Post by Sire Halfblack on Feb 3, 2012 19:22:19 GMT
The Grand Puppeteers Guildhall
Deci’s Grand Puppeteers Guildhall is the finest of its example in the Empire and the pinnacle of the Toymakers art. The Puppeteers are quite possibly the most sinister of all the Craft Guilds in the Empire. Originally the basic guilds were constructed as meeting halls for the toy makers of the city, catering to almost everyone that works to create objects of interest and leisure – be it a wooden warrior, a set of puzzles or cabinets holding concealed drawers. All manner of things in fact. Strangely, though they work all day making things that often bring joy to the otherwise dull minds of the population, toy makers are typically rather grim, beady-eyed men and women. There is never laughter in a true Toy Makers Guild…
Over time, in Deci Toy Makers began installing odd clockwork devices that tell different times and moving toys that emerge to enact rather uncomfortable scenes at random times of the day. The windows to the guildhall are narrow and the Toy Makers themselves were never seen during the day. Even at night they moved about in heavy coats and concealing hats, leaving the delivery of their art to the markets to their servants.
No one who is not of the Guild were permitted entrance to the building and strange laughter could be heard in the dead of night from the highest pinnacles of the Guildhall. In Deci the Toy Makers became ever more sinister, strangely amused characters that seem to spend much of their time luring kittens and travellers into their tall, pointed and terrifying Guildhall.
At its penultimate development, the Toy Makers became known as The Puppeteers. A guild, a gathering of stark and evil folk, hardly unusual in Deci, they would stalk the streets and roofs, rumoured to kidnap and experiment on flesh and metal, bone and wood. The Puppeteers never emerge from behind their masks and their creations creep through the streets of the city, to catch the unwary. So much do they make that great heaps of oddities are discarded and dragged to market. No one is ever entirely sure what such rubbish is, but it is often marvellous and always wonderful to behold. The Puppeteers experiment not only with the world material but here the world mystic.
Following its completion in Martius IM 1008, The Puppeteers are now hardly seen at all, for they are amongst the most secretive and elusive of Guilds. Given to the manipulation of matters both material, mythical and malign the Guild is one that will aid Deci’s Lords when so asked but will brook no interference in their actions in return for such. They look upon the people of their nation as insects to be collected and bartered between themselves, as a greedy Merchant might with another over wealth and common influence…
A Visit To The Grand Puppeteers
The entrance hall had been very narrow and the more so the further he had ventured in. The angle itself had been the door, deceptive, so that the walls had folded up to make an arch with soft clicks. Within and for several steps it had been dark. The archway behind had fallen apart. Then he might have been in some monstrous clock. Some tangled web. Some great confusion of disorder that had clicked, and ticked, and struck and turned about him as by the light of dull orange eyes he had been led here (on giving his business) by a child made of porcelain and glass. That child held his hand still no matter that he had tried to remove it, and his dignity would not allow him for the moment to struggle or strike. It was not for him to exhibit fear.
Not here. Here in the menagerie of one of the five Guild Masters. That Guild Master was a looming thing himself of spun metal and polished brass, his face then as now a long curved mirror so that it seemed that when one addressed the figure it was to oneself, only larger, taller and that little bit more looming. Sire (for what time remained) Gayes The Mirror.
Somewhere a clock struck but too slow for seconds. It was rather cold yet the air was that of a cake shop, all spiced new bread and rum-soaked fruits. The darkness about them he knew to be unnatural, like the light from a lantern – reversed. It was oily, it had substance. It was somewhat like steam.
© Alan Morgan
Deci’s Grand Puppeteers Guildhall is the finest of its example in the Empire and the pinnacle of the Toymakers art. The Puppeteers are quite possibly the most sinister of all the Craft Guilds in the Empire. Originally the basic guilds were constructed as meeting halls for the toy makers of the city, catering to almost everyone that works to create objects of interest and leisure – be it a wooden warrior, a set of puzzles or cabinets holding concealed drawers. All manner of things in fact. Strangely, though they work all day making things that often bring joy to the otherwise dull minds of the population, toy makers are typically rather grim, beady-eyed men and women. There is never laughter in a true Toy Makers Guild…
Over time, in Deci Toy Makers began installing odd clockwork devices that tell different times and moving toys that emerge to enact rather uncomfortable scenes at random times of the day. The windows to the guildhall are narrow and the Toy Makers themselves were never seen during the day. Even at night they moved about in heavy coats and concealing hats, leaving the delivery of their art to the markets to their servants.
No one who is not of the Guild were permitted entrance to the building and strange laughter could be heard in the dead of night from the highest pinnacles of the Guildhall. In Deci the Toy Makers became ever more sinister, strangely amused characters that seem to spend much of their time luring kittens and travellers into their tall, pointed and terrifying Guildhall.
At its penultimate development, the Toy Makers became known as The Puppeteers. A guild, a gathering of stark and evil folk, hardly unusual in Deci, they would stalk the streets and roofs, rumoured to kidnap and experiment on flesh and metal, bone and wood. The Puppeteers never emerge from behind their masks and their creations creep through the streets of the city, to catch the unwary. So much do they make that great heaps of oddities are discarded and dragged to market. No one is ever entirely sure what such rubbish is, but it is often marvellous and always wonderful to behold. The Puppeteers experiment not only with the world material but here the world mystic.
Following its completion in Martius IM 1008, The Puppeteers are now hardly seen at all, for they are amongst the most secretive and elusive of Guilds. Given to the manipulation of matters both material, mythical and malign the Guild is one that will aid Deci’s Lords when so asked but will brook no interference in their actions in return for such. They look upon the people of their nation as insects to be collected and bartered between themselves, as a greedy Merchant might with another over wealth and common influence…
A Visit To The Grand Puppeteers
The entrance hall had been very narrow and the more so the further he had ventured in. The angle itself had been the door, deceptive, so that the walls had folded up to make an arch with soft clicks. Within and for several steps it had been dark. The archway behind had fallen apart. Then he might have been in some monstrous clock. Some tangled web. Some great confusion of disorder that had clicked, and ticked, and struck and turned about him as by the light of dull orange eyes he had been led here (on giving his business) by a child made of porcelain and glass. That child held his hand still no matter that he had tried to remove it, and his dignity would not allow him for the moment to struggle or strike. It was not for him to exhibit fear.
Not here. Here in the menagerie of one of the five Guild Masters. That Guild Master was a looming thing himself of spun metal and polished brass, his face then as now a long curved mirror so that it seemed that when one addressed the figure it was to oneself, only larger, taller and that little bit more looming. Sire (for what time remained) Gayes The Mirror.
Somewhere a clock struck but too slow for seconds. It was rather cold yet the air was that of a cake shop, all spiced new bread and rum-soaked fruits. The darkness about them he knew to be unnatural, like the light from a lantern – reversed. It was oily, it had substance. It was somewhat like steam.
© Alan Morgan