Plant Hwyaden

Plant Hwyaden (spelled Plant hwyaden in Japanese) is a massive guild in Elder Tale. Although its guild master is Nureha, she is really the puppet of Indicus, a former member of the Debauchery Tea Party.

The guild is led by group of people known as the Ten-Seat Council (十席会議), which is composed of Adventurers and Earthlings alike.

Overview
The guild holds complete control of Minami and Nakasu, the latter which was actually suppressed under the guise of a merging with Plant Hwyaden.

Although Plant Hwyaden is the official guild of both cities, within the guild there are several subdivisions, such as the Wolves of Mibu. The guild is also headed by the Ten-Seat Council, individuals either hand-picked by Indicus or added by Holy Empire Westelande nobles to have representation in the city's affairs.

Strength
As the sole guild in both Minami and Nakasu, Plant Hwyaden holds a tremendous amount of power. Furthermore, Nureha gained the support of the Earthling nobility, including their branch of the Kunie clan, providing her with an enormous supply of gold. With it, she bought out the Cathedral, Guild Center, and other important structures in Minami.

Those who weren't already bewitched by her charms and honeyed lies were subsequently strong-armed into merging their guilds into Plant Hwyaden's, as Nureha quickly demonstrated her newfound power over life and death in the city, presumably by blacklisting people from the Cathedral to prove that they would not revive there after being killed. Making many discoveries such as Real Food Preparation and Magical Engineering before even Akiba did, those living in the city quickly developed a sense of complacency and lost most of their motivation to rebel against the rapidly-growing guild.

At Mizufa's order, all of their advancements were made secret and much information about Minami was a mystery. Despite this, however, Akiba quickly caught up to their progress, and their mutually-beneficial relations with the Eastal League of Free Cities, in contrast with Plant Hwyaden's shaky relations with the Holy Empire Westelande, made them a looming threat.

Synopsis
Plant Hwyaden is first brought up in the Libra Festival arc, as Akiba's rival power in Yamato. The intentional disruption of the festival is masterminded by Malves, a nobleman of Westelande. Although Nureha later tells Shiroe that he moved without approval of the Council, Plant Hwyaden also did not take any measures to stop him.

While the Round Table Alliance only had suspicions, it is later confirmed that the Ten-Seat Council was responsible for giving the funds to Enbart Nelles so he could purchase Byakumaru, which led him to be possessed and wreak havoc in Akiba. Their findings from the incident allowed them to create their own version of the Royal Guard Armor.

Trivia

 * "Plant hwyaden" means "duck children" in Welsh ("plant" = children, "hwyaden" = duck) and is an allusion to The Ugly Duckling.