As some of you know, I’ve spent a slightly above average time working on our codex the last past year. During this work I’ve done a lot of research, and I thought it might be of interest to more members to know how our codex and structure has changed through the years.
For sources I’ve used our forum, and the Wayback machine to look through old websites and forums. I’ve also talked a little with older members, although this is mostly a minor source so far. If there are older members who have more information about past codex versions, I’d love to hear from you!
I’ve retrieved a total of 9 codex versions that make up the main source material for this article: 1999, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2017 (July), 2017 (Aug.), 2021 and 2024.
The First Codex (1999)
The oldest codex I’ve recovered so far is from an old website of ours from 1999. It’s in German however, and do not say anything about how the guild is structured. There is a page called “Gründung” which might have shed some light on the structure, but it is unfortunately not archived. Neither is the member list. The codex however do have some quite punchy paragraphs it’s fun to look back at. Like this one:
“Tibians who kill members of the Red Rose or the AFT guilds can expect relentless pursuit and death!”
This original codex looks much like other Tibian guild codices from the same era, with a focus on protection of its members and threats towards others if that protection was violated.
The Original Codex (2001)
In 2000/2001 we got a new website, and much better archived than the first one. A new codex has also been written. This new codex shows a structure and content quite like how most democratically built civil associations are organised. It is translated to English sometime in 2002/2003. All later codex are just edits of this original codex, if we can call it that.
When I say it mimics the structure of real-life civil associations it is because it’s made very clear that the highest power in the guild is the Plenary Assembly / Vollversammlung. The plenary assembly elects the leaders, and together these leaders form a council. All decisions made by this council must be sanctioned by the plenary assembly. It’s a very clear vision of a guild ruled by its peers.
The codex outlines four sorts of members:
- Regular
- Novices
- Full members
- Senators
- b. Special
- a. Honour members
Full members are the main stock of the guild. You must be a full member to serve as a leader. All full members also had to choose between three areas within the guild.
- The Round Table (protectors of the guild)
- Diplomacy (contacts of the guild)
- Organisation (everything else)
The last regular rank is the senator. But first I need to give it some context: If I understand the codex correctly, a member who could not fulfil their duties anymore, i.e. became inactive/retired, they had to declare so and then be removed from the guild after two weeks. If they during these two weeks changed their minds, they could keep their membership and resume their duties.
The only way to stay in the guild when retired was to become a senator, and to become one the plenary assembly had to vote on it. A senator would lose their right to vote at the plenary assembly, but they also didn’t have any duties like paying guild taxes and so on. Should a senator wish to return from retirement, the plenary assembly had to once again vote on it. The plenary assembly would also decide on what rank the returning senator would get.
Lastly this original codex mentions a special rank, an honorary membership. They are Red Rose membershonoris causa. For those who don’t know this Latin phrase, it is in use in most universities and in several civil associations. It’s a way to give an honour to someone outside the organisation, i.e. honorary doctorates at universities and honorary membership in associations. In Tibia terms this honour could have been bestowed upon members of other guilds or non-aligned players. As far as I’ve understood nobody was ever given this special rank. It was removed in the 2008 codex, but wasn’t completely removed from the exclusion paragraph before 2017.
What is not mentioned in the codex, but can be seen on an archived tibia.com RR-site is the “Aid-de-camp” rank. This looks like what we call “worker” characters today, and is now included in the Auxiliarius rank.
The post-war codex (2008)
The next codex version I have is dated 2008, but according to Natures Lord, some of these changes might have been made as early as 2005 too. All in all, the timing of this substantial change to the codex do coincide with the end of the second Alliance – Dark Side war, and the loss of the Alliance and the Red Rose. This leads me to believe the war might have been a catalyst for a reform of the guild.
The first change I want to highlight is the introduction of Latin rank names. Silvarion was a Latin teacher, and was the one who introduced the Magister Noviciorum name. This inspired a new generation of members to further extend the Latin use within the guild. From what I’ve gathered it was Sir Balder, and a few others, who made the new rank names. The Plenary Assembly is now, after years of using both “plenum” and “assembly” as short versions, officially renamed the Assembly.
The biggest change, however, is the removal of the full member areas. There’s no longar any difference between Warriors, Diplomats and Organisers. They are now all Eques. Knights of the Red Rose.
A new rank is also introduced to the guild, Praetor. An ancient roman title for leaders, essentially translated to “one who goes before”. Together the praetores formed the Collegium Praetorum. A new deliberative body between the Assembly and the Council. The collegium decided about treaties with other guilds, promotions of equites to praetor, and other issues given to them by the council. The council also had a duty to consult the collegium on most issues.
The Council was still elected by the Assembly, now for a term of 1 year at a time. But now you had to have the Praetor rank before you could be elected as leader. The Council had 5 roles: Teasurer, Red Warlord, Ambassador, Magister Noviciorum and Magister Discipulorum (the Teacher).
New retirement ranks were also introduced at this time. The Senator rank was now reserved for retired Praetores, while two new ranks were introduced for retired Equites and Novices: Lost Soul and Vagabonding novice. However, you still needed permission by the assembly to stay in the guild.
A final interesting decision was to set the max number of novices at a time to 5.
Codex revisions 2011
Two new ranks were introduced at this time. The Aedilus was added as a new rank for the most paramount among us. To get the rank it required an unanimous assembly vote. So far only two members have achieved this rank: Man of Electric and Core Wetterwachs.
Why exactly the word aedilus was chosen is still a mystery to me. All other latin rank names introduced makes some sort of sense, but an aedilus in roman times who was responsible for the maintenance of public buildings and the regulation of public festivals. Perhaps the original intent with the Aedilus rank was to be a stepping stone between Eques and Praetor, because the roman aedilus was most often young men seeking a higher political office (praetorship). But I can only speculate…
The second rank introduced was Inceptor. Translated to English it means “to begin”, and was in roman times used to describe a beginner or someone new in a field or activity. The Inceptor was introduced as a second trial member rank. One step up from Novice, but still not a full member of the guild. From what I’ve gathered this was becoming quite common in many guilds in Tibia at this time. The Inceptor rank was changed to a full member rank sometime before 2017.
Perhaps the Collegium Praetorum wasn’t effective enough at promoting new Praetores, because with the revision in 2011 an Eques could now become leader. Side-stepping the process introduced in the previous edition where you had to be promoted to Praetor first.
Two other revisions were that the novice capacity was removed, and the assembly no longer needed to vote on giving a member their inactive rank. From now on anyone can announce their retirement, and to re-active themselves again at any time. The Senator rank was also renamed Propraetor.
Codex revisions after 2011
It is no secret that the Red Rose has suffered from long periods of inactivity, and struggled with keeping the guild alive. I believe many changes to the codex must also be seen in that in mind. How can we organise ourselves so that the guild survives? Changes made in the revisions between 2011 and 2017 most likely reflects this issue.
The leaders are no longer elected by the assembly, but selected by the existing leaders. The role of the Hands were also introduced to build and educate future leaders. Sometime around 2020 the Assembly no longer votes on promotions other than novices, giving the Council that duty. Interestingly enough, we’ve re-introduced voting on promotions in the later years without adding this to the codex.
The Collegium Praetorum was removed by 2017, but a third deliberative body was re-introduced around 2020 as the Senate that we have today.
Afterword
The Codex is often considered almost as a “holy” document in the Red Rose. It tells us, and future generations of members, what and who we are, and how we are organised. It is an important document, but as you can see, has always been under the scrutiny of the members, and changed when needed. Traditions are indeed important, but the codex must also be changed to meet the needs and challenges that lies before us.
