kate_nepveu | Bittercon panel: Thieves Guilds and Other Criminal Societies

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Last one; I really hadn't meant to spend my night doing this.

Thieves Guilds and Other Criminal Societies

The Thieves Guild is a common staple in fantasy novels. Terry Pratchett's Discworld books parody it; Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora critiques it; and Steven Brust's Taltos novels examine a more modern Mafia-style version. What's good, bad, interesting, boring, otherwise worth talking about when it comes to this idea?

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From:

shsilver.livejournal.com

Off hand, the earliest Thieves' Guild references I can think of would be in Lankhmar, where our (anti-)heros are constantly getting into trouble because they are not members of the guild.

This was, of course, picked up by Gary Gygax when creating Dungeons and Dragons, which may be a major reason for the use of Thieves' Guilds in modern fantasy.

From:

papersky.livejournal.com

I once read some RPG thing which began, approximately, from memory: "Guilds. Now you're probably most familiar with the idea of a Thieves Guild, but in fact other professions had guilds too..."

From:

kate_nepveu

Ah, thank you; I wasn't sure that the idea could be traced that specifically.

How is the guild depicted as an organization in Lankhmar?

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