I was wondering if anyone knew how the Mages and Fighter Guilds in Cyrodiil are funded?
It kinda irks me that *any* character can become a member and thus get bed, food and shelter for free, without having to contribute.

I'm planning on making a mod to correct this.
Current idea is that a prospective member must be an Apprentice in one relevant skill + pay a membership fee.

How lore correct is this and how high a would be right?

I will only deal with the actual signing up (and perhaps recurring fees) but there are other mods that care of the further advancement (Choices and Consequences).

Well I believe that Morrowind (haven't played in a while) had "restrictions" for at least advancement in Mages Guild.

And at one time at least the Mages Guild was only opened for those that could pay but it doesn't necessary say anything that you need a certain amount of skill in this or that school of Magic.

"Even more shocking, Galerion proposed to make magical items, potions, and even spells available to any member of the general public who could afford to pay. No longer was magic to be limited either to the aristocracy or intelligentsia." - Origin of the Mages Guild

Well, you don?t pay to join the guild, but you do pay for spells and items.

But if it comes to bigger amounts of funding, i think the Empire might give some financial support to the mages guild.

Regarding the fighters guild, well they are mercenaries and i think that would be a very profitable network: escorting merchant parties, getting rid of thugs or assimilating them into the guild, stuff like that. And of course there might some underground bussiness

In Morrowind, the Cammona Tong had some influence in the Fighters Guild, so that was probably a source of some coin.

Yes, Daggerfall and Morrowind were better in this regard. I remember in MW that you had to pay guild dues for the mages guild at least. In Daggerfall, however, you had to keep doing jobs for the guild. I you went too long without doing work, your rep would decrease, and you could eventually get ejected from the guild. Oblivion is unique in this omission, but that shouldn't be surprising.

What do you think the tax man is for?

Fighters Guild are mercenary in their payments. The Mage's Guild sells stuff, is partly funded by the Empire (gotta keep them on your side) and probably uses magic in underhanded ways (well my Mage's Guild would).

Well, with the Oblivion guild system beggars don't make much sense. I mean you can get free food and a bed just for saying "I want in". That's even easier thank asking for coins to buy new shoes

FG are, more or less, a controlled mercenary place. They will take jobs that involve killing X, act as collections if muscle is needed, do jobs guards won't, and so on. From what was seen in MW, they do have the capacity to break the law and customs, if bribed with money or threats, using loopholes. OB made them out to be too much like goodie too shoes. If anything, they'd also be like the Blackwood company, cutthroat, money and power hungry.

For the Mages Guild, it is pretty much school. You need to pay to get in, pay for your lessons, and pay for better education. They hold a monopoly for learning (magic), and the alternatives are looked down upon, if not hunted down at times.

In Daggerfall, I know you have to do tasks continuously with your guild, or you get kicked out, because you are nothing but dead weight. In MW, in order to advance, you also need to practice up on your skills, and excel in certain stats. In other words, you may be the greatest mage alive, but you are not advancing in the FG if you can't hold, much less use, a weapon.

In a way I agree with Morrowind's system and in a way I think it's too stringent.

I can sort of get behind a minimum proficiency to enter the Guild, although whether it should be a numerical scan of your behind the scenes statistics is another thing altogether. Actual tests of strength/contracts should be the litmus test. If you can pass it, no matter what the means, you deserve to advance. I see no reason why a powerful Battlemage can't be the leader of the Fighters Guild, for instance, or why a competent Crusader or Knight couldn't be arch mage. Sure they may complete their tasks in different ways but the fact they're able to shows they deserve their rank.

In Oblivion, most of the tougher Fighters Guild quests involved a lot of combat anyway. If a pure mage or thief was able to survive those quests then more power to them! They're obviously as skilled or more skilled than the most heavily armored warriors and deserve to advance. Likewise at one point during the Mages Guild quest you had to cast certain spells to beat the quest you were on. Granted they could be scrolls, but even if they were and they were cast by a Barbarian, the fact that Barbarian had the intelligence and presence of mind to locate the scrolls and use them shows he's a thinker and thus deserves to beat the quest. (Besides aren't most Barbarian their own alchemist?)

OB made about EVERY joinable faction goodie two shoes that then goes out against the nonjoinable evil groups! Just one example how OB is bland and boring.

Also, your avatar looks... just... eww