The War of the Item Guilds


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The War of the Item Guilds

 

-30,425 to -28,872

 

Introduction

 

As Men, Elves, Dwarves, and a myriad of other lesser-known peoples began to populate Battal, they almost immediately turned their attention to magic and the fashioning of "cool stuff" from the very essences of the world they inhabited. It was only natural that their two loves would combine, though it is uncertain at what point in history that it happened (much like the meeting of Peanut Butter and Chocolate).

 

As is the case with nearly any group of tradesmen/craftsmen, the multitudes of Item Makers across Battal would form powerful Guilds that wielded not only great wealth and influence, but a great wealth of destructive magical items. As the Item Guilds began to clash with one another over exclusive sales territory and intellectual property rights, it was inevitable that at some point violence would ensue.

 

One of the first of the many world-shaping wars of Battal, The War of Items Guilds would not soon be forgotten. In fact, it seemed almost impossible for anyone to forget it, because of how darned Epic and full of Epicness the whole thing was. That and the fact that the Lawmakers were always reminding people.

 

One of the more positive aspects was the unification of the Dwarven peoples by the Brothers of the Magic Forge.

 

Timeline Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major Item Guilds

 

Outcomes

 

The end of the War of the Item Guilds resulted in the forming of a council of Lawmakers in order to settle disputes over items. Guilds were immediately outlawed, and relegated to the domain of secret societies and organized crime. The Lawmakers immediately drafted the first of what came to be known as Item Laws, meeting regularly in the centrally-located Arkenvale, and later in Middleclang (see Item Laws A - Z).

 

This council of Lawmakers grew in size and eventually became distributed throughout the lands of Battal, which caused quite a bit of confusion. It was only later, when the rise of Elemenstation accellerated the already high production rate of magical items, that the system of Lawmakers was revisited and reorganized at the urging of Lord Ghor Gon Zolma tens of thousands of years later. All agreed that by then, it was about time to take something that was functional yet inefficient, and turn it into a highly convoluted bureaucracy.

 

Source Material

 

This period of The Landyworld is portrayed in The Item Guild Wars, a book in the The ElemenstorLance Series. Particular attention is paid to the intrigue surrounding the Enchanted Lunchladies Guild and the death of Hygrad the Mighty that will motivate his former Bandmates to bring an end to the War, as well as those characters that will go on to become the first of the Lawmakers.

 

Comments

 

asuraThough there's a lot of info here, it's still basically a stub. The information I have is from what few copies of ELotH:TES Magazine I've been able to scare up. If you find any more info on Guilds, Events, or have anything else to add, please do!
timSeems as though mention should be made of Lavatoria, since that was most of western battal at the time, and Atlantistantinople, since that was most of eastern battal.
asuraI'd assume that those were the main bases of operation for the "Westron" and "Easterenn" Guilds, but I don't have the source material to back it up... hopefully someone else can fill in some of those blanks.