On Races...
No problem with challenging the ideas. I'd prefer it to you quietly disliking the approach.
It is a a fairly modern myth that police forces are NOT protection rackets. In medieval Europe, it was built into the system, where tax collection and city watch were the same organization.
I guess that the Cosa Nostra is a more recent phenomenon than I had thought -- I was going to attribute it to a reaction against the Medici family, but it started later than that (as far as anyone knows). Chinese Tongs reach back to the 1600s, and appeared when the Ming dynasty was overthrown by the Qing dynasty. The first was attempting to bring the Mings back into power, and became a criminal organization because they were outlawed by the rulers. Being outlaws anyway, they turned to illegal activities to finance their operation. I'm not sure that an approach like that works with Control's history of the land.
If there is such a thing as a Thieves' Guild, it would certainly be what we consider organized crime today, a hierarchy of criminals that take a cut of whatever illegal activity is going on. It might be a source of training and education, but it would be for profit motives that it is offered.
I don't know enough about the motives of our King and Queen to know what their opinions are of it would be. If we assume there is some sort of Guild, then the leadership might know about it but not care, or know about it but not be able to eliminate it.
I agree that such a group would not just consist of thieves, but would include Mages, as well. A Godfather who didn't would quickly find himself side-lined, permanently. Any power-hungry clannish society would be promoting each of their members to contribute with their own best abilities, including if some showed a magical gift. They'd get the best training and would rise according to their abilities.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:09, Sun 22 Mar 2020.