Excerpt from a lesson from Hector Alfriss' Preparatory School for Young Nobles

  The Exterminator's Guild - Its History and Function

  In the Kingdom of Vialian, there are the foundational Guilds which ensure the overall health and well-being of our society. Without them, the function of all the other Guilds - and our prosperity as a whole - could not be maintained. These Guilds are the Exterminator's Guild, Mining Guild and Mage's College.

  For this lesson, we will focus on the Exterminator's Guild.

  According to officials of the Alfriss Duchy, the House administering the guild, the Exterminator's Guild is the the greatest among equals.

  While the other Guilds dispute this claim, it is difficult to deny the importance Exterminators have upon our society, hence why its administration is trusted to the esteemed Alfriss Duchy.

  The purpose of the Exterminator's Guild is multi-faceted:

  First, the Guild exists to administer an orderly system of dungeon exploration. Prior to the formation of the Guild in 722 AC, dungeon delving was supremely dangerous. While the Guild has an extensive system of analyzing the rating of newly formed dungeons, the true danger of dungeons has always been the other Exterminators.

  In the past, the Exterminators were known as Adventurers. These barbaric Adventurers frequently fought over rights to different dungeons and fatalities within were common. Small bandit groups of Adventurers formed to lay claim on dungeon locations and small scale warfare routinely broke out between these groups for dungeon control.

  The criminal underworld was also heavily involved in the dungeon ecosystem. Should someone fall within a dungeon and their body remained for 24 hours, the dungeon consumed the remains along with any equipment and recycled them into mana. These dungeons proved an excellent way for crime syndicates and gangs to "disappear" their victims. The resources the criminal underworld provided to the bandit groups only served to strengthen their position.

  It wasn't until 702 AC did the kingdom seek to establish control over their local dungeon system. King Malthus Vialina, seeking to establish a reliable training regimen for his army to help conquer rival kingdoms, declared war on the various bandit groups controlling the dungeons.

  The battles proved difficult and bloody. Vialina, while possessing greater numbers and a formally trained military, were forced to battle bandit groups with access to dungeons and Advancements from their uncontested access. It wasn't until 704 AC did one of King Malthus' Generals, Tyrell Alfriss, formulate a systematic approach to dungeon suppression.

  His plans began with identifying the weakest dungeons near Leoren. He conquered first what we know as Advancement 0 dungeons and maintained control. He built fortifications, many of which are still seen today, to control entry and trained his troops. As his troops developed higher Advancements, he moved to conquer even higher rated dungeons from the bandit groups.

  The process was slow and difficult, culminating in controlling the full range of dungeons Advancement 5 and lower within the kingdom's borders in 718 AC. Afterward, General Alfriss fortified the control of the dungeons and created a robust training regimen for army personnel which is still used to this day.

  Controlling the vast network of dungeons in Vialina, even with its smaller territory in the era, proved costly for the army to maintain. So, in 722, King Malthus ordered the dungeons to be split between the army and a new civil entity to manage. The army would keep the most efficient dungeons to continue training troops while the rest, mainly those with the highest valued monster cores and treasure formation, were given to the new Guild.

  To avoid the negative connotation that came with the term "Adventurer", the Guild was named the Exterminator's Guild as many dungeons contained valuable metal veins which miners took advantage of and later formed the Miner's Guild, which is discussed in a different lesson. They were called Exterminators as their role was to exterminate monsters near the veins to allow miners easy access to the ore.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  For waging a successful campaign against the Adventurers, King Malthus elevated General Alfriss to Duke and appointed House Alfriss the sole administrator of the Exterminator's Guild.

  Sadly, even to this day, the Exterminator's Guild doesn't have full control over all the dungeons in Vialina. Maintaining full control is an impossible task due to the sheer size of the kingdom. Further, with dungeons nearer to the ley lines or nexus points, there aren't sufficient personnel powerful enough to maintain outposts near these remote dungeons. As such, Wildcat mining and banditry is still a problem. However, the issue is far less pronounced these days since becoming powerful enough to contest high Advancement dungeons requires passing through the regulated channels of either the Army, Noble House or Exterminator's Guild. High rated Parties can go their entire careers challenging Ley Line or Nexus dungeons without so much as witnessing a bandit attack.

  The second reason for the Guild's existence is to help develop a powerful civil defense force. While the army has their training dungeons, they are unable to maintain order within cities and towns nor manage trade route safety. To facilitate these functions, the Guild doubles as a training source.

  Exterminators commonly reach Advancement 2 before moving on in life. Common jobs after retirement are road patrols and frontier militiamen. Exterminators effectively finance their own training and development while earning a living delving into dungeons. Further, even those who do not go into public safety roles are available in situations of crisis and their presence reduces the odds of crime in an area. Since there are no known ways to measure Advancement beyond the crystals, knowing who is Advanced or not is difficult to discern. Even a small portion of the population being Advanced has a strong suppression effect on violent crime.

  The Guild thus serves to offload the expense of training these necessary functions without burdening the State with additional expenses which keeps taxes low.

  The City Guard and Noble Houses, however, have their own private network of dungeons. These are necessary to avoid competition with civil Exterminators to maintain Leoren's Guard strength and train House forces.

  Third, the Exterminator's Guild serves to maintain healthy trade in the city. Prior to the Guild, trade in mana cores and dungeon formed equipment was haphazard.

  Setting aside trade financing bandit groups, the uncontrolled trade caused a cycle of boom-busts in various commodities. When certain cores or items grew in demand, competitors rushed dungeons containing desired materials and compounded on the already high violence rates present within the dungeons. Fraud in the identification market became rampant with unregulated appraisers charging outlandish fees for their services while other fraudsters outright lied about the providence of the item.

  Reprisals became common when Adventurers routinely attacked and killed merchants for false information or overcharged services, whether real or perceived.

  With the formation of the Guild, market control became important. The Exterminator's Guild coordinates with the Commerce Consortium to ensure prices are properly set and slowly adjusted over time to avoid shocks. Further, the Consortium agreed to a fixed service price for identification from licensed and registered appraisers reimbursed by the Exterminator's Guild to maintain harmony.

  Some critics, particularly in the Royal University economics department, claim the system is not effective for commerce. They say the system is prone to creating supply gluts or shortages when pricing is improperly set. Further, they claim it fosters a robust black market system to work around the inefficient pricing levels.

  The Exterminator's Guild disputes these notions and finds it illogical that the black market exists both to purchase items from Exterminators when pricing is too low and to also facilitate merchant activity when prices are too high. Vialina has extensive laws to ensure such illegal activity does not take place.

  Another purpose to maintain harmony is the Dungeon Reservation system. Attached to an Exterminator's Guild membership card is a mechanism to reserve dungeon access. This reservation system, which operates on first come, first served, maintains a structured system to ensure no one fights over dungeon access. The system radically reduced conflicts related to dungeon access and rules set for when Parties must vacate dungeons further reduced strife among competing Exterminator groups.

  Fourth, the Exterminator's Guild operates as a law enforcement entity. While the City Guard and House Forces have powerful members, sometimes a rogue Exterminator or Wildcat Bandit becomes a problem. The Exterminators posses the most powerful individual fighters in Vialina and are called upon to capture powerful rogue actors.

  The Kingdom's most powerful individual, Lansen Illian Guvarse, is the current Master of the Exterminator's Guild. In addition to his administrative role, Lansen Guvarse also leads the Guild's Shadow Cloaks, a group of extremely powerful and anonymous enforcers tasked to dangerous operations vital to the safety of the Kingdom and suppress rogue Exterminators. Those who find themselves in Lansen Guvarse's sights are destined to die by the sword or spend their days in the Penal Brothels.

  Fifth, and arguably the most important, the Exterminator's Guild maintains the integrity of the Mining Guild's operations.

  Clearing mining dungeons is a difficult job which requires regular operations. The Guild's very name was derived from their primary task of exterminating monsters to ensure safe operations of the vital mining industry. Without access to metals, coinage couldn't be minted, military equipment forged or critical infrastructure such as sewage and water delivery could not be maintained. Mining is also a critical source of materials for research in the Mage's College.

  To maintain the mines, the Exterminator's Guild has permanent detachments assigned to mines for protection. There are also roving squads which are tasked to handle mana flares, which have unfortunately become more common in recent years.

  This is the primer of the Exterminator's Guild. Guild's structure, membership requirements, quest system, Party formation and detailed regulatory code will be discussed in future lessons.