The Hard Brotherhood

Vance tossed the flyer to the side. "I am not joining the Hard Brotherhood. The fact that you morons named yourself that tells me you have absolutely no sense about how others perceive you."
The recruiter picked the flyer off the ground. He was a slight man, with thin arms. "But think about what the Brotherhood can offer a man like you! The ability to reconnect with your roots, to learn what it means to be a real man. To learn to hunt, survive in the wilds, fell a tree, build a table. The things our ancestors did, that we have been told to not learn-"
Vance had his insignia out by now, and held it to the light. "I have been a hunter for ten years and I am a class A guilded mercenary. I know how to do all of these things, and nobody told me that I was not to learn them. If you are derelict in your own self-education, by all means, fix it, but don't blame others for your own failings." Vance spat on the ground. "Get out of my face."

Structure

The Brotherhood is a loosely organized structure of men organized into brother-chapters, each chapter being led by someone who volunteers a location for chapter meetings, typically their own home. There is no central leadership and no dues; the organization is very grassroots.

Culture

The Brotherhood of Hardened and Endurant Men is a loose social club of urban men interested in learning the ins and outs of what they name as 'traditional' masculine practices as performed by men in ages past - hunting, construction, craftwork, all of those hands-on activities that a man of the urban Etoile may no longer need to practice personally. The philosophy behind this culture attacks modern Etoile, Power, and Progress as having had a deleterious effect on Etoilean manhood, and wishes to spread 'masculine' values to the men of Etoile. 
While faintly ridiculous, the insecurities of many men are real, and the Brotherhood finds ready new brother among both anti-Progress revanchists and those with a hobbyist interest in learning a skilled task.

Public Agenda

The Brotherhood is not a secret organization; they do not hide their agenda, which is to 'revitalize the meaning of manhood' in the 8th century. Ostensibly, this is simply a promotion of various useful skills that they believe all men should know (such as woodcutting, smithing, and so forth), but many suspect it of being an anti-Progress front.

Assets

The Brotherhood is not a formal organization and holds no assets itself, only those things that its member brothers offer. For example, for a class on animal husbandry, a brother who runs a farm may offer its temporary use as a way to teach other brothers how to wrangle or butcher cattle.

History

A series of anonymous postings on the public bulletin boards in the Etoile Capital City circa 705 lamented the state of Etoilean manhood, after a number of journal articles published in the Monitor went out of their way to profile the 'modern urban Etoilean man' as weak and useless. The Brotherhood was founded not long afterwards, as a social club meant to restore the traditional values of masculine identity by teaching the hard skills and value of labor to the middle class men of Etoile, who had left those skills behind in favor of office work.
The brotherhood grew rapidly, however, and began to outpace this original purpose, with a healthy mix of Progress skepticism, gender relations agitation, and similar pseudopolitical positions muddying the pile. Some of the original brothers resist this metamorphosis, preferring to focus on the skills training that allows men to light fires unaided and survive in the wilds, but others wholeheartedly embrace the political bent, blaming the Principality or other cultural institutions as 'degrading' to Etoilean manhood.
The Magistrates maintains a watchful eye on the brotherhood, as it has the potential to be a destabilizing cultural force. Holding such opinions is not illegal, but acting on them in a damaging way is, and Magisterial reports have noted the gradual change in the Brotherhood over time towards darker politics and positions.

Brothers Stand Together

Founding Date

706

Type

Social, Brotherhood

Demonym

Brothers

Location

Etoile Capital City