The Guild of Millers and Millwrights are one of the most important guilds in western Lythia and have a defacto monopoly on the ownership of mills and milling. The masters millers are well respected and often wealthy members of their local communities, and have a good degree of influence with the Mangai due to their milling partnerships, strong guild and communal links and the influence that they have over the staple crops, spices, and mineral ores of Hârn.

Urban Mills are located in the chartered towns and larger villages of Hârn. Given the size of the population centres, multiple franchises are likely, as each franchise is limited to either cereal milling and baking or spice supply and double mills are not allowed. Even with the restrictions, urban franchises tend to be more profitable than rural franchises, as the fief holder has to enforce quern licences on the local populace. This means that the volume of trade is significantly higher at urban franchises, and easily offsets the slightly higher rents the master has to pay to the fief holder.

Rural mills are the manorial franchises of Hârn, and about 40% of all manors have a mill. Unlike urban franchises, they are not limited to only one product, and double or even one or two triple mills are known. Indeed, a rural franchise may even be granted an industrial franchise as well. For this reason, rural mill franchises tend to be bigger operations than the urban mills, and the miller is often one of the principal freemen and employers on an estate. However, despite the range of industry, a rural franchise is not as profitable as an urban one as a rural franchise does not always benefit from quern licensing.

There are four types of industrial franchise on Hârn – fulling, crushing mills, polishing and forge mills – and they are the partnership franchises of the Millers' Guild. Of the four, fulling mills are by far the most common, and are run in partnership with the Clothiers Guild. The second most common are the crushing mills run in partnership with the Miners' Guild. Lastly are the two quite rare polishing and forge mills that are run in partnership with the Weaponcrafter and Metalsmiths' Guild respectively. As such, the industrial mill is almost always located at or near the establishment of the partner guild, with the partner guild being the senior partner. In fact, the industrial franchises are granted primarily so that the control of the milling technology remains with the Millers' Guild.

=== MILLERS MEASURE'S ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"

| class="unsortable" align="left"| Wey / Load

| 320 Gallons

| align="left"|Chaldron

| align="right"|288 Gallons

| Tun

| 216 Gallons

| Butt

| 108 Gallons

| Seam/ Quarter

| 64 Gallons

| Coomb

| 32 Gallons

| Sack/Bag

| 24 Gallons

| Strike/Barrel

| 16 Gallons

| Bushel

| 8 Gallons

| Bucket

| 4 Gallons

| Peck

| 2 Gallons

| Gallon

| 1 Gallon

| Quart

| ¹/₄ Gallon

| Pint / Ingot

| ¹/₈ Gallon

{| class="wikitable sortable"

Although there are many specialties within the Guild of Millers and Millwrights, the two main classifications are the Miller and the Millwright. About 90 per cent of the guild members are millers in some form while the remaining number are the millwrights, the milling engineers.

The miller is the manager of the mill. He his responsible for the day-to-day operations, and is skilled in the techniques needed to produce a fine milled product, be it flour, malt or fulled cloth. The miller is knowledgeable of the products he produces, and is usually a dab-hand at the general maintenance the mill requires.

Once attaining the rank of master, a miller becomes quite settled, commonly remaining in the same community until his days are over. Indeed, since the mill is a major focus of the community, the miller becomes a central figure in the daily life of the settlement. He'll know everyone and everyone's business, or at least have a pretty good idea. The miller will generally be well respected and, so long as his product is decent enough, well liked – although some will likely be jealous of his relative wealth.

The Millwright is an important guild specialty. These are the mill engineers, and the true custodians of the milling technology. They are familiar with the construction, operation and maintenance of large machinery and will have some understanding of heavy equipment like drawbridges, derricks, gates and the like.

Unlike the master miller, the master millwright's skills are widely sought and possessed by few, so the millwright's life is much more travelled than even a journeyman miller. He will often move from community to community to oversee the building of a new mill or water-wheel here and the clearing of a mill race there. The recent introduction of forge mills, as well as the still fairly new fulling mills has meant that the millwright is still strongly in demand despite grain mills being almost ubiquitous.

While the two occupations – miller and millwright – are quite different in their day-to-day roles, they are both very much a part of the same guild. Progress to either master miller or master millwright starts out the same way – as an apprentice miller. Once learning the basics as an apprentice, the guild member becomes a journeyman and, depending on aptitude, can at that time look to be a miller, or to specialise as a millwright. Once a master, the miller or the millwright has an equal say in the operations of the guild, and both can rely on the guild's full support and consideration.

GMs and Players who wish to use or play a miller or millwright might wish to consider the following modifications to the Character Generation process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

These changes give the miller and millwright a better representation of their skills. Millers will know something of the business of their customers – brewers, farmers, or clothiers – and also reflect their position at the heart of the community. Millwrights are less practiced in the day-to-day milling, but they are now more capable of carrying out the major repairs and fine maintenance that the mill requires – although not as expertly as a woodcrafter or mason.

Depending on the type of game being run, millers and millwrights offer interesting character types to play, though they do face certain restrictions.

The millers' career does look to a future as a master miller who settles in a single community. Adventuring would tend to be limited – especially during their busy harvest season – but would be possible in the early summer. However, the journeyman role would be quite suitable, as the journeyman moves from community to community to learn his trade, and new tales could unfold in each community. Millers who are no longer a part of the guild would still possess many useful skills upon which they could make a living, and their abilities at Rhetoric and Intrigue make them useful in trading campaigns and court politics.

Millwrights are eminently suitable for adventuring. While work will get in the way every now and then, their travelled lifestyle will fit with many parties. They also possess a number of useful skills for a group – like Lockcraft and Engineering – and all legitimately obtained.

The Millers and Millwrights are one of the most widespread and wealthiest guilds across civilised Hârn and enjoy a de facto monopoly on the milling process. The guild maintains that position because of the technical nature of the mill, the fact that the guild itself owns all its mills - leasing them to the local bonded masters - and by having an agreement with the Mason's Guild that only the Millers may buy millstones. They have also, through agreement with the ruling classes, managed to limit the competition of querns. The strong partnership links that they have with the Clothiers, Miners, Weaponcrafter and Metalworkers Guilds means that they also have a good deal of influence in the Halls of the Mangai. More, since they are not just urban but are spread across manorial settlements and mine-heads as well, their influence is widespread and at a grassroots level.

Like most guilds across Hârn, Millers are not a single guild, but a union of the regional guilds each of which is organised along similar lines. At the basic level is the Shire or Provincial Guild, composed of all the Millers within the shire or province, and almost always centred on the local capital or moot. Thus, Kanday has seven guilds, based in Avertu, Chison, Imiden, Kedis, Quivum, Torthen and exceptionally, Aleath, while Rethem has only three guilds. Tharda, unusually has only one guild for the entire republic.

Although the number of masters on the guild council will vary from guild to guild, the Council of Masters for each guild are selected by a vote of the local masters, who then select a Guild master from amongst themselves. Once selected, a master remains on the council until he either resigns or is voted of the Council by the Council itself. This creates long tenures which helps to reinforce the strong relationships with shire or provincial overlords.

The Council meets regularly, usually once a month, to discuss new milling applications, finances, policy and hear disputes. Disputes are rare, and usually involve millers operating outside their licence or shoddy production quality. Disputes involving quern licences are taken to the moot or provincial court, assuming they cannot be sorted out before hand. The Guild master himself has many duties too. As well as levying fees and fines, he acts as the guild's representative for disputes involving partnerships, travels as the guild's representative to any special national or Hârnic guild meeting and, finally, has the deciding vote in case of council deadlocks.

Interestingly, while the Millers have a large investment in mills, they usually do not have their own guildhall, and instead often share fine halls with other guilds or use those provided by the Mangai.

Like most guilds, the Millers and Millwrights operate a hierarchical structure. At the top are the Guild master and the Council of Masters. Then, the Master Millers, who are bonded to the guild. Below them, the Journeymen, skilled millers who transfer from master to master to gain a broader knowledge of the millers' products and, lastly, the lowly apprentices, who make up about three-quarters of the guild.

Due to the local nature of the Millers and Millwrights Guild, admission is often a case of personal connections. While a given Mill does tend to employ a fair number of individuals, the control of the milling skills and the understanding of the mill workings are of paramount importance. Thus, mill apprentices are a usually close family relative, such as a son or daughter, nephew or niece. In some cases, a miller might agree to take on the son or daughter of a close friend in exchange for a fee or favour, but it is unheard of for a miller to apprentice someone he or she has not known for many years.

Once taken on, the apprentice is taught the millers' skills. The study starts with the ancillary tasks such as baking, spice milling or tentering. As the apprentice gains in experience, they will be taught the basic controls of the mill, and learn about the grading process. Experienced apprentices will also be allowed to work the "front" of the mill and dealing with the mills clients.

During the harvest season, all hands turn to the task of threshing grain and the apprentices will spend long days hard at the task. If apprenticed at a mining mill, the apprentices swap harvest threshing for the almost year-round, backbreaking task of breaking up the large pieces of ore with mattocks. In all, apprentice labours are hard.

An older local miller has managed to get his only child, a beautiful young daughter, apprenticed at a mill across the shire. He has done this to get her away from a young lad who desperately wants to marry her (and she him). Because the miller is too infirm to travel, the players have been hired to escort his daughter – there are brigands about after all – to the distant mill.

After at least five years apprenticing, a qualified miller is given his journeyman papers. His master takes him to the next Council meeting for confirmation and to apply for a transfer. The Council then looks to send the journeyman to the same type of mill where the journeyman will work as an assistant miller. Then, after about a year, and each year thereafter, the miller moves to a different type of mill.

Usually, the family-based nature of the Guild and the fairly local nature of the transfers, means a journeyman will find that working conditions, while hard, are never really unpleasant. The exception is if a journeyman wishes to move to a different shire. While his request is usually granted with the agreement of the other Council, he will often face a few more years as a journeyman before advancement, and some concern as to why he wished to move shires in the first place. In some rare cases, such a move could even stop any further guild advancement at all.

After at least nine years in the guild (more if the applicant changed shires) and with at least four Masters' notarised approval, an application for Master can be submitted to the Guild Council. Master Millwrights then gain their papers pretty quickly. For Millers, the promotion application is then "Listed" in application order, and becomes effective once those on the list ahead of the applicant have been placed, and a mill franchise is available – wherever in the shire that might be! The process is however not strictly ordered, as more "generous" applicants are often moved up the List, and those applicants who would look to take over their family's operation are granted precedence. Wherever the placing, the job is always as a bonded master, as no miller ever owns his own mill.

Miller franchises are owned by the Millers' Guild and operated by a bonded master. Obtaining a new franchise is hard as the guild will not allow non-members to organise the building of a new mill, and those who have tried have found that the Masons' guild will not supply suitable millstones to non-guild members.

When an existing franchise becomes available through the death, retirement or disbarring of the existing master, the guild will offer the mill to the next deserving candidate on the Master's List. Mostly, this means that the mill goes to the journeyman with the longest tenure on the list, but the son of the deceased miller, or a generous candidate may often jump the list, although the generosity required is rarely less than £20 and some gifts of £50 have failed to secure a posting if the mill site is lucrative.

The construction of new mills is also based on a List. To obtain a new mill, application is made to Council either by a noble or the Guild master of a partner guild. As for masters, mill applications are on a first-come-first served basis. However, since the List is private, and only seen by Council, there is a fair amount of abuse. Generally, Partnership applications are given the highest priority, and are built as soon as funds are available, as that benefits the Millers' working relationships. Applications by a noble are often reassessed with higher ranking nobles enjoying a privileged assessment. Indeed, it is not unknown for a lesser noble's application to languish until a suitable level of "generosity" is noted. Lastly, applications for additional rural mills where the 1800 acre limit rule (see regulations) is in breach are treated with some urgency as the guild effectively loses revenue until the additional mill is built.

If the players are rebuilding a deserted manor, they may want to have a mill built. As well as arranging the building, they will also have to travel to the Council meetings to make representations to get on the list. Of course other lords, eager for their own mill, will try to thwart them, and the Council may require a bit of financial lubrication.

Although the List system is the basis for the guild decisions, the opportunity for graft is high. Indeed, gifts are the lifeblood of the Guild, and the profitability of the operation – a master miller will usually average over £4 profit per annum – means that there are always those who will pay up.

When a journeyman becomes a bonded master he takes on a significant burden of regulations, financial concerns and community responsibility. The burden is there because if the mill fails, the community as a whole suffers the loss.

The principle income for the mill is the toll or multure. The toll is the fee paid by the mill's customers for the produce, be it grain, spice or crushed ore. Typically, the toll is 5 to 15% of the value – or if a value is unknown – volume of the milled goods. The most common practice though is for the miller to keep a tenth of what he mills

Toll collection is in kind, so if a miller mills flour, he will keep on average a tenth of the flour. However, in some instances the retention of the goods provides no value to the miller, such as when the goods worked are ores or fulled cloth. These goods are commonly produced as part of a partnership arrangement, so the miller will receive his payment when his partner finally sells the goods. Thus, when the iron mine sells a load of smelted iron, the miller, smelter and the miners will each receive a payment.

Depending on the goods kept as part of the toll, and the needs of the local community, the miller will sell on what he kept, or use it to produce other finished goods. Thus, the miller might sell the flour he produces, or he might use the flour to bake bread and then sell the bread. Therefore, the miller is captive to the whims of the market.

A miller who runs an industrial mill franchise believes that the master miner is cheating him out of his rightful share of the income. He has hired the players to discretely investigate if his suspicions are correct. Little do the miller or players know that the miner has been paying an unscrupulous knight who has been threatening the miner's family.

Millwrights do not receive a toll. Since the tasks they perform are more ad hoc, either the miller or the guild usually pays them a fee income per job. In some instances, they are hired by lords to fix drawbridges or the harbourmaster to fix a derrick, but the pay is still fee-based.

Out of the profits that the miller gets from using the mill, he must pay a license fee or rental to the Miller's guild, and taxes to his local lord.

The license fee for a mill is typically between £2 and £4 per annum, with most costing around £3 per annum. Moreover, the rental is due in cash not kind, although some exceptions are made for remote or small grain milling operations. To give the master miller the opportunity to raise the funds necessary to pay the rental, the payment for a given harvest season is due by the end of following spring.

Out of the rental, the miller will face taxes. On a rural milling operation, the taxes are set at a flat fee of £1 or 240d. The exception this is when the manorial estate is larger than the rural mills 1800 acre catchment limit. Normally, the landlord must apply for a second mill – from which he would receive a further 240d fee, but it is not always practicable. Instead, the tax on the single mill is levied as 240d for the first 1800 acres, and 1d for every 10 acres over that, up to a maximum of 160d.

For Urban and industrial mills franchises, the levy is 240d to the landlord – unless it is a Freetown. Urban mills, and those industrial mills in town, face a further business property tax of around 5-6% and must also pay their share of the town's Aid levied by the King for defence.

Millers' Guild regulations are quite strict on the technicalities of the mill operation, but less so on pricing and the day-to-day operations, much of which is dependant on local conditions.

The principal regulation of the guild is that of ownership of millstones. Millstones are defined as the stones used for the milling process and that are 2 feet or more in diameter. Quern-stones are those stones that are less than 2 feet in diameter. These sizes are enforced by both the Millers' guild and the Masons' guild. Only a master miller may order the purchase of a millstone, and he may only do so with the written consent of the Millers' guild. Quern stones may be bought by anyone in possession of a valid Quern license, where quern licensing is in effect.

Additional regulations apply to the range of goods a miller may provide. Urban and Rural mills may apply to Council to mill any of the various cereal, nut and spice crops, but may only provide the goods if they are entitled to do so under their franchise agreement. For Rural mills, getting the franchise altered is often simply the case of requesting the "Right of Production" at an upcoming Council meeting. By their nature, Urban mills face much tighter controls on obtaining a new "Right of Production" and are usually limited to either cereals, or herbs, spices, nuts and oils. Industrial franchises are granted for the production of dyes, fulling, iron-working, crushing mineral ores, or, in some instances, large-scale herb, spice, nut and oil operations. Industrial franchises are also usually limited to one industry only and only one "Right of Production" is given – although in some rare instances, multiple Industrial franchises are permitted. Each industrial mill is operated in conjunction with a partner guild, for example, the Clothiers for dyes and fulling and Metalworkers for iron-working. Some Urban and Rural mills may obtain an Industrial franchise at more remote sites.

Regulations also apply to the quality of the goods milled by the miller. If a miller is found to be producing sub-standard output, he can easily lose his franchise. One of the most common issues occurs when the millstones are either very new or very old, and the size of the stone dust present in the milled goods is excessive.

Finally, rural mills are usually restricted to milling the produce for up to 1800 cleared acres only. If a manorial estate is larger, then application should be made for a second mill. In practice though, the franchise is often permitted to accept the grain from the additional acreage, but with a reduced tax payable to the landlord.

A Shire Miller's Guild has been beset with complaints of serious licence infractions and complaints of shoddy produce. The Council has therefore decided to carry out an exacting review of all the guild mill franchises. The players have been hired to escort the two master millers who are carrying out the inspections. Of course the disgruntled mill operators are not happy with the inspections, and violence and secrecy may well be rife.

Three types of miller exist outside the normal guild structures, spicers, dyers, and hand-millers. To escape the restrictions of the Millers' guild, they are limited to using hand querns only. Spicers provide milled spice and nuts for general consumption. Dyers provide dyes to the Clothier's guild, whilst hand-millers provide ground cereals for private consumption and limited general distribution.

Spicers are the purveyors of ground spices and nuts on Hârn. However, the dearth of native spices on Hârn means that spices are generally the reserve of the nobility and the rich, and it is quite unheard of for a lowly serf to consider buying an exotic spice. Moreover, given the exacting knowledge required, spicers may not sell ground herbs to the general public unless they are also a member of the Apothecaries' Guild, thus limiting the products that they can sell. For these reasons, spicers are typically located in urban centres or the larger central manorial settlements where they have access to a decent-sized market. Given the limitation on the sale of herbs, many spicers do try to become members of the Apothecaries Guild, although the rigours of guild entry mean that the majority just act as processors for local apothecaries.

Effectively, spicers run a small milling operation under license allowing them to mill spices and nuts for general consumption. The license allows the use of querns up to 2 feet in diameter, and they may only be powered by hand. The license also allows the spicer to operate as many querns as he needs, often four or five depending on the range of products milled, although a fee is usually charged per quern operated. As well as the hand-querns, many spicer's use large mortars and pestles, which, incidentally, do not fall under the quern license.

A spicer's main products the domestic Hârn nuts and spices - black mustard, white mustard, caraway, chestnuts, hazelnuts and the recently introduced saffron (made from the saffron crocus) – with mustard making up about 80 per cent of the spices sold. However, trade with Lythia has meant that other spices, most notably black and white pepper, cinnamon, cumin, ginger and paprika are available in limited quantities, and it is these prized spices that can make a spicer quite wealthy.

The player's liege lord has heard of the new spice saffron that a few spicers in Thay have started to sell. He instructs the party to venture to the city to obtain some of this rare and exotic spice.

Dyes have long been produced on Hârn. However, crushing or pressing the various plants and minerals that makes the majority of dyes means milling. Given the legal restrictions placed on the use of millstones and querns, it did not take long for a class of dye-makers to arise, although their skills range from the professional dyers to the part-time local manorial dyers who provide only simple dyes.

Generally, dyers are associates of the Clothier's guild who have obtained a license to use a quern for the express purpose of crushing the various materials to obtain the oils, juices and powders necessary to make dyes. They usually work with the Guild as dye providers, but as they do not make any of the cloth that they dye, they are not required to be members of the Clothiers' guild. In many cases, however, the dyers are members of the Guild so that they can also work with the dyed cloth when they are finished.

The large-scale professional dyers are fast becoming a skilled class. The restriction on the use of hand-querns has mean that the payment of the license fee has necessitated a focussed approach to generating revenue to pay the fees. To do that, the dyers have refined and developed the skills of dye making, and as a result, various new dyes and colours have been produced.

The King wants a new cloak for his birthday, and he has instructed the local clothiers and dyers to come up with something magnificent. One dyer has hired the players to venture into the remotest part of the local mountains to obtain 40 pounds of the near legendary Blue Scale Lichen, from which he hopes to make a new exotic indigo dye. Gargun and employees of rival dye-makers will make the task that little bit harder.

The quern license has also assisted the Clothier's Guild. The Guild has long suffered abuse of its guild monopoly, as many make their own clothes. However, the enforcement of the quern license has meant that the best dyes now come from a regulated source, and the clothiers have quickly moved to become the principal buyers. The dyers get a good price for their dyes, and the clothiers strengthen their monopoly on high quality clothing.

The third category of non-guild millers are the hand-millers, and they account for two-third of all milling on Hârn, or on average about a fifth of all milling on manors with mills. Hand-millers are bound by the milling soke, and obtain a quern license to milling cereal for private or limited manorial consumption. There are often three or four handmillers on a manor with a mill, and a few more on estates without a local mill.

Hand-millers produce rough milled meal and flour, and the quality of their product is highly variable. They are only allowed to sell their produce to the public if there isn't a mill within half a days walk, and even then they are only not supposed to sell more than a pint a day to any one household (about 1 pound of meal or 3/4 pound of flour).

The local mill is a lucrative source of cash to the guild and to the local nobility. It becomes more profitable if there is no milling competition, and the mill carries out all milling on the estate. To restrict the competition, quern licensing has become common practice across civilised Hârn, although the enforcement of licenses is highly variable.

A quern license grants a freeman who is not a member of the Millers' Guild the right to own and use a hand-quern. Usually, the license restricts the use of that hand-quern to one purpose, for example cereal milling, and the license is forfeit if any other product is milled. The license is obtained by grant of the local lord upon a successful application, although success is far from guaranteed.

Quern licenses for cereals can be quite lucrative to the freeman. For example, a license to mill flour usually brings in between 20d to 30d in kind a month, so license fees tend to be quite high – often as much as 120d a year, although the 60d is more common. Licenses for dyers and spicers are higher still, and are between 130d to 180d per year.

Despite licensing, many querns operate illegally – mostly for cereal milling – and many cottars and serfs who hide small querns in covered pits in the floor of their homes. The penalties for illegal use can be quite high, although the common penalty is a 120d fine and confiscation of the quern. There is a tale of one Rethemi baron who had the floor of his great hall paved with the confiscated querns, and under each stone is the hand of the offending user.

A ruthless knight's mill is not as profitable as he would wish, and so he has hired the players to assist his yeomen in enforcing his new quern licence decree. He wants all his tenants to hand in their querns, but the locals are not too happy with this edict, and resistance is growing.

The Millers' Guild is central to the economies of civilized Hârn. They are the middlemen for many of the key commodities for everyday life, and many other guild's benefit significantly from the Millers' trade, either as partners, suppliers or customers.

The Clothiers' Guild is one of the largest guilds on Hârn, and they have significant control over the production of cloth, fabric, and clothing. A master clothier is an expert tailor, weaver, glover and haberdasher, although there is a fair amount of specialisation.

A master clothier will work with the miller in many ways. The most common is the supply of various cloth sieves to dehusk meal, or reduce coarse grain to flour by sifting. The manufacture of the cloth sieves takes some skill to ensure that the weave of the cloth is fine enough to allow either the meal or flour through, but not the husk or milled grain, and such sieves can cost as much as 100d.

The second most important relationship between the miller and the clothier is in respect of fulling. Although it is possible to full wool cloth by hand, the process was dramatically improved with the introduction of fulling mills in 637 TR. Output of fulled wool, or felt, was increased eightfold, and within eighty years fulling mills have spread across Hârn, with many old corn mills being converted or modified for the purpose. Many travellers across Hârn will be familiar with the tentering frames that have now sprung up outside many mills upon which the new felt is stretched.

Lastly, the Clothiers' Guild looks to the millers and dyers – and of course apothecaries - for the provision of fine dyes for use in colouring cloth. Although the apothecaries supply most of the dyes used, the new and unusual colours supplied by the dyers have found a ready and interested market, and many millers have a few querns set aside to prepare dye.

A miller in Orbaal is reputed to make the finest flour in Hârn. The players have been hired by the local miller to travel to Orbaal and find out how the miller makes such fine flour. It is thought it is because his sieve is so fine, and the players have been instructed to obtain the sieve at all costs. Of course the local Orbaalese would not be keen to see the quality of their flour affected, and will do what they can to stop the players. They might find the Orbaalese clothier might have more sieve cloth though.

The Hideworkers have a strong monopoly in the curing or tanning of a wide variety of hides. A vital ingredient in their trade is animal – and sometimes human – urine which is used in the tanning process. Urine is also a key ingredient in the manufacture of fulled cloth and the increase in the number of fulling mills has lead to a growing interaction between the guilds to share the urine collection and storage methods. In fact, in a few communities, the miller's need for urine outstrips that of the local hideworker, and so the two guilds have built a good relationship to improve the collection of this vital commodity.

The Masons' Guild is one of Hârn's most respected guilds, and they have a complete monopoly over the quarrying, cutting and dressing of stone. The most important and expensive components in the mill are the millstones, so as a result the relationship between the Masons and Millers is vital. Millers have always supported the Masons' monopoly, and as a result, the Masons have always ensured that millstones are only sold to Millers' guild members in good standing.

The players have been sent to pick up a new millstone, but there are others who would like to get the millstone for themselves – it is made from a very rare piece of lava-stone after all.

The millers generally don't have a great deal of interaction with the Mercantylers' Guild, except for the transportation of certain scare or unique products, and – more importantly – for guild business. One of the major concerns of the Miller's guild is that they are often involved in the transport of very valuable millstones, and of course the annual payments of franchise fees. Millers rely on the Mercantylers for these critical transfers. Usually, the Millers will arrange that their transportation needs align with the major caravans run by the mercantylers to gain the best overall protection.

Spring has arrived, and the players have been asked by their liege to escort the local miller as he takes his annual fee in to the guild. The fee would be rich pickings for local brigands, so the players need to be alert.

The Metalworkers' Guild enjoys a monopoly over all metalworking except weapon crafting and coin making, while the Weaponcrafters have a monopoly over the design and manufacture of weaponry – minting is the preserve of the jewellers. Masters in the two guilds are usually either bonded to a noble household, work as free masters in their own workshops in towns, or in the case of metalworkers, as the local village smiths.

However, central to both guilds is iron working and steel making, and that requires a furnace that can reach about 500°C. To achieve such a temperature the furnace requires a strong continuous airflow – typically for over two and a half to three hours at a time. The continuous airflow is normally achieved using a pair of bellows pumped in sequence or a special double bellows and until recently they were all hand-pumped. However, the fairly recent introduction of mill-powered bellows has dramatically transformed the process. In fact the increase in productivity and the reduction of costs has lead the guilds to eagerly press for the development of further forge mills

Millers also interact with the Metalworkers and Weaponcrafters in the provision of polishing mills. The recently introduced polishing mills harness either animal or water power to run a special mill construct used to intensively polish and clean the pieces of plate-ware, cups, swords, and armour that the metal workers make. The sheen obtained is far superior to simple hand-polishing, and has proved to be popular with the nobility and the rich. Polishing mills are still quite uncommon, and only a handful exist on Hârn.

The management of the either type of mill is similar to the set-up with the Clothiers' guild and fulling mills, in that the forge mills and polishing mills are run in partnership with the either the Metalworkers' or Weaponcrafters guilds, but the mill itself is always the property of the Millers' guild.

A Thardic miller has managed to buy plans for a new dedicated double mill that is both a forge mill and polishing mill in one. The parchment he carries, although small and light, is extremely valuable, and there are those who would have the plans for themselves. For safety, he has hired the players to escort him from Cherafir to Shiran.

In most cases the demand for these industrial mills has lead to a grain mill being adapted to also drive the complex set of gears and levers that either regulate the airflow from the bellows, or drive a series of polishing wheels, although the profitability of these mills has lead to the construction of dedicated forge and polishing mills.

The Miners' Guild is one of the wealthiest guilds on Hârn thanks to its rigidly controlled monopoly on mining and smelting. Master miners are usually bonded to a mine owned by the crown, or in Tharda, the local landlord, and they are responsible for the entire process from extraction through refining.

It is in the refining stages that a master miner will look to work with a miller. After the ore has been removed from the mine, it must be broken down or reduced before smelting. Although the crushing of the ore can be carried out by hand using mattocks, the process is almost always done using a mill since the first crushing mills were built in 342BT. Indeed, it has even been suggested that the first stone querns were made for ore rather than grain.

The management of the mills is again similar to the set-up with the Clothiers' guild. Crushing mills are run in partnership with the miners' either at the mine-head or at the smelter site and are, depending on resources, either water or, frequently, animal powered. Again, the mill itself is the property of the Millers' guild, although the master miller almost always works under the master miner.

The players are hired by the master miner of a new mine located in a steep rock face to scout the terrain around the mine to find a suitable site for a crushing mill and smelter. The problem is that the best sites are near a local tribal village or their burial ground. Diplomacy or combat?

As with many of the guilded crafts of Hârn, millers could not operate without the woodcrafters. All the gearing and specialty components of the mill need to be carefully crafted out of wood to ensure that the mill runs smoothly. Also, coopers make the butts and barrels used for storage. If there is a mill present, then there is also a woodcrafter.

While much of the millers' produce is sold or milled for the local community, the millers also enjoy a number of strong wholesale relationships, especially where quern licenses are strictly controlled.

Apothecaries, Embalmers and Perfumers without any access to querning or milling capacity will often look to the millers' to help them in the preparation of various crushed herbs, roots oils and juices that are vital to their businesses.

A Fyvrian Shek Pvar needs a vial of Oil of Blue Enchanter's Nightshade – a rare subspecies of a not uncommon plant. The plant only grows in Southwest Hârn, and the plant loses its magical potency unless the oil is prepared from fresh plants. The players' task is to find the plant and a miller who can prepare the oil. Oh, and the plant is deadly poisonous, so the miller might not be overly willing.

Chandlers and Innkeepers sometimes act as the sellers of the millers various baked goods, honey, eels, and other sideproducts the millers' produce. Innkeepers also, vitally, look to millers for the barley and rye malts used for brewing.

The innkeeper at the players' favourite haunt has heard of a fabulous malted grain produced by a miller in the south, and he would love to get some to produce a new ale for the liege-lord's birthday. He promises the players a month's free drinking if they can obtain three bushels of the malt. The only problem is the innkeeper of a rival pub in town has had the same idea. Well, that and that the miller already has customers for his malt.

Ostlers usually have a relationship with the millers for the provision of ground animal feed and also to buy much of the threshed stalks – especially rye - for fodder. The unguilded thatches will also look to get the rye and wheat stalks for thatching.

Lastly, like the Miners, Salters will look to the miller to for milling capacity to reduce their salt to a finer crystal form.

The Feudal relationship of the miller and his overlord is fairly consistent across Hârn. In those relationships, the Miller is a freeman who is bonded by the Millers Guild to work the mill. In almost every instance, the mills are owned by the Guild and franchised to the miller who in turn pays rent to the guild and a toll to the local liege. However, there is more to the relationships than that, and the Feudal status of the mill does influence the mills operation.

The free towns of Aleath, Golotha and Thay are the only free towns on Hârn. Their charters define their status, and lay out the limits of the towns' jurisdictions. Thus, millers operating within those jurisdictions operate the free town mill franchises of Hârn. At present, the only representatives of the miller's guild who operate within those jurisdictions do not operate sophisticated mills, and only operate a quern milling and bakery business within the city limits.

While the lack of available of space and power is a factor in the limited milling operation, the primary reason that the milling process is not carried out within the town is the town's free status. The free status opens up a risk to the control of the milling technology. All other towns have a ruling liege who, due to their other holdings, can be persuaded to leave the mills to the millers. However, the millers do not have the same hold over the free town's aldermen, and the guild fears that it would risk losing their control over the mill if it were within the confines of the town. Thus, they refuse unreservedly an application to build a mill of any form within a free town to ensure that the process is removed from the possible free town control.

The Aldermen of one of the free towns of Hârn have managed to get plans for a fulling mill, and they plan to build it as soon as possible. The local Millers Guild have found out about the plan and have protested, but the Aldermen are not to be budged. The players have been tasked with obtaining all copies of the plan, and destroying any work in progress to preserve the millers' monopoly. The Aldermen won't be happy.

Unlike free town mills, mills in feudal towns are common. While the same concerns over space and power are an issue, the millers don't fear the loss of control of the mill to the ruling overlord. That is because, invariably, the local lord usually has additional manorial holdings, or at least knights enfeoffed under him who would all suffer if the mill were to be interfered with in any way.

In fact, it is the threat to lesser holdings that tends to keep the town mill relationships the least interfered with of all milling operations. The town also provides a good market for the miller to branch out into other businesses, although these are controlled by the franchise contract limits.

One other aspect to the town mills is the benefit it often brings to other mills in the outlying communities. Since space and power is a constraint, town millers often have to buy in the milled grain from outlying mills, increasing the revenues of the nearby rural mills.

A aggressive Lord has seized the local mill as he feels he is not getting enough revenue under the existing agreement. The Millers' guild is understandably upset, and so have hired the players to go in and seize the millstone. Getting in might be easy, but getting away with a pair of 750lb stones is another story. And the two stones have got to be brought out intact!

There are about 1250 manorial mills on Hârn, and they are what everyone thinks of as a mill. They are the feudal food processing centre, and at the heart of the community.

The principal defining restriction on a manorial mill is that it is only supposed to mill the produce of up to 1800 cleared acres. This restriction is to ensure that mills on nearby estates are generally equally profitable. Should the produce of a greater acreage need to be milled, then an application should be made to the guild for a second mill, although in fact only about 40 manors actually do have two mills.

The other key aspect of manorial mills is that unlike the town mills, they operate on an almost wholly trade in kind basis. Millers commonly take their payment as a share of what they milled, and this in turn is either sold on or transformed into further products for sale.

Manorial franchises are also the most abused. Aside from the acreage limit, there is often pressure from the local lord to operate in a way that is more a benefit to him than the miller. While the miller has a legal recourse, local lieges can be persuasive, and many transgressions go unseen.

Finally, manorial franchises, unlike urban ones, usually have some land that they can work. In most instances it is poor farming land that is limited to the area of the millponds and races, but millers do put it to good use. Because such land is theirs within the annual mill rent paid to the local lord, the miller's will often use the land for animal grazing, bee-keeping or simple vegetable crops if possible, and they will use the pond for eels and some fish, and will often have storage silos, oast houses and bakery ovens.

Most mines are either owned by the crown and operated by the Miners Guild, or are owned by the Miners Guild themselves. The 120 or so mine-head mills then operate under the miners' grant. Mine-head mills, as their name implies are usually located within or near the processing areas of Hârn's various mines but they are always located on land that is within the jurisdiction of the miners or the Millers' Guild themselves. The millers operate the mill in partnership with the miners, and get their income as a percentage share of the revenues from the finished metal or mineral when it is sold.

There are two types of mine-head mill. The most common type is a crushing mill that crushes the soaked and roasted ore before smelting. Most of these are simple in process, but some have powered stampers as well as the main mill to reduce the labour requirement. The less common type of mine-head mill is the water-powered forge mill that is used to operate bellows to improve smelter operations.

While many mine-head mills are water powered, the majority are slave or animal powered, and none are windpowered as yet. The newer forge mills and stampers require a constant even power supply, and so are all water-powered.

After a recent Gargun raid, the three mules used at the mine-head mill were killed. Unfortunately, they were the only mules at the mill, and so new animals must be bought immediately. The players need to take as much of the smelted ore as they can carry down into the nearest town, buy some mules and bring them back. Easy, except the gargun are still out there, and every day eats into the mines profits.

Milling is carried out in Tharda much as it is in any of the other civilised nations of Hârn, but the guild's relationship with the ruling classes is different. The difference has evolved to help the guild preserve their monopoly on milling within the Republic.

Unlike feudal kingdoms, the clan structure and the patronclient relationship is at the heart of Thardic society. Clans are strong social units with the powerful clan-head at the top. Moreover, a Thardic citizen's loyalty is first given to the clan, then to his patron and finally the Republic. This would normally make it difficult for the Guild to ensure the loyalty of their master millers. However, there are three ways to leave a clan, marriage, adoption or enlistment. The Millers guild has used this to find a solution. Upon qualification to the grade of journeyman, the Guild officially adopts the miller. From that point on, his clan is the clan of Millers, and his first loyalties lie to the guild. In this way, the Guild ensures that the secrets of the guild remain in their possession, and that millers are freed from the whims of the clan-heads.

The process of allocation of the 105 or so mills is different too. It relies upon the patron-client relationship, and is structured under a more formal contractual basis. The millers agree to operate a mill at a given site, in exchange for which they are given the land upon which it will sit. The land is effectively sold to the Guild and transferred into their name but with a caveat that should the mill cease operation, the land be returned to the original landholders.

Obviously, many estates had mills prior to the formation of the Coranan Republic in 621 and the beginning of the republican social structures. Those mills were brought into the current guild structure very rapidly. Harkel of Barvoel, the guild master of the Millers in 621, brought about the Guild's transformation by threatening the destruction of the existing mills and the removal of the millstones unless the land that sat upon was ceded to the guild and the guild be allowed to adopt the journeymen and masters. Most of the ruling classes rejected Barvoel's ultimatum, but they were caught flatfooted by the rapid and decisive response of the guildsmen. Barvoel's manoeuvre was timely; after the previous years of unrest, the grain reserves were too low for any sustained resistance, and one by one, the landlords decided to give in. In exchange, Barvoel ensured that the relationship between the landlords and millers was always profitable for the landlords, thus ensuring their continued independence. Now, after nearly a century, the practice is well established and the accepted norm.