Thieves' Guild

Within any group of individuals, there is a certain member which listens. One that shares no emotion, yet gathers information about the realm and stores the tidbits back within their recesses for later use.

At the same time, they have the ability to steal within the shadows of the night, keep away from people when they want, and deal revenge in bitter-sweet terms to enemies that have announced themselves.

An Astarian Thief is this, yet is one that can walk the realm as a true elite, being a member of one of the most sanctimonious societies within Astaria's walls. These are the hallowed halls, with their secrets, their successes, and their assassins.

The guild, of course, does not exist. Search it out at your peril.

- Anonymous

Overview

One of the original core guilds launched in Astaria's first age, (also referred to as A1) the thieves have the most history, tradition, and formality of any of the guilds found within the realm.

The thief guild is very strongly not recommended for new players. From the minute a new thief joins, they are expected to be aware and observant of a strict hierarchy, semi-formalized etiquette, and a number of restrictions on behavior. Lower level thieves are expected, as the saying goes, to be seen and not heard -- though it is preferable that they aren't seen, either. While it is generally expected that new players will have a great many questions for their guildmates in the realm, the thieves frown on such endless grilling: professionalism and expertise are expected at all times. Admission of being a newbie (by, say, asking any question whatsoever) will be met with hostile insults, desires for your death, and (impolite) requests for your suicide and not rejoining the guild. This is asked because anonymity is a Thief's first defense against reprisals from aggrieved players. Simply put, the opportunity and means to commit crime in the Thieves' Guild is rampant, and asking how to swindle another Thief's friends will not earn you any brownie points or gold stars.

Unlike any other guild, the thieves have a policy strictly regulating the sharing of guild information. While there are exceptions, it can generally be assumed that any information obtained on the thief guild communications channels, within the thief guild hall, out of the thief guild's tome, or passed verbally from thief to thief is not to be shared under any circumstances with any other non-thief, even if that non-thief should be a friend, clanmate, or even clan overlord. Failure to observe this policy can and does result in death, and deaths inflicted for this reason will not generally be considered by the wizardry as being a valid basis for a harassment claim.

Mechanics

Gear restrictions

Thieves are generally limited to light armor, that made of leather or scale or its equivalent, and derive little or no benefit from the wearing of spellcaster robes when they can be equipped at all. They may wield the majority of ranged weapons and one-handed melee weapons, including daggers, swords, whips, clubs, bows, crossbows, and the like.

Play style

Although the dodge trick allows a thief some latitude in standing toe-to-toe in combat, a thief is most generally characterized as a speed-based avoidant melee fighter whose greatest defensive asset is the ability to evade damage rather than absorbing it. The confuse and blind tricks both directly inhibit an enemy's ability to score damaging blows, while the sneak trick allows a thief to leave combat without being pursued after scoring an especially damaging strike, in a technique known as shadowboxing. Used in conjunction with the capsule trick, this allows thieves to fight even multiple opponents with somewhat of a degree of efficiency.

Miscellany

Due in part to being one of the original guilds in Astaria, thieves have been the subject of a number of updates to their code, mechanics, and balance. As of March 2010 they were in the process of a significant re-code, though it is unclear when this will be finished. Kalder has stated that this recode wa approximately half-finished but has been put on indefinite hold due to the ongoing work on AROA, the new "A4" mudlib.

See also:

• Thief Skills
• Thief-specific items