The Guild of Gondoliers
The Guild of Gondoliers is a trade guild based in Jericho Locks. Each members used the rivers of the Hinterlands between Hell and London to ensure trade between the two cities,[1] to carry passengers[2] or to explore.[3]
The trade on the red waters
The first gondolier to work on the rivers after the fall of the Fifth City used to be workers in or near the Cumaen Canal.[4] While they maintain trade routes, they started to impose themselves as a power in its own right. In response, Mr Fires created the highly structured Guild, with the Gonfaloniere at its head.[5] Early Gonfaloniere spent more time exploring the rivers than leading, which lead to a period of instabilities in the early days of the Guild.[3]
The Guild is highly traditionalist;[2] their customs include forbidding any music near the river except the viol,[6] that anyone who chart a gondola has the right to ask for any conductor they want[2] and that no one should interact with the Swan Bride.[7] Weddings are taken especially seriously.[8] A member of the Guild can only marry another member,[9] be it devil[10] or human. Other than that, some choose to marry the waters, but most choose not to marry at all.[11] Those very waters have a special places in the Guild culture.[12] Of course, not all these traditions arose naturally...[13]
Hell has often has good rapport with the Guild, sometimes teaching them about the network of river in the Hinterland in the early days of the Guild[14] or making deals with them.[15] However, they once tried to undermine the Guild by hiring dock workers, but those workers disappeared in mysterious circumstance.[16] The Guild sometimes work with the Brazen Brigade, an enemy of Hell.[17]
The coming of the GHR is seen with distrust. Many gondolier think locomotives are "the devil's own chariots."[18]
References
- ↑ Jericho Locks: The Lockside, Fallen London
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Conversation with the Wandering Gondolier, Fallen London
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A pale tome in deep midnight explores the early Gonfaloniere whose wanderings much extended the network around Jericho, but whose absences and misguided leadership encouraged challenges to their position with zealous frequency.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A mauve volume narrates the progress of the modern Guild from its origins as workers in the Cumaean north and westward...’
- ↑ Ask about the Guild of Gondoliers, Fallen London
- ↑ Ask him about the prohibition on music, Fallen London
- ↑ Our Lady of the Canals, Fallen London
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’Their jokes are crude on all subjects but marriage. It is the holiest state and cannot be broken. Once bound, a gondolier will not be unbound.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’Only a gondolier is fit for another gondolier.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A series of infernal letters between gossips commenting on the love affair between a gondolier and a devil. The ceremony was conventional, the reception significantly less so.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’Marriages are rare in the Guild; a privilege reserved for a few. Some marry the waters in ceremonies of a highly symbolic nature, but in this case there was a groom.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A silver-tongued devil donates a text on the significance of water to the Guild: mother and bride and mistress of ceremonies all.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A golden prayerbook transpires to be a careful forgery: designed for the Guild to shore up their traditions of dubious veracity. As an insight, it is invaluable.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A pale leather tome narrates the efficacy of Hell's assistance to the Guildsmen as they set up to service the old trade route between Hell and its newest neighbour.’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’ A volume on infernal embassies details the contracts forged between Hell and the Guild, the documents taken over, the securities required...’
- ↑ The Poisoner's Library, Fallen London ’A rose-hued text details the fierce competition with the bargemen contracted by Hell from the docks; the mysteries of their disappearance, its totality...’
- ↑ Swap tales with the locals, Fallen London
- ↑ Engage in a public debate, Fallen London
