Faced with falling support and a drought of adherents, the Order was split by a conflict over possible solutions. Some supported a return to the strict and ascetic traditions of their fathers, while others advocated the development and improvement of the technologies that had gained them their power, and others the use of an item newly discovered by them. It was a gemstone called the Eye, an instrument of the Trickster that the Hammerites had faced before and acquired through unknown means and methods. Some of the Order, the young and the radical, pushed strongly that its magic be tamed and used for the Hammerite cause as it had been used against them.
The man then High Priest of the Order of the Hammer was weak and vacuous, forever influenced by the machinations of the Master Forgers. Against his better judgement, he was persuaded by the leader of the radicals to install the Eye in the citadel of Hammerite power, the Cathedral, and there turn its power against the Pagans. Brother Murus was greatly opposed to the plan, but died in unusual circumstances in the workyard of the Cathedral before he could disseminate his pleas fully. Some Hammers came to share his misgivings, especially when the Eye demonstrated how it could escape its vault and float over the altar each morning. However, before anything could be done disaster struck. The Eye managed to resurrect the corpses of those killed in the siege of the Cathedral, who had been hastily buried in unconsecrated ground during the conflict those many years ago. The undead, rotting and decaying, proved impossible to kill with the stone sledgehammers the Hammerites wielded, and many were slain by the rusty blades the undead soldiers still carried. In vain the Hammerites bolted their steel doors – the undead, with superhuman strength, brought down part of the St. Yora’s dormitories and broke into the building. Hammerites struck down arose as the undead, cold light aflame in their eyes. Many took swords off the undead, wielding them with inhuman skill as they laughed manically. The Hammers fought a desperate rear-guard as a group of them went to ring the great bells of the Cathedral, which normally called worshippers to prayer. Awakened by this unusual occurrence, the citizens living around the Cathedral stumbled out of bed to see a forlorn battle in progress, as the undead forced the Hammers out of the Cathedral and down the great flight of steps that led up to it. Many fled immediately, not even stopping to take their valuables. A contingent of the City Guard arrived soon after to help, but they proved ineffective and only provided more enemies as they were slaughtered. Keeper Andrus, sleeping in the Keeper Grotto, was awakened by the commotion, and went himself to the scene to view the situation. He immediately saw that the Hammers were doomed, and that unless action were taken the undead would overrun the Old Quarter and then the City, forever tipping the Balance in favour of the Trickster. Making a split-second decision, he despatched a contingent of Keepers back to the Keeper Compound to collect the Elemental Talismans, which had been preserved for an occasion as serious as this. Andrus then sent the remainder of the Keepers at the Grotto to the steps of the Cathedral, armed with holy water and fire arrows to hold back the undead until the Talismans and their mounts could be collected. Andrus knew that this would reveal our presence to the world, and so paid a personal visit to the High Priest, who had displayed uncharacteristic strength of character and come to supervise the conflict. During a brief meeting Andrus laid out the situation, and said that we would contain the evil engulfing the Cathedral – provided that the Order make available all their men to guards us at our work, and that our existence be kept a secret from all the City. We knew we had no hope of working undetected, and this hastily negotiated agreement at least ensured that we were known only to the upper echelons of the Order. Armed with holy water and fire arrows we ourselves provided, the Hammerites formed a protective cordon around us as we used explosives to demolish the houses around the Cathedral and form a barrier that the undead could not progress beyond. Then, we cooperated with the Hammerites to drive the undead back up the stairs and into the Cathedral. As we worked at the doors, the Hammers drove off the undead. Eventually the task was done, and we nailed our warning above the Cathedral door. Returning with the Elemental Talismans, we discovered alarming news. The Cloister gate at the rear of the Cathedral had not been sealed, and several of the undead had escaped around the cordon and spread along Auldale Street and Cathedral Street. Several of our Order volunteered to journey to the gate and lock it shut, while the rest of us, and the Hammerites, retreated to deal with the undead.
The fighting had reached Market Street when the volunteers returned with the news that the Cloister gate had been sealed. Such was the speed of the undeads’ advance that we were unable to satisfactorily evacuate our own Grotto. It was sealed to the best of our ability, and we soon received word that the Baron had summoned an emergency meeting of the City Council, and had decided to create a vast wall that would keep the undead contained. We initially thought that this tactic was not ideal, as it would leave the entire area infested, but we then realised that this would deter those of nefarious intent, and so used our influence to facilitate the process. Construction of the Barricades began at Rubin Street, De Perrin Street and Cathedral Street, as the we and the Hammers struggled to hold back the undead. As we were gradually pushed back we took our leave of the Hammerites, not wanting to be seen by the general populace. They continued the struggle alone until they reached the Barricades, where they were aided by the City Guard and worked with them to protect the workers as the wall rose higher. Finally it was done, and all there escaped to the other side of the wall, leaving the undead contained in what has become known as the ‘Closed Area’. In the wake of the “time of peril”, as the episode came to be known by the Hammerites, the Order changed dramatically. All were traumatised by the loss of a building that was a symbol of Hammerite prestige, power and magnificence, and the Order had also lost many of its most radical and youngest adherents. Naturally, the reactionaries found their opposition to the radical theories vindicated, and those radicals surviving found themselves hounded out of the Order or denounced as heretics for failing to believe in the veracity of the Builder’s Plan – that plan being the ascetic and isolated lifestyle the reactionaries advocated. Many of these “doubters” were actually killed and buried in the foundations of the new Temple the Order built later to act as the new focus for their worship. The “time of peril” also deprived the Hammerites of many of the symbols of their faith. Although the First Hammer and St. Yora’s skull were retrieved, the Order had lost many of its holy relics and remains of previous saints. They needed a new symbol of their power to act as an icon, and an objective to inject meaning into their doctrine, which had been badly shaken by the events. In addition, we needed placate them, because those who were aware of what we had done objected to us holding the ‘keys’ to their own Cathedral, however dangerous the evil inside. In the end a compromise and solution was reached, and we gave the Order the Talisman of Air to guard and watch over. This task gave them a new aim and purpose, and they pledged their honour to act as a shield over it. The conflict also brought an unexpected benefit. Many people in the City were shocked by their encounter with the undead, and Hammerite propaganda had made out, truthfully, that the undead were the minions of the Trickster. Their faith in the secular world-view seriously disturbed, large numbers of citizens flocked to join the Hammers, whose Order was inundated by those wishing to become initiates. From a marginalized faith on the brink of collapse the Order was reinvigorated by the great influx, and the reactionaries that had gained power insisted on the strict, conservative lifestyle that the radicals had opposed. With their increased numbers, the Hammerites began to regain influence. Patrols and watchmen were sent out to deal with crime, and many more temples were built to better spread the word of the Master Builder. Criminals were treated with increased severity, and Cragscleft soon became the most heavily used gaol in the City. Often the City’s secular laws were overridden, as the acquitted were subjected to the more severe Hammerite trial and punishment. Yet, even within this new, strict, conservative order there were still the radicals. With the fall of those who had advocated the use of nature came the rise of those who advocated the use of machinery. The most vocal of the radicals was Brother Karras, who endeavoured continuously throughout his days in the Order for the Hammerites to make use of their technological expertise and improve upon the machines the Builder had given them. Only in this way, Karras thought, could the Order be saved and gain true power. The great initiation of lay folk into the Order meant that his ideas found support among those who had experience of the secular world, and found the Hammerite doctrine over-strict and antiquated. The reactionary Hammerites countered this threatening upsurge by increasing the severity and strictness of doctrine, and a gradual rejection of secular accruements that had made the Order attractive or bearable to some in the past. As the fortunes of the Order rose, so those of the City fell. The loss of the Cathedral had greatly affected morale, and the induction of so many into the Order of the Hammer meant that business suffered greatly, as both supply and demand fell. Hearing of the events, many merchant shipping companies and captains refused to dock at the City, and trade fell sharply, resulting in a substantial drop in revenues that limited the potential courses of action for the Baron. The situation worsened when the Baron died and his son succeeded him. The new Baron, as traumatised as others by the “time of peril”, became increasingly close to the Order of the Hammer, and many thought he would actually join it. In the event, the Baron took just as bad a decision. Yielding to Hammerite demands, he turned over all things mechanical to the Order – pumps, drains, power stations, workshops and businesses. The Order had long felt aggrieved that such technologies were in the hands of heretics and peasants, and also realised that once they again had a monopoly on technology their position would be greatly ameliorated. This episode proved disastrous for the City, as the production and trading of its main export of machinery fell. The Hammerite insistence on absolute control of all things mechanical meant that the technology was used for the benefit of the Order rather than any other, and the immense control the Hammers now had over the City meant that they were able to demand other concessions from the devout, pious and rather weak Baron. By controlling the export of machinery, they controlled the amount of money that flowed from it into the Baron’s purse, and thus exerted a powerful influence over him. Hammerite law was imposed on the City, overriding secular law. The city courts still operated, as did the City Guard, but no one protested when the Hammerites arrested and imprisoned without trial those it had felt were breaking the Master Builder’s laws. Restrictions on activities, dress and behaviour were enforced where possible, as the Hammerites tried to control the radical faction within the Order that was increasingly supported by dissatisfied Hammers. The situation led to massive popular discontent, as well as economic recession and a criminal renaissance. In a vicious circle, people became more and more fractious as the Hammerites resorted to increasingly draconian measures to control the outbreak. As the Order descended into progressively stricter orthodoxy to control both internal and external foes, more and more people left the Order to make their own way in the secular world. The memory of the conflict at the Barricades was fast fading, and disillusionment among new initiates meant that Hammerites soon began to bemoan the lack of novices. In order to maintain favour with the Hammerites, now the dominant power in the City, many nobles maintained resident Hammer priests in their homes, but the orthodoxy of the Order drove many to alternative forms of religion. The present Baron’s invasion of Blackbrook was intended to revive his popularity, but also had the effect of partially unseating the Order’s domination of the City. Using the war as an excuse, he levied higher taxes on imports and exports, and on the people, to pay for the fighting. Although most of the money was for personal enrichment, the additional money meant that he was no longer subject to the Order of the Hammer’s whim, for they could no longer control how much money reached him. Such is the situation now. The Order of the Hammer is still powerful, and we have ensured that it is so in order that it might resist the Trickster if Garrett cannot. The glyphs are cryptic, and there is controversy amongst us over how the Woodsie Lord is to be defeated. In any case, the decline of the Hammers will follow soon after. They have preserved the Balance thus far, and will continue to preserve it, but they are not fated to shift the Balance and bring about the Metal Age. Yet they have existed seemingly forever – they exist now, and it seems probable that they will continue to exist.
Keeper Hostibus Thesis, ‘History of the Hammerites’. Keeper Library; Order of the Hammer, History of - 4956
