Factions and Guilds of Lankhmar

The city of Lankhmar has existed for centuries. Despite the rather turbulent appearance of things within the City of Adven- ture, such a record requires at least a minimal amount of stability. Lankhmar maintains its stability through a tripod of powerful factions, each of which serves to hold the other two factions somewhat in check. Although the factions do not manifest them- selves blatantly during the day to day affairs of the city, they are nonetheless a powerful driving force "behind the scenes." These three factions fall into the rough categories of the city government, symbolized by the Overlord. The mercantile interests, best represented by the powerful Merchants' Consortium. The mass of the population, generally seen as the organization of the guilds. Competition and negotiation between the members of these factions provides most of the motivation behind policy decisions, laws, and taxes in Lankhmar. Each faction maintains certain positions in all debates (the merchants, for example, will always attempt to keep retail prices as high as possible), but other positions are subject to negotiation and compromise. Each faction, together with its most significant members and motivating values, follows. The motivating values for each faction are listed with the most important concerns first, in descending order to the least important concerns. For example, it is more important to the Overlord to maintain a steady income from taxes than it is to keep wages and prices down.