Gnomish politics

[Qohg]

I'd like to know if there's any information regarding the gnomish politics. If they are ruled by councils, Houses or guilds, etc.

[Nob]

Deglos is essentially a guild based confederation, with various crafting guilds ruling a plutocratic and very loosely organized central government through the High Guild Council.

[Pathos Street]

From: http://www.avlis.org/viewtopic.php?t=11651

The government of Deglos is a system of trade guilds. Every trade imaginable has its own official national guild that concerns itself only with its own trade, and nothing else. These guilds never try to outdo another or achieve more personal gain than another guild. They merely exist for the purpose of existing and teaching their craft to anyone who wishes to learn, sometimes for a fee, sometimes not. When it becomes necessary in a time of war, or just when a decision of some sort is needed, the guilds pick representitives to send to a High Guildhall Convention (HGC). The is merely a means of setting some order among the inhabitants of Deglos. It can pass laws, though it rarely does. The individual guilds are more than able to handle their own members, and they do. If there is a war, the HGC will attempt to coordinate the interactions of the various armor, weapon, and other munition guilds to arm enough soldiers to fight. For the most part, this is unnecessary, however, because Deglos has enough of a volunteer army to meet its current needs fivefold.

...

In Deglos there are many cities or towns of varying size. Usually, each town is run by one of the crafting guilds. Often, the guild who runs the town actually makes sense to run it. For instance, a town run by the Mining Guild may be located near a large mine, and a neighboring town may be run by the Weaponsmithing Guild with a route between them. Other times, it is just what guild happened to be there at the time to run the place.