Inventor's Guild
The Inventors Guild is an organization of engineers, scientists, and creative thinkers. They are an official guild, meaning they are able to control their own ideas and the selling of their inventions. Like all guilds they have a Guild Symbol, but they don't wear specific uniforms and you can't automatically pick one out of a crowd. As a guild they have different levels of membership--there are apprentice inventors as well as masters. Only the masters have access to the greatest secrets of the guild.
The Inventor's Guild is the City's newest faction, formed after the City's recent naval war with a nearby trade rival, Crenoa. The ruler of the city called together a group of engineers and alchemists and charged them with the defense of the city. They spent weeks designing innovated seige engines (some of which still stand overlooking the harbour today), along with a chemical solution that would cause water itself to burst into flame. The defense of the city was a success, largely due to their creations, and the greatful ruler of the city presented them with a royal charter, allowing the creation of a formal Guild. Since then, the Inventor's Guild has continued to create new machines and other wonders (including rope arrows and steam-powered paddle-boats). The first Guild President was Morden Adringhton, a suspected necromancer who turned his attentions from flesh to metal after the Mages attempted to purge their ranks of such taboo practices.
You can't just pay an entrance fee and 'become' a member of the Inventor's Guild. You must be taken as an apprentice at a young age, or must be an accomplished engineer, alchemist or scientist already. Initiates in the guild start off doing relatively menial tasks, or working on building inventions that are well-known to the public, like regular seige engines, tower clocks, or greek fire. Only after years of study and work are they allowed to study the workings of the more impressive inventions of the Guild, like steambeasts.
Not every member of the Guild knows how to build steambeasts (probably their most recent and impressive creation). The Inventors all have their various areas of expertise. Some focus on the study of clockwork machines, others study chemical solutions, and others design outlandish steam-powered inventions. It takes many different specialists working together to make their more complex machines, and the exact procedures are jealously guarded from non-Guild members. It is believed no single Guild member has complete knowledge of how steambeasts are created, so that even if captured by an enemy they could not give away the entire procedure.
The Inventor's Guild Hall is located in the wealthier area of the city. This is where they have meetings and where high-ranking members do much of their thinking and designing. Most guildmembers tend to live in an industrial section of town, however, where the actual building of the machines is done in one or more factories. They favour large, blocky, redbrick buildings to work in. Around the edges of disctrict are all kinds of other tradesmen that the Inventors rely on -- metalworkers, gemsmiths, etc. They often construct parts for the Inventors, though they are not privy to any secrets themselves.
The Guild does not sell all of its inventions. The steambots they sell to nobles are ones that are already perfected. They have even stranger, 'elite' bots inside their factories. Who knows what other inventions are still on the drawing board? There is no shortage of rumours about what people have seen and heard from those factories.
The Inventors Guild is well thought-of by most of the nobility. The nobles benefit from the inventions on a regular basis, and they are happy to support their efforts. Some would like to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, however, and fear that the Inventors could try to usurp power by creating their own army of steambots.
The Builders were originally very supportive of the Inventors, respecting their hard work and new ideas. The Builders do not support the creation of steambots, however, suspecting that their creations are a form of necromancy that do not honour their god. Although most Guild members stay away from the subject of religion to avoid trouble, some publically disagree with Church doctrine about how the world works. The Church is now uneasy in its relationship with the Guild, with many Builders talking loudly about heretical practices and wolves in sheep's clothing.
