The Custodian Guild is the one and only Guild operating in Glimmering Port and the Ash Continent as a whole. As the continent’s founding Guild and the operational government of Glimmering Port, the continent’s capital town, the Custodian Guild acts as the primary legal and social influence over the Ash Continent.
The Custodian Guild was founded by the Caretakers long before living memory, and the true early history of the Guild is much disputed. The current guildmaster of the Custodian Guild is Guildmaster Delphox.
Branches
The Custodian Guild is split into three distinct sub-organizations. The Guardian Branch, lead by Branch Leader Weavile, is in charge of search-and-retrieval missions. The Vanguard Branch, lead by Branch Leader Chesnaught, is in charge of escort missions and general exploration into uncharted areas. The Sentinel Branch, lead by Branch Leader Gardevoir, is in charge of law enforcement across the Ash Continent.
Admission
A piece of unspoken wisdom in Glimmering Port is that being admitted to the Custodian Guild is more difficult than it used to be. While the Custodian Guild technically accepts public applications, they are very rarely approved. Becoming a member of the Custodian Guild typically requires knowing or being noticed by an existing member who agrees to perform the initial training process. Due to the Guild’s stance on independent teams, opportunities to be noticed are few and far between.
Outside of nepotism, the commonly accepted best ways to be noticed by the Custodian Guild are to participate in Professional Battling, which rarely occurs in Glimmering Port outside of occasional public tournaments, or to participate in the Glimmering Port Volunteer Watch.
Ranks
Members of the Custodian Guild can be identified by Rescue Badges which bear a gold Poké Ball motif surrounded by feathered wings, with a small jewel in the center denoting their rank. A guildmember’s rank increases as they or their team completes more difficult missions and grants them increasing benefits within the Guild. The ranking system used by the Custodian Guild, from lowest to highest, is as follows:
- Ruby
- Sapphire
- Emerald
- Diamond
Radiant Badges, representing the highest rank possible within the Custodian Guild, are worn only by the Guildmaster and Branch Leaders and are decorated with unique iridescent gemstones. A pattern reminiscent of a segment from a double-helix rests in the center of the gem, appearing to face the viewer from any angle.
Public Job Boards
Mission requests sent to the Custodian Guild are sorted first by Branch and then by danger and priority. Requests which are deemed low-priority and not prohibitively dangerous are sent to the public job boards inside the front room of the Guild Hall. These jobs can be freely claimed by any member of the Guild and by any independent teams cleared for work. Once a job is claimed the pokémon involved are usually expected to report it as having been completed by the end of the day, although exceptions are made based on the scope of the request.
Requests which fall off the public job boards at the end of a day or which are declared too urgent or dangerous for public notice are sent to the Branch Leader of the relevant division. Search and rescue jobs are sent to Branch Leader Weavile, reported crimes are sent to Branch Leader Gardevoir, and escort missions are sent to Branch Leader Chesnaught.
Privately Assigned Missions
While any member of the Guild can take any listing from the public job boards, members of the Custodian Guild belong to a specific Branch outside of special exceptions. Branch Leaders take requests which have been given to them due to danger, urgency, or expiration from the public job boards, and personally choose whether to ignore the request or personally assign one or more guildmembers within their branch to completing it. Guildmembers have been known to hold varied opinions on whether or not this is desirable.
Mission Rewards
The Custodian Guild’s primary method of funding is an open secret. Guildmembers and independent teams which only recently began working on the Ash Continent are known for complaining about the fact that the Custodian Guild takes a 50% cut on all Poké rewarded by completed requests. Some members of the public who are aware of this fact have taken to rewarding quests with non-Poké items of substantial value such as Gold Ribbons. As a rule, any Poké picked up from within a Mystery Dungeon during the course of a request is exempt from this cut.