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[DC] What happens when mages (scryers, fortunetellers, item-identifiers, etc.) bribe the Divination Guild to give them unearned divination licenses?
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Author: u/ToaKraka https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png*
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URL: http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2016/03/22/bribery-and-corruption-most-diviner
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Score: 18
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Created: 2016-03-25T00:17:15
Post:
Comments:
u/aeschenkarnos [+12] (2 hours later)
If there's any organization who would be able to look at a person and discern whether they're a diviner or not, it's the Diviners Guild. You might as well try to bribe the temple of Brodin into letting you skip leg day.
Unlicensed or fake-licensed diviners come in three categories: fools, silly enough to pick "diviner" as a con story instead of something safe like "lawyer" or "doctor"; the real deal, who can divine the methods of the Guild better than the Guild can divine theirs, and want no part of the institution's control; and the archmagi, who are "diviners" in the same way they are "war-magi" or "astral travellers", because it is necessary for the task at hand, and the Guild can divine what kind of trouble comes from hitting up archmagi for dues.
u/ulyssessword [+8] (3 hours later)
They aren't fraudulent licenses, they are fraudulent qualifications. Those legitimate licenses were obtained by bribery, but exposing them would just stop the bribes, and the Diviners Guild wants the bribe money more than it wants qualified members.
u/Arancaytar [+8] (15 hours later)
I'd suspect that the trust in that particular city's diviners would evaporate quickly, since adventurers make a living listening to local rumors. And while you can't verify an Identify spell on something unknown, checking a diviner's qualifications is as easy as giving her a control group of items.
All in all, I don't see an arms race to the bottom happening among guilds, since they can still compete on reputation. Guild A's lower costs only help them until adventurers start hiring Guild B's diviners exclusively, even if it means traveling to a more distant town.
u/ZeroNihilist [+6] (19 hours later)
Not to mention that after an adventuring group gets screwed by accredited diviners enough times, they might just take it upon themselves to investigate.
Then you've got angry murder hobos knocking on your door, which makes your problems skyrocket.
u/callmebrotherg [+1] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (3 days later)
Also, considering that IRL guilds in the Middle Ages were not engaged in an arms race to the bottom (AFAIK), I would assume that D&D guilds would be similar, barring unique factors that haven't been explicitly identified in the article.
u/ToaKraka [+7] https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png (6 minutes later)
tl;dr:
When an adventurer brings an unknown magic item or potion to a diviner for identification, or wants a scrying to be done for him, he doesn't just blindly trust that the diviner knows what he's doing. Diviners are licensed by the Divination Guild, which takes money to test aspiring mages on their divination skills.
It takes a long time for a person to gain enough skill to pass a divination exam, and this cuts into profit margins--so the Divination Guild announces that it'll give a bonus to apprentices who pass their exams faster. The apprentices quickly find that they can just bribe (by borrowing against their expected future earnings as licensed diviners) the Master Diviners who make up the Divination Guild in order to get their licenses. Money goes to the Master Diviners taking bribes, to the bankers making loans, and to the thieves and bards facilitating the bribery, as well as to the bribing apprentices who eventually get paid by too-trusting adventurers.
However, this ends badly for the adventurers, who no longer can find any diviners actually capable of casting divination spells...
u/None [+10] (an hour later)
Hehe, I giggled a little--this is so India. You go by word of mouth and lean towards private firms/institutions who only hire the real deal. You'll also see external accreditation pop up and for legitimate diviners to go for it in hopes of getting a competitive advantage.
With divination, it might be even simpler--have the diviner predict the result of ten coin flips or something else that's easily testable (depending on the specifics of the magic system in question.) Also, go to practicers who are older, and who went through the accrediting system when it was less corrupt.
u/None [+2] (15 hours later)
That works until all the older ones are run out of business, retired, backstabbed, or dead!