The Missing Books

[00:00:01] The Thieves Guild, By Jake Care, Episode 57, The Missing Books. Despite his best efforts, Rafe could find no more books with maps. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds of books that he had yet to crack open, but all of the books that were of a larger size, or appeared

[00:00:36] that they would contain the type of pages to include a map where either on other subjects or were damaged, the number of damage books broke Rafe's heart. Over time it became clear that someone or some group had made a concerted effort to eradicate the entire history

[00:00:53] of Ness before the move from the old quarter to the current makeup of the city, even some of the books that covered the migration were damaged, and that led Rafe to focus on that important moment in Ness history. He narrowed down his immediate studies to three

[00:01:10] books, to heavily damaged. While the third was the book that was the longer history of Ness with the parts about the magic guild ripped out. Rafe's hope was that the book would contain valuable insight due to the senses assuming it had already been exercised

[00:01:27] of content they didn't like when they opened the book and saw pages missing. With each page, he realised his hope had borne fruit. The book, while far from going into great detail, laid out the causes of what it called the Great Migration. The initial cause was simple

[00:01:46] to understand the city had simply overfarmed the golden fields and turned them into the current ash fields, but the following chapters astonished Rafe. The initial idea of relocating only the harvest guild across the river was dismissed. The guilds felt that the city needed

[00:02:04] to sever itself from its trading past, and that meant abandoning the trade route, the magic guild tower, and killing the current harvest house. It was to be a clean break. Rafe went to the other two books and as he expected the only remaining pages in them discussed overfarming

[00:02:23] and the death of the golden fields. Turning back to the only book he had found with details of the city's history before its current settling north of the river, Rafe read closely.

[00:02:36] Rubbing his eyes Rafe looked out a window and was shocked to see that it was deep into the night. He had learned a lot about the move across the river, but the most important lesson was that

[00:02:47] the move was marked by a multi-year civil war between the various guilds. Harvest house was presumably made out of a living tree, and it was killed as a lesson to the harvest guild. The

[00:03:00] night tower was burned to the ground rebuilt in stone and then partially destroyed again. The gateway which was presumably a large gate south of the river that no longer existed was permanently closed.

[00:03:13] A smaller bridge across the Great River that was used by the harvest guild to start what was now the silo district was also destroyed. The whole wave of violence was shockingly familiar, the magic guild was eradicated and that led to the merchant guild and the craft guild

[00:03:33] joining forces to run nest. The night guild stood aside and the harvest guild was overrun that is exactly what is happening today, Rafe thought he stood up and went off in search of

[00:03:44] the deputy guild master. Allard was pacing in his office which was little more than a room with a bare desk and uncomfortable chairs. Rafe this is very important. How did this civil war end?

[00:03:57] There is not much. The harvest guild finally agreed to the wisdom of the move to the north of the river and everyone ended up happy. Rafe tried to think if he had missed anything but he was sure he

[00:04:09] had not. History is written by the victors. Allard muttered. What is that? Rafe asked, nothing. It is a saying of the outlanders. Allard sat down at his desk where he looked completely out of place. It is likely that the harvest guild stopped fighting in return for some guarantee

[00:04:29] of their standing otherwise today nest would be run by the merchant and craft guilds. That is true. Rafe scratched his head. They built a new harvest house that was probably a requirement as well. Yes, that makes sense. The harvest guild is powerful, Rafe. Do not forget

[00:04:46] that. They control the food for the entire city and they are the largest guild in terms of numbers. Rafe thought of the recent founders day guild master meeting. Maybe the requirement that if there are two votes against something, it would not pass was the guarantee

[00:05:02] that the harvest guild was looking for. Allard's eyes went wide. Of course, that is the key to everything. Two votes were what saved the harvest guild centuries ago and that is what saved them today.

[00:05:17] Allard ran his hand over his bald head. That means that the thieves guild was created solely to establish the peace for all these years, but why thieves? It is an odd choice for a symbolic

[00:05:28] guild to keep the peace. Allard looked at Rafe. Was there any mention of our guild? Rafe shook his head. None. There were mentions of the destruction of the magic guild, but nothing

[00:05:39] about the thieves. There is a missing piece. Allard stood up. You need to find it Rafe. I don't know what it will tell us, but it is important. Allard dismissed Rafe and Rafe returned to the library.

[00:05:53] He had considered going to bed as he was weary from hours of study, but Allard's comments gave Rafe pause. Rafe had been so interested in the history of Ness and finding maps and learning about

[00:06:06] everything that he didn't know that he had not spent any time looking for resources about his own guild. He didn't remember seeing any, so despite his weariness he started browsing the stacks. hours later and almost delirious with exhaustion Rafe could not believe the results of his search.

[00:06:25] He had combed every shelf and spine of every book. There was not a single volume about the thieves guild in the entire library.