On the Guild of Whispers

The Guild of Whispers is the guild of spies and is a subsidiary of the Thieves Guild. It is run by the Spymaster or Guildmaster Spy.

Beneath him are the Arch Spies and the Arch Beggar, who represent two of the three types of information gathering that the guild uses. The Arch Spies manage the guilded and acquired spies and were themselves guilded spies at one time.  

A guilded spy is one specially trained to infiltrate (either long or short term) and abscond without notice with any information gathered. The guilded spy is often a skilled actor, a master of disguise and a polyglot. His skills are in high demand and his services are well compensated. He is a patient and very rare individual. Moreover, he may actually be a she, in or out of disguise.

Many spies do not normally conform to that description and rarely know that they involved in the work of a guild. Generally these "acquired" spies are people who are uniquely situated to ferret out information by a variety of means and are willing to provide it to others for pay -- a wizard's apprentice, a lady's chamber maid, a disgruntled clerk, or a gardener who eats his lunch under his master's window. They will report to the Arch Spy.

Another type of spy are those people who can come and go in polite society without being noticed, or while being actively ignored. Beggars, lamplighters, delivery boys, messengers and pages are well situated operatives of the Guild of Whispers. For a few copper pieces they report on the comings and goings of great men and dignified ladies, and dutifully report on the messages passed between them.

This type of spy is handled by the Arch Beggar, who pays the ransom for that information and then reports what is learned to a Spymaster.

When someone approaches the Guild of Whispers for information, it charges a fee to discover what it can. The guild is adept at finding people who are in the right position to know things and bribes them for information. In the end, neither the employer nor the spy knows each other, but both might deal with the same contact from the guild -- without even knowing there was a guild involved.

The guild never forgets what it has learned. Rather, it keeps the reports it has been paid to discover. It keeps this information and adds to it regularly, sometimes even without being paid. This is known as "Keeping the Books" and provides a ready source of general information that can be bought and sold when needed. The guild also has a paymaster who handles the money coming in and out. Every spy must be paid and the guild's purseman is charged with making sure that accounts are square.