Froe & Key
The Fraternal Guild of Woodworkers and Woodcutters, often foreshortened to Froe & Key (or simply F&K) in referrence to the organization's symbolism, is a New Voxelian secret society based in Silkenvault. Outwardly a professional and charitable organization, Froe & Key also functions as a covert syndicalist movement which has had a quiet but significant role in the development of Voxelian political culture since Old Voxelian times.
Structure
Froe & Key has chapterhouses every major Voxelian settlement, though, outside of Silkenvault, these are seldom more than a meeting room in one member's private home, the local Unexpector temple, or a local pub friendly to the cause. Chapters operate as independent cells, with members who happen to be travelling through an area with Froe & Key presence finding their way into the company of others through secret signs and sharing information between cells. Members join as 'apprentices' and are initiated through rites through progressively more insular circles within the organization. High-ranking members sometimes convene in Silkenvault to strategize and discuss issues which affect the organization as a whole.
Culture
The titular Froe & Key refers to the keyed froe, an Old Voxelian variant on a shinglemaker's froe. A keyed froe's blade is secured on its short handle by a removeable metal wedge called a 'key.' This tool still sees some use in more rural parts of the voxel state, but has mostly been overshadowed by powered woodworking tools. As a symbol, the keyed froe still holds cultural power in Voxelia because it hearkens back to a simpler time and a more personal association between working men. It is only when the tool and its key are arranged in a particular manner that the symbol represents the organization rather than just nostalgia for handicrafts and the woods.
Only high-ranking members of Key & Froe recognize a second understanding of the keyed froe as a symbol. A keyed froe's blade need not be attached to its handle in the usual orientation; when affixed so that the edge faces the user rather than away, the tool can be used as a sicle, including to enact violence against those opposed to the organization's interests or who might reveal the deepest mysteries to others. Though the Froe & Key has a significant tolerance for opposition, its tolerance does have limits, and those who exceed those limits have been known to disappear.
Because the antecedents of the modern Key & Froe were deeply enmeshed with the construction trades, the organization's symbol and parallels to it can be found 'hidden in plain sight' in all sorts of classical Voxelian architecture. Members of the organization found themselves involved with the creation of the Silkenvault Cipher and may have tangentially infulenced the Wadoona Movement by sowing the seeds of doubt in authority not derived from nautral laws.
Public Agenda
The Fraternal Guild of Woodworkers and Woodcutters, as they choose to be known among the public, provides financial assistance to members, their families, and those in associated professions in the manner of a labor union. Absolute secrecy in these manners is not deemed necessary by the organization, though efforts to downplay their reach and influence in the greater world of Voxelian politics are always afoot. To outsiders, the name 'Froe & Key' are the subject of conspiracy theories; the Fraternal Guild of Woodworkers and Woodcutters, on the other hand, is small but benevolent in nature.
Mythology & Lore
Hailing from a much less empirically-minded era in human history, Froe & Key has some elements of a mystery religion. The ritual practice of the cult of Veldrin Vance, Unexpector deity of coincidences, influences the quasi-occult practices involved with Froe & Key meetings. Members are initiated into the deeper mysteries of the organization, including Keysign, in the manner of an acolyte, when they gain sufficient trust among their peers. The many actual Church of the Unexpected would find these parallels heretical in some way, but brothers of the Froe & Key are also embedded within the Church so that the impulse to lambaste this heresy are seldom indulged in any meaningful way.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The ethos of the Froe & Key represents and even more extreme version of the ideological shift initiated by the first Council of Liars at the end of the Old Voxelian empire. Whereas the Master Harlequins of that time were eager to overthrow the existing authoritarian power structures, they still recognized a need for some kind of central governance and, being the most influential men of their time in terms of political and military might, inserted themselves into the power vaccum.
The members of the Fraternal Guild of Workers and Woodcutters, on the other hand, recognized no such authority, believing instead that working folk bound by familial and professional ties should have a greater say in the administration of their domains than any separately elected or appointed lord. They did recognize that openly moving against a proven military power would be fruitless, however, and instead set about cultivating political connections over an extended period of time to limit resistence when the time came to enact their plans. Over time, members of the Froe & Key lost much of their revolutionary fervor, with some speculating that those in the highest eschelons of the organization became more enamored with their political influence within the contemporary system than the mere potential of influence in the system that was promised.
Type
Social, Activist
Alternative Names
Fraternal Guild of Woodworkers and Woodcutters; F&K
Parent Organization
Location
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
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