The Miner’s Guild

Colors: Silver and Black
Current Guild Leader: Alzar Colds, Order of the Coal
Requirements to Join: Must work in a mining operation
Requirements of Membership: Must continue work for at least 11 months out of the year
Majority Composition: Miners
Minority Composition: Builders, Smiths
On the Guild Council?: Yes

When the Miner’s Guild split off from the Smith’s Guild, bad blood immediately ensued. The Miner’s, traditionally the Order of the Pick in the Smith’s Guild, felt that they were being treated unfairly by pricing standards within the Guild, and sought to become their own Guild. After their initial formation, the Miner’s Guild found itself scarce on people to sell goods to, not having many connection in the markets internationally and the Smith’s doing their best to boycott the Miner’s Guild’s material. The Merchant’s Guild stepped in, offering both groups the ability to trade overseas through their trading partners. While the Merchant’s Guild did sell much of what they bought overseas, a second trade, one of pushing materials between merchants and selling them to the Smith’s Guild, became commonplace for a time. While many of the Smiths on the provincial and higher levels of government knew what was going on, they also knew that there were not enough materials coming in through trade to keep the Guild alive without resorting to trading with the Miner’s, and the two groups used the Merchant’s Guild as an intermediary for a long time. Eventually, as word of the trade started spreading further down the line to the chapters of the Smith’s Guild, many pragmatic metalworkers started trading with the Miner’s, at first in secret and then openly, to get away from the mark-ups imposed by the merchants. The Miner’s sought similar deals, finding that they could earn more from selling directly to the smiths, who were willing to buy materials for a price in-between what the miners normally sold it for and what the smiths normally bought it for. Eventually this trade started working itself back and forth, the miners buying equipment from the smiths and the smiths buying materials from the miners, until the smiths called off the boycott. This was fine by the Miner’s Guild, who had long since gotten over the feud, but found that it could do much better for itself as its own Guild than as an Order of the Smith’s Guild.

As soon as it separated, the Miner’s Guild knew that working as a conglomeration of separate trades would not work for a mine. Fortunately, they decided to follow the model of the Builder’s Guild, although the Guild ended up deciding that having an upper class of workers was not what was in their best interests. The result is that the Miner’s Guild now functions by electing leaders on each level of government, with only those directly affected allowed voting rights on an issue. These leaders are elected for 6-year terms, after which they cannot be re-elected, and must begin working as miners again. Joining the Miner’s Guild is an easy process for anyone with a strong back and arms, and the Guild is always open to new membership, and has been said to be the “easiest hard-working Guild to join.” Despite this, the Guild in many ways acts as its own hierarchy, with the Guild paying its members a salary and then selling the product to other interested groups. Pay is fair in the Guild, however, as each elected official knows that they will be in the mines again, working at the wages that they helped to set and dealing with the policies that they helped to enforce.

The process of buying up land has made the Miner’s Guild very popular with the Farmer’s Guild, and frequent trade with the Merchant’s Guild has kept relations good between these two groups. The Smith’s Guild has been attempting to patch up relations with the Miner’s Guild, which still has members that remember the decisions that caused them to leave the Smith’s Guild in the first place. The occasional vein of ore with magical properties has lead to good relations with the Mage’s Guild, and some mining operations have dug up long-forgotten catacombs filled with undead and creatures, leading some Adventurer’s to always keep tabs on the Miner’s Guild and its latest operations. With so many friends and so few enemies, it is barely a wonder that the Miner’s Guild, though still young by the standards of many Guilds, has gotten on the Guild council, with most of Torodan supporting the decision.

The Order of the Pan

Symbol: A silver pan on a black field
Current Order Leader: Ammon Gidhurst
Requirements to Join: Must be apprenticed in the methods of finding gold deposits
Requirements of Membership: Must assist in the finding of at least 2 deposits a year or be the primary finder of one deposit a year

Every mine needs to start somewhere, and that is where the Order of the Pan comes in. While many members do actually engage in panning for minerals in rivers and streams, once a large number of ingots are found in a particular stream or river, survey teams from the Order of the Pan come in to inspect the land, attempting to find the exact location of any nearby veins of ore. The Order of the Pan is also very diligent in following up on claims, and offers 5 gold to any person or persons that lead them to a profitable vein of ore. As this number comes after the survey, they have been known to increase this number, paying 10 or 20 gold for extraordinarily profitable veins of ore, as well as buying up the land that the current inhabitants are living on for well more than its price to others. Despite a profitable reputation, the Order of the Pan has lead to many disgruntled employees, as it strictly adheres to the fact that each member must be involved with the finding of at least one or two deposits a year, a hard feat for most to accomplish. Though many of these deposits are found lacking or are bought or owned by groups that do not want to sell them, the Order of the Pan does not exploit their members by making these deposits not count toward the number of deposits that are found within a year.

The Order of the Pick

Symbol: A silver pick with a brown handle on a black field
Current Order Leader: Duromont Lindson
Requirements to Join: Must work in the excavation portion of a mining operation
Requirements of Membership: None

Once a vein is found, a mine has to be started, and that is the job of the Order of the Pick. Living an almost nomadic life, members of the Order of the Pick move to a mine, settle in for a few years, and work the mine until it is in good enough shape that it is self-supported and beyond the problems of normal faults and fissures common on the outskirts of a mine. Occasionally, the Order of the Pick will come back in to work on a mine that has become dangerous over time, setting up new support structures and sometimes even new tunnels into the vein. One of the more dangerous jobs, members of the Order of the Pick receive a percentage of the profits of what they find, termed ‘hazard pay,’ as they have far more to worry about than standard miners. When a vein does open into a subterranean cavern filled with dangers, the Order of the Pick is often right behind the Adventurer’s Guild, working on the portions of the mine that have been cleared out while teams of adventurers go deeper and deeper into the caverns, occasionally finding riches untold. Already in a dangerous job, some miners of the Order of the Pick have taken to cleaning out portions of these caverns themselves, their successes and failures both being irritants on many members of the Adventurer’s Guild.

The Order of the Bomb

Symbol: A black bomb on a silver field
Current Order Leader: Xaviera Lindson
Requirements to Join: Must be apprenticed in the methods of the creation of explosives and their use in the field of mining
Requirements of Membership: Must produce specific explosives by request of the Order of the Bomb whenever requested

When the stone will not give way, the Guild calls the Order of the Bomb to destroy the stone that is in their way. Often a major force in beginning mining operations and a continuous force throughout, the Order of the Bomb makes the job of mining that much easier, by blowing a good sized chunk out of whatever it is they are intending to mine. Some mines deliberately recruit members of the Order of the Bomb looking to settle down a bit, using the bombs to blow further and further into the mountains with greater ease, these members often training the next generation of demolitionists for the Miner’s Guild.

The Order of Coal

Symbol: A black piece of coal on a silver field with black trim
Current Order Leader: Barret Sondar
Requirements to Join: Must work as a miner at a long-term site
Requirements of Membership: None

Once a mine has been found and excavated, the Order of the Coal works the mine, working tirelessly to use the mine for all its worth. Although I have seen much damage caused by the Order of the Coal as it mines, I have spoken with its members and they indeed feel that they are providing a valuable and needed service to Torodan and its people. Due to the risks involved, many members of this Order die each year in working the mines. It should be pointed out that the majority of casualties in Torodan do not come from the military, which is officially at peace, but come from the Miner’s Guild, where scores of workers die each year in the difficulties of mining out the land. Despite the human greed for the wealth that comes from the earth, I truly believe that these men and women are not its perpetrators. Should the men of Torodan encroach on our forests, I beg you to not consider attacking the workers. Instead, focus on destroying them politically, and attempt to deal with their leaders instead of focusing on their workers, who will only respond with outrage and anger, not with fear or retreat.

The Order of the Inferno

Symbol: A red flame on a silver field with black trim
Current Order Leader: Elaine Nills
Requirements to Join: Must work in the purification and forming of metal
Requirements of Membership: None

Originally, this Order consisted of a group of the Order of the Pick, back when it was a part of the Smith’s Guild, that felt that their position in the mines was more related to production, and was better handled with the Smith’s Guild than with the forming of a new Guild. When the Smith’s Guild boycotted the materials of the newly formed Miner’s Guild, however, it also turned on those who had stayed, engaging in the profession of purifying minerals, not considering them to truly be members of their Guild anymore. The response on behalf of these people was simple, they rejoined their brethren in the Miner’s Guild. Today, the Order of the Inferno is a major force within the Miner’s Guild, being present in every mine from start to finish, from the first samplings to the last cart, the Order of the Inferno works to get the metal out of the earth, separating it from the rock that it is encrusted in with surprising speed and ability.