Farmers Guild

The Farmers Guild is one of the most powerful working guilds in the city, both in terms of numbers and influence.

Overview

• City: Obsidian Bay
• Country: Domain of Obsidian Bay
• Leader: Ulysses Molton
• Roster: 700

The Farmers Guild is one of the most powerful working guilds in the city, both in terms of numbers and influence. Its members include everyone from the frontier families trying to eke out a living to the great Lord Holders with their massive, well-protected estates.

The Farmers Guild produces about 1/2 of the food consumed by the Free City, and are constantly maneuvering to increase that percentage, particularly at the expense of their direct competitors. The largest of its competitors is the Longshoremens Guild – which provides the city with its fish – and the Matterhorn Guild, which provides the city’s land-grown meat.

The Guild’s "attacks" on its competition take the form of economic warfare – the dumping of cheap food products on the common folk, the development of exotic crops for the elite and propaganda. They also engage in a good amount of political manuaevering in attempts to send more garrisons into the countryside, and to spend more on building up the Domain’s defenses. It is the Farmers Guild that was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Knights of the Sword and the Knights of the Fist, and they pressed long and hard for the creation of the Domain of Obsidian Bay.

From time to time its members to get into violent shouting and pushing contests with other food-producing guilds, but for the most part they have their hands full defending their lands and getting the crop in.

Guild Structure

The guild has two tiers

• the Lord Holders, who have larger plots – 500 acres or more, who elect the Guildmaster.
• the Holders, who have small family owned farms.

Memberships cost 1 sp a year.

The Lord Holders hold a confidence vote in their guildmaster once every five years. 

Lord Holder Ulysses Molton (Aristocraft 9/Expert 3), who controls 1500 arces of land a day’s ride outside of town, leads the Farmers Guild.  His second is Bass Longfield (Commoner 7/Expert 1), a farmer with 400 acres who advises Molton on the needs of the smaller farmers.

Longfield was the guildmaster before Molton, and is greatly respected by everyone in the guild.

The Farmers Guild gladly supports the militant and expansionist adventuring guilds, most notably the Orcslayers Guild. They are also throwing their support behind the Knights of the Sword and the Knights of the Fist, and both orders can expect warm welcomes when patrolling or adventuring in the countryside. 

They have a good relationship with the Poormans Guild, as that guild provides them with much of their seasonal labor force.

The guild's rivals are primarily those from competing professions, namely the fishermen of the Longshoremens Guild and the ranchers of the Matterhorn Guild.

People

• Bass Longfield, Lord Holder: Bass Longfield is second-in-command of the Farmers Guild, and owns 500 acres two day's ride out of the city, on the eastern edge of the Great Southern Plain.
• Ulysses Molton, Lord Holder: Lord Holder Ulysses Molton owns a 1100 arce farm day’s ride outside of Obsidian Bay. He is also the leader of the Farmers Guild.

Sites

• Farmers Guildhall: Located near the old North Gate in the Inner City, the Farmers Guildhall is a gathering place for prosperous rich plantation owners and poorer freeman who've managed to claim tracts of their own.

Statblocks

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