Are guilds like factions of spiral HQ? If we're all on the same side, then what is the point in banding together to "create powerful guilds"? And who are we paying the energy/crowns to to make our guild?
I suppose what I mean to ask is- how do guilds fit in with the story?
Guilds bring players into a community where they can join together. They're a way of communication, brotherhood, and it can help lead us to believe that maybe we are factions. The guilds, like countries almost, bring out the best in its players though competition (similar to that of the Olympics). Basically, guilds help breed smarter, more educated, and stronger knights.
I'd say they are more like Chapters rather than their own individual organisations, that is to say they are all a part of the Spiral Order. The 500CE probably goes to Strangers to open up your Guildhall (or Chapterhouse).
Considering the original idea for the game had something to do with Space Marines, I wouldn't imagine this to be too far off.
I suppose you could be buying the "land" for the guild with the energy, although why anyone would pay for the pathetic things we call guildhalls atm I do not know. It is perhaps like a registration fee?
I thought about them acting as brigades under the command of Spiral HQ, but the idea that they are "powerful" brings into mind that they are not under anyone's command.
"Form Powerful Guilds
Guild alliances allow greater influence over the world. Amass powerful minerals to transform the Clockworks!"
If we were working with Spiral HQ, we would be giving them the minerals so that they could continue their research, but instead we are using them to control the clockworks, even if just barely.
My point is that this all implies that we are breaking away from Spiral HQ, but the mission system's lore seems to disagree with this entirely.
If we aren't supposed to think about the setting, why even have a setting at all?
Spiral HQ- Government
Guilds- Political parties
< Three Rings Design > is the leading political party.
All the guilds answer to Spiral HQ, but they have their own slightly different agendas and characters, like chapters in WH40k. Guilds can still be "powerful" while being part of a larger whole. Presumably the SKs have some sort of decision-making structure--a military council, probably--in which some factions will naturally have a larger say than others.
They're maybe like battle squads? Idk maybe something like different militia divisions, and the way we operate them, that's kinda what it comes down to.
...well that and fashion contests.
Is that the Space Marine analogy seems the best fit, so far. The squads could be seen as those parties of 1-4 who roam the Clockworks. Actually, the Space Marine comparison actually works quite well. Instead of there being set squads, there are only ad-hoc 'parties', formed and disbanded as circumstances need. The Guilds are analogous to the many Chapters of Space Marines. Each are 'officially' supposed to report to a higher power (Spiral HQ or The Emperor of Mankind), but in reality they tend to go off on their own tangents.
Perhaps they act as brigades under the command of Spiral HQ?