PENNED FROM THE DESK OF MAYOR WINFIELD - July 1, 2006

Hail my friends,

Several guilds came to me recently wanting to join our PaxLair Community. I thought I'd write down my thoughts about how they can get involved. Our PaxLair Community at first glance may appear extremely complex, but is really very simple.

For the simplest explanation, there are three levels of involvement. Each has an increasing level of commitment, accountability, and responsibility within our Community. These levels are Allied-Guild, Citizen-Guild, and City or Outpost.

In all cases, the PaxLair Government does not change anything about the original Guild and its buildings (if becoming a city or outpost). Guildmasters still run their guilds. Guilds still operate and maintain their buildings. The main thing is that with increasing levels of "being a part of PaxLair" there are more expectations by the PaxLair Government and more commitment made by the guild to the PaxLair Community.

Trust is always a factor in the acceptance of a guild into the PaxLair Community, whether it is for alliance or citizenship. This is because PaxLair maintains a reputation of trust, role-playing, and fair-play throughout the Shard. If a guild is a citizen-guild of PaxLair, many on the shard will assume that guild has these characteristics. Trust within the PaxLair Community is generated by involvement in PaxLair activities and projects, such as a defense or library project.

Now on with an explanation of the three levels of involvement.

First is an Allied-Guild. Being an Allied-Guild does not mean your guild is an official part of the PaxLair Community. Official guilds of the PaxLair Community are called Citizen-Guilds. Allied-Guilds work with PaxLair for specialized purposes, such as defense, quests, or commerce. There are or can be a number of alliances in our Community for these specialized purposes. An alliance may exist for a day, a month, or longer depending on the situation. So there isn't a single PaxLair Alliance and it is a misnomer to say "we want to join the PaxLair Alliance." The response will be "what alliance of PaxLair do you want to join? The Defense Alliance? The Commerce Alliance? The Quests Alliance? The Enemy Alliance?"

Second is a Citizen-Guild. These are officially part of the PaxLair Community. Citizen-Guilds join through a city of PaxLair led by a city viceroy. At times, some guilds are joined directly at the PaxLair Community level lead by the Mayor of PaxLair, but these are extremely rare and are for PaxLair Community-wide purposes.

Third is a City or Outpost. The cities of PaxLair are physical locations in the Realm that are led by a viceroy. Outposts are sub-areas of cities where a group of buildings are part of that city of PaxLair, but are outside the geographical boundaries of that city. A city or outpost has the highest level of involvement and commitment to the PaxLair Community; this is because our Community is physically based on locations in the Realm where many guilds can work together.

I hope this helps explain a little about how guilds may become involved in the PaxLair Community.

Dragonspeed,

Winfield, Mayor of PaxLair