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Boldhome Bronze Workers Guild

Posted on July 7, 2021

Here’s another example of a RuneQuest community from the Sartar Book:

The Bronze Workers Guild of Boldhome smelts bronze out of copper by alloying it with tin (both of which are mainly brought to Boldhome by caravans from Esrolia or Tarsh) in kilns and then melting the bronze and casting it into molds. The cast bronze object is then finished– polished, sharpened, joined, decorated, etc. Because the copper and tin ingots are imported from elsewhere, there is relatively little slag produced. To become a guild member is the same process as becoming a lay member of the guild’s patron deity; in addition, the candidate must swear loyalty to the guild and pay an annual “contribution” to the guild’s communal funds. In return, the guild protects its members and furthers their livelihood.

LOCATION

The Bronze Workers Guild House is located on Brass Street in the West Pocket of the city of Boldhome. POPULATION

There are 75 full initiates of the Bronze Workers Guild and another 75 apprentices. There are 5 priests, who serve as the masters of the guild.

MAGIC

The Guild House is a minor temple to Gustbran the Bonesmith. The priests teach spirit magic spells and provide access to Gustbran’s Rune Magic. They also have several bound Fire Elementals that serve the guild, and several Gods Bones, which are sacred artifacts.

MILITARY

The Guild employs 30 full time guards to protect its members. These guards are all well-equipped with bronze armor and weapons.

LORE

The Guild scribes keeps records of accounts and contracts going back over a century, including member records, correspondence with caravans, miners, mercenary companies and cults, and financial records.

WEALTH

The Guild has a monopoly over the crafting of bronze in Boldhome, collects rents on homes and workshops, and owns mines that produce copper and tin. Collectively, this gives it wealth greater than most clans.

LEGAL/POLITICAL

The Bronze Workers Guild has great influence in the city of Boldhome. Its members are citizens and participate in the city assembly.

SOCIAL

The Bronze Workers Guild has seasonal ceremonies for its members, and, together with the Pottery Guild, sponsors a festival each Storm Season after the Orlanth High Holy Day.

ECONOMICS

The Bronze Workers Guild is on Brass Street in the city of Boldhome. It is a Minor Temple to Gustbran, the god of the forge. The society is actually quite small—there are far less than 500 smiths who are members of it—but it counts as an Average sized society because of its large customer base. This gives it a base surplus of 200W (note that the crafters of the guild are not an expense). The guild has trade agreements with many mercenary companies and cults, and collects rent from many of the forges and homes of its members that it owns. It also owns many of the mines that produce the metals it depends on. These are three resources, which increase its surplus to 350W a year.

Their magical expenses are 50W for the minor temple; it employs 2 god-talkers, 2 priests and a chief priest. The chief priest is the Guild Master and receives another 10W in support. It employs 30 full time guards to protect the temple grounds (120W), and 10 scribes to handle its accounts (50W). Finally, it spends 50W of influence annually on parties, gifts, and contributions to city officials. The total expenses are 280W. The final 70W left over after expenses are used for purchasing additional copper and tin, or is saved and used for emergency expenses.

Artist, Loic Muzy

All of the smiths of the Boldhome guild are mostly resident in Boldhome.

Like many people, you can go to Boldhome and set up shop. If you are already an initiate of Gustbran, that’s pretty easy. Just present yourself to the Guild, pay your contribution and follow the rules.If you are some weirdo like Third Eye Blue, that’s maybe not so easy.

It does seem people like the Community Resource template that Jason Durall and I have come up with. It is nicely flexible and captures how Greg tried to categorise communities and societies.

Jeff Richard

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Boldhome (large city), Guild, Gustbran, Sartar Book (preview)

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