Guild Wars 2

How do they fit together?

Before the start of GW1, during the actual Guild Wars, (human) guilds were heavily political entities, usually tied to a particular nation. I seem to remember even seeing a note which said the majority of each nations army was made up of allied guilds, who also provided much of the funding for the army and this left some monarchs effectively unable to control their own nations – they had to do what the guilds wanted because there were not enough independant soldiers to stand against them, but I can’t seem to find where I read that now.

That all changed with the Searing and the aborted charr invasion of Orr. Guilds were forbidden from owning or controlling land on the mainland anywhere except Cantha. They were shifted initially to islands just off the coast of Tyria and later to the Zaishen Battle Isles. (Seriously, for those who don’t remember, guild halls were originally on the island just south of D’Alessio Seaboard.) Their main field of combat became these guild halls, along with the Hall of Heroes in the Mists accessed first though the Tomb of the Primeval Kings and later Heroes Ascent in the Battle Isles.

At around the same time (aka the release of Factions) they also ceased to be tied to particular nations. One guild could have members from all over the world, or join an international alliance.

Skip to present day (GW2) and that idea seems to have expanded. Guilds can now include members from all 5 main races (and hypothetically more, although obviously player guilds are limited to playable races) and if Destiny’s Edge is an example rather than an extreme exception they are not only outside of normal politics but can completely disregard it – for example having humans and charr in the same guild when they were officially still at war with each other.

But that’s the only example I’ve seen in game. So what I’m wondering is are they an exception or an example of whats ‘normal’ for guilds now. Can they have any political influence? Can they choose to follow or disregard politics as it suits them?

And is there a lore explaination for WvW, which seems to be the main focus of inter-guild combat at the moment?

Well, the political leaders were not entirely helpless, I know for a fact that there was one guild in Ascalon, called Ascalon’s Chosen, that King Adlebern was the leader of. That being said if the combined forces of the guilds had come down on him the guilds would have won. But there was some major legislation that passed before GW1. These laws, between the human kingdoms, were passed to strip the guilds of all land rights in the continent of Tyria as well as a lot of their power. This was done because the charr came down on Ascalon in force, and the other humans knew that if Ascalon fell they would be soon to follow.

i think you can look at the 3 orders of Tyria as guilds.

a guild, by the definition of the word, are a band of people that join together to do something.

very interesting,please continue on this subject

Well, the whole meaning of the WvW and major inter-guild fighting could be explained simply by the fact that Zhaitan wiped out most guild halls with his Tsunami, and then cut off contact with him by his undead armada. So without guild halls to fight between, the only choice was to enter the mists and take the battle there.

Honestly i think the political meaning of “guild” is its literal one. It’s a sort of worker’s union / business.

Our guilds are pretty much all adventuring guilds, a practice that has become much more popular lately, presumably after the tales of the exploits of destiny’s edge (seriously, listen to the children, guilds are the new Spongebob)

However other guilds likely exist. Despite the fact that player guilds can become rather large, the use in the world seems to be much smaller, like an exclusive club which does… whatever it does.

Well we know for a fact that there is a pumpkin carver’s guild. I also get the feeling that the bank is a sort of guild, as well as the Black Lion Trading Company.

Yeah, I would say that (much like in the game itself) people could form guilds for any number of purposes. Seeing the Black Lion Company and the orders as massive guilds does make sense. Destiny’s Edge is a small guild formed as an adventuring band (slash professional dragonspawn exterminators) – but in theory you could form a guild to pursue anything as a group, even pumpkin carving (apparently). The Shining Blade could be considered as a guild operating as part of the Krytan government, much as I imagine Ascalon’s Chosen did.

It’s more a way of organising people to get stuff done. I’d say what you get done is entirely up to the leaders. That’s probably part of why guilds were a problem for governments back in the day – they had different agendas. I think of it like corporations: useful to the people and their governments, but a little dangerous as loose canons because they follow their own interests.

Which is why asura would be quick to adopt the guild standard, because their race already had that sort of thing in the Krewe’s that they put together to reach their goals. Heck, even the charr warband can be seen as a very close and intimate (in the sense of trusting each other with your life) guild.