The Merchant Guilds

The Merchant Guilds

Flag of The Merchant Guilds
Motto: For God, We Fight and We Die
Region	Imperial Armies
Capital	Vas Urbs
Official Language(s)	Latin
Leader	Emperor Cutter & Empress Sorry
Population	2 Billion
Currency	Guilder
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The Influence of The Merchant Guilds

General Information

The Influence of The Merchant Guilds (known as the Guilders) is a nation, which has undergone many changes since it's inception by a Roman General and the 'Drake' Legions landed on the Island to conquer it in 12 B.C.

The Guilds is large cold and mountainous island, caught in the Solomon Trade Winds, which blow direct from the Arctic catching the Guilds and several Imperial Armies nations in their path, where normally for their latitude such nations would be tropical. The Guilds proper is a mountainous nation of Icy peaks, Glaciers and dark Pine forest. There are few places which are even suitable to land on, only the Guilder made peirs and a single stony beach break the chain of windswept icy cliffs that surround Terrania (The Guilds Proper). The Guilders on the whole live a mile below the surface in the belly of their mountains, where they are safe from outside intervention in their affairs.

The nation today is one of the larger forces (not in Population but in Influence terms) of the Nation States World. The people are forcibly Catholic, which is enforced by the Knights of Saint Peter upon the Guilders, whom are required to attend all major Religious festivals in order to maintain what is termed 'Spiritual Purity' by the Catholic Church. The Church doctrine followed by the Guilds is that set by the Holy See, which is currently under the control of one of the Guilds Catholic allies, The Imperial Empire of Belem.

The Empire is one of larger extensions of a nation in the Nation States world with several large landmasses controlled by it. Despite the continuing insurgency in the province of Allania, it is by enlarge highly profitable for the Guilds as it offers lots of natural resources, agricultural land and most importantly human resources to be exploited. It is rumoured that the Empire is linked via a series of large bullet train tunnels that carry commerical, industrial and military traffic. These were supposedly made possible by the purchase of 5 Mole's from the British Empire of Bob-Bob, and the Guilders have made smaller more primitive copies of these in order to expand their tunnels at a great rate. It has also been rumoured that tunnels are being dug to link the Guilds with it's major allies.

The Guilds External Security is handled by the Knights Templar, who are rumoured to be a vast organisation consisting of many large networks of on the ground informants and processing information for the Guild Military as their Intelligence Branch, meaning maximal co-operation between the Guild Political, Economic and Military Sphere's of Influence can be achieved in dealing with issues arising from the International Scene, which might effect the Guilds.

Education in the Guilds is a very meritocratic affair, however a good grounding in the Religious Doctrine's is considered essential as well as great intelligence to get on within the Guilds. Each child is subjected to compulsory testing at the ages of 11 and 13 to determine their future role in society as dictated by their scores and aptitude testing. There is no discrimination between male or female pupils at this point, since many of the Guilds best scientists/academics have been in fact, female. However, women of lower or mediocre ability are encouraged to be Mothers first and to hold down part-time jobs if they should wish.

The Guild Military (known as 'The Black Legions') is a large force of well paid and religiously motivated (supposedly!) professionals, whom are well renowned throughout the Nation States International Community for:

A) Being completely Ruthless and Cruel, there have been many recorded occasions of prisoners of war being tortured, simply beheaded or burnt alive for their percieved crimes against the Empire. Uncountable war crimes accusations have been made against Imperial Guilder personnel, several of the leaders have been convicted in absentia of the offences.

B) Being mountain Specialists (the Guilds is an unforgiving mountainous country).

C) Their use of contraversial and other banned weapons such as Agent Injection Ammunition, Acid Shells/Bombs/Grenades/Mines, Cannister Shells/Bombs and ICBM mounted Thermite.

D) Their constant use of pyschological warfare especially in brainwashing willing captured personnel to fight for them in Cannon Fodder formations, such as the Ave Maria Legions. Another example of this would be the use of staking the severed heads of Alan 'Terrorists' in fields near the Psion Mountain where Alan resistance forces still operate.

E) The Imperial Security Legions supposedly being instrumental in co-operation with the Knights of Saint Peter and the Guilder Inquistion of the systematic cleansing and enslavement of the population of the former sovereign nation of 'The True Way of Alan'. This is where their nick name 'The Black Legions' was given to them by a Pro-United Nations Newspaper... that terrible name has stuck to them.

The total amount of personnel in the Guild Military is rumoured to be about 9 million persons, with around 11,000 Combat Aircraft and around 500 Submarine's of various classes.

The Guilds International Reputation is centred around their secret genetic, pharmaceutical and biological black projects, which they rarely bring onto the world stage, but it has been seen several times in the past, where the Guilds has been backed into a corner, and has utlised terrible weapons that have ended otherwise long and bloody wars in masses of death and desperate attempts to call a ceasefire. Despite this research and it's use being against Guild Religious beliefs, a Papal Bull sanctioned the Guilds to keep performing this vital research to keep the Armies of Christendom well armed and prepared for the Heathen and Heretical forces at work in the Nation States world.

The Guilds uses masses of slave in order to support it's Empire and nearly all standardised jobs are done by slaves, it has been estimated the Guilds imports some 2 million slaves per annum, numbers currently within the Guilds have been estimated in the billions. This is however unconfirmed but quite possible.

The Guilds has been linked by some experts and authors to several Terrorist groups, such as the mounting evidence for the Guilds funding and harbouring the group known as The Real ALM, as well as a supposedly covert organisation called 'The Reverend Brothers' made up of religious fanatics for the purpose of fighting the Guild Liberation Army and it's supporters in it's own ways of terror and subterfuge.

The Guilds is a recognised and one of the more prominent members of the Right Wing Collective, which is one of the premier and one of most feared alliances on Nation States.

The Guilds had been linked to the Union of World Powers, whom represent all political idealologies across the Nation States world, but whose mandate is unknown by non-members.

The Emperor is considered a lifelong member of the Evil Dictators Gentlemans Club and the Who gives a damn about Human Rights Club.