I've been throwing around ideas for guilds in idle time at work because..
why not. Considering dreaming up new ideas is the fun part of design..
and coding, the grind... I don't imagine anything will come of this but
maybe some of it will act as a springboard.
First. thought of a new category called Uncivilized which is comprised of
guilds that encourage within Uncivilzed PVP. This is a can of worms i'm
sure but you could incorporate +- 10 levels giving most rep.. or/ and xp
totals.
some guild ideas i've come up with are
FLAMES OF THE INQUISITORS
An offshoot of squire which is comprised of religious zealots. They are
witch hunters, specifically using the Malleus Maleficarum as their bible..
so to speak. The whole witch hunter thing is a bit misogynist so it could
be expanded to incorporate evil magic workers..
Considering there are a limited number of witches.. an accusation and
confession idea could be implemented. These fanatics would get a certain
amount of rep from staking and burning witches but only if they are
confessed witches. Too much persecution of innocents would see the loss of
any blessings or benefits from their religious patron (god).
Torture seems a bit dark but perhaps subdued witches could be given
over to the tender mercies of the guild masters. I also had the idea of
a post- questioned witch (catatonic) acting as a sort of spell sponge. As
there should be some sort of partial magic resistance for a guild of
fighters targeting magic users.
Fire based weapons would seem to be in keeping with the idea. perhaps
there's an opportunity to balance god based benefits by persecuting true
witches (or confessed) versus building up rep by number of witches.
The idea is a sort of a rabid paladin... they are the Hammer of Witches
the best of them being saviours, protectors of the people and the worst
being paranoid persecutors.
DREAMS OF A DEAD GOD
When the current gods came into power, there were many.. things that
they had to kill and subdue before they could rule. I imagine some
malevolent cthulhu type god who was defeated but still exists in a death
like sleep.
The guild is comprised of magic users who swim in the god's dreams and
try to take power from him. Dreaming is actually the unchecked creation
power of a god left to be shaped by those willing. The guild masters are
not of one mind. The four leaders have separate goals, specifically :
Wake the god (madness), power seeking, Expand consciousness/ explore
dreaming, enlightenment. I liked the idea of guild masters being at cross
purposes.
There's a wealth of dream magic ideas that could be used. There are
dream tulpas (thought form entities) dream healing, dream sigils that
cross from reality into dream. Shared dreaming, the ability to steal
another players dream form and use it. This could be simply illusion or
an actual simulacra of the player.
I also played around with the idea of peeling back layers of
consciousness. As you level up, you gain access to a dream area which
requires you to unearth deeper knowledge/ rooms to achiever greater rank.
The 2 main ideas would be playing with the nature of reality
and illusion, dreams become a more relevant realm than reality.The
other aspect would be stealing power from a cthulhu or unfathomable entity
and dealing with the other creatures that are doing the same.
CORRUPTED
These are self taught practioners of magic who don`t have the
benefit of a guild hierarchy to keep them from pursuing evil. They
are guided by power and curiousity. The main drive is corruption and
madness. They take empty containers and trap things within, growing
or tormenting that held until it reveals secrets in its madness or
becomes something.. unnatural. Empty bags, boxes, chests, pouches
and safes are used to contain creatures and beings.
These are the blackest of black magic practioners. Forced to seek
out spells and magic from mage towers and rooms of others. Everything
they learn must be stolen or researched. They have spell books that
they use to record what magic they find.
Not very fleshed out but I drew inspiration from bogeyman mythology
and the evil witches- wizards from fairy tales. A particularly cruel
imm could just leave hints and have it a guild that would have to be
discovered and hinted at.
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This is all just food for thought or a spring board for other ideas.
Feel free to build on anything here.