Type: Council Member
Leadership: Heads of the Main Guilds
Symbol: A hand holding up a circle
“Craft and Skill make sense of the World”
Notable Figures:
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“To craft well is to profit rightly.”
Formally known as the Athkatlan Guild of Merchants and Artisans, the Guilds serve as the city’s collective body for all recognized craftspeople, tradesmen, and merchants. In scope and influence, they surpass similar institutions across Faerûn, functioning as both regulator and defender of the city’s working classes and trade elite.
Their primary duties are twofold: to safeguard the rights and profits of members before the city’s other powers, and to maintain fair, stable relations among Athkatla’s many guilds. In this, they act as the quiet machinery that keeps the City of Coin turning.
The Guilds are nominally governed by a council of representatives from every member guild. In reality, the council hasn’t fully convened in centuries—there are simply too many members. True authority lies with a small number of powerful guilds that have held influence for generations: the Culinary Guild, the Pleasure Guild, the Shipwrights of Athkatla, and the Central Cooperage.
Banking and merchant guilds occasionally rise to prominence but rarely endure; foreign traders from the northern cities often attempt to join their ranks, only to find Athkatla’s economy already claimed by the Temple of Waukeen and the Caravaneers.
The Guilds occupy the city’s economic center. Their prosperity directly affects the fortunes of the other factions.
To most citizens, the Guilds are Athkatla itself—visible, industrious, and indispensable.