The Guild of Gondoliers
The Guild of Gondoliers is a trade guild based in Jericho Locks. Its members travel along the rivers of the Hinterlands between Hell and London, facilitating trade between the two cities,[1] carrying passengers,[2] and exploring the rivers' furthest reaches.[3]
Trade on the Red Waters
After the Fall of London, the first people to row the Hinterlands' rivers were workers in or near the Cumaean Canal.[4] By maintaining these early trade routes, they established themselves as a power in their own right. In response, Mr Fires created the highly structured Guild of Gondoliers, with the Gonfaloniere at its head.[5] The first Gonfaloniere spent more time exploring the rivers than leading, which led to a period of instability in the early days of the Guild.[3]
The Guild is highly traditionalist[2] - though not all of their traditions arose organically.[6] Their customs include forbidding any music near the river except the viol,[7] that anyone who charters a gondola has the right to ask for any gondolier they wish,[2] and mandating that no one interact with the mysterious Swan Bride.[8] Weddings are taken especially seriously;[9] a member of the Guild may only marry another member,[10] whether devil[11] or human. Some choose to symbolically marry the waters instead, but most choose not to marry at all.[12] These very waters have a special place in the Guild's culture.[13]
Hell has a good rapport with the Guild; the devils assisted the gondoliers in navigating the Hinterlands' rivers in the Guild's earliest days,[14] and the two parties have forged many a contract.[15] At some point, however, they also attempted to undermine the Guild by hiring dock workers, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.[16] The Guild sometimes works with the Brazen Brigade, an enemy of Hell.[17]
The Guild views the coming of the Great Hellbound Railway with distrust; gondoliers have been known to call its locomotives "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
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ 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 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
