Any random schmuck can complete quests for the guild. But not anyone can become an official guild-member. Official guild-members get special perks that other freelance-adventurers do not get. These perks encompass, but are not limited to, things like:
- Limited Diplomatic Immunity: Guild-Members are given more legal authority than the usual freelance adventurer or regular person when interacting with political entities and individuals of note across their branch's jurisdictions, in order to complete certain vital missions to a satisfactory degree. As the Union of Sancstoryl Adventurer's Guilds has become incredibly useful across the world, the mistreatment of any Guild-Members over political reasons and the resulting fallout from the Guild is something that many rulers of countries often don't want to risk. However, this Diplomatic Immunity can be rescinded by official Guild Supervisors anytime, should a Guild Member misbehave or overstep to an unacceptable degree in their eyes. Such a rescission often will likely result in a suspension, temporary arrest and investigation from the Guild itself, and depending on the severity of the incidents, followed by dismissal and banishment from the Guild, and prosecution by the authorities. Generally, things work like this: Punishments for petty theft of potential evidence, roughing up an individual to get information, or even breaking into a private home as long as evidence is found may get waived. Robbing merchants meanwhile is off the table, while large amounts of destruction of property may get someone suspended, and so on. Misdemeanors and other crimes that are only subject to fines meanwhile will most likely only result in the Adventurer having to pay these fines out of pocket, if there was no good cause for causing them.
- Healing and Resurrection-Services: Even lower-ranked members have access to certain medical services at Guild-Houses and certain temples, that include certain healing magic and resurrection-spells for for discounted prices or even for free in certain circumstances, depending on the price of the spell. Often times, this are things like Lesser- and Greater Restorations, Curse-Removals, Antidotes, Disease-Curing, and even spells like Revivify, Raise Dead and scrolls of Gentle Repose. However, higher-level spells like Resurrection, Regenerate or True Resurrection aren't covered and often have to be paid for out of pocket.
- Teleportation-Circles: Official guild members may use the official Adventurer's Guild Teleportation-Circles. Most capital cities and quite a few smaller cities have at least one teleportation circle, in order to make travel for Guild-Members easier. Lower-tiered adventurers usually only have access to a selection of bigger cities and capital cities, and need to get to their destinations proper by foot or by paying for a carriage, but as adventurers rise in the ranks of the guild, they unlock more and more teleportation circles for use; even for use with the Teleportation Circle spell, should they have access to it.
- Library- and Archive-Access: The adventurers guild keeps an extensive archive on any notable subjects one could imagine, as well as collections of books that could be useful for more scholarly adventurers. Members with a wizardly background or those who simply are interested in knowledge and learning more may use the local guild libraries and archives to gather knowledge, although many books and files are restricted by rank.
Pawn Tier: Adventurers who just joined the ranks of the guild. They may not even have their own party name yet. Like freelancers, they're under particular scrutiny of the guild, and urged to be on their best behavior. It's quite common for pawns to get kicked out of the guild for misbehavior.
Rook Tier: Adventurers of this tier are starting to get more freedoms but also more difficult jobs. This is the tier where most members start getting assigned to jobs all over Liwilai, rather than just regional jobs.
Bishop Tier: Generally, adventurers within the Bishop-Tier are the most numerous types of officially sanctioned adventurers, to the point where people almost immediately think of bishop-ranked adventurers when they think of a typical guild-sanctioned adventurer. They also do the most typical and iconic adventuring jobs that people tend to think of, like dungeon delving, escort missions, mercenary work and the likes, more than any other tier.
Knight Tier: Most of the more seasoned adventurers in the Guild are within this Tier, though it is also generally seen as a bit of a dead-end tier, as this is also where most adventurers retire... or pass away. Knight-Tiered adventurers are often comparable to many countries' elite soldiers, and can deal with most threats; even the occasional extraplanar incident is generally considered perfect for Knight-Tiers to deal with, as long as it's only a minor incident.
Minister Tier: Named after an old chess piece that has since fallen out of use in favor of the Queen, the Minister-Tier is solidly between Queen-Tier and Knight-Tier, dealing with even more dangerous threats, like multiple adult dragons, and even though they usually are less well-versed with extraplanar threats than higher ranks, they sometimes help out as support in those regards.
Queen Tier: Queen-Tier adventurers are some of the strongest adventurers around, and are often famous and have their names well known within the areas where they frequently take on missions. It's also not unusual for Queen-ranked adventurers to start their own organizations that work under the banner of the Adventurer's Guild. Squads of Queen-tiered adventurers are amongst those that get assigned to deal with extraplanar threats the most. Most regional leadership positions are filled by Queen-tier adventurers, but often retire before going on to the last two highest tiers.
King Tier: The King-Tier is often considered the tier of near-perfection. Spellcasters often have access to incredibly powerful spells when they make it to this tier, while those more martially inclined can impress with their incredible strength. Nonetheless, there is still ways to become stronger... and chances to learn from mistakes. Adventurers who make it to the King-tier are extremely well respected, take on some of the most dangerous jobs that are known to the guild, deal with devastating threats regularly (with many dragon-hunters who are tasked to fight particularly agressive ancient dragons being King-Tiered) and are often made leaders of the adventurer's guild proper.
Emperor Tier: The highest tier that an adventurer in the guild can archive, without becoming a member of the Guild Leadership which, at least de-jure, is the highest tier. The Emperor-Tier is comprised of two or three handful of legendary adventurers all across Liwilai, who have gone beyond what nearly any mortal can archive, and are often heroes that deal with world-endings threats on the regular when they pop up; often, regular people don't even know the identities of any Emperor-tiered adventurers, as who exactly may be Emperor-tiered is made a secret by those within the ranks as to not compromise such important missions. Many Emperor-Tier adventurers often go beyond mere mortality if they do not die from old age, even when those that live on eventually enter semi-retirement to live in obscurity... nonetheless, they're often sought out if another world-ending threat rears its head.
Secondary Tiers:
Leadership Tier: A tier that exists outside the usual tiers, and is usually given as a secondary tier on top of a members' regular tier. They are responsible for the organization and the upkeep of the guild, across the entire world. The Leadership-Tier is separated into two tiers, the Silver-Stars, also known as "Continental Leaders", being the leadership of the continental guilds like the Liwilai Adventurer's Guild or Lagetia Adventurer's Guild, and the Gold-Stars, also known as "Union Leaders" who oversee all guilds on all known continents, which is pretty much reserved for the elected boards of the entire Union of Sancstoryl Adventurer's Guilds, who are adventurers that mostly retired from the adventuring life in favor of managing the guild itself on a global level. Each continental guild has at least several handful of Silver Stars managing it in a democratic manner.
Local Leadership Tier: Has an oval-shaped pin. A tier for the leaders organizers of local branches of the adventurers' guild and regional branches of the Adventurer's Guild, usually in capitals, important cities or near embassies. Members of the local leadership tier act as basically the regional managers of the adventurer's league. It's not uncommon for Local Leadership-Tiered members to become overarching Leadership-Tier members, responsible for a plethora of tasks within the headquarters of each continent.
Support Tier: Another supplemental tier that exists outside the usual tiers. This tier is given to members of the guild whose day-to-day activity doesn't consist of adventuring, doing jobs, being mercenaries or exploring, but rather the mundane activities in and out of guildhouses, like managing quests, cooking food for members that live in the guild bases, cleaning, financial management, bureaucracy, archival etc. Some Support-Tier ranked members even manage their own safehouses and exclusive resting spots for the Guild. While this rank can be combined with any other rank of the guild, and is often given to people who want to support the guild after retiring from adventuring proper, it's also awarded to regular people who are employed by the guild.
