8.3 THE LUSTERNIA SYSTEM OF GUILDS

The Guilds of Lusternia are powerful organisations with varying motives. You may only join one Guild and many demand a lifetime of allegiance. While it may be possible to break this oath, the cost is often high. 

The benefits of joining a guild are mainly: 
a)  Being included in a community of like-minded individuals. 
b)  As each guild is an integral part of the city, your membership can 
    also be considered to serve a political purpose, as the guildmembers
    vote for a Guild Leader who represents the interests of the guild in
    the city or commune governmental process.

Guild Structure 
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A Guild has a formalised structure to it. There are ten to thirty guild ranks, differing in name and number from guild to guild. Furthermore, there can be but one leader in a Guild. Each guild has one elected leader: (1) the Guild Leader who represents the guild in the governmental process and may appoint guildmembers to positions of authority whose purview may differ from guild to guild. The leader position is a mark of respect and leadership, and it is important that they work cooperatively with the other city (or commune) leaders for the city (or commune) to function in a healthy manner. 

HELP GUILDS will list the various guilds of Lusternia, sorted by what city or commune they are part of, as well as showing you who the Guild Leader (if any) is. HELP <guildname> will show you information on that guild.

Joining a Guild 
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In your journey through the Portal of Fate, you may have already remembered which guild you belong to. However, if you do not have a guild, it is important that you find which guild you wish to belong to as soon as possible. Then, contact someone listed in the HELP <guildname> as being "able to inguild and promote" for that guild and seek information on how to join. 

Once in a guild, you may see your rank in the guild (recall that there are multiple guild ranks) under your SCORE. HELP GUILDRANK will show you a list of guild ranks below and including yours.

GUILD PRIVILEGES will show you a list of guild-related commands that your guild-rank gives you access to.

If, for some reason, you become dissatisfied with your Guild, you may QUIT GUILD. You will retain all the lessons and class knowledge you acquired up to this point. However, if you quit the city or commune your class is connected to, you can no longer use any skill that requires its nexus powers.

If you have quit your class and wish to join a new class, then you need to forget those skills that are incompatible with your new class. FORGETTING SKILLS WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOSE LESSONS. As a rule of thumb, you will lose minimal lessons if learning a class of the same city or commune, but rather a steep lesson loss for classes of a different city or commune. For more information, see FORGETTING SKILLS and LESSON POOLS.