Assassin's Guild

Assassin's Guilds are formalised institutions that serve as chartered bodies of murder, operating across kingdoms, free cities, principalities and bishoprics as protected institutions that receive contracts, examine their worth, assign them to proven hands and draw profit, favour and political leverage from the death of chosen persons. Killings are arranged through guild customs that are based on systems of fees, obligations, protections, witnesses, codes and remembered debts between guilds and clients.

Founding a guild is a rare and unlikely prospect, one that follows an uncertain path arising under particular conditions. Still, under the right conditions, as noted under advanced facilities, the presence of a guild is certain, though only a thin scattering of places within the world might support one.

Founding a Guild

Very rarely, an assassin who employs jack-of-all-trade to acquire skills in motivation and judgment reaches a sufficient skill level and experience level — no absolute level acts as a gatekeeper, but chief or prime assassin, 12th or better, is a common entry point, as the assassin has already accumulated a number of retainers upon reaching "name level." A preferable location is chosen: a very large city with considerable movement of wealth, access to the world and a population that permits a ready obscurity, since the assassin relies upon the relative insignificance of the individual in a dense population. Witnesses are less likely to recognise the murderer, it is possible to move through crowds unrecognised, the sensory overload of busy areas, where there is a lot happening, provides opportunities through confusion and distraction.

Further, large cities offer dense transport networks, multiple routes and overlapping jurisdictions. An assassin can enter and exit areas quickly using different modes — walking, horse, cart, boat, by rooftop — without drawing attention. Neighbours often don’t know each other, and strangers are expected. That reduces informal oversight. The absence of tight social networks means fewer people feel responsible for engaging with something they see, which is threatening, which they know is likely beyond their capacity to manage. Finally, there are just more grievances, more customers for the assassin to serve... in an industry where customers even in a very large city are a tiny, tiny portion of the population.

Yet, as an independent assassin accumulates wealth, a network of reliable persons beyond their retainers, contacts, allies — and legitimate businesses into which ill-gotten money can be rolled over so that it isn't wasted sitting in a pile, where it might be stolen — a need to "organise" becomes prevalent. Undoubtably, the "right" place is already occupied by someone, another assassin, a pre-existing guild; for a time, competition occurs as chief assassins prefer to make their own arrangements, to speak directly to those in power, to keep all the money they earn and cease to divide it with others... that a subversive, deadly and most likely short-lived "war" takes place. The old assassin's guild survives; or is "replaced" with a new head. The old network is purged of dead weight, reliable people remain in their same positions and, generally, profitable murder simply continues.

Most places do not experience this phenomenon; there are likely less than fifty truly functioning guilds in the game setting. Rarely does a city rise unexpectedly to a place where it is valuable to create a previously unexisting guild there, though it might happen. The discovery of the New World expanded trade and a mass influx into a number of Atlantic ports that were formerly backwaters, that have now become jumping off points. Some ports of the Americas and the East Indies have grown to where they might encourage the development of a guild — but truly, it is unlikely that such will happen in the 1650s.