The Hall of Wisdom

Foundry Infrastructure

The Seneschal
The rank of seneschal is the highest title one may obtain within the Foundry.  Prior to the fall of the Everdark there was a Council of Seneschals that dictated the business of the Foundry, for the rank of seneschal deals with management at a territorial level. As a rule there is one seneschal per territory, though in the past a seneschal might have been charged with the management of two or three smaller territories.

A seneschal’s chief mission is to make Foundry operations within his state or territory profitable. He will go about this any number of ways; for example, if there is a valuable resource within his territory he will attempt to acquire it or at least trade for it. A good seneschal also hires competent reeves to manage particular districts in his territory, as well as responsible knight-reeves to work alongside them and protect the Foundry’s investment.

There is only one standing seneschal left, and due to the fact that contact has been lost with all other parts of the empire, he is effectively in charge of the entirety of the Foundry.  The Seneschal of Tor, Lord Kenneth Gamble, is that man.

The Reeve
One can consider the Reeve to be the “middle-management” of the Foundry. Reeves are hired (usually from within the Foundry) by seneschals to manage districts within a territory or state. The district they are charged with often depends on their specialty – a reeve with knowledge in finances and will often be put in charge of Foundry operations within a town or city, a reeve with strong logistics skills may be asked to run a harbor or coast, and a reeve with experience in resources and raw materials might be assigned to a quarry and its surrounding lands. By way of example, there are currently six reeves operating in the province of Tor: one is in charge of Heartwood, one is in charge of the harbor, one is in charge of the residential district, and the three remaining reeves correspond to the remaining three factions; the Church, the Foundry, and the Consortium.

A reeve’s ultimate responsibility lies in managing their district and making sure that the trade or operations in the district ultimately benefit the Foundry. To this end, the reeve is given near-complete autonomy in his or her particular district, and is free to run them as they so choose, giving as much or as little power to their partners as they see fit.  It is not uncommon to see districts run by councils, nor is it strange for the reeves of smaller districts to take a hands-on aspects of management by themselves, but reeves with busy or important districts often employ foremen to help them.

At this level of management we also see the highest militant rank in the Foundry (save for the Knight-Seneschal of Tor, that is). The knight-reeve works alongside the reeve of a particular district to ensure the safety of the Foundry’s employees and goods. He directs the guards, assigns patrols and escorts, and if necessary breaks the guards into units and appoints a knight-foreman to lead them. There is not always a knight-reeve for every reeve, and sometimes knight-reeves are responsible for the protection of multiple districts.

The Foreman
Typically you will only see Foundry foremen in particularly busy or particularly important districts. They are appointed by a reeve to manage things on a sub-district level, so is a district had an East market and a West market you might find a foreman for each. Foremen fill a number of rolls, but the most common one is the face-to-face interaction with the merchants, laborers or craftsmen numbering their beat. They dole out Foundry work to the people who will actually be doing it in addition to hearing out concerns or mediating disputes between affiliate members. Occasionally when a large guild is assimilated by the Foundry the guild-chief will be given the rank of foreman and will continue to be responsible for the welfare of his guilds operations.

At this level you will also find the rank of knight-foreman. Like his foreman peer, the knight-foreman is in charge of a particular sub-district that is busy or vital to Foundry operations. A typical roster for a knight-foreman’s crew will consist of 8 to 12 guards. For some sub-districts with guards employed this position is left unfilled, and the foreman will fulfill the duties of a knight-foreman by himself.

The Affiliate
The most common Foundry member is the affiliate. It is more of a descriptor than a rank, for it encompasses a vast variety of people and positions; merchants, laborers, craftsmen and guards and many more fall under this introductory position, and many are content to never leave it. Whether they are mining ore, crafting goods, tending a shop or walking a patrol route these men and women are what the Foundry is all about.