🛠️ Guilds of The Ember Dream
“In a world built on gears, ink, and fire—every guild leaves a mark.”
Guilds in The Ember Dream represent the professions, trades, and services that keep Ironspire alive. Some shape steel. Some shape truth. Some brew poisons in alleyways. But each holds power in its own way.
Whether you’re a healer, a builder, a performer, or a shadowy informant, guilds offer:
-
A professional identity
-
A like-minded community
-
Unique perks or crafting integrations (via Unity Maxim)
-
Plot hooks, rivalries, and roleplay opportunities
You may join a guild and a faction, or remain unaffiliated. Your skill is your strength—and your guild is your home.
🧭 Finding the Right Fit
Each guild has its own:
-
Location
-
Power tier
-
Internal culture
-
Rivalries
-
Secrets
Some are elite. Some are underground. Some will welcome you with open arms; others may require initiation, secrecy, or proving your worth.
Want to make a custom guild? Proposals are accepted via [form/discussion method link].
📌 The Differences
Race is what you’re born as
Guild is what you do
Faction is who you fight for
You work through a guild.
You believe through a faction.
You become something greater through both.
🗂️ Browse All Guilds
Categorical listings:
- ⚙️ Craft, Construction & Innovation
- Arcforge Order, Emberforge Collective, Cogborn Union, True Beam, Grainroot Assembly…
- 📜 Knowledge, Records & Secrets
- Spiral Archive, Inkbound Circle, Veilwrights, Echoquill Circle…
- 🧪 Healing, Alchemy & Nature
- Auric Remedy, Thornroot Circle, Sepia Crucible (if added)…
- 🛡️ Security, War & Enforcement
- Bastion Guild, Blackmark Brotherhood, Forged Brotherhood, Iron Accord…
- 🎭 Entertainment & Influence
- Hollow Troupe, Velvet Stage, Echoquill Circle…
- 🕵️ Espionage & Crime
- Black Veil, Veilwrights, Bloodprice, Greased Palm (if added later)…
- 💼 Trade, Coin & Logistics
- Coinclave, Ledgerkin, Gilded Exchange, Parcel Consortium…
- 🌍 Exploration & Travel
- Wayfarer’s Vow…
Detailed listings:
⚗️ The Arcforge Order (Experimental Tinkerers & Arcane Engineers)
Location: Flamecoil Labs, Emberfall Sector
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: The Spiral Archive, The Emberforge Collective
Leader: Professor Caldus Vree
Where steampunk meets chaos. This guild pushes boundaries of invention and alchemy—dangerously so. Explosions are common, and so are breakthroughs. Their motto? “Progress takes fire.”
Motto:“Progress takes fire.”
Rumor:Their latest invention may collapse a district—or change the world.
🕊️ The Ashen Path (Religious Orders & Spiritbinders)
Location: The Ember Sanctum, Silverspire District
Power Tier: Moderate (high cultural influence, low enforcement)
Rivalries: The Veilwrights (over spiritual vs. shadowed truths)
Leader: Mother Elsayne, Oracle of Ash
A spiritual collective of priests, monks, and seers who guide the faithful in service to Namsae and other revered forces. Not all temples are equal—some wield prophecy, others politics.
Whispered:“In ash, we find light.”
🩺 The Auric Remedy (Physicians, Midwives, Alchemists, Apothecaries)
Location: Goldenbloom Spire, Aetherhearth Row
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Spiral Archive (over cures vs. curses), Arcforge Order (magic vs. mechanics)
Leader: High Healer Serenne Vale, “The Goldleaf”
Their symbol: a golden dragon coiled around a sacred healing tree, symbolizing life, protection, and ancient power.
Caretakers of body and balance. Whether brewing cures, setting bones, or treating arcane afflictions, these healers are trained in both mundane and magical methods.
Nickname: “The Steady Hands.”
⚔️ The Bastion Guild (Guards, Mercenaries, and Enforcers)
Location: Redgate Barracks, Sentinel Row
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: The Blackmark Brotherhood
Leader: Captain Varek Holt, Commander of Shields
Your more “respectable” muscle. Hired swords, watchmen, and elite peacekeepers who guard cities, caravans, and dignitaries—if the pay is right.
Divided: Some fight for order. Some fight for their next contract.
🕯️ The Black Veil (Thieves, Fixers, Forgers & Blackmailers)
Location: The Silksliver Den, Veilmarket Quarter
Power Tier: Moderate (high reach, low visibility)
Rivalries: The Veilwrights, The Coinclave
Leader: “Madame Sable” (real name unknown)
A guild cloaked in luxury and lies. They deal in silence, scandal, and secrets too dangerous to name. From counterfeit documents to noble blackmail and disappearing debts, their influence lingers like perfume in a locked room. If your name is on their lips, it’s already too late.
Motto: “What’s hidden holds power.”
🗡️ The Blackmark Brotherhood (Unsanctioned Mercs, Rogue Hunters & Risk-for-Coin Operatives)
Location: Black Iron Hall, Wraithcross
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: The Bastion Guild, The Iron Accord
Leader: Karra Veyne, “The Coin-Fanged”
Operating in the gray between contract and crime, these freelancers take the jobs too cursed, illegal, or dangerous for others. Some say they’re mercenaries. Others call them scavengers with steel. But they never ask questions they’re not paid to.
Motto:“No job too cursed. No risk too high.”
⚔️ The Bladed Bond (Combat Instructors, Duelists & Elite Mercinaries)
Location: Severance Hall, Lowreach
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: The Forged Brotherhood, Blackmark Brotherhood
Leader: Marshal Teyva Rook
An independent coalition of trained fighters, tacticians, and elite guards-for-hire. They prize skill, discipline, and the art of battle—whether on the field, in the dueling ring, or mentoring the next generation of blades.
Motto: “For coin, for cause, for conquest.”
🐍 The Bloodprice Guild (Assassins & Debt Collection)
Location: Hidden; suspected satellite in Hollow Docks
Power Tier: Low (but terrifying)
Rivalries: None publicly known
Leader: “Whisper” (identity changes regularly)
Not publicly known to exist. Operates through proxies and “collections agents.” Takes payment in coin, favors, or secrets. Their contracts are bound by blood and magically enforced.
Rule One: No public discussion of contracts.
Rule Two: Break a deal, lose a memory.
🔧 The Cogborn Union (Steampunk Technicians & Labor Organizers)
Location: Underworks Union Hall, Sprocket Ward
Power Tier: Low-Moderate
Rivalries: The Emberforge Collective
Leader: Jorrin Tapp, “Guildgrit”
Not quite a guild, not quite a mob. This working-class network maintains Ironspire’s gears, pumps, and engines—and occasionally shuts them down when disrespected.
Catchphrase: “No gear turns without us.”
💰 The Coinclave (Bankers, Loanmasters & Debt Enforcers)
Location: Aurum Spire, Gilded Ring
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: The Ledgerkin Guild (internal power struggle)
Leader: Archivist-General Renna Thorne
The golden spine of Ironspire’s economy. From vault keepers and currency smiths to moneylenders and tax collectors, this guild ensures every transaction is recorded—and every debt, remembered. Members are protected by law and feared by those who live outside it.
Motto: “We do not forget. We compound.”
🎶 The Echoquill Circle (Bards, Storykeepers, and Troubadours)
Location: Quillhall Hearth, Docks District
Power Tier: Low-Moderate
Rivalries: The Hollow Troupe
Leader: Lyren Vael, Bard-Editor
Where the Hollow Troupe entertains, the Echoquill records. Bards who speak truth in song, story, and satire. Often seen as the city’s unofficial press, they carry gossip, news, and secret histories across the land.
Phrase: “Every tale leaves a trace.”
💰 The Ember Cabal (Merchants, Coinlords & Market Manipulators)
Location: Embervault Spire, Obsidian Ring
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: Gilded Exchange (public markets), Coinclave (legal oversight)
Leader: Chancellor Vexis Marr, “The Embermind”
Not just merchants—strategists of supply, demand, and desire. The Cabal doesn’t sell goods. It sells need. It operates in whispered bids, sealed contracts, and rumors that move empires.
Motto: “Power has a price. We set it.”
Rumor: No crown rises in Ironspire without the Cabal’s silent coin behind it.
⚒ The Emberforge Collective (Artificers, Engineers & Weaponcrafters)
Location: The Foundryspire, Forge Heights
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: The Crucible Circle, The Cogborn Union
Leader: Brannith Cael, Forgekeeper Primus
Steampunk-tinkerers, smiths, and alchemists who power Ironspire’s infrastructure and war machines. Some are brilliant innovators; others sell destructive wares to the highest bidder.
Split: Progressivist engineers vs. old-world flamecrafters.
🩸 The Flaming Pulse (Medics, Trauma Healers & Battle-Alchemists)
Location: Emberwound Pavilion, Ashveil District
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: The Auric Remedy (methods), Sepia Crucible (ethics)
Leader: Head Healer Kael Draeven, “The Ember-Stitch”
Frontline medics and arcane trauma responders, these healers work fast, fight through fire, and specialize in high-risk recovery. Born in warzones and refined in riots, they treat what others won’t touch.
Motto: “We bleed so others don’t.”
Reputation: Known for wild tempers and steady hands—if the battlefield has a heartbeat, it’s theirs.
🛡 The Forged Brotherhood (Gladiators, Penal Fighters, & Bloodbound Veterans)
Location: The Crucible Grounds, Ashrow Arena
Power Tier: High (social/cultural spectacle)
Rivalries: The Bastion Guild (philosophical), Iron Accord (elitist scorn)
Leader: Arena-Master Droven Halke
More than a guild—this is a branded legacy. Once condemned criminals or exiles, now turned into warriors of spectacle, contract, and sometimes redemption. Some fight for freedom, others for glory… and a few because they know nothing else.
Motto: “Steel redeems.”
📦 The Gilded Exchange (Merchants, Shippers, and Traders)
Location: Coinpier Consortium, Market Ring
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: The Coinclave (trade control debates)
Leader: Guildmaster Elmarie Dros
Masters of commerce and transit, they manage markets, caravans, airships, and maritime trade. From grocers and spice vendors to luxury brokers and cargo captains, this guild ensures Ironspire’s wealth keeps flowing.
Motto: “Value moves. So do we.”
🌾 The Grainroot Assembly (Farmers, Growers, and Rural Alchemists)
Location: Outerwall Harvest Halls
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Thornroot Circle (methods vs. ideals)
Leader: Elder Harnis Deepgrain
Tied to the land beyond the walls, these cultivators grow the crops, raise the livestock, and tend the magical plants that feed Ironspire. Often overlooked, but never unimportant—they keep the city alive.
Saying: “From root to flame, we endure.”
🛠️ The Guild of the True Beam (Shipwrights, Architects, and Builders)
Location: Beamhold Bastion, Keystone District
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: Emberforge Collective (form vs. function debates)
Leader: Master Architect Salien Vork
Masons, carpenters, and shipwrights who raise Ironspire from stone and steel. Whether building skyports, subterranean vaults, or warships, they believe every structure has a soul—and every line, a purpose.
Phrase: “We build for ages.”
🎭 The Hollow Troupe (Revolutionary Performers, Satirists & Trickster-Artists)
Location: The Grand Gossamer, Dreamer’s Quarter
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Echoquill Circle, Velvet Stage (for “selling out”)
Leader: Maven Krystael “The Painted Flame”
The people’s players. Mixing protest, play, and illusion, they use performance to spark rebellion and mock the powerful. They bring laughter—and wake cities.
Secret role: “They keep the city dreaming.”
Whisper: Their latest show was banned in three districts… and sold out in four.
📝 The Inkbound Circle (Scribes, Archivists, and Lorekeepers)
Location: The Stilled Quill Archive, Scrollspire
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Spiral Archive (truth vs. mystery)
Leader: Loremaster Aven Korr
Keepers of written memory and masters of official truth, the Inkbound Circle transcribes noble edicts, battlefield visions, and ancestral lines. They preserve Ironspire’s legal, magical, and mythic past, ensuring history cannot be rewritten—unless they rewrite it.
Motto: “What is unwritten is already forgotten.”
⚔️ The Iron Accord (Peacekeepers, Riot Suppressors & Martial Enforcers)
Location: Bastion Hold, Emberfall Gate District
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: Irontide Syndicate, Emberforge Collective, Hollow Troupe
Leader: Commander Jorik Vann
A militant lawkeeping force sworn to the Ember Court. From street patrols and riot lines to tribunals and disappearances, they are Ironspire’s armored peace—and its sharpest blade.
Motto: “Justice wears iron, not silk.”
⚒️ The Ironwright Guild (Smiths, Engineers & Arcane Builders)
Location: Bronzebone Forgehall, Ironmaker’s Rise
Power Tier: High
Rivalries: Emberforge Collective (traditionalism vs. radical tech), Arcforge Order (stability vs. chaos)
Leader: Forgewarden Halen Trask
The backbone of Ironspire’s infrastructure. Whether forging dragon-tempered steel or laying sigil-bound stone, the Ironwrights value craft, function, and tradition in equal measure.
Motto: “What we build, endures.”
Note: Rumors suggest they possess blueprints older than the city itself.
💼 The Ledgerkin Guild (Taxmasters, Auditors, and Bureaucratic Enforcers)
Location: Tallyhold Hall, Quillpoint Square
Power Tier: Moderate–High
Rivalries: The Coinclave (overreach vs. austerity)
Leader: Master Clerk Ellisar Trenn
They don’t just count your coin—they track your name, your deeds, your lineage, and your mistakes. From debt enforcement to civic licensing, the Ledgerkin keep Ironspire’s infrastructure from collapsing under its own ambition.
Nickname: “The Quillknives”
The Obscured (Espionage, Illusionists, Spymages & Dream Infiltrators)
Location: Unknown (believed to operate from scattered safehouses and dream realms)
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Black Veil, Ashen Path, Ember Court
Leader: Unknown (The Umbra Circle speaks as one)
Masters of secrets, illusions, and psychological subterfuge. The Obscured operate in whispers and dreams, planting thoughts, erasing memories, and vanishing truths. No one knows their full reach. Some say no one even knows if they’re real.
Rumor: The moment you learn too much… they rewrite it.
🔮 The Spiral Archive (Occultists, Memory Mages & Forbidden Lorekeepers)
Location: The Deep Athenaeum, beneath the Obsidian Steps
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: The Inkbound Circle, The Auric Remedy
Leader: Archivist Null
A secretive guild devoted to recovering what the world chose to forget—erased spells, lost places, and truths too dangerous to remain known. Their members unravel memory, manipulate time, and awaken knowledge sealed by fear. Some say they don’t find knowledge… it finds them.
Warning: Half the archive is warded so tightly, no one remembers what’s inside.
🌿 The Thornroot Circle (Herbalists, Wyrd Druids, and Wildwardens)
Location: Deepgreen Hold, Rootwall Glade
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Grainroot Assembly
Leader: Thornspeaker Alwyn Verr
Formerly called the Verdant Covenant, the Thornroot Circle protects sacred wilds, studies herbal lore, and guides respectful coexistence with nature. Fierce guardians when provoked, they defend the last untouched places from exploitation.
Whispered: “We do not serve the land. We are the land.”
🗝 The Veilwrights (Funeral Mages, Spirit Weavers & Deathbinders)
Location: The Shrouded Reliquary, Mourner’s Row
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Ashen Path, Spiral Archive, Irontide Syndicate
Leader: High Mourner Veyra Khol
Keepers of death’s threshold, the Veilwrights handle burial rites, soul passage, and ancestral memory. With magic bound to candlelight and ash, they protect the living by honoring the dead—and punishing those who defy that balance.
Rumor: Their reliquary bells toll on their own… when something escapes.
🎭 The Velvet Stage (Glamour Mages, Cultural Provocateurs & Elite Performers)
Location: The Moonlace Theater, Dreamer’s Quarter
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Hollow Troupe (populism vs. elitism), Echoquill Circle
Leader: Grand Impresario Vellira Dune
The city’s most decadent stage, where truth and fiction blur in velvet and gold. Their shows stir hearts, shift loyalties, and whisper sedition between standing ovations.
Motto: “We move the world with make-believe.”
🗺️ The Wayfarer’s Vow (Explorers, Couriers & Oathbound Pathwalkers)
Location: The Crosswind Hall, Windspire Heights
Power Tier: Moderate
Rivalries: Blackmark Brotherhood (over ethics), Thornroot Circle (reckless exploration)
Leader: Pathkeeper Rhenn Solvar
More than messengers, less than heroes—Wayfarers walk the forgotten roads. They carry truths, relics, and sometimes people across the broken edges of the world. Bound by sacred vows, they never turn back, and never break their word. To swear a Vow is to wager your soul.
Motto: “Where the world fades, we begin.”