Native Tongs

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What are tongs?
This thread is for discussing possible playable tongs aside from the vanilla Morag Tong and (non-playable) Camonna Tong. 'Tong' is a relatively broad Dunmer term that can be translated to guild, club or society. Tongs can be focused on a particular industry, a strain of theology, or any other particular interest a group of individuals might share. Tongs tend to be more prominent and numerous in the settled, high-population areas of Morrowind, with an especially high concentration in Almalexia and likely Narsis, as well as Velothi settlements in Mournhold District.
At the smallest level, a tong might consist of a handful of NPCs who hang out in a tavern or workshop or other location. These tongs would generally only exist for flavour, but might offer or be the subject of miscellaneous quests. The Syvvit Tong is the only example so far implemented, but serves as a good example for how such a tong might work. The largest tongs -- the Camonna Tong which is Morrowind's native organized crime syndicate and the Morag Tong which is a sanctioned guild of assassins -- operate throughout the province, and the latter used to operate (and to a degree might still carry out missions) outside of Morrowind. The tongs this thread will chiefly focus on are somewhere in-between; in size they would be roughly equivalent to vanilla factions (not the provincial behemoths that TR is expanding a lot of those factions into) and they would offer quests and advancement.

Why might we want (new) playable tongs?
Imperial factions will be less common in eastern Morrowind; their presence in the Telvannis and Deshaan Districts is limited to very few coastal locations, and there's an ongoing discussion as to how common they should be in Indoril lands, aside from Almalexia and a few agreed upon halls. This imbalanced distribution is intentional, as the eastern Houses are both characterized as more xenophobic, and have also been better positioned to be able to avoid the creep of westernization. (As vanilla dialogue puts it in the case of House Indoril: "House Indoril is openly hostile to Imperial culture and religion, and preserves many traditional Dunmer customs and practices in defiance of Imperial law.") This does, however, create a vacuum of faction content in eastern Morrowind which a few more guild halls in Mournhold District would not fully rectify.
While Almalexia will be an oasis of faction activity, the isolated and far-flung Imperial guild halls in eastern Morrowind will (or should) probably largely follow the pattern of the Sadrith Mora guild halls; high-level quests, in some cases possibly rank-locked, which will have the player travel to remote or perilous locations. The great houses aside, vanilla factions that would still have a significant presence in eastern Morrowind include the Temple, Morag Tong, and potentially the Twin Lamps. Other established factions that could have content in eastern Morrowind include the East Empire Company or other (non-joinable) Imperial charter companies and the IAS. These wouldn't fully cover the gap in content either.
There is, however, ample opportunity for any of these factions to include some interactions with local tongs, thereby establishing a gateway to the playable content they could provide to players in eastern Morrowind. This would create a transition for players travelling east to the outer reaches of the Empire, with a different gameplay experience to match, while still providing content for the main playstyles (potentially even some that weren't well catered to already), making the gameworld feel larger and more varied but still interconnected.

What might new tongs look like?
Lengthy preamble aside, I put together some suggestions for potential tongs. Very much non-final ideas to get the ball rolling; I ought to have spent a bit more time reading up on sources and seeing if I could ground them more thoroughly in established lore, but for now the main intent is to give a general idea of what kind of quests and gameplay they might provide and how they would contribute to worldbuilding. They should probably have Dunmer names like the vanilla tongs, but I'll just stick to the common tongue translations for now.
 

 

Uvesig Tong (Harvester's Guild)


Attributes: Strength, Speed
Skills: Medium Armor, Spear, Blunt Weapon, Athletics, Hand-to-Hand, Speechcraft
0. Deadman
1. Initiate
2. Bloodletter
3. Highwayman
4. Widowmaker
5. Harvestman
6. Winnower
7. Thresher
8. Reaper
9. Farmer
Guild Halls: no set halls, though commonly found around taverns and arenas. Perhaps have some sort of graffiti decal to mark their main hang-outs?
Area: members can be found in a very broad range from Narsis District to Telvannis, but mainly operate from large settlements in Mournhold District. Travelling members can be found on roads, otherwise they mostly stick to settlements with a lot of traffic passing through.
Description: A sort of duellist's guild who start, get involved in and escalate fights (but in a way that keeps to the letter of the law). Similarly to the Morag Tong, comes from a tradition of Daedra worship, in this case of Boethiah, though they now worship the warrior aspect of Almalexia. This faction has a predictably dubious reputation, and does not share the protections extended to the Morag Tong. To compensate, they have transitioned to Tribunal worship and, in their own way, respect Tribunal law. Players can become a member by defeating (not necessarily killing) other members; until then members will tend to be aggressive to the PC but not outright hostile. (If players ask a member to join the faction it will -- after a choice warning -- initiate a fight). Aside from general itinerant fight events, quests might involve fighting as someone's champion in a duel, seeking (generally non-lethal) fights with powerful or influential figures, clearing the guild or guild members of trouble when they invariably land in hot water, or punishing members when they break the rules.
While it doesn't go out of its way to keep the peace, usually the opposite, some quests can involve dungeon crawls to deal with bandits, cultists, dangerous critters etc. just because they're seen as worthy opponents. There could also be some group fights; either the player having to deal with multiple attackers, or the player teaming up with guild members to take someone/some people down. In some cases, the player could have the option of shaking down the opponent, though this would usually be frowned on. (Outlanders out east are usually fair game).
The concept here is that the Ordinators and Indoril generally have a pretty good handle on peacekeeping in Indoril lands, and content like Indoril bounty quests that might get expanded to the relevant areas, Fighters Guild quests and maybe even Legion quests will cover the rest. As such, rather than giving the player the role do-gooder, this faction would provide the player with an opportunity to explore the seedier corners of (especially) Indoril society, the darker aspects of Tribunal worship, and to add more interest to settlement zones rather than having all the action happen in the wilderness. I think we should have high-ish fight level thugs and muggers in eastern Morrowind settlements and roads either way (not all of whom would be members of the tong).

 

 

White Robe Society (Meris Guild)

Attributes: Endurance, Willpower
Skills: Unarmored, Illusion, Alchemy, Alteration, Mysticism, Restoration
0. Applicant
1. Anointed
2. Novice
3. Mendicant
4. Healer
5. Physician
6. Pacifier
7. Miracle Worker
8. Minister
9. Archminister
Guild Halls: Hospices of St. Meris, which would generally be Velothi shrines (not full temples) or Velothi towers.
Area: operate mostly on the borders of House Indoril, though also to an extent in the interior of Mournhold district and parts of Telvannis.
Description: the opposite of the Harvester's Guild. A healer's guild. Provide aid to those who need it, in particular victims of house conflict, but also for instance patrols that encounter something nasty. Also provide general healing, and as such would encounter all layers of Dunmer society. Strictly pacifist. A lot of conflict deescalation, getting into awkward situations and getting the victims safely out, including the use of various spells. General concept here is a magical guild that doesn't focus on research and destructive aspects of magic like the Mages Guild and Telvanni, but on less direct pacifist solutions.
- intervene in a Morag Tong assassination or duel to keep the involved parties alive.
- go to the support of an Indoril patrol that was investigating recent activity at an old Daedric ruin.
- perhaps explore relations with the Mages Guild (would they accept the White Robe Guild's practices as religious observance or see it as unregulated use of magic outside of the guild? Obviously they wouldn't be able to threaten the Meris Guild, but might still be worth exploring).
- explore interactions with House nobles and others who might see the guild's activities as disruptive to House Wars, but would naturally be unable to be too outwardly disapproving. In particular, the obvious issues of having house nobles who are expected to perform their duties in the House War in the guild, who would probably need to protect their identities.

 

 

Kenassa Tong (Free Scholars' Guild)

Attributes: Intelligence, Willpower
Skills: Blunt Weapon, Sneak, Unarmored, Speechcraft, Security, Mysticism
0. Ward
1. Student
2. Wanderer
3. Seeker
4. Scholar
5. Tutor
6. Master
7. Luminary
8. Secretkeeper
9. Secretmaster
Guild Halls: particular Velothi towers (generally not remote ones, some perhaps even in settlements Arvs-Drelen-style)
Area: in a broad line from southwestern to northeastern Morrowind, from Shipal-shin to Telvannis, (very roughly following the line of Veloth's Path), but more concentrated around Sacred Lands and Mephalan Vales
Description: Whereas most Dunmer scholars and theologians are tied to particular schools, often in Velothi towers, or factions like the Temple and Great Houses, the free scholars are a loose organisation that travel the land searching for and dispensing knowledge. The roots of the faction are ancient: during the Nord occupation of Morrowind, and perhaps in part inspired by the Nord clever men, reclusive Chimer scholars began travelling and communicating in secret, acting as a sort of information and reconnaissance network.
The ancient tradition has not survived into the modern day unbroken; over the centuries the free scholars have dwindled in number, died out and been revived repeatedly, generally being most active in times of adversity. The latest incarnation, which began emerging as Tiber Septim carved out an empire to the west, has been growing steadily in relevance under Imperial rule.
This faction's quests would revolve around seeking knowledge and secrets, such as finding skilled trainers, rare skill books, a lost relic or holy site. A lot of delving into lore and hard-to-find nooks and crannies of our gameworld, puzzles and riddles, but with plenty of practical benefits. In lower ranks the player would be taught useful skills, akin to the spells learnt doing chores in House Telvanni, whreas in later ranks the player will often take the role of teacher and become involved with various influential individuals. Shouldn't be as focused on ruin exploration as the IAS; they're not after history, but knowledge. Some specific examples:
- discuss theology with members of an esoteric society; attempt to uncover their hidden knowledge in the process. (Perhaps gaining a nice spell or something).
- investigate an abandoned Velothi tower that was home to wizard-scholars to recover their secrets.
- locate and train under a hostile high-level outlaw.
- negotiate with House Indoril to be present during a Daedric invocation to ask particular questions of the summoned spirit.

 

 

Dust Merchants (Dust Merchants' Guild)

Attributes: Agility, Personality
Skills: Spear, Blunt Weapon, Light Armor, Athletics, Mercantile, Alteration
0. Bagman
1. Peddler
2. Courier
3. Outfitter
4. Trader
5. Caravaner
6. Navigator
7. Auctioneer
8. Magnate
9. Grand Magnate
Guild Hall: tradehouses and markets.
Area: operate along Morrowind's east coast including all of Telvannis.
Description: A guild of merchants and couriers that transports goods over dangerous and remote terrain; high risk, high reward. Interact with Dres Clansteads, Telvanni and other powerful beings. Specific quest examples:
- acquire (through trade or otherwise) and deliver a particular high-value item requested by a client.
- along with other guild members, escort some slaves over perilous (but with good pathing; think ashlands) terrain, ensuring they can't escape or get killed by threats.
- track down a guild member who met a bad end in the wild to recover and deliver the goods.
- extract payment from an uncooperative Telvanni client.
- negotiate a trade deal with the Zafirbel Bay Company, or some other kind of interaction (confrontational would work, too).

 

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Added ranks and a sketch of the Harvester's Guild sigil, and made some changes to the Scribe's Guild based on Discord feedback. It's now the Free Scholars' Guild. Feedback is welcome as always; a lot of the write-up is still rather unpolished.

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I'd love to play a Dust merchant. ^^

In Arena, there is some rumors about the Old Gods' return in Morrowind. An interesting topic for the Free Scholars' Guild. Borderline heretic maybe, but really tempting for scholars. How they are linked to the Tribunal, the Anticipations, the House of Troubles, etc.

There is also a "street sweeper guild" in Vivec, because of all the ash from Red Mountain. Something similar in Deshaan or Shipal Shin might be relevant, as job available for poor people or as a duty for House members (maybe not in Dres territory, because of all the slaves).

Are some illegal tongs (like sload merchants/drug dealers conglomerates) planned?

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Your just gonna forget the cammona like that? Fo shame.

Anyway "old gods" we already got plenty of lovecraftian analogues and the only other "old gods" in morrowind are the anticipations and house of troubles or the Aedra, which is just the imperial cult (and its native offshoots)

The guild of Ash Sweeps does actually retain some mentions, but would be better kept to ashen regions like Velothis or (post-redo) Telvannis.

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As "workers guilds" exist in Morrowind, we can use History of the Fighters Guild to create some quest giving or even joignable Tongs, like the minor guilds described in the book or the corporations seen in Vivec. A barrister or magistrate Tong in Hlaalu territories, an almost informal Astrologers Tong, true ratcatchers (in slums trying to survive, doing pest control in rural areas or catching rats for pitfight promoters) and ones that are bounty hunters (like in Dres or Indoril territories, where "rats" could also be runaway slaves), one Architects Tong by Great Houses, etc.

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The (Dunmeri) Guild of farmers and laborers already exists per vanilla. Additionally astrology is the purview of the temple and the "cat catcher" fraternity are the slave hunters. 

The guilds mentioned int he History of the fighters guild are the Imperial guilds who arent related to this subject.

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I assumed (and assume) the manufactory guilds are often more local, eg. to a city, rather than province-spanning organisations. Some specialist trades (equivalent to the Freemasons) might have a broader presence.

Not terribly important as they'll be non-joinable and probably not even set up as factions in the gameplay sense.

While some tongs might offer the odd quest or two, I'd tend to not make them joinable unless we can get a full questline worth of quests out of them, which for a lot of tongs would be difficult. (Definitely wouldn't mind seeing some proposals for more though).

As far as illegal tongs, there will almost certainly be some, though joinable is the question there; the Camonna Tong seems to effectively have a monopoly on most typical criminal activities in Morrowind, with a big organization like the Thieves Guild only barely managing to establish itself. Any further illegal tongs would probably need to find a different niche. Heretical religious societies are one example.

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We've got another hall for the Brewers and Fishers tong in Andothren, and had discussed adding the ones in Vivec to Narsis, so I don't think we're treating them as exclusively local organizations.

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I'm saying that they aren't the same guild; they are local guilds with the same focus. Just like you have municipal street cleaners in most cities, but they're not (in most countries at least) part of some national let alone international organization. Someone who is a member of a guild of brewers and fishers in Vivec wouldn't be part of a guild of brewers and fishers in Narsis.

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Given how the cammona tong gets reffered to as "the dunmer thieves guild" and is connected all over morrowind, cant see the dunmer trade tongs being any different otherwise they'd just end up consumed by their imperial counterparts as per the guild act. Plus how several of them are combined trades like the aforementioned brewers and fishers speaks to more than just being random local groups and more wider allied tongs.

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The halls in Vivec are never called guilds or tongs or characterized as such; they are halls. For the most part, their trades align with patron saints (in St. Delyn, you have the Potter's Hall and Glassworker's Hall, which trades St. Delyn is the patron saint of. St. Olms has Farmers and Laborers (St. Meris), Tailors and Dyers (St. Llothis), Tanners and Miners (Aralor), and the odd one out, Brewers and Fishmongers (St. Seryn + St. Felms; doesn't have anything fishing-related in the place, it's a weird one). Beyond the locals working in them, there is no indication of any sort of organization or structure. They seem to be tied to local industry.

Of course, we could expand on that and make them into larger organizations, but for most of them I don't think that would make too much sense. Depending on the laws of the armistice pertaining to guilds, being consumed by Imperial counterparts wouldn't necessarily be a risk, and most of the trades do not have equivalents in the guild act. (Brewers, tailors and arguably furriers being the exceptions).

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"Hall" as a term is used to refer to guilds more often than not in the setting and speaking to how other business get structured if they weren't guilds they would be named for the chief tradesman not just nebulously identified as "hall of x". Indeed if they arent guilds how would they function, you identify patron saints but let us note one of your own tong ideas is straight up the cult of saint Meris despite *that* being part of the temple rather than something dunmer would have cause to organize separately, unlike the trades which dont overlap with clerical duties and so are something dunmer would need to organize into guilds for. 

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I mainly wanted to clarify that in the vanilla game the halls are not directly identified as tongs or guilds, not that they can't be. But even if they are, I don't think they need to be broad in scope. The Meris society, taken from the reference to Meris' pacifist followers, fit the bill of an organisation which doesn't really match standard Temple operation and operates broadly within Morrowind (the Temple itself doesn't usually get in the way of House Wars, which it after all wrote the rules for).

With fishers and brewers, I think it is for the most part more sensible for them to keep a local scope, with a few exceptions. Morrowind is a big, politically and economically heterogenous province.

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I think a system like in The Guild games is relevant in this case: a semi-independant local hall in small settlement linked to a main one in the big city. Each hall gather several professions but only the bigger ones have all the facilities and regional or national contracts.

For instance: There is a marine carpenters hall in Teyn (that share a hall with the fishermen and the harvesters ones), but it only deals with little fishboats and minor repairs whereas the main one in Andothren can build bigger ships (galleons, cutters...) and works with the Imperial Navy and the Great House Council. Local hall can even serve as minor chapels, as they may have shrines of their patron saint.

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Gnomey

and the odd one out, Brewers and Fishmongers (St. Seryn + St. Felms; doesn't have anything fishing-related in the place, it's a weird one).

Hmm, smells fishy.