Date: Saturday, April 28, 2001 2:48 PM Subject: Excerpt from letter I wrote to Stephen

I thought y'all might want to read this, since your characters would know it.

- KtG

Trivia-wise: First year apprentices are also called "Initiates". Second year students are just called "Apprentices", and Third year students are called "Senior Apprentices." This mirrors somewhat the Journeymen rankings... brand new Journeymen are called "Novice Journeymen" or "Novices". After a brief probationary period (about 90 days) the local Guild office officially invites them to join the Guild Circle and take part in making decisions in running the Guild. At this point they are called "Journeymen". Sometimes an experienced Journeyman gets so involved in the day to day operations of the Guild that the Guild Masters elevate him to the rank of "Senior Journeyman", as a symbol of his increased authority over Guild resources. Senior Journeymen, unlike Masters, cannot order other Journeymen to do things... they have to rely on the respect of their peers to get anything done. Fortunately, by the time they achive Senior rank they tend to have considerable influence. The highest ranks (Masters) have two separate gauntlets to work through to achieve their exalted status... they must not only receive nearly unanimous support of all the current Masters, but they must also survive some truly impossible trials. Fewer than 1 Master is promoted every 5 years.

It's possible to figure out a person's rank just by looking at them. Initiates wear a red leather belt, with a badge of the person who is responsible for them (usually the Senior Journeyman or Master who sponsored their apprenticeship... typically the Dean of their College or Master of their Order). Oh.. it sounds tricky at first, but it only takes a few days to recognise the different badges of the various Guild bigshots... after that, if you see a Master's badge on some newbie kid, you know what you're looking at his Apprentice. Initiates (first year Apprentices) also wear a white badge of a unicorn on their breast, a symbol of their relative innocence. Ripping that badge off is the first order of business when classes are promoted in the fall.

Apprentices (second year students) wear the same red belt with its sponsor's badge, but no symbol on the breast. Senior Apprentices take their red belts and apply a thin gold edging.

When a Guild Member completes Apprenticeship, he or she is given a very distinctive patchwork cloak. Each cloak is handmade by ALL the local active Journeymen, each of whom supplies a patch from one of their own garments. A patch may be transferred from cloak to cloak for many years. Many patches have tiny marks representing previous owners. Colors vary, but are always in the classic Ranger colors... browns and blues and lots of different shades of green. Invariably, Journeymen wearing them are almost impossible to see amongst any kind of ground cover, as long as they hold still.

The cloak clasp is made of mithril, and is in the likeness of the Guild badge (portcullis on a blue background). Each clasp is handmade for the wearer, and has their arms on the back. Senior Journeymen have a gold embattlement around the edge of the badge.

Gone is the red belt. Journeymen can wear any kind of belt as a replacement, but almost always wear their own device as a badge upon it.

Masters wear the same Journeyman's Cloak. They wear a cloak clasp made of gold, and when they sit in formal meetings they wear a Collar of S's with the Guild device hanging like a medal. Their own personal arms are always surrounded by gold embattlements. Aside from the rather distinctive golden cloak hardware, there is little to distinguish Masters going about their day to day work.... in fact, without the cloak it's unlikely that non-Guild Members would be able to spot them. Sometimes they will don a gold-dyed leather baldric (belt worn diagnolly from shoulder to hip) when they are in the field and need people to be able to recognize them.

When elevated to Journeyman, the former Apprentice receives two more items. First is a leather pouch, bearing the Guild's device. Second is a masterwork quarterstaff... a dark blue in color. Again, for a Senior Journeyman the shoulder pouch has the Guild symbol outlined in gold, and their masterwork quarterstaff has a fine gilt pattern on top of the blue varnish. Masters have a pouch with the gold-embattled Guild arms thing going on, and an incredibly ornate handcarved quarterstaff, masterwork or better.