Ocean Men

The Ocean Men are a guild for all who work with water on a daily basis and revere its raw, natural power, from aquaculturists, to wetland architects, to seafarers. It is one of the three major guilds of House Brody

## Guild Hubs

The main guild hub of the Ocean Men is located in Aghaboy, House Brody,  near the banks of the Pa’Gille River. It’s a very old, circular, stone building that likely predates the Waldren Occupation. Those who visit compare it more to a shrine than a normal guild hub, but since the secondary hub is arguably busier than the main hub, there is less need for a huge central operation in Aghaboy.

The most active members of the Ocean Men live closer to the guild’s secondary hub, located on the coast in the Cuartalan Wetlands. As mentioned above, this hub is arguably busier than the hub in Aghaboy and is considered by many to be the unofficial “main hub” of the guild.

Finally, like all of Duilintinn’s officially recognized guilds, the Ocean Men Guild has a hub representing itself on Guild Row in Cordoire’s Administrator’s District. Here, the guild can advocate for its members in the political sphere of Duilintinn’s national capital.

## History

The Ocean Men guild traces its origins back to the first interactions between the people of the Cuartalan Wetlands and a fae being who would eventually inspire the guild’s name. This being, who would be referred to as the “Ocean Man,“ first encountered the peoples of the Mortal Realm when it magically coaxed the tides of the Eastern Sea away from the Cuartalan Wetlands in an attempt to protect the settlements of the region. Unfortunately, the Fae being was ignorant of how wetland civilizations thrived in a balance with the water’s life-giving and destructive properties. Assuming these settlements were being slowly flooded, the Ocean Man used his power to essentially “reclaim” the region and turn it into normal, dry land.

Obviously, the people living in the wetlands weren’t exactly thrilled by this.

Thankfully, this initial misunderstanding set the stage for open and genuine communication which had never before been seen between the Fae and mortals. The wetland peoples convinced the Ocean Man to return the tides in all of their power, and demonstrated how they worked as a community to stave off the danger while embracing the vitality of their ecosystem.

The Ocean Man respected how these people placed great pride in their ability to shape their environment, and in turn redirected his powers towards protecting these strange mortals from the forces of nature they could not control. While he could not stop the winter storms or spring melts that posed the most dramatic threats to the region, his power over the water itself allowed him to mitigate the damage that such natural disasters would cause. Moreover, he offered his own understanding of the physics and properties of water to the people, hoping they would be able to use that knowledge to improve upon their ability to control the tides.

And thus, the Ocean Men were born.

Centuries later, the Ocean Men Guild still consists of those who seek to learn from the Ocean Man, those who wish to worship him, and those who simply make their living in his domain. This legacy makes the Ocean Men the oldest guild in Duilintinn, surpassing even the Guard Coalition by a significant margin.

While today, the Ocean Men is probably most known for its role in bringing accessible plumbing to all of Duilintinn’s large cities, a significant portion of their work is still centered in the Cuartalan Wetlands. Between continuing to foster the kingdom’s relationship with the Ocean Man - who is now known kingdom-wide as the being whose blessing ensures that all of Duilintinn’s major waterways are safe and clean for all who rely upon them - and developing new cultivation and infrastructure techniques for the wetland ecosystem, the region remains the central focus of the guild’s efforts.

## Apprenticeships

Like most other guilds in Duilintinn, the Ocean Men connects students pursuing higher education with members who need additional help and/or wish to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.

## Culture

### Fae Influence

The Ocean Men are named after a benevolent member of the Fae Folk living in the coastal waters of Duilintinn (Loch Domhainn, Cuartalan Wetlands, Reaper Cove, etc.) that the people lovingly nicknamed "Ocean Man.” The members of this guild range from normal, ordinary workers who don’t care either way about Ocean Man to people who will literally die for this member of the fae. It’s not a cult… but it does sometimes sound more like a religion than a guild, depending on who you talk to.

### Name Puns

The members of this guild aren’t just men; the name is just a pun. Look, this guild is weird. It has personality. However, the women and nonbinary folks of this guild have come up with puns of their own to match it, including “Ocean Women,” “Ocean Them,” “Ocean Fem,” etc. etc. etc.

During The Chicken Incident of the Sixth Month of the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Fourteen, Ocean Men were temporarily renamed to “Ocean Hen”.

Other puns include:

* When the guild is calm: “Ocean Zen”
* When the guild forgets the time: “Ocean When”
* When the guild reaches its decennial: “Ocean Ten”
* When the guild does something related to the Draoidh Valley: Ocean Fen
* Something in the guild’s past: “Ocean Then”
* When the guild repeats something: “Ocean Again”
* When the guild does something related to wild animal caves: “Ocean Den”

(The above puns are all courtesy of tumblr user @shamrockace)

Needless to say, while the members of this guild take great joy in making as many of these puns as they can, it drives everyone around them absolutely *nuts.*

## Inter-Guild Dynamics

The Ocean Men and the Order of Stone often collaborate to install waterworks in Duilintinn’s major cities. While smaller towns still use basic wells and/or river water for drinking and washing, most large cities basic plumbing/sanitation routes are common within large towns and major cities, thanks to an early collaboration between the Order of Stone and Ocean Men.

This cooperation began when Aghaboy was chosen as the capital of the new House Brody and the two guilds were asked to create a quality sanitation system for the city. Mostly, this “plumbing” was just waste removal, irrigation, and better wells, but they also included actual fountains of running, potable water. Pre-existing outhouses were connected to a sanitation route that would ensure waste was carried away to an area beyond the city limits.

After that was finished, the Ocean Men took it upon themselves to campaign for similar plumbing systems to be built in the other major cities (a few of which had rudimentary sanitation systems) and large towns throughout Duilintinn. One by one, most of these locations agreed to the renovations, prompting the Order of Stone to create smaller guild hubs in major cities across Duilintinn to delegate the construction efforts.

Thanks to the efforts of the Order of Stone and Ocean Men guilds, all of the major cities and most large towns have at least one public source of running water for people to draw from. The wells still exist and are used, but these waterworks make things requiring a lot of water, like drawing a bath, relatively accessible for most people, albeit a bit of a process if you want the water to be warm or particularly deep. However, when constructing the waterworks for the major cities, the guilds recognized the value of a) clean citizens and b) not having the dirty water of several thousand people dumped in the streets every day. So they also built large bathhouses that would be filled automatically and would drain the water somewhere out-of-the-way as needed. On the other hand, if you live somewhere that’s more rural, it may be easier/convenient/accessible to just jump in the nearby stream, especially if you’re in one of the few tiny rural communities (or a cabin in the middle of nowhere) that still relies entirely on well-water.