary in value or by way of trade.
The Cartographers’ storehouses also contain a wealth of information, which can be accessed for a price and at the offices’ discretion. Oftentimes they will only trade information for information. A common “trade” in the offices involves acquiring new texts for their records and returning a copy to the client as well as whatever other services the value of the text has bought them.
The Guild’s symbol is a luster lantern in yellowed glass: these lanterns are hung outside of all offices and outposts. Additionally, formally-inducted members of the guild carry a tiny version of the lantern with them, lit from within by a shard of luster, and specifically filled with an oil infused by the Guildmaster’s pheromones. This latter touch signifies them as a member of the colony, though this affectation is often lost on many species.

Locations

Main Offices, Cherut Das

The main offices are located in their founding city, Cherut Das, specifically in the Odo District. This facility is split into the upper and lower offices: the upper offices are composed of a several-story building that contains a storehouse for the vast majority of the Cartographers’ accumulated documents, their local presses, and an entire floor for client consultation and board for their traveling members. Most copies of the almanac are printed here and distributed by a variety of means. This is also where Guildmaster Scrivener can be found.
The lower offices are located in a flooded portion of the city, and are only accessible to water-breathing species. This is where the majority of the kegani members of the Guild come to do their business, but there is at least one gold-scaled creature that calls himself a “gillman” who operates from this level as well. In situations where a land-dweller needs to consult with the lower offices, they will send a representative to meet them in the upper offices.
The lower offices also hold stores of record-keeping that are best suited to/workable in underwater use. In addition, the emergency flotation elements of the building are maintained down here, so that the entirety of the main offices, above and below, can be preserved.

Erras Das Offices

The Erras Das offices are located in the middle ring of the city. Anyone unfamiliar with the guild or not specifically looking for its office could easily miss it among the various merchants and marketplaces that crowd the middle district. It is the second-largest office behind the main guild hub, and also the secondary location for printing and distribution of guild almanacs.
Because of the mobile and elusive nature of Erras Das, the vast majority of comings and goings in the office are done by cha’ari guild members. While the bulk of the permanent on-site staff is composed of thora, the offices themselves are headed by a myrtik who was put into place because of his social acumen. The offices at Erras Das have amassed a library concentrated on technical and agricultural knowledge, which they initially used to secure and hold their place in the city. The offices offer whatever services are needed to preserve the Biosphere and the Labs for free. From time to time, negotiations between the offices and the Assembly are necessary to balance services rendered that fall into a gray area, but all members of the guild understand the important of keeping Erras Das mobile and self-sustaining.

Umbra Offices

Though the guild installation in the town of Umbra is technically an office, most agree it feels more like an outpost. Despite its smaller size and somewhat bare-bones accommodations, it sees a good deal of through-traffic in the form of travelers either entering or leaving Syllva Cirros. There seems to be no shortage of exciting discoveries to be made in the jungle’s dark heart, and the humble Umbra offices are the means by which these discoveries make their way to the rest of the guild.
A giant, expertly-crafted map dominates an entire wall of the public facilities of the Umbra office. This map contains an ever-evolving record of known pieces of the Corpse within the frozen jungle. Helping the settlement of Umbra halt the spread of its corruption is a duty they take very seriously, and the question of what can be done to possibly destroy it remains an open investigation.

Outposts

Guild outposts are typically very small, operating more like waypoints for travelers both in and out of the guild. These highly numerous installations are scattered between both continents, and are from time to time dismantled, packed up, and moved to a new location. Keeping track of where each outpost is at any given time is more of an art than a science, and the only person in the guild who seems to have been able to memorize each one’s location and movements is Guildmaster Scrivener.
Outposts can crop up almost anywhere there is business to be done and knowledge to uncover, but some notable locations of permanent outposts are Maksur Das, and various settlements in the Barrier Mountains north of the Rookery.

Character Knowledge
Characters just now arriving on Venus: I went looking for a way to buy a map, and somehow I ended up with everything but a map. Still, they seem useful enough.
Characters not from Venus, who spent some time there: If you're out in the wild, and you see a structure with a yellow luster-lantern hanging over the door, it's always worth it to stop in and touch base with the guild.
Characters from Venus: If you find yourself in possession of a juicy secret or interesting bit of esoteric knowledge, hold onto it, because that's worth its weight in gold to the Cartographer's Guild.
Characters with contact or experience with the Cartographer's Guild: Navigating the ins and outs of how such a haphazard organization works can be a trial, but they're a dependable lot, which is a valuable thing in and of itself.