The Royal Court Entertainers Union
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A society formed many years ago by the Jester family, and currently chaired by Melvin Jester's Godfather, Elder Jager. Its primary goal is to entertain people around the galaxy with clowns, fools, acrobats and such, but it has many supplementary sources of income. As there is very little that goes on in a palace that a fool does not have the opportunity to find out about, the Union has become very wealthy as an information distributor, selling details of it's clients to other clients for incredible amounts of credits.
It has very strict rules against its members having any outside sources of income, thinking that they should not be distracted from their attempts to entertain. To be an entertainer, you could be nothing else. If the union finds out about someone continuing to entertain while pursuing other careers, the member will often be investigated and killed if guilty.
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Structure of the Union
The Union is led by a council of Elders, which Jester was fated to join when Elder Kiyt resigned except for his declaration as a Jedi, which saw him exiled from the union. As well as Chairing the Union, Elder Jager is also the head of the House of Mirth, and it was he who sent Loki to Domus Prime as the new court Fool to replace Jester.
The Union has a huge number of different positions in their intricate and convoluted hierarchy, some believing that this concept is modelled off the structure of the Jedi in some ages-old jest. Members of the Council would assuredly deny this accusation, saying that if a member of the Union, living or dead, was making such a joke, it would be a whole lot funnier.
The Council of Elders governs the Union at it's highest level, determining the primary policies and practices of all members. It is made up of 12 members; 3 from each of the Four Houses. Members of this Council hold the title of "Elder"
Below the Council of Elders sit the Four Houses, each with their own Council of 8 members. The four Houses guide the four primary functions of the Union, these being;
- The House of Mirth - Seeing to the Distribution of Entertainers around the Galaxy.
- The House of Gold - Seeing to the buying and selling of information.
- The House of the Stick - Seeing to the training of the Entertainers in their Arts.
- The House of the Bigger Stick - Seeing to the protection and discipline of the Entertainers in the union, and the conscription of those that are not.
Members of the House Councils are given the additional title of "Master", unless they are also members of the Council of Elders. Woe betide the young clown that thinks they are the first to call one of these few "Master Elder", and even worse for he that does this to a member of the House of the Bigger Stick. The punishments for such gross unoriginality are often quite severe.
Following graduation from the House of the Stick, graduates elect in which of the Houses they will continue to pursue their art. Most graduates will have had offers from various factions within the Houses that give them an indication as to their path prior to their graduation, and some will be offered lucrative benefits in order to tempt them away from their other offers.
The House of Mirth
The House of Mirth is the most public of the four Houses, being primarily concerned with the distribution and promotion of Union Entertainers. The majority of the Union is made up of members of this house, and a large proportion of these are barely talented bards. A common misconception is that these are the lowest in the hierarchy of the House of Mirth, however it is in fact Mimes that hold this particularly dubious honour.
The House of Mirth has a few avenues of advancement, broadly split via physical and verbal styles of entertainment. Those who excel at both styles follow a third path, and they are those most valued by the Union. All members of the Union, regardless of House, are required to be able to perform at least at the lowest level (that is, Mime or Bard) to be able to graduate from the House of the Stick.
- Physical
- Mimes - The rare few who follow the belief that Art is Entertainment, rather than the other way around.
- Jugglers - After learning the principles behind entertaining without props, the entertainer is allowed to work with things that exist in more than just their imagination.
- Acrobats - Honing their physical skill to perfection, the body of the entertainer becomes their instrument.
- Verbal
- Bard - Practitioners of reciting poetry and verse, like the mime, they must earn their right to using instruments and music by proving that they do not need them to entertain.
- Minstrel - Having earned the right to instruments, the minstrel entertains musically. Often a crowd favorite with many bawdy songs, though any bard worth his salt should also be versed in a number of pieces for polite company.
- Troubadour - Little differentiates the ranks of Minstrel and Troubadour, save experience. The Troubadour specializes in knowing music suitable for any occasion, and should be able to compose improvisational pieces of any type for any holes in their repertoire.
- Entertainers
- Joker - Also called comedians; the best entertain the masses with stand-up routines and never have any desire to be promoted, the worst never rise past toilet humour and alien impressions.
- Clown - The clown uses props and facepaint, but is not content to simply make his viewers laugh. He can draw out any emotion from his audiences, with performances made up of singing, dancing, slapstick, jokes, and much more.
- Fool - The best of the best, Fools are picked only from those who have mastered all the lesser entertaining arts. They are clown and confidante, imbecile and investigator, and are a valued asset to any royal court.
All members of the House of Mirth are still expected to collect and report information to the House of Gold as a supplement to the income gained for entertaining. The wisest nobles will undoubtedly be aware of this extraneous function of their entertainers, and will be wary of trusting their fools with valuable or damaging secrets, or even to feed the entertainer incorrect information to put doubt on what truths they manage to uncover.
The House of Gold
As the Galactic Republic grew more civilised and refined, and the archaic forms of government that encouraged the use of Court Entertainers began being thought of as archaic and unfashionable, the Union was forced to delve into alternate means of supporting its primary purposes. What began as a supplementary source of income for entertainers with a nose for trading secrets soon expanded to become a galaxy-spanning information network.
Sensing the need to re-affirm his current clients' trust, as well as draw in new clients, Krago Jester offically opened the House of Gold in the third year of his term as Chairman of the Union. By establishing three core tenets, he simultaneously brought Court Entertainers back into fashion, and secured the Union's financial position for generations to come.
The tenets are one of the few publicly advertised aspects of the House of Gold, and are;
- "Thou shall tell no secret bequeathed in confidence by your monarch
Thou shall sell no secret to one whose court is not represented by the Union
Thou shall keep no secret of court from the monarch of that court who requests it" - —The Tenets of the House of Gold
The House of the Stick
The House of the Stick is made up of the dedicated teachers and students of the Union, as well as their administrative staff. The House is so named due to the tendency of the teachers to correct or discipline students with a sharp blow to the back of the head with whatever comes to hand, be it ruler, marotte, rod or rubber chicken.
A student graduates from the House of the Stick only when they have been sponsored by a member of one of the Houses, with the majority becoming entertainers in the House of Mirth. Most teachers in the House of the Stick were previously members of the House of Mirth, and rejoin the House of the Stick until their eventual retirement.
The House of the Bigger Stick
The House of the Bigger Stick is the protection and enforcement agency of the Union. The members of the house, colloquially known throughout the Union as Thobs, are known for their secretive training, dark moods, and distinctive black on black motley.
The primary publicly declared purpose of the Thobs is to see to the protection of the various Union entertainers throughout the galaxy. They also have a secondary purpose of acting as a watchdog, ensuring that the rules and policies of the Union are followed by it's members, and reporting to their superiors.
Off the record, the wearers of the black on black may occasionally teeter on the wrong side of galactic law. As well as "educating" unlicensed performers of the benefits of their protection, they are also known to act more as judge, jury and executioner with Union entertainers that break the Union's sometimes strict policies.
The Entertainer's Oath
The Entertainers follow a strict code of behaviour, which was set out at the formation of the Union and has changed little over the many centuries. The Entertainer's Oath is the core of the Entertainer's education, and youngsters must be able to be recite it forward, backwards, upside down and in a silly voice before even they are taught even the most elementary of performing arts.
- "Shame must be broken so that pride can blossom
Pride must be tempered by skill
Skill must be supple, to allow room for passion
Passion must be felt to be impressed
Performers are the shepherds of emotion
Performers serve others for the good of the galaxy
Performers never die, but live forever in glory
And if you're ever in doubt, a custard pie to the face goes a long way" - —The Entertainer's Oath
