The guild model that RQ-2 sources talk about seems somewhat at odds with the rest of Sartar. I've started to think that it's more likely certain clans, or more precicely certain bloodlines within the clans would be the closest one gets to guilds.
There may well be a bloodline that mostly lives inside the city (along a certain street) and who do 90% of the skilled leather work in the city. In a city, and the surrounding areas it propably makes sense to trade for good shoes and saddles from these professionals, rather than making them yourselves.
In a similar way the cities make possible larger scale production that isn't feasible on the clan, or even tribe, level. Making significant amounts of parchment or candles, for instance.
As I understand it, the cities were an important part of income for the princes of Sartar. As warlords, I doubt their "revenue" directly from the 24 tribes of Sartar was all that significant.
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I've also been wondering on what sorts of troops the cities made possible. Were they the source of significan amounts of professional huscarls (parhaps in the form of Humakt temples and the like), cavalry, archers or parhaps all the above?
-Adept, who is going to have the lunar invasion of 1602 in his game pretty soon.
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