The History of The Order of The Hammer. A Revisionist Perspecitve. Part I
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The History of The Order of The Hammer. A Revisionist Perspecitve
For many years, established histories and theories have held sway both within and without the Keeper Compound. Our doctrines feature the need for a continual review of seeming truths, and so what is regarded as the authoritative history of the Order of the Hammer must be reviewed in the light of new truths. Following in the trail-blazing footsteps of Keeper Orowelle, it is time for a revisionist perspective on the history of the Order.
Conventional wisdom holds that the Hammerites were a small, outspoken group for much of their existence, until they were brought into wider society by a Baron. There they underwent a series of rises and declines, culminating in the decline that the Order experiences today. This view is essentially close to what must now be regarded as the truth, but differs in key aspects. It mistakes the degree of integration into secular society undergone by the Order, and overstates the amount of conflict with the governing and political structures of the City. While it is true that conflict did exist, it was not serious, and was restricted to only a few points in the long relationship between the Hammerites and the City.
The origins of the Order of the Hammer seem to be a mystery to even the most knowledgeable of that Order. It appears to have emerged as a means of opposition to the paganistic elements present in early society. The vehement hatred for pagans that prevails throughout the Order is one of its defining characteristics. Some suggest that its roots go back to Karath-Din and a small group of mystics from a society called the “Guild of Enlightenment” charged with protecting the Emperor’s tower. A body of scholarly opinion is behind this view. Upon discovery of Karath-Din many Mechanists identified artefacts as being “the ancient power used by our Order to benefit all of humankind”. The rudimentary magical abilities of Hammerite priests might be derivations of spells used by the Guild, which appears to have had priests who could wield magic. The focus of the Guild on defending the building from natural forces might have been directed, as the passing years dulled the memory of those adherents, towards a protection of all buildings from natural forces. This thesis is controversial, but not inherently unrealistic.
It is much more likely that the Order emerged as a primitive religion following a charismatic man who resisted the darkness and fear in the time after the fall of Karath-Din. His name may have come down to us – a certain Jeremyn who was responsible for either the production or collation of what has become the Book of the Nail, one of the fundamental foundations of Hammerite doctrine and theology. For many years the Hammerites remained a minority religion. Their affinity for construction and engineering naturally led builders and other related trades to grow interested in them and join the Order. It acted as a form of guild, or a place where the trades could meet and talk. With the attraction of its own robes, customs and even theology, this meant that by the time history starts in the City the Order is known to be a small, outspoken religion that is also a guild with a monopoly on construction in the City.
With economic growth came increased construction of buildings and other urban development. The Order was swelled by new blood, and its monopoly on the building trade meant that it soon became a powerful voice in the City. The profits gained from its activities were used to glorify the Builder, resulting in an ostentatious display of wealth that attracted many people to the Order. They wanted a share of this wealth, and part of the power and respect that being a member of the Order gave. People donated or bequeathed lands to the Order, which grew in size and wealth until the Baron felt that it represented a substantial threat to his authority and control of the City.
The solution he adopted was inspired. He managed to force his election as High Priest of the Order by the Master Forgers, giving him complete control over its activities. He gained the revenues from the Order, as well as a means of controlling a substantial proportion of the population. Most importantly, he gained a core of well-trained warriors that formed the basis of the City’s army for the next few centuries, and a police force to patrol the streets. The militaristic nature of Hammerite ideology was perfectly suited for these tasks, and in concert with the secular judiciary the Hammers were soon engaged in a full-scale assault on street crime in the City.
They won widespread popularity for making the streets safe, as well as the various sanitary facilities they constructed. Sewers, drains, water and power conduits – all of these were gradually installed throughout the City. Their most important contribution to the City, however, was Cragscleft. A name feared by many criminals, it was built by the Hammerites in the most inaccessible location available – an abandoned quarry deep in the mountains. Gaols had not been a feature of the City before – punishments were carried out immediately, and usually involved such measures as branding, pillorying, or execution. Cragscleft was feared for its harsh regime under the Hammerites, which involved toil in worked-out gold mines until the encroachment of the undead forced the Hammers back to the upper, habitable levels of the compound.
All these measures brought prosperity within the time of the Baron, and he was anxious to pass on such benefits to his son. Using his position and power, he forced the Master Forgers to agree to elect his son to the post of High Priest upon his death. They were understandably reluctant – it set an undesirable precedent, for the High Priest had previously been chosen from among the ranks of the Master Forgers. However, they could not resist the strength of the Baron’s will, and acceded to his demands. When the next Baron in turn came to the end of his life, he forced the election of his own son. Gradually this became an established precedent, and later barons had no need to struggle against the Order.
The harmonisation of relationships within the City led to many years of prosperity and peace. Trade boomed, and urban development was hailed by the Hammerites as the triumph of the Master Builder over the forces of paganism. The Order settled into a comfortable routine, patrolling the streets and arresting criminals, and handing them over to the secular judiciary for trial. Cragscleft was the destination of the worst offenders, as well as pagans and heretics that were tried exclusively in Hammerite courts. The Hammers manned the pumps and machines that dealt with the City’s sewage, and brought power to the homes of those that could afford to make use of it.
Hammerite influence spread into the commercial and industrial sector, where the technology of the Order was produced and sold to other cities in the region. The Order grew wealthy, leading to the barons becoming wealthier. They were able to engage in aggressive expansion, leading an army of Hammerites, local militia and mercenaries against neighbouring nobles. The City expanded its possessions, capturing the Northern Territories from Blackbrook and placing them under a Governor. Great buildings were erected throughout the City, including a magnificent cathedral in the Old Quarter that became the hub of Hammerite worship and a repository for relics, knowledge and new technologies.
However, after several centuries this beneficial concord was fraying at the edges. Some within the Order of the Hammer were unhappy at the direction the Order was moving in, and sought in instigate a Reformation that would end what they saw as corrupt and unholy practices. They were not revolutionaries, but radicals who sought to return the Order to its original religious, pious, militaristic roots. They were attacked as heretics within the Order, and many were sent to Cragscleft, but support for them began to grow as more and more Hammerites became disillusioned with the state of the Order. It seemed that the Order had gone from a noble aim of suppressing the Pagans to becoming more concerned with mundane matters of sewage and policing while the Pagans lived outside in the woods around the City. In addition, they resented the corruption that had crept into the Order from the Baron, with posts becoming increasingly politicised, and the Master Forgers engaging more in affairs of court than caring for the religious well being of their wards. They were unhappy at the City courts, which seemed to be acquitting known criminals and otherwise drifting from the path of righteousness that the Hammerites moved along.
As this new reforming movement gained hold, it started to splinter the Order. Most wished to reform the Order from within – a few were so intent on a reforming move that they were unconcerned whether their efforts created a schism. Eventually the Master Forgers were converted – forcibly or voluntarily – to the reforming movement, and saw the only way of accomplishing it was the break with the secular structure of the City entirely. Thus, when the time came for the Baron to nominate his successor he was refused. Astonished, he attempted to force his claim in a more emphatic manner, using all his authority as High Priest, but the Master Forgers stood firm and nominated one of their number. The Baron’s efforts escalated the seriousness of the situation, and, fearing an assault, the Hammerites recalled their warriors from the army and threatened the Baron in response.
Forced to chose between further unrest or a humiliating submission to the Hammerite demands, the Baron eventually chose the latter, relinquishing his post as High Priest, but keeping the lands that his post had granted him. The Order was allowed to go its own way, keeping Cragscleft and much of the land and wealth granted to the Order rather than the post of High Priest, which was filled by the nominated Master Forger. They abandoned their duties at the pumps and the streets, causing the Baron to have to create the Department of Public Works to run the City’s infrastructure, and set up a police force to keep down the street crime that plagued the City. They also abandoned their businesses, rejecting involvement with the secular world, and selling them to enterprising businessmen in the City.
However, conflict continued over a matter at the heart of the City’s functioning. As the former police of the City the Order felt entitled, and duty-bound, to continue to arrest, try and punish criminals. The Baron was not prepared to relinquish this prerogative right that had existed before the growth of the Order, and which gave him control over the citizens and plebes of the City. In addition, the reform of the Order had caused it to become more ascetic, strict and rigid, which the Baron realised would lead to increased arrests and prosecutions, and thus undesirable civic unrest. He and the Order faced each other down in the issue, and skirmishes between Hammerites and members of the City Guard became common.
The issue was only resolved through the intervention of the nobles. The Hammerite objective did not just encroach on the Baron’s prerogatives – it threatened the nobles and the power they obtained from being in control of the City’s judiciary. In an alliance with the Baron, they formed a coalition that was powerful enough to subdue the Order. The judiciary remained secular; the judicial apparatus that the Hammerites set up to use were converted into a means of trying heretics within the Order. Although this has not stopped them from arresting citizens and trying them under their own laws, this is an increasingly rare circumstance.
Deprived of his former revenues, the Baron was forced to raise taxes, contributing to the general decline that the City was undergoing. The Order was subject to this decline, its ascetic lifestyle drawing fewer acolytes and the plight of the City causing more people to think of bread and wages than of the Master Builder. The loss of the Hammerite Cathedral contributed to this decline. Described elsewhere, it was a powerful blow that deprived the Hammerites of their most vivid symbol. Its loss was seen as a sign of the displeasure of the Master Builder, causing the Order to become even stricter in its interpretation of doctrine, and thus even more unattractive to potential converts. This led to a severe manpower shortage that continues to this day. Although Cragscleft continues to produce sledgehammers, a lack of manpower elsewhere means that the Order is increasingly forced to contract out the production of weaponry to secular agents.
The Order of the Hammer is in dire straits. Although it seems united and powerful, with a strong grip on the affairs of the City, it is increasingly becoming marginalized and fragmented. The Order possesses little influence in the functioning of the City, and its small force of warriors cannot compete with the standing army and militia under the command of the Baron. Its wealth is declining as bequests dry up, and as numbers of conversions fall the Hammerites no longer have the manpower to exert a meaningful presence on the streets of the City. The current High Priest, Markander, is a weak man who is unable to prevent the factionalism that has spread through the Order. Some Hammerites believe that the Order must gain the Master Builder’s blessing by continuing to purify itself and follow the strictest laws of conduct. Others believe that the Order must relax its doctrines and adapt itself to the modern, secular world.
It is a sad decline for the Order of the Hammer, and one that we must slow until it has completed its work. It is needed as an ally against the Trickster and his nefarious plans, but once he is dead and the Metal Age is upon us it is difficult to see how the Order will be able to resist the pressures, both internal and external, that will be thrust upon it.
