[Skarg]

Despite ITL talking about the Wizard's Guild as if it were world-spanning and the same everywhere, and mentioning a certain number of known continents, etc., that is clearly just a default suggestion for a starting context. As you say, GM's can and do choose whatever they want for their own campaigns.

The TFT campaigns I and my friends have run have featured rather limited general knowledge of the geographical layout and extent of nations, unless/until PCs did actual travel, research, map-acquisition, consulting scholars, etc. And while our campaigns featured scores of maps like the Dran map at the original 12.5 km/hex scale, the scope of play and of campaign world connections was limited to a few continents at most, and much more usually, people were focused on where they were, and neighboring places.

In our campaigns, the Wizards' Guild tended to have as much or more long-distance awareness of affairs in distant countries, than the countries' governments, because of their strategic and business interests, and their intrinsic abilities with magic such as gates and long-distance telepathy. Unlike Henry's (or Legacy Dran's) vision, our Wizards' Guilds tended to mainly use such abilities and knowledge for their own uses and benefits, rather than aspiring to provide bargain-basement mass transportation gate networks for society.

So a Wizards' Guild member or someone who knew them would likely know that their local guild did have (mostly business and practical) relations with the guilds in neighboring countries and some others. But unless they were in the right circles, they probably wouldn't know much about how far-reaching those connections were. And/or they mostly weren't often much farther than another nation (or perhaps three) away.

While in theory our Wizards' Guilds were mostly sort of the same organization, specific chapters and regions tended to mainly be concerned with local affairs, showed regional differences and allegiances and factions, and there were nations and regions where wizards were organized differently (and/or had little or no Wizards' Guild presence).

In many cases, our Wizards' Guilds were divided by nation, or by empire or great kingdom. Aggressive, militant, and insular nations often had Wizards' Guild divisions along national lines, and/or their own types of national wizard organizations. Similar divisions existed along strong religious or cultural lines.

That often wouldn't stop them trading with each other, but they didn't seem to answer to a higher level of Guild authority, or when they did, it was little known and almost never showed itself conspicuously to non-guildmasters.

I would expect that most GMs don't try to think about or involve world-spanning Wizards' Guilds, and so even though some probably do, I'd say that the nature of people having different campaigns that don't know about each other, makes it pretty clear that there is no entirely world-spanning Wizards' Guild authority, or if there is, it isn't even known about by the GMs of many established campaigns. ;-)

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If it is Independent Wizards' Guilds by country, does the king have power over the guild or does the guild's power make it completely independent of rulership influence?

It seems to me this would vary from country to country.

In our campaigns, most kings and governments claimed authority over the guilds (some more than others) but the type of authority was often limited. Usually kings didn't claim to own the guilds, and the guilds would do whatever they could to have some international rights to some level of autonomy. There were usually ongoing negotiations between the Wizards' Guilds and nations both on that point and about what the wizards would do for the state (and on what terms) and vice versa, and of course trade in magic items, potions, services, information, legal rights, looking the other way about various behaviors, etc. (This is one part of why commoners would rarely find magic items or enchanters available for list price, if at all.)

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If it is Independent Wizards' Guild by country, is there an overriding UN type Wizards' Guild agency for ironing out different WG alliances and upsets and promotions?

I don't remember us having that per se. I do remember higher level and foreign WG authorities coming in for such, but not from a dedicated UN agency. It's an interesting idea, though, that I could see existing.

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

So, is there a Wizards' Guild for each nation that does its own regulationing of that country's wizards? Let's say Elyntia's Wizards' Guild. Tanander would have had its own (and probably there is still one extant in the area). Ardonirane and Ars Vaskul might have their own, but Ryuvatar would refuse to have one.

In my campaign, each Elyntian Duchy has a Wizard's Guild Senior Chapter for all the other chapters in the Duchy, and there's also an umbrella Southern Elyntian Senior Chapter and an overall Elyntian Grand Chapter. The Tanander Chapters were reorganized (as are the newer nations that rose after Tanander's fall, south of the Huldre Forest). Ardoniraine and Ars Vaskul are totally unknown in my campaign (at least as far as any PC has ever discovered).

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If each nation has its own Grand Chapter, then the norms of that nation would probably dictate Guild customs for that nation. That would mean that National Guild regulated its own members.

Would one national Wizards' Guild negotiate with another Wizards's Guild for mutual exchange?

In our campaigns, it depended on specifics, but generally yes the WG tended to prefer to have enough of an international identity that wizards could migrate relatively freely, as that can often be very helpful to avoid feuds, legal issues, and reputations.

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If Joe Wiz of Ardonirane goes to Elyntia's Kel, would they accept his Ardonirane membership card and can he have his wizard's funds transferred from Ardonirane to Kel easily or would membership not be recognized and red-tape?

Membership probably, as long as they re-agree to the local rules. Members are always wanted (as long as they obey the rules and don't cause too much trouble). I wouldn't expect accounts to be transferable unless the guilds have an agreement about accounts that can translate to actual value.