Where I Read HârnWorld, Part IV: Guilds! Guilds! Guilds!

Towns and Cities

 We're told that Hârn is pretty rural compared to the rest of western Lythia. There are only eight "cities" in Hârn - a city generally being any walled town. Urban population ranges from 12,500 (Coranan, in the Thardic Republic) to 3,900 (Shiran - also a Thardic city). Two of the eight are Thardic, two from Melderyn, and one each from Kaldor, Rethem, Azadmere, and Kanday. A lot of settlements on the Hârn map have unwalled towns where markets are held.

We get a brief summary of town government. There are two basic types of towns - freetowns and feudal towns. The main difference is that freetowns have town charters that provide certain rights to the town and its citizens. Feudal towns don't have a charter. However, both kinds of town tend to have similar government structures and for most citizens the differences are minimal. (Though runaway serfs will gain their freedom if they reside in a freetown, but not a feudal town, for a year and a day.) Of the eight cities listed, only Aleath, Golotha, and Thay are freetowns.

We're not really given much more detail about town government, though we're given descriptions of prominent offices within towns. Most Hârnic towns have twelve aldermen, each of which is a "custodian and expounder of the law and member of the town court" (Hârn 19) and who tend to be guildsmen, especially members of the Litigants Guilds (i.e. lawyers).

Good thing, too. Can you imagine a world without lawyers?

Only a freetown will have a mayor, but feudal towns will have someone of similar status who heads the town bureaucracy. Port towns will have a harbourmaster who supervises the port. Wardens are charged with the town garrison. A bondmaster looks after the town "bonding house" and collects "hawking taxes" and import duties.

Notably, we don't get a description of what a bonding house or a hawking tax are. Similarly, we aren't told if the aldermen form a town council, or if Hârnic cities even have city councils. I assume such details would show up in the various sub-articles about the various towns and cities, but it continues the trend in the HârnWorld module of not really explaining Hârn in anything but the briefest terms.

We're told that town law is complicated enough to require lawyers - the aforementioned Litigants Guild. Freetowns maintain their own courts and appeals from those courts go to the Crown. Appeals from feudal town courts go to the shire moot.

(We know what shires are, thanks to the reference to Sheriffs earlier, but we're not really told what a "shire moot" is, as far as I can tell. The HârnDex entry on "Shire" references shire moots, but again, doesn't clearly identify what they are. There's no separate entry for "Moot" in the HârnDex.)

We get a bit of detail on urban geography (cities tend to be circular, crime-ridden, filled with two- and three-story wooden buildings with the occasional government stone building or stone temple). I'm not sure if this would be universal - Azadmere, at least, being a Dwarven city, would (I would think) be different - and the cities seem quite small to be so, well, urban. But London in 1100, apparently, only had 14,000 to 18,000 people - a bit larger than the two largest cities in Hârn - so maybe it's reasonable.

Towns can't live without the surrounding countryside, and markets are a huge part of Hârnic towns. It's illegal to sell anything in town except within its marketplace. The marketplace is managed by the Mangai - which hasn't been defined yet, but will be shortly - and members of local guildsare given preferential treatment.

Speaking of the Mangai...

Guilds!

Trade, occupations, and professions in Hârn are controlled by "powerful international guilds" (Hârn 20), and Hârnic towns are dominated by the guilds. Most townsmen aren't members of guilds, though - they usually follow unguilded occupations and many are common labourers. We get an attractive page of the badges of the various Hârnic guilds, including Apothecaries, Embalmers, Miners, and Weaponcrafters.

There's no Teamsters Guild on Hârn, alas.

Most guilds hold strong monopolies, though some are looser; we're told each guild is detailed in the HârnDex. (One interesting side-note from the HârnDex: in Hârn, the Mercantylers Guild - and only the Mercantylers Guild - can practice usury (i.e. charge interest on loans). But unlike on Earth, this seems to be owing ot the influence of the Mangai, rather than to any religious motivation.)

The guilds collectively form the Mangai. The Mangai exists in every Hârnic country and regulates the guilds within that country. Every "civilized" country in Hârn and in western Lythia has enacted the Charter of the Mangai, which protects the Guild monopolies. (As is to be expected, the Charter of the Mangai has an entry in the HârnDex. Also, the Mangai are described in the HârnDex as the association of all Hârnic guilds - no mention of the continental connections.) The Mangai is very powerful, but apparently keeps its nose out of politics. (We're not told if the Mangai has less sway in pre-feudal Orbaal or in the Elven or Dwarven kingdoms.)

There are three ranks in most guilds - Apprentices, Journeymen, and Masters. We're given a brief summary of each rank, as well as a glimpse at overall guild structure (the Masters of each guild elect "syndics" who in turn select a guildmaster, who represents the guild within the Mangai).

The Mangai are a weird element to Hârn. They seem overly powerful, given how sparsely populated and dispersed the various Hârnic countries are. I also don't see how they manage to keep aloof from, say, the ongoing strife among Kanday, Rethem, and Tharda. I'm also entirely unconvinced that such powerful organizations would not get involved in politics at some level, in general.

But the Mangai seems very gameable, regardless of how "realistic" it may be. An over-arching guild structure like the Mangai would be a good source of sponsors, mentors, information, and missions for non-aristocratic characters. The guilds' cross-Hârnic influence provides bonds that the feudal system doesn't - there's no High King in Hârn. So I'm willing to cut the Mangai some slack in the interests of gameability.

Next, economy, prices, taxes. Y'know, the fun stuff.