The Explorer's Guild
"I used to disdain them as pompous fools, sitting in their manor clubhouses getting drunk telling tall tales of derring-do, claiming skill they didn't have, and naming sights they'd never seen or even done real research on. Then one day I got fed up with it and challenged one of the braggarts to a race. The Kestrel's Flight, one end of the world to the other. It was the most harrowing journey of my career; we were living off of hardtack and rainwater to minimize stops, passing through all the most dangerous parts of the Crease, we even sailed through the edge of the Storm at the Heart of the World. I had a wizard friend of mine scry his contacts and confirm it after I heard: somehow he'd beaten me to our destination, given his crew a week of shore leave, and made it all the way back to the starting line by the time we arrived. Two things I never did again after that: eat hardtack, or badmouth The Explorer's Guild."
Structure
"The type of person drawn to our society doesn't often have much respect for authority or hierarchy. If you join up here, there're only three appellations you'll need to keep straight: Pledges, Members, and Members-in-Good-Standing. If you tell me you want in and pay your first dues you'll be a Pledge. You get advice and support while you build a name for yourself, can lobby for funding, and are welcome to attend the monthly Pledge Socials. Once you've proven you've got the right stuff and have an expedition or two under your belt you can be sponsored in as a Member. Then you get Guild resources, can register your ship with us for preferential treatment in just about every port in Khthon, and the crown jewel: access to all our chapter houses and all the revelry that implies. Don't ask how to become a Member-in-Good-Standing, I haven't the foggiest, no one who does would tell you, and some of them might take offense to it. Not one of them is someone you'd want to offend. Don't worry though, all it gets you is a key to the platinum door in the chapter houses, and I can tell you for a certainty we've got everything you can imagine and more on this side of the door."
Unknown to all but a select few within the Guild and suspected only by the most powerful outside it, the Explorer's Guild is actually two organizations nested within each other. The first is no secret: it's essentially a club for the wealthy and eccentric with a taste for travel. Though examination clearly shows that every member of the Guild is a seasoned and respected explorer, it's impossible to shake the public perception that it's just one long expensive party. The lavish Pledge Socials they throw don't do anything to discourage this image, and the sounds of revelry echoing outwards from their every chapter house at all hours of the day and night may also contribute. Becoming a Pledge is extremely easy, requiring only expressing interest to a Member and paying the guild's dues. Many wealthy individuals have been known to become such to gain access to the monthly parties despite no inclination for exploration whatsoever. These are quietly discouraged, but largely tolerated by the guild at large. Membership is another matter, and requires proof of extensive knowledge and great achievements in the field of exploration. Once in, however, Members find that in addition to the parties they love being available all the time, a great many doors are opened for them; reduced or waived dockmaster fees the world over, preferential treatment by nearly all other guilds with any focus on water travel, and the respect of large swathes of the world's nobility are but a few.
The second organization is made up only by the guild's Members-in-Good-Standing, and the method of entry into this secondary society is one of the best kept secrets in the world. The activities of this elite group are equally opaque; even the great spies and information brokers of the world have only ever managed to learn by observing individuals known to be included, and by observing the guild as a whole. The most frightening piece of knowledge retrieved is that the public facing guild exists for the sole purpose of seeking out those who are qualified to be or could be molded into members of the smaller group. The Explorer's Guild is a front, recruiting the most talented sailors and explorers in the world into a shadowy organization no one knows anything about. The only other significant fact known about the true guild is that all business takes place behind platinum doors in the heart of each chapter house. Innumerable attempts have been made to secure keys, send infiltrators, pick the locks, scry past, or even break in to the chamber beyond. No key has ever been recovered. Every infiltrator is either sniffed out and expelled or converted by the guild. The finest thieves and locksmiths in the world can't even comprehend how the doors' locks work. Every priest and mage to ever attempt scrying beyond the doors has failed or gone mad. As the guild has grown older and larger, the great influence wielded by its members has curbed the majority of these attempts.
Public Agenda
"If the mages are right and knowledge is power, I imagine we're the most powerful social club in the world."
The charter of the Explorer's Guild states that it exists to provide support to the greatest explorers, and thereby extend the reach of civilization ever outward. The most popular interpretation of their actions is that they exist to provide fine wine, food, and other vices to eccentrics and give them a place to indulge themselves. The only time one of the higher-ups ever professed an opinion on the matter, it was more in support of the second. This has done precisely nothing to calm those keeping track of its ever expanding influence, though something of that may have been in her tone.
Assets
"The Royal Court of Erans will now recognize its appointed Minister of Economics and Foreign Trade. We claim the position of First Speaker, invoking the Royal Prerogative. It has come to our attention that the honorable minister, in zealous pursuit of their mandate, has come to cross purposes with the local chapter of the Explorer's Guild. Further, it has been reported to us that our harshest sanctions have been levied against the guild and our Royal Marines muster even now to seize their ships at harbor. All must applaud the honorable minister's decisive action taken in the interest of carrying out their charge. However. We wonder if the honorable minister realized that the members of the Explorer's Guild include slightly under a quarter of the people in this room. We wonder also if the honorable minister is aware that their membership also includes over a third of our Grand City's wealthiest merchants. We further wonder if the honorable minister considered that of our neighbors, the Magnificent Aristocracy of our Glorious Kingdom has the lowest rate of participation in the guild in question. Finally, we are forced to wonder if the honorable minister knew, before taking these actions, that our Royal Son's betrothed, Queen Astrid of Irisse oversees the guild's chapter house in her city. Doubtless the honorable minister knew all these things, and we now humbly ask the court to listen with us to their explanation. Honorable minister, we yield our remaining time and invite you to speak."
The Explorer's Guild itself usually just about breaks even when balancing its dues against the costs of maintaining its properties and throwing its parties. Paying any deficits out of one's own pocket is seen as a grandly magnanimous gesture to make. In reality, the majority of the guild's Members-in-Good-Standing, and a staggering number of its Members could afford to pay all the guild's expenses without batting an eye. It is estimated that well over half of the Khthon's liquid wealth is owned by members of the Explorer's Guild. They also hold land, ships, and resources of every variety in absolute profusion. To those watching with envy or fear, by far the most terrifying asset in the guild's possession is its web of connections. Enormous swathes of the wealthy and powerful count themselves a part of the guild, but even more frequent Pledge Socials, or have close relationships with members. It is not uncommon to believe that every person of significant wealth or political power is at most two degrees of separation from the guild.
History
"Hey-oh, Sir Shinyshirt! we may have just lost Archmage Whats-his-beard. He's been at it for days, I swear he's cast every spell he knows three times each. He still can't see whatever's behind that big metal door. I know a more direct approach is 'inadvisable' or 'political suicide' or whatever, but I'm thinking you may want to reconsider. He's only getting more determined to find out what's in there, and it's already bad enough I don't think he remembers to eat unless I remind him. Come on. You know I can get us in there."
For all the controversy it generates, the Explorer's Guild is a shockingly recent development. Its exact origins are hard to pin down as many smaller organizations merged into one, but the earliest charter the guild maintains was granted in 8 Adventurer. Two-hundred-sixty years seems like a long time to individual humans, but the Explorer's Guild remains the youngest international guild in Khthon. In those two and half centuries, the guild has spread rapidly, but otherwise seems exactly the same as it was at its inception. As far as the outside world can tell, the only "events" to mark down in the guilds history are the granting of charters, the opening of chapter houses, and the addition of new members.
Over the Horizon
Founding Date
8 Adventurer
Type
Social, Brotherhood
Related Ranks & Titles
Notable Members
Comments