History of the Artisan's Union

Dale, the Jewel of Rhovanion grew and proposed during the years of Erebor, a relationship of commerce and connection between the great Dwarven kingdom and the Men who lived in such close regard. While the Dwarves worked with metal and stone, in the production of arms and armor, jewel and monument, Men learned at their forges and in their workshops and in trade brought in the bounty of the outlying villages and the city upon the lake, Esgaroth, to keep the Dwarves and their own well-fed from forest, fish, and farm. As Men are prone to do, they developed Guilds and collectives to teach their arts and preserve their ways, to ensure after the short passing of human lives that their progeny could continue to prosper from the knowledge they had gleaned. It was indeed, a golden Age.

But this was all ended in dragonfire and death with the coming of Smaug the Terrible and the sundering of Erebor, Dale, and Esgaroth. Their ruin was smote and no more was the ring of hammers heard in the Dwarven halls or the shouts or cries of merchants in the winding streets of Men, now there was only the Desolation and the remembrance.

Esgaroth was rebuilt, but now the mountain was closed to mason and stonecutter, and Laketown as the new city was called grew from thick timbers hewn from the eaves of Mirkwood. What remained of the Guilds of Dale and it’s former member roster organized themselves to ensure that the culture of Dale would be preserved, books saved and rewritten, and arts still to flourish in well trained hands. Their efforts eventually birthed the Artisan’s Union and the Workman’s Guild, two separate yet related bodies that ensure that the needs of the displaced populace were fulfilled, to continue to reward industrious labor and handicraft, and ensure civil balance by preventing joblessness and crime. They were balanced by the so called Society of Ongull that supported labors centered on the Lake itself - fishermen and ferry runners prone to their own longstanding culture flourishing with rite, myth, and superstition.

What emerged as the most famous trade for Laketown after its reemergence came from the Halls of the Elven King Thranduil and his kingdom in the Mirkwood. Here the Sylvan Elves, more prone to feasting and frivolity than their more dour and lofty kin in Lothlorien or Rivendell prized the fine wines imported from Dorwinion to the south. The growth of the wine trade brought the slow but steady incursion of Dorwinion merchants and families, their money and status settled following their internal War of the Vine, and with it came a change in the Union and indeed, to the greater politics of Laketown.

While at base, still the Union seeks to preserve art, reward work, and foster relationships, the heart of mercantilism taught it’s leaders the golden Age had passed and no longer could they be assured prosperity short of their own drive and careful planning. They needed to look beyond preserving themselves and to grow trade and commerce with Rhovanion and indeed, the wider expanse of Arda - to replace what had once been the vital trade with the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor to trade with other Men and the Dwarves displaced to their own new home nestled in the Iron Hills. Success guaranteed by letter and law, through tithe and fee.

The Age of the Lords of Dale has passed, and the bureaucrat, the merchant, the counselor has risen in his place. No longer is there a nobility granted simply by nature of birth status and reckoning - only through work or connection does a man make his way. Only of course, if he’s filled the proper paperwork, and paid the proper fees - for democracy has it’s costs. But is that cost of success a trade for honor and hospitality and generosity, all the tenets of Dale once held so dear? This is the question any businessman in Laketown seeks to answer.