Thieves' guild

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In popular fiction, a thieves' guild is a formal association of criminals who participate in theft-related organized crime. The trope has been explored in literature, cinema, comic books, and gaming, such as in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story "Thieves' House" by Fritz Leiber[citation needed] and the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Though these more modern works are fictitious, the concept is inspired by real-world examples from history, such as Jonathan Wild and his gang of thieves.[1]

Literary antecedents

Some stories of One Thousand and One Nights celebrated artful thieves and criminal brotherhoods with a hierarchy and code of honor.[2] The Sandalwood Merchant and the Sharpers features an old man known as the "Sheikh of Thieves" who delivered judgement on less experienced sharpers.[2] This was based on actual thieves' guilds in Cairo in the Ottoman period, that were known to return stolen goods for a price, and which were managed by a sheikh.[2] These survived up until the 19th century, and were mentioned by Edward William Lane in the 1830s.[2]

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Fantasy fiction

Role playing games

  • In Dungeons & Dragons, the Greyhawk supplement from 1976 adds thief characters and gives them the Master Thief title at the highest levels. The AD&D Players Handbook, published in 1978, specifically mentions thieves' guilds in the thief class description.
  • In 1980, Gamelords published Thieves' Guild, a role-playing game system centered on thief characters which included rules on thieves' guilds.

Video games

See also

References