Shireroth

In the Pre-Raynorian and Raynorian eras, the jewellers of Musica were famous across Benacia. Gold from Goldshire mostly ended up at the delta city, where goldsmiths and gem-carvers would fashion it into golden rings, golden necklaces, golden torcs, or golden whatevers, and thensend the finished products up the river to Brookshire and Elwynn, or else across the sea to Khaz, Apolyton, and Treesia.

The jewellers organized early on into the Jewellers' Guild, one of the richest and most influential organizations in the city. Many of the dukes of independent Musica directly or indirectly owed their positions to Guild support, and when the city was taken over by Shireroth troops, the Jewellers' Guild quickly attained Kaiser Raynor's good graces and remained as powerful as ever.

Wherever there are jewellers, there are thieves. Musica had a lot of jewellers, therefore... At first crime was petty and unorganized, but as the Jewellers' Guild took law enforcement into its own hands, the thieves organized in self defence. Theirs was the Unjewellers' Guild, because while jewellers attach precious stones to items and then sell them to rich people, the Unjewellers took them from rich people and detached the stones.

The Unjewellers were fantastically successful, and as the gold and gem industries branched out into all of southeast Brookshire after the eighteenth destruction of Musica in a608, the Unjewellers quickly followed. Their success became a threat to the very existence of the precious metals and stones industry, and both sides realized they had a common interest in preventing its collapse. In a historic agreement, the Jewellers agreed to pay a certain tribute to the Unjewellers each year, and the Unjewellers agreed to leave the treasures of Brookshire alone.

So far, so good, until the thieves of the Unjewellers began to grow restless. After four hundred years of truce, a squabble over the amount of the tribute destroyed the whole system. This time, after a decade of renewed predation, the Jewellers called upon Duke Celestis, and the Duke sent the police of Brookshire after the robbers. The conflict became ugly, especially since Robin Hood-esque tendencies had brought the populace to the Unjewellers' side.

After two years of intermittent street warfare, Duke Celestis' guards broke the backbone of the Unjewellers' organization, but the price was higher than the Duchy was able to pay. When Celestis finally proclaimed the battle for law and order won, Brookshire's finances were in complete disarray.

As well they should have been! The tax structure of Brookshire was fundamentally broken. Local lords inevitably lied about the extent of their holdings, then bribed inspectors to keep quiet. Smaller fiefdoms claimed not to be able to pay taxes, while larger ones threatened revolt if the Duke refused to forgive their debts. Families hostile to Celestis tried to hide funds from their arch-enemy, while those allied with him felt their loyal support ought to be enough to excuse them from more material contributions to his throne.

The Duke prayed to the god Finanzia for a plan, and darned if he didn't come up with one the very next morning. He sent word to the leaders of the Unjewellers, now in hiding, that he wanted to speak with them and was prepared to offer a full pardon. Of course they didn't believe him, but they sent their more expendable emissaries to see what he had to say.

His proposal was simple. He needed a large, efficient organization with a proven ability to separate people from their money and no political connections whatsoever. If they would collect his taxes for him, he would pardon them and give them a new lease on life as a perfectly legitimate ducal revenue service.

And so, for the past few millennia, Brookshire's largest thieves guild has collected its taxes. And if a few of the items taken don't find their way into the Ducal coffers, well, that's a tradition, and Brookshire's willing to excuse a lot as long as it's a tradition.