Longshoreman

The little man was barely more than a mite. A lot of us Trained thought he'd be off to an Enclave in Renai once he'd finished his apprenticeship. Instead the little creature started working with us. He even got an apprentice right before his third flood season.
Blew our minds that did. An apprentice barely three floods out of the sea. Not that we thought it was a bad thing, but if only we'd thought of that. Who wants to deal with an apprentice so early on?
Not I, not my friends, but apparently not nobody. That little Arvenhale is likely to make something of himself, but the fool is a fool if he thinks he'll make Master before any of us Trained do.

— The life of a Longshoreman

The Longshoreman has the luxury of being the simplest rank in the guild. They are no longer apprentices. They have no major needs or guild requirements outside of their dues, they have an almost total freedom in where they can work and how they work as long as they keep their logbook up to date. Longshoreman often spend some of their formative years working in backwater villages learning niche skills such as learning to fish, helping merchants maximize their holding space by opening the insides of ships and helping to protect privacy by installing secret compartments inside said ships.
The guild knows that there is a mild issue with Longshoremen being trained and instantly hired for illicit actions, but as long as the books are tidy and the dues are paid, it's rare that they have an issue with it. This has ran into issues between Forkden security forces trying to raid local Longhouses for the records kept inside. Such actions, while not advisable beforehand, showed how much control the guild has and will use when protecting their records and members.

To Become a Longshoreman

The base requirements of becoming a Longshoreman are simple.
A longshoreman is merely an Apprentice Longshoreman that has survived two flood seasons. While this is held to a far higher standard in the southern portions of Ithungsida, it is an Adage that holds true. An apprentice that can't listen doesn't live long. Either their instructor kills them, a sailor kills them or the storms kill them when they act up during the flood season.
Once they have survived two flood seasons as an active apprentice, they are automatically given the right of voting in the Longhouse on guild matters. This can be suspended by an instructor asking the Master Longshoremen to restrict the voting, but that is a rare exemption that looks as bad for the instructor as it does the apprentice.

To Be a Longshoreman

The Longshoreman has the simplest job in the guild.
They fix ships as they are directed. They do all the work, from the grungiest hull refits to the most basic of package and freight unloading. If there is a Longshoreman with a free hand and a higher rank isn't interested in dealing with it, then the Longshoreman is assigned it. This happens largely without the input or care for the Longshoreman's attitude or desires.
They are also expected to keep their books as tidy as possible, keep their guild dues up to date, and train at least three Apprentices over their career. As long as those three things are kept in order, the The Longshore Guild doesn't much care what the Longshoreman is doing or where they are doing it.

Type

Professional

Reports directly to

Trained Longshoreman

Related Organizations

• The Longshore Guild

Where are these quotes from?

The life of a Longshoreman is a piece of propaganda put out by the The Longshore Guild in the early 400s after a plummeting reputation involved with the quality of their work. This and other publications like it were sent across the continent to restore faith in the guild by using the, assumed, fictional character of Farlington Arvenhale.