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The Skinner Guilds were a variety of rebel outfits formed during and prior to the Scriven Uprising; their name was drawn from the act of flaying Scriven they killed, as a way of showing that the Scriven could be killed as easily as any human. The Skinners Guilds only ever existed in London, as it was the only place to be occupied by the Scriven.

They appeared after the Scriven started to dwindle, initially in secrecy, but as the Scriven were reduced to a few hundred individuals they started to openly menace and murder Scriven. During the riots, the Skinners openly attacked businesses and figures close to the Scriven, ultimately resulting in large areas of the city being looted and destroyed, while the Scriven were almost completely wiped out.

After the Scriven were driven out and supposedly extinct (with a few exceptions, such as Wavey Godshawk, the New Council of London began to stamp out the Guilds; this crackdown was justified as needing to restore order. Those who protested, such as Bagman Creech, were imprisoned until the Skinner Guilds were either destroyed entirely or willingly dissolved.

The Guilds were looked down upon by high Londoners, who saw them as bloodthirsty thugs, though they admitted they were glad someone had driven out the Scriven. In the seedier and poorer areas of London, they were viewed as heroes, with murals and paintings frequently depicting them in a positive light. By the events of Fever Crumb, the organisation was almost gone, and by the end of the book it ceased to exist after Bagman Creech was killed by Kit Solent.

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