⚠️ Stub — basic pass only.
Overview
Not a single organization but a category: multiethnic trading guilds with shared professional norms and mutual recognition protocols operating across all regions. Their structural neutrality — they need all factions as customers, so they cannot afford permanent enemies — makes them the Silk Road's connective tissue. They know more about what moves across the routes than any single political power, because information is cargo and cargo is their business. Their neutrality is mercantile, not principled.
Structure & Governance
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Relationship to Power
Visible face
[TODO — stub] Hidden influence: [TODO — stub] Leverage: [TODO — stub]
Cultural Character
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Key Tensions
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Narrative Hooks
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Relationships
| faction | relationship | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Orc Confederation (Samarkand) | transactional | The Confederation controls the Central Asian Hubs nodes; the Guilds need access |
| Dwarven Mountain Confederations | rival / transactional | The Dwarves control the passes; competition over who sets terms for transit |
| Eastern Gateway Council | transactional | Checkpoint relationships; the Council's toll authority is the Guilds' primary friction point in the east |
| Peoples of the Nine Roads | parallel / complementary | The Peoples operate private networks the Guilds cannot access; information asymmetry cuts both ways |
DM Notes
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References
- Index: world/factions/_category