Decided to collect and codify all this into one place, as much as to keep it straight in my head as anything

The History of the Spacer's Guild

The Spacer's Guild is one of the oldest organisations in the known universe that isn't a religion or a seat of learning.

Founded in the 21st Century by the then Terran Alliance, the job of the early Guild was to provide a common training and certification regime for the thousands of people needed to begin humanities first true steps into space. Those first members came from dozens of different nations, often with different languages, education systems and operational protocols. The Guild was intended to streamline this, so that everyone had the same education and followed the same procedures, using the same equipment.

With the success of the Deimos Project, the Guild would spin-off the Pathfinder Corps, as many of their best and brightest sort to push the edge of the unknown back, one jump at a time. And, following behind the Pathfinders was the Guild, laying the groundwork for what would become our homes among the stars.

It is important to note that the Guild is different to Belters or Rockjacks: it is very rare for a member of the Guild to have a permanent home besides the ship they serve on, but there are certain crossovers between the two groups, and ties of business and blood.

With the eventual dispanding of the Pathfinders, most of the surviving scouts returned to the Guild, bring with them a treasure trove of knowledge and experience unmatched in human history. While the Guild had always overseen multiple disciplines, such as piloting, engineering, medical, communications and environmental management, they soon became best known for their navigators, and to this day, it is the Master Navigators who hold most positions of power in the Guild.

Guild trained Navigators are trained to a higher standard than graduates of any of the other academies and schools set up across known space. They have a far better grasp of the practical application of hyperspace theory than many scientists, and can often plot junos without the need of an computer, running the complex calculations in their heads. This is in part due to the fact that the Guild only selects the very best candidates to undergo apprenticeships, meaning that they have a far better starting point, allowing them to bypass much of the basics.

With the eventual rise of the Terran Hegemony and the other Great Houses, the Guild continued to expand. House Cameron supported the work of the Guild, seeing it as an easy way to keep tabs on what the other nations were doing, as all members maintained a certain loyalty to the Guild, which was in turn reliant on the Hegemony for its official position and effective monopoly.

The collapse of the Star League gave the Guild a unique opportunity to forge their own path for the first time since the dispanding of the Pathfinder Corps. Taking advantage of the confusion, they moved to take control of a significant amount of the Hegemony merchant fleet, still one of the largest in existence, and proclaimed themselves to be completely neutral in the fighting over the First Lords throne.

An unknown number of Guild members took part in General Kerensky's great Exodus, willingly or otherwise, and it is believed that they were the foundations of the Free Guilds that form the bulk of the Clan Merchant Cast.

To avoid the risk of a single attack capturing or killing their leadership, the twelve most senior Navigators split the Guild into twelve Houses, each one tasked with keeping the tradition and knowledge of the Guild alive, should anything happen to the others. Each house was given a name from Guild history, be it famous member, location or ship. Each founding House Master chose the name for their individual House, and the modern Spacer's Guild was formed.

These Houses are as follows:

House Voidwalker

House Shadowkeeper

House Blue Star

House Odysseus

House Charlemagne

House Bligh

House Rosewater

House Kangnido

House Heyerdahl

House Joseon

House Starstrider

House Hightower

Unlike many similar organisations, there are no set territories for these Guild Houses, as the very nature of the Guild keeps them mobile, their ships going where their contracts take them. It is believed that they do maintain a network of supply and maintenance depots across the Inner Sphere and beyond, but they have managed to keep their exact location and disposition secret, even from ComStar.

Despite their professed neutrality, the First and Second Succession Wars took their tole on the Guild: with reason and understanding having given way to rage and madness, it wasn't long before the waring Houses started to see JumpShips, and their crews, as assets to be used or denied the enemy. Thousands of irreplaceable ships and their crews were lost, and it wasn't until the Guild threatened to follow Kerensky's example and remove their surviving fleets and crews from the Inner Sphere that the neutrality and safety of the Guild became recognised as the officially-unofficial Rules of War.

The Guild has guarded its neutrality and independence just as closely as it has its other secrets, fending off repeated attempts by ComStar and the Successor States to subvert control over the Guild. The most powerful tool at their disposal is the threat of an Interdiction, which would see the suspension of Guild activity within the subjects territory. Given just how many of the best and most experienced spacers, across multiple disciplines, are members of the Guild, such an Interdiction could effectively cripple a nation.

While the Guild itself remains staunchly neutral, and no Guild owned ship would ever take part in military operations of any kind, there is nothing stopping individuals from doing so, on the understanding that their actions are their own and do not represent the Guild as a whole. Despite this, most militaries and several of the larger mercenary units prefer to rely on non-Guild members for their more secretive missions, and only contract with the Guild for general transport and supply missions.

It is well known that the Guild maintains its own, independent security force, although the exact strength and disposition remains a closely guarded secret, even within the Guild. Indeed, before Anastasius Focht made the truth public, the Guild was a popular choice for the origin of the Vandenburg White Wings. It should be noted that while there is no evidence that the Guild does or has ever possessed any warships, lack of proof is not proof of lack.

The Clan Invasion forced the Guild to reevaluate their neutrality for the first time in nearly three centuries: unlike the Successor States, the Clans refused to recognise their independence, and sort to capture any and all Guild ships they encountered, along with their crews. This resulted in the destruction of several ships, and countless individuals choosing suicide over capture.

Just why the Guild would feel the need for such extreme messages remains unclear.

Eventually, the Guild would make tentative contact with their Clan counterparts, and a workable relationship would be reached, with the Guild treated as a natural extension of the existing Free Guilds, allowing them to operate, under supervision, within the Occupation Zones. They would eventually form closer ties with Clan Diamond Shark, but even there, they jealously kept their secrets and independence.

It would be the Jihad, and the Word of Blakes disregard of the long held Rules of War, along with their indiscriminate use of weapons of mass destruction and terror tactics that would see the Guild as a whole official take a side in a conflict for the first time. The Word of Blake was officially Indictment, completely cut off from the services of the Guild, while ships made contact with various Rockjack communities with the Protectorate. Information was gathered, crosschecked and rechecked, before being passed onto the Coalition that was forming to combat the Word of Blake. Guild ships, using routs known only to the Guild, conducted recon missions behind enemy lines, guiding liberation forces past many of the defences put in place to stop them. Guild shops were the first to enter the Sol system, weeks ahead of the Liberation forces.

Given this unprecedented chance in stance, it surprised many when, with the end of the Jihad, the Guild returned to a position of complete and true neutrality. Devlin Stone made several attempts to get the Guild to join his new Republic of the Sphere, but his overtures were rebuffed, as were his attempts to force the issues. Ultimately, it was the threat of an Interdiction, which would have crippled the rebuilding or worlds ravaged by war, that forced Stone and the Republic to stand-down and allow the Guild to continue as normal.

Desperate all their potential power to play King-maker, the Guild traditionally takes no interest in politics or matters of state. Instead, they continue to see that the life-blood of interstellar trade and travel is maintained, and that the secrets they guard remain safely hidden from outsiders.

Despite being a very public entity, the Guild remains very insular. It is not uncommon for the identity of the twelve House Masters to remain a secret, even among the members, and they never meet with outsiders. There are also multiple accounts of promising navigators from outside the Guild being invited to visit one of their ships, and then never being seen again.

The most prominent incident of this type is what has become known as the Windsor Incident, where a young, Guild trained but independent navigator successfully jumped a collapsing star, only to arrive in a comatose state. The Guild was able to argue legal next of kin status, as one of her grandfather's had been a member, and took custody of her while she was still unconscious. An investigation into the incident was launched, but the Guild simply refused to answer any questions regarding what happened, or the status and whereabouts of the missing navigator.

This led to a renewed interest in the Guild, and just what secrets they may be keeping. This is easier said than done, as every intelligence agency in known space has attempted to infiltrate the Guild at some point, only to have their agents turned away, or seemingly 'go native'.

Despite this, some information, of questionable validity, has come to light. Most persistent is the rumours of a thirteenth Guild House, operating in secret. The supposed name of this House is unknown, but it is widely agreed that they perform the duties of a bureaucracy within the Guild, possibly being responsible for running and maintaining the hidden bases that the Guild uses to ensure their neutrality.

Interestingly, the Guild has become more proactive since the Jihad, forwarding affiliate status to a number of smaller, independent repair stations and chandleries. While still outside of the Guild proper, they enjoy Guild protection and preferred client status, in exchange for upholding certain rules and standards. This is seen by some as a deliberate sub against the Republic of the Sphere, which has sort to centralise such operations and place them under direct government control.

There are also reports of the Guild expanding and strengthening their relationships with a number of Rockjack communities, especially the Belters of Sol, as well as the JàrnFòlk and other non-state entities with similar interests. The Republic has reacted by publicly questioning why a famously neutral and independent organisation such as the Spacer's Guild would feel the need to expand their power and influence, but has stopped short of actually accusing the Guild of anything specific.

In response, the Guild has raised rates for Republic government and military cargos, and reduced the number of ships available to charter within the Republic, a very real warning of just what even a partial Interdiction would look like.

The True History of the Spacer's Guild and House Evergreen

Long enough time passes, and history becomes myth, myth eventually becomes legend, and legends pass from memory.

As such, the origin of House Evergreen, the elusive Thirteenth Guild House within the already secretive Spacer's Guild is far older and far, far more complex than anything you could possibly imagine.

Let us start, as these things often do, with a war.

Unlike any war you may have read about in the history books, this one was between humanity, and those we would consider the stuff of fairy tales: Elves, Orks and Dwarfs, to name but three of the Ancient Races who were old when humanity was young. For countless centuries, millennia, an uneasy peace had been maintained between the four races that shared ancient Terra in the days before history. The Elves, wise and effectively immortal, had long mastered the mysteries of magic, the Orks, strong and brave, were the undisputed masters of war, and the Dwarfs, industrious and cunning, master builders and craftsmen.

Humanity stood apart: they lacked the magic of the Elves, the strength of the Orks or the genius of the Dwarfs. This led them to be subjugated by the other three, until a warrior arose who discovered the Secret of Steel, allowing humanity to rise up i what because known as the War of Blood and Stone.

Terra shook, as never before or since, as the other races saw the untapped potential of the human race unleashed upon them. The great Elven cities, the Ork strongholds and the Dwarfish halls fell one by one, until, in desperation, they unleashed a power so great that it took all four race, combined, to defeat it.

In the wake of this cataclysm, a peace was bartered: the Elves, Orks and Dwarfs would retreat to the Hidden Places, and humanity would be left alone to forge their own destiny. Only the Rangers of the Green Forest, comprised of Elves, Orks, Dwarfs, and Humans, would remain, hidden, but watching to ensure that the peace was maintained.

Centuries passed, and the memories of the other races, and the War of Blood and Stone, faded from the minds of man, until it was nothing more than a story to entertain children. Humanity prospered, spreading out until one world was not enough.

Thus was formed the Spacer's Guild, and amongst the first recruits, were descendants of the Rangers, who sort to ensure that the other races would not be left behind. Some of these recruits possessed Elvish blood, allowing them to perceive that which a normal human could not, to see the ebb and flow of the universe around them. These individuals became the first of the Master Navigators, and, in due time, the hyperspace scouts of the Pathfinder Corps.

Countless stars were mapped by the Pathfinders, hundreds of worlds surveyed for colonisation, but not all were reported back to the Terran Alliance. Instead, a handful of worlds that met very specific criteria were kept off the maps, and reported only to the Spacer's Guild, which by then was fully under the clandestine control of the Rangers.

Through careful manipulation of the flow of information, entire colony ships were built in secret, allowing the hidden races to found their own homes amongst the stars. For the first time in an age, great Elvish cities, Ork strongholds and Dwarfish halls were built on worlds where no human had ever set foot. Thanks to the unique talents of the Pathfinders, these worlds were not easily accessible to outsiders, keeping them safe from discovery.

Soon a shadow nation was forged, surrounding and permeating the Alliance and later realms of Man.

The situation remained the same for many years, until the Fall of the Star League and the insanely of the Succession Wars. The other races remembered well what the war like nature of humanity could lead to, so they took control of the Spacer's Guild, less its secrets become known to outsiders. They oversaw the creation of the Twelve Guild Houses, and then formed the Thirteenth, House Evergreen, in honor of the Rangers who had for so long kept the peace.

The Spacer's Guild would do what it could to keep the light of civilisation burning, even amid the fires of war, and ensure that no-one stumbled upon the hidden worlds of the Elves, Orks and Dwarfs. And House Evergreen would keep watch over all, ensuring that the peace was maintained, no matter what it took, and that the secrets of the Pathfinders would not fall into the hands of those who would use it for their own ends.

The End