Thief Guilds and Crime Syndicates
The Honour of the Thief Guilds
To most ordinary people, out of all the professions of Arthea, that of the profession of the Thief is seen as the most despicable and heartless. In some sections of society, even mages are not despised as much (although they are feared - and hence persecuted - more). To the professional thief, however, their work is an art form which surpasses the knowledge of the peasantry, they just don't understand - and so persecution is an occupational hazard which has to be handled.
To many rogues in Arthea, the game is far greater than the prize, and with such strong competition among guilds, is it well known that only the fittest can survive. This attitude has lead to the formation of some large crime syndicates, The Mathada Rebrecht heading is probably the largest but is by no means the only one. These syndicates are usually well run, with a single powerful boss at the top, ensuring that operations within the group do not clash, and are centred in the most profitable areas. The honour of such groups is dictated solely by profitability, the guild network is not a charity, and has some important ventures to fund. Although the individual syndicates hate each other with venom, and are frequently trying to out-think and outsmart their rivals, the general trait of profitability is usually the overriding factor in their actions. If there is no profit, then nothing is done. The only time this ever breaks down is when conflicts between guilds or syndicates becomes personal, in which case the normal rules do not apply, and such vendettas can become both expensive and bloody.
Crime Syndicates
An Arthean syndicate is a large-scale crime organisation. Many were once guilds, others began life as a single family organisation, but however they started, they have grown beyond their beginnings. Many of the family syndicates still have their core leaders, the people the syndicate heads trust the most, come from just that family.
Many syndicates have operations groups that are active, but mostly these co-ordinate activity. It is usual for syndicates to hire local thief guilds to handle any day-to-day legwork. As a result, the syndicates help to finance the thief guild network by providing work for them and by promoting order. The syndicates often tread a very fine line; there is a blend of pressure and reward that can get the best out of the guilds they use; too much pressure will force the guild to bite back while too much reward will leave the guild complacent. There have been instances where mighty syndicates have been toppled by the guilds they annoyed.
The syndicates are funded by large scale crime; particular targets are smuggling, business/merchant fraud, and crime that requires big organisation. These criminal activities are usually out of the reach of the small guilds who lack large financial backup. The syndicates also support other causes than crime. Many finance other underground work (Magic Sects or evil religions cults, for example) and most have legitimate business interests and ventures which can be used as a front to hide the crimes that are committed.
There are some crime syndicates that have achieved a level of notoriety:
The Thief Guilds
The Thief Guilds in most towns and cities are in direct competition with each other. They seldom co-operate, and the process of natural selection keeps them on their toes. It is very unusual for a guild to grow so big and powerful that it controls the whole town, or that it has been able to expand its operations into other towns.
Most guilds work their own "patch" where crime must be controlled so that the guild can maximise its profits. Too much crime, and the rich move away, resulting in an unprofitable (and closing down) guild. It can quickly become unprofitable if one guild moves into another's territory - and so most of the time, they keep away from territory that is not theirs. Successful guilds, however, sometimes find that the only way forward is to expand operations. This nearly always means moving into someone else's patch, and activities of this nature are usually carefully planned (although some of the most successful in the past have come from opportunism). Gang wars can begin between opposing guilds in this situation, and the rewards for the victor are not always worth the risk.
Each thief guilds is linked to a town or city, and will have fought hard for the areas they control. They have to be vigilant at all times, and be on the lookout for challenges to their power. As local organisations, they must remain aware of the effect their activities have over the local economy. If the guild is large enough, then it can strangle a town and squeeze the local residents. This is often dangerous, and pressure of this nature puts the Kings Guard in the town on much higher alert - and start taking more interest in what the guild is doing.
Secrecy about the value and profitability of the guilds own patch is also very important. If they suddenly start to make much higher profits, other guilds would start joining in, causing a war. The only restriction preventing one guild moving into another guild's territory is that it over works it and takings fall considerably as the rich people move out. If this has already happened, other guilds have little to lose by working the area too, and may be able to take advantage of the weaknesses caused by other guilds fighting each other.
Syndicates often use local guilds for run-of-the-mill work such as beatings, tailing individuals, general harassment and recovery of specific goods. Although the syndicates prefer to use the local guilds to do such work in their own area, they will also use other guilds if they can get a better price for the work. This makes the whole thief-service economy very price sensitive, prices set by the guilds for this work must be chosen with care.
While most day-to-day work is burglaries, muggings, extortion and the like, the guilds must keep their range of skills in good condition by carrying out a wider range of activities. All such work is sanctioned by the local guild master, and must be vetted to ensure it is not overworking the patch and keeping within the guild’s territory. Individual guild members, especially lower-ranked ones, are normally kept in the dark about such works, and whether syndicates are involved, unless they are actively doing the work themselves. This maintains the secrecy, and protects the guild if the rogue were to be captured by the Kings Guard, even if their captured member may suffer.
Most rogues know that the attitude of the Kings Guard towards them is not good, but they do tolerate the thief guild network. It does have some advantages from their point of view. It keeps the crime at a carefully controlled level, which is far better than having it out of control. With the guilds in control, the Kings Guard can apply pressure if necessary to the people that affect the crime level. Once they know who operates in which guild they are reluctant to close any down - all that would happen is a new guild appears to take their place, and the Guards would know nothing about the new organisation. Even though the Guard don't try to stamp out the guilds, they do investigate every crime, and try to bring the individuals responsible to justice. The crimes that take the most attention from the Guard are violent crimes and crimes aimed at people who are in power.
The very nature of the guilds prevents them from being listed here, but each has its own ideals, goals, methods, and (most importantly) area. The DM has a list of each guild in the campaign area, and the current conflicts that exist between them.
Membership of a thief guild is easy to get, and costs very little. Some make annual charges, and others do not. They all require a cut of the proceeds of every job, usually somewhere between 15% and 25%, and they insist that guild clearance is given before any job is attempted. Some guild members try to fiddle their figures to make sure the guild gets less than its cut, but the guild have become good at detecting this, and none have been lenient when punishing offenders of this type. All guilds have another requirement of membership, that they can call upon the services of their members at any time to carry out syndicate work, for which the rogue will receive a standard cut of the guild’s fee (normally 50%). There may also be other spoils the rogue can capitalise on; syndicate work can be very popular.
Although crime is always unpopular, the whole system seems to work very well. The guilds keep their activities as covert as they can, while syndicates can afford to be a little more public (some actively seek notoriety), and even the peasantry suffer less than they would with no controls over crime. Some of the system appears to be set up to make it more difficult to trace crime to syndicates who are working through third parties and local thief guilds, and using some form of trade or business as a cover for their activities.
Some of the thief guilds are known to player characters: