House of Brass

The House of Brass is the headquarters of the Commercial Guilds in the northern city of Halumay. As is often the case with Guild Customhouses, the building was once a temple to the god Zargyod and was repurposed after the Wesmodian Reformation.

Location

The House of Brass is a large, three-storey, rectilinear structure located north-east of the Halumay Bullring in the eastern environs of the city. Dating from some point the late third century BWR, the building has no northern wall on its ground floor, but rather a long collonade leaving the resulting public space open to winds that come off the sea. This is a common feature of Guild Customhouses, and the antiquity of the building makes this arguably the oldest example of the idiom known to survive in the Eleven Cities, making it a destination for thaumatologists studying the cult of Zargyod. The building was once fronted with lapis lazuli tiles, though these were evidently removed at some stage in after the Wesmodian Reformation and replaced with similar tiles of blue and blue-green glass, evidently to produce a darker and - it was thought - dignified colour. This has led commentators to speculatively suggest that the northern cult of Zargyod, which was focused very much on his capacity as a sea-god, may have exhibited a somewhat sanguine and jovial institutional culture at odds with the businesslike demeanour characteristic of the latter-day local Guilders, though this is mostly speculation.
What seems clear is that the name "House of Brass" is a post-Wesmodian imposition. Zagyod was a sea-god in pre-Wesmodian Halumay and had nothing of the especial connection to metals that he developed in more southern cities. Given the use of brass to mint Guild honour, it is likely that the name was applied after the repurposing of the temple as a facility for the Commercial Guilds.

Facilities

The room within the collonade has a double-height ceiling and takes up most of the ground floor and stands is a remarkable example of Haloyl decor. The floor is decorated with a wall-to-wall mosaic depicting eels, crabs and shellfish on a sea-floor while the walls up to the capitals of the collonade are faced with blue-green glass tiles representing the sea. At the level of the capitals a lapis lazuli frieze of rolling waves runs around the room. The entire back wall is taken up by a fresco depicting the myth of Zargyod and the Sailors at substantially greater than life size. The fresco is noted for its sumptuousness, boasting gold leaf for Zargyod's robes and shards of rock crystal used to pick out the foam on the waves. A six-foot length of crimson coral is used to depict a coral tree sprouting from the waves in the background. The fresco depicts the sailors turning into manatees, a conceit that is not universal among other artistic depictions of the myth and speaks once again to the notion of Zargyod as a jovial, forgiving god of maritime matters. Commentators disagree on how much post-Wesmodian restoration or alteration this fresco has undergone since the formation of the Commercial Guilds.
Under this fresco is a large open space in which merchants and Guilders can liaise between and among themselves to facilitate trade, finance ventures and discuss possibilities. The House of Brass is open day and night and there are always at least a couple of Copper Guiilders - and often many more - available to aid debaters in coming to agreements on some point of business or law. A substantial compliment of Iron Guilders, dressed in embossed armour and armed with heavy scimitars, is always on duty to keep the peace and deny access to the disruptive and the destitute.
The top storey of the building is given over to offices and meeting rooms for those who wish to discuss their business in private. These rooms are rented to foreigners but are available for free - with appropriate prior notice - to those of Haloyl heritage. They boast considerable, apparently pre-Wesmodian marine decoration including enamelled friezes of waves and sea creatures carved in bas-relief on the pillars of the internal windows which look out over the frieze of the main hall.
The archives of the House of Brass are kept in an adjoining building staffed by Copper Guilders with a substantial staff of underlings of lesser ranks. A second building, located across a small, opulent courtyard which may or may not have been a part of the original temple complex, contains the House's treasury, said to contain numerous pre-Wesmodian artefacts (never publicly discussed) and a tremendous wealth of coins. The building also serves as the barracks for the Iron Guilders employed as guards, and is heavily guarded day and night. Those admitted to the building usually receive the honour because they have presented a prima facie case that they would be an appropriate recipient for a loan from the Guilds. Repayment instalments on those loans are made at a separate building, also well-guarded, a short distance away in the port district.
Pre-Wesmodian discussions of this complex make clear that it once contained substantial residential wings for the clerisy of Zargyod. Apart from the barracks of the Brass Guilders, however, these no longer exist, and the staff commute to the House as they are needed. The Guilds do operate a famously well-appointed hostel for esteemed guests elsewhere in the city, however.

Institutional purpose and structure

The Commercial Guilds in Halumay generally follow the institutional structure set out in The Book of Favour, an interesting case of southern influence on an otherwise robustly northern institution. This is thought to be a consequence of the spread of the Chogyan interpretation of the Zargyod as a god of wealth and fortune during the ascendancy of the Chogyan Hegemony in the pre-Wesmodian era. The one major exception to this is their official recognition of a specific corps of diplomatic attaches known as Brass Guilders. Only a handful of such operates at any given time, but they frequently circulate among the other cities, liaising with both the other Customhouses of the Commercial Guilds and the general governments to further the organisation's objectives on an international basis. Brass Guilder are often gone from the House of Brass for years at a time and are noted throughout the Eleven Cities as erudite and dignified proponents of their stated agenda; only in Andymalon, where they are frequent visitors to Reef Tower, are they viewed with any suspicion. Brass Guilders are noted for their intricately-decorated medallions of office, the ornamentation of which with semi-precious stones is thought to constitute some sort of service record - a theory they themselves politely decline to discuss with non-Guilders.
For all of its grandness, the House of Brass performs much the same purpose as the other regional headquarters of the Commercial Guilds; facilitating trade and commerce between the Eleven Cities, most of it accomplished by ship. As such the primary purpose of the complex is to give merchants and Guilders a dedicated space to liaise and confer with one another. Copper Guilders circulating and facilitating such meetings also tend to assess the subjects being discussed to determine if they are worthy of a business loan and, if this is the case, begin steering the discussion in that direction. 
The Commercial Guilds are a prominent and influential faction within the government of the city and a considerable amount of governmental business is done with their auspices. As such government magistrates are frequent visitors to the House, typically being privately entertained in one of the enclosed rooms to conduct their business, although etiquette dictates that they linger in the main hall for at least a short time before or after their appointment. This is seen as a method for granting the general public access to government and a chance to consult with its agents, and raise concerned where warranted. In practice the "general public" who enjoy such access is highly circumscribed, since anyone wishing to talk to a magistrate must first convince the Iron Guilders guarding the House that they have business there, and then somehow bypass the substantial entourages of flunkies and bodyguards which Halumayan officials, by custom, bring with them on any such appointment. As such, "impromptu" consultations with government officials in the House of Brass are usually rather choreographed affairs arranged ahead of time, involving conferees who already enjoy some considerable degree or wealth and influence. Indeed - and rather more so than in some southern cities - the institutional culture of the House of Brass is rather exclusionary, with its staff and habitual patrons tending to regard themselves as something of an aristocracy of merit as much as a commercial coterie.

Type

Guildhall