Council of Guilds

Council of Guilds:
Disputes are moderated by the council of guilds, in which each guild acts like a political party in something like a parliment or congress. Alliances may be made to strengthen the position of the allied guilds on matters on which they agree. In a given place, each guild may designate one or more representatives to the council to speak on it's behalf, or if there is no representative designated, may be spoken for by any proven member. A guild's representative carries the weight of that guild's declared membership in that area compared to the other guilds on the council. For instance, a thief stealing in a town without an established thieves guild is entitled to speak for themselves with the weight of all other declared thieves, and call on alliances with other guilds that may affect the result of the dispute. The thieves guild may have made an alliance with the Golden Pillar, or Claws of Light, such that a proven member, caught stealing less than a meal worth of food, in a nonviolent way, with no possessions of value, should be pardoned; or the commerce guild when not stealing from a designated business or market; or the builders guild when not stealing from within a structure, etc. Given appropriate circumstances, they could then add these votes to those of thier own guild members like a congressional jury with those in dispute able to call on thier parties to back them. However if the thief is accused by a farmer, in a town where they are the only declared thief, in a population of mostly farmers, it would be quite the uphill battle without some sort of sympathetic ear. If most of those farmers were also members of the Golden Pillar, or Claws of Light though, and the thief were within bounds of the alliance, things might balance out quite differently.