ince the Sundering and the formation of the Shroud in ancient times, when the ability to move freely between the land of the living and the dead was lost, wraiths began to experiment with ways to affect the lands of the living as well as their own lands of the dead. As they experimented they discovered they could affect and manipulate objects, beings, and even the reality around them by utilizing part practical craft and part spiritual path. Thus the first Arcanos were created.

As the experimentation continued, the way wraiths passed on the knowledge varied from charging fellow wraiths for lessons, to forming secret societies and even cults centering on their arts. During the middle ages as Stygia reinvented itself to adopt the feudal system, the Arcanos society followed suit, organizing into Guilds. The Guilds combined social and economic structure and served as loose colleges of a sort, as well as grounds for dividing people up into social and political factions.

Several Guilds found themselves in a sort of symbiotic relationship with Stygia. They provided services to the Empire in exchange for status, power, and wealth. As the Guilds began to compete against each other and the feelings of antipathy grew, an unofficial conflict developed - known prosaically as the War of the Guilds. This Conflict lasted from 1096 to 1354, and while there certainly were never any open hostilities on the streets of the Isle during that time, a great many wraiths found their way to the Void because of the conflict.

In 1354, the Compact of Guilds was ratified which called for an end to the conflict among the Guilds and a Council was formed to adjudicate any further disagreements between Guilds. The Artificers, as the Eldest Guild, were granted leadership of the Compact and the Council.

The Council served to unify the Guilds as a political force. But change was coming; as Heretic and Renegade unrest grew, certain Guildmasters saw the situation as an opportunity to seize power from Charon’s obviously loosening grasp. On April 6, 1598, the Guilds, led by the Artificers, attempted a coup d’ etat. At the guilds disposal were the arts of every Arcanos known to wraithkind. Even the darksteel weapons of the Hierarchy were matched by arms the Artificers had been producing in secret.

The two sides were almost evenly matched and the battle that ensued was almost “too close to call.” But one by one each Guild retreated and the Hierarchy stood victorious. Charon, perhaps understandably, decided that entirely too much power was concentrated outside of his hands, and the Guilds provided a focal point for that power. He determined to remove that focal point and instated the decree that banished the Guilds: The Decree of the Breaking.

The Decree of the Breaking is a simple document. It states that the Guilds are outlawed in Stygian lands, that to belong to a Guild is a crime, that the Guilds were by Charon’s decree dissolved, and that Legionnaires would be instructed to take the place of the Guild members within Stygian society. In its own way, Charon’s decree was as preordained to fail as the coup. The disbanding of the Guilds had unfortunately alienated many existing freewraiths; driving some of them from Stygia into the distant Shadowlands and leaving others to wander discontented through the street of the Underworld’s capital. Charon moved to win back these disgruntled members of his Society, while the banished Guilds hamstrung his efforts to replace them. After a mere 20 years, Charon abandoned the experiment and reinstated “former” Guild members under the condition that they swore on Siclos that they had renounced the Guilds. However, the fiction that the Guilds were destroyed was maintained, and eventually the general populace of Stygia grew to believe it.

Since the Decree of the Breaking, the Hierarchy has incorporated wraiths with Arcanoi talents into the legions. Many previous guild members have been assimilated and now ply their skills under direct Stygian supervision. With the Guilds disbanded and freewraiths in hiding, many wraiths believe a certain amount of independence comes with beings able to use one’s powers openly, and with the backing of the government. Of course, Arcanoi have to be used according to the Hierarchy’s dictates, but an Overlord isn’t always around to make sure that those rules are obeyed.

Although the Guilds have ceased to exist openly as independent entities, they continue to secretly thrive even to this day. Not everyone in Hierarchy territory is a member of a Guild, and most wraiths in Stygian lands are firmly convinced the Guilds don’t exist. This makes life easier for members of the Guilds as they maintain their exclusive status, while preventing their activities from being examined too closely by neighbors on the lookout for the banned Guilds. It is tolerated and even expected in Charon’s empire that Stygian citizens should know an Arcanos or three, and mere knowledge of a Guilds specialty is no longer considered sufficient evidence to convict a wraith of Guild membership. After all, the Guilds were banished, and belonging to one technically makes one a Renegade. And no member of the Hierarchy is corrupt or breaks the laws…do they?