Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Categories 112
- In Character 21
- Thul Ka 20
- Elsewhere 1
- Out Of Character 91
- Character Sheets 21
- General 8
- Works In Progress 27
- Showcase 35
[Wiki Article] The Worshipful Company of Pipefitters
BrotherRoach
Member
Thul Ka is alive. Its canals, its pipeworks, its pneumatic tubes, its roads, all of these means of delivering people and power operate together to create a strong rushing blood system. If at any point the arterial flow of the city was to stop entirely, the rest of the body would immediately go into shock. Those that keep the heart beating and the vessels strong count themselves among the Worshipful Company of Pipefitters, an organization as old as the city itself.
The Company is an interesting beast in that it operates on both a political and industrial level. On the political level, it is specifically interested in the physical well being of the city and its assorted systems and works. This is mostly due to its industrial side, where the body of its organization does the lion’s share of industrial work and construction for the city.The canals were built by, and the massive power plants that provide steam, heat, and most unique to Thul Ka, compressed air to the city, were laid down and are operated by members of the Company. The organization provides a means of easy training, accountancy, advocacy, and work placement for the assorted craftspeople and skilled labor that keep Thul Ka one of the world’s most amazing cities, and it isn’t hard to see why membership and public opinion of them rarely wanes. A citizen must only look around and see the good work of the Company.
The Pipefitters as a political party, on the other hand, have a much more interesting and complex relationship with the public and with the Assembly. They use their intimate knowledge as well as their control over the city’s works as a blunt weapon to foster legislation to maintain the upkeep of their projects and to pay their workers. This is generally seen as good practice, but their constant foot dragging on any law that could possibly cede some power of inspection or quality assurance away from them makes people suspicious. The Pipefitters police themselves for the most part, and such an arrangement means there is ample place for someone with the right money or blackmail to cause major problems for people in the city. Patronage and graft aren’t implied within the Company. They’re obvious, and to the members, ‘honest’.
They favor a well funded government (so they can be paid and more projects can be put on their rosters) but are also suspicious of government oversight of industry and trade (which would give them less wiggle room in their business practices). They often find themselves opposed to the more intellectual members of the One Sun Party and the Brotherhood of the Fish, who are often concerned with what they see as ‘wanton growth and development of the urban environment’. They also are the most bitter enemies of the Fat Purse Party, who would have the entirety of their organization destroyed and the upkeep of the city left solely to at profit businesses. They laugh at this, and know perfectly well that what scares the Fat Purses so much is an organization of workers to big and old for them to intimidate, and not rich enough to be totally disinterested in the city’s physical continuation.
Still, especially with the proliferation of the power generation side of the Company, people are feeling more and more uneasy of every steam plant and pneumatics station being under the watchful eye of only the Pipefitters. They aren’t helping things by staunchly refusing to allow any outside company not attached to their organization any position. Still, their alliance with the ruling Crocus party and their own power in the government ensures they will be around for a long time.
Pondru ‘Boss’ Jakali- The current leader of the Company and Chair of the very influential Public Works Committee. Pondru is a woman of great political and physical stature. Intelligent and a bit brutal in her dealings, she began work cutting the second great addition to Thul Ka’s ancient canal system two decades ago. Her skill and knowledge as a foreman propelled her further up the organization’s hierarchy, and it was her plan for positioning the new steam plants along the river that propelled her to her current seat. Many outsiders who visit Thul Ka are amazed by the obvious (albeit often begrudging) respect that the galdor heavy Assembly pay to this enormous human woman.
On her fingers are six iron rings that she sanded down from fasteners. She wears them as a sign of her own patience when it comes to seeing things through, and as a reminder that she’s only interested in the practical, not the purely decorative. This anecdote has been told so many times at Company functions that it’s turned all the way around from being an annoyance to becoming a running joke. While not ‘progressive’ by any standards, she is cunning and sees that with the current winds of change in her beloved city, she could stand poised to guarantee the primacy of her party, as well as perhaps make a name for herself as… the next mayor? Well, even something as solid as Thul Ka was a dream at first. And she would add that if anyone knows about making such a dream concrete, it would be the Pipefitters.
Chief Whip Jafed Danu Danu- Jafed began work as a draftsman and designer for the Company and over the years insinuated himself into almost every aspect of creation and manufacture. His wide ranging knowledge of legislature, procedure, and engineering have earned him the nickname ‘Amati Danu’ despite the wick having never gone to Thul Amat. As Jakali’s right hand, he mostly takes care of things on the non political side of the Company. He’s the one that makes sure things get shipped to the right place, that the lamps are on, that the plants are running, etc. Not a political creature by any means, he doesn’t much like his Boss’s bellicose posturing, and honestly feels that it’s about time someone knocked her off her pedestal.
Lesser Whip Karemmah Kifu (Waterworks, Infrastructure)- Karemmah is a surprisingly young whip. A galdor, and odder than that, an alum of Thul Amat, Karemmah entered the organization without connections or pretense. She claimed all she wanted to do was to help her city prosper all the more. To that end she revived a sector of the Pipefitters often known for their stolid adherence to tradition. She designed and chaired numerous projects that didn’t actually build anything, but /tested/ things.
Having studied chemistry at Thul Amat, she’s curious about seeing if she could make things run easier, or cheaper, or with less work. Many of the old guard see the ‘less work’ specifically as fighting words, and don’t take well to a young whelp barely over thirty trying to tell them how to do a job they’ve done for decades. In fact, there is no way that she could have made whip if she hadn’t caught the eye of Boss Jakali. Some say the elevation of the young, if ingenius woman, is a purely political bid to help get the city’s intelligentsia interested in Jakali’s policy, but it can’t be denied that the woman is working hard for the Company.
Lesser Whip Gango ‘Piebald’ Morakka (Power Generation, Pneumatics)- Gango’s a bit of a legend among the pipefitters. One of the members whose job is the Company’s namesake, Gango worked for years through two major upgrades of the city’s system, first the introduction of the first dedicated municipal steam header that provided steam power to the whole city, and then to the second major addition to the canal system, where he worked closely with Boss Jakali, when she was only known as a rather pushy but deviously clever foreman who got things done. Jakali jealously kept Gango on every team she ever headed, claiming ‘I don’t think I could design something this man couldn’t build.’
Indeed, Gango’s ability to pull success out of near impossible odds is well known. He pioneered what are called ‘Morakkan Sails’, which are large canvas ducts used to collect wind and funnel it to tired workers on hot days. He also is one of the few millwrights who worked every single day of the first great storm of the rainy season during the cutting of the new canals. Specifically, he’s the only one who didn’t die.
His work was rewarded by his nomination as the lesser Whip in charge of the Power Generation Department of the Company. It is growing at an amazing rate to meet with the city’s demands and Gango’s ability to stay calm under the worst pressures makes him a perfect fit. His nickname comes from his white dappled skin, a warning to younger Pipefitters that when people say ‘be careful carrying the acid we use to take hard shell off the distiller tubes’ it means BE CAREFUL.
Secretary Inmar Goyupti - Accounting- When one imagines an accountant for an organization as large and official as the Worshipful Company of Pipefitters, one would expect an old, respectable bursar type. Maybe poached from one of the old firms that operate in the city. What one wouldn’t expect is Inmar Goyupti, an old dried up wick with a network of horrific scars on one side of his face and the yellow tinged glare of a demon. No one knows where Inmar is from, he’s one of the oldest members of the Company. He’s not a city wick, has no connection to them anyone can discern. What he is though, is a man with a very good, and very old memory. It seems that any time the Order needs something, Inmar can find someone who owes them. For an organization that works so heavily on graft, Goyupti is the person who remembers not just to keep the books, but to keep three books. One for anyone who asks, one for the Boss… and one for himself.
Secretary Yakala Ehrkavu- Records and Material History - Quiet, androgynous, almost completely forgettable, the tall spindly human is another new face in the upper echelons of the Pipefitters. Placed in their current position by Jakali, Yakala had an uninteresting and not particularly notable career in the pipefitters as a draftsman before being placed- rather /propelled/ into their new position. Everyone was flabbergasted by such a decision. The Boss went over the heads of numerous more qualified people to give the waif their new seat. Yakala was mostly just scared. Still, Pondru threatened to stop talking up certain pet projects to the more influential Least Whips and they in turn calmed down their divisions in the Company. Yakala was sent work, mostly in redesigning and streamlining old technical documents and helping to create an updated system of assurances for the watch and maintenance of the new steam lines.
Instead of choosing to talk, have meetings, or anything like that, Yakala quietly went into the library, gathered up any relevant technical outlines, and began drawing. Occasionally tools or food would be requested. Mystified, the other members of the rather put out division came in and began asking questions. Answers were given in the forms of diagrams detailing whatever specific aspect they were concerned about. These were pored over, then edited by the other draftsmen and engineers. Eventually a rhythm came into place. Yakalah wasn’t so much an organizer like Secretaries before, but a conduit. Questions were taken to them, to be given a prudent document or recommended to another member of the team who was working on a similar project. All the while the new drawings were collected, organized, and notarized by Yakalah.
No one’s sure what to think of the new system, but the design and planning offices have become much quieter, and that’s appreciated by all.
* * *
So... thoughts?
The Company is an interesting beast in that it operates on both a political and industrial level. On the political level, it is specifically interested in the physical well being of the city and its assorted systems and works. This is mostly due to its industrial side, where the body of its organization does the lion’s share of industrial work and construction for the city.The canals were built by, and the massive power plants that provide steam, heat, and most unique to Thul Ka, compressed air to the city, were laid down and are operated by members of the Company. The organization provides a means of easy training, accountancy, advocacy, and work placement for the assorted craftspeople and skilled labor that keep Thul Ka one of the world’s most amazing cities, and it isn’t hard to see why membership and public opinion of them rarely wanes. A citizen must only look around and see the good work of the Company.
The Pipefitters as a political party, on the other hand, have a much more interesting and complex relationship with the public and with the Assembly. They use their intimate knowledge as well as their control over the city’s works as a blunt weapon to foster legislation to maintain the upkeep of their projects and to pay their workers. This is generally seen as good practice, but their constant foot dragging on any law that could possibly cede some power of inspection or quality assurance away from them makes people suspicious. The Pipefitters police themselves for the most part, and such an arrangement means there is ample place for someone with the right money or blackmail to cause major problems for people in the city. Patronage and graft aren’t implied within the Company. They’re obvious, and to the members, ‘honest’.
They favor a well funded government (so they can be paid and more projects can be put on their rosters) but are also suspicious of government oversight of industry and trade (which would give them less wiggle room in their business practices). They often find themselves opposed to the more intellectual members of the One Sun Party and the Brotherhood of the Fish, who are often concerned with what they see as ‘wanton growth and development of the urban environment’. They also are the most bitter enemies of the Fat Purse Party, who would have the entirety of their organization destroyed and the upkeep of the city left solely to at profit businesses. They laugh at this, and know perfectly well that what scares the Fat Purses so much is an organization of workers to big and old for them to intimidate, and not rich enough to be totally disinterested in the city’s physical continuation.
Still, especially with the proliferation of the power generation side of the Company, people are feeling more and more uneasy of every steam plant and pneumatics station being under the watchful eye of only the Pipefitters. They aren’t helping things by staunchly refusing to allow any outside company not attached to their organization any position. Still, their alliance with the ruling Crocus party and their own power in the government ensures they will be around for a long time.
Pondru ‘Boss’ Jakali- The current leader of the Company and Chair of the very influential Public Works Committee. Pondru is a woman of great political and physical stature. Intelligent and a bit brutal in her dealings, she began work cutting the second great addition to Thul Ka’s ancient canal system two decades ago. Her skill and knowledge as a foreman propelled her further up the organization’s hierarchy, and it was her plan for positioning the new steam plants along the river that propelled her to her current seat. Many outsiders who visit Thul Ka are amazed by the obvious (albeit often begrudging) respect that the galdor heavy Assembly pay to this enormous human woman.
On her fingers are six iron rings that she sanded down from fasteners. She wears them as a sign of her own patience when it comes to seeing things through, and as a reminder that she’s only interested in the practical, not the purely decorative. This anecdote has been told so many times at Company functions that it’s turned all the way around from being an annoyance to becoming a running joke. While not ‘progressive’ by any standards, she is cunning and sees that with the current winds of change in her beloved city, she could stand poised to guarantee the primacy of her party, as well as perhaps make a name for herself as… the next mayor? Well, even something as solid as Thul Ka was a dream at first. And she would add that if anyone knows about making such a dream concrete, it would be the Pipefitters.
Chief Whip Jafed Danu Danu- Jafed began work as a draftsman and designer for the Company and over the years insinuated himself into almost every aspect of creation and manufacture. His wide ranging knowledge of legislature, procedure, and engineering have earned him the nickname ‘Amati Danu’ despite the wick having never gone to Thul Amat. As Jakali’s right hand, he mostly takes care of things on the non political side of the Company. He’s the one that makes sure things get shipped to the right place, that the lamps are on, that the plants are running, etc. Not a political creature by any means, he doesn’t much like his Boss’s bellicose posturing, and honestly feels that it’s about time someone knocked her off her pedestal.
Lesser Whip Karemmah Kifu (Waterworks, Infrastructure)- Karemmah is a surprisingly young whip. A galdor, and odder than that, an alum of Thul Amat, Karemmah entered the organization without connections or pretense. She claimed all she wanted to do was to help her city prosper all the more. To that end she revived a sector of the Pipefitters often known for their stolid adherence to tradition. She designed and chaired numerous projects that didn’t actually build anything, but /tested/ things.
Having studied chemistry at Thul Amat, she’s curious about seeing if she could make things run easier, or cheaper, or with less work. Many of the old guard see the ‘less work’ specifically as fighting words, and don’t take well to a young whelp barely over thirty trying to tell them how to do a job they’ve done for decades. In fact, there is no way that she could have made whip if she hadn’t caught the eye of Boss Jakali. Some say the elevation of the young, if ingenius woman, is a purely political bid to help get the city’s intelligentsia interested in Jakali’s policy, but it can’t be denied that the woman is working hard for the Company.
Lesser Whip Gango ‘Piebald’ Morakka (Power Generation, Pneumatics)- Gango’s a bit of a legend among the pipefitters. One of the members whose job is the Company’s namesake, Gango worked for years through two major upgrades of the city’s system, first the introduction of the first dedicated municipal steam header that provided steam power to the whole city, and then to the second major addition to the canal system, where he worked closely with Boss Jakali, when she was only known as a rather pushy but deviously clever foreman who got things done. Jakali jealously kept Gango on every team she ever headed, claiming ‘I don’t think I could design something this man couldn’t build.’
Indeed, Gango’s ability to pull success out of near impossible odds is well known. He pioneered what are called ‘Morakkan Sails’, which are large canvas ducts used to collect wind and funnel it to tired workers on hot days. He also is one of the few millwrights who worked every single day of the first great storm of the rainy season during the cutting of the new canals. Specifically, he’s the only one who didn’t die.
His work was rewarded by his nomination as the lesser Whip in charge of the Power Generation Department of the Company. It is growing at an amazing rate to meet with the city’s demands and Gango’s ability to stay calm under the worst pressures makes him a perfect fit. His nickname comes from his white dappled skin, a warning to younger Pipefitters that when people say ‘be careful carrying the acid we use to take hard shell off the distiller tubes’ it means BE CAREFUL.
Secretary Inmar Goyupti - Accounting- When one imagines an accountant for an organization as large and official as the Worshipful Company of Pipefitters, one would expect an old, respectable bursar type. Maybe poached from one of the old firms that operate in the city. What one wouldn’t expect is Inmar Goyupti, an old dried up wick with a network of horrific scars on one side of his face and the yellow tinged glare of a demon. No one knows where Inmar is from, he’s one of the oldest members of the Company. He’s not a city wick, has no connection to them anyone can discern. What he is though, is a man with a very good, and very old memory. It seems that any time the Order needs something, Inmar can find someone who owes them. For an organization that works so heavily on graft, Goyupti is the person who remembers not just to keep the books, but to keep three books. One for anyone who asks, one for the Boss… and one for himself.
Secretary Yakala Ehrkavu- Records and Material History - Quiet, androgynous, almost completely forgettable, the tall spindly human is another new face in the upper echelons of the Pipefitters. Placed in their current position by Jakali, Yakala had an uninteresting and not particularly notable career in the pipefitters as a draftsman before being placed- rather /propelled/ into their new position. Everyone was flabbergasted by such a decision. The Boss went over the heads of numerous more qualified people to give the waif their new seat. Yakala was mostly just scared. Still, Pondru threatened to stop talking up certain pet projects to the more influential Least Whips and they in turn calmed down their divisions in the Company. Yakala was sent work, mostly in redesigning and streamlining old technical documents and helping to create an updated system of assurances for the watch and maintenance of the new steam lines.
Instead of choosing to talk, have meetings, or anything like that, Yakala quietly went into the library, gathered up any relevant technical outlines, and began drawing. Occasionally tools or food would be requested. Mystified, the other members of the rather put out division came in and began asking questions. Answers were given in the forms of diagrams detailing whatever specific aspect they were concerned about. These were pored over, then edited by the other draftsmen and engineers. Eventually a rhythm came into place. Yakalah wasn’t so much an organizer like Secretaries before, but a conduit. Questions were taken to them, to be given a prudent document or recommended to another member of the team who was working on a similar project. All the while the new drawings were collected, organized, and notarized by Yakalah.
No one’s sure what to think of the new system, but the design and planning offices have become much quieter, and that’s appreciated by all.
* * *
So... thoughts?
Comments