Hammerite

“	Be without sin in life, for after death, the sinful doth walk without rest, ne'r welcomed into the House of the Builder.	”
	— The Builder's Way

The Order of the Hammer,^[5]^[6]^[7] or more commonly referred to as Hammerites or simply Hammers, is a technocratic religious group that worships the Master Builder. They seek to carry out the vision of their architect god, who cultivated the human civilization from savagery by giving them the ability to use technology, and are the burning force of progress in the Thief world. They represent order and orthodox religion and zealously enforce the tenets of their faith. Part of this means a ceaseless strife against criminals and other law-breakers, but particularly against their long-time enemies, the The Trickster-worshipping Pagans, who promote chaos and distortion. They speak in a pseudo-archaic version of Early Modern English.

Overview[]

DromEd Object Model Painting PAINT1 — A possible depiction of the Builder evicting the Trickster from The City.

TDS hammergod — A depiction of The Builder or Saint Edgar.

The Hammerites are a most industrious group, acting as construction contractors, working factories, and providing other sorts of technology for The City. However, they seem to have restrictions to technological progress, and regard the inventions of the Mechanists as heretical.

TDS stedgars banner — Hammerite banner in St. Edgar's Church.

Years before the City Watch became a large organized police force, The Barons Police and The Hammerites kept The City in order (The head of the Barons Police was also a Sheriff). A letter between Ramirez and Commissioner deNavan suggests that the old watch sent their prisoners to Cragscleft.^[8] The Hammers had more of a position of street law enforcement. When Artemus caught young Garrett trying to snatch his purse, he pleads with Artemus not to turn him over to the Hammerites.^[9]

The Order has lost a great deal of influence due to the current Baron's less than enthusiastic support of them and the paralyzing schism which drastically cut their numbers. This slackening of authority spurred on the development of the City Watch, which took over most of the Hammerite's law enforcing. Even after the fall of Karras, the Watch would maintain control of the law enforcing, though the Hammers would routinely patrol areas of their influence.

The Metal Age[]

During the Metal age and the rise of the Mechanists, many Hammerites left the order to join the new more popular one. This lead to a great reduction in the orders numbers. It appears they no-longer made hammers in their factories, possibly partly due to the closing of Cragcleft Prison, possibily partly due to already decreasing numbers and the break-in by Garrett, and now ordered their hammers from outside sources like at Venik Kilgor's workshop. It is unclear how long this had been going on for but the order was being decreased to a fourth due to the lack of membership,^[10] something which slightly worried Kilgor.^[11]

Hierarchy[]

The Order is conducted by a High Priest, who mainly resides in the Hammer Temple. He has supreme jurisdiction and keenly observes the implementation of the Builder's will. He has no access restrictions to any Hammer facility and every person lower in the hierarchy answers to him. The Temple Priests or Master Forgers are one level below the High Priest. They have more limited authority, but are still required to observe the Order's members and goals. Next are the Temple Guards, Hammer Warriors and Craftsmen. They form the main body of the order. They are all generally adept with the weapons or tools and are keen followers of the Builder's code. Last in the chain of command are the novices who have very limited rights, can't talk while on temple grounds and must prove themselves to the Order by their skills and dedication.

Foreign Language Adaptions[]

In foreign language versions of the Thief series, the Hammerites do not always speak in an archaic version of that language, such as in the Hungarian language where no real archaic version exists. Although the Russian version of the game speaks a true older form of Russian, in the French translation the Hammerites speak français soutenu, which is a more "high class" version of French rather than common, or vulgaire, French. In the German translation of the game, Hammerites do indeed speak an archaic form of German, however, the form is commonly understood due to its popularity in German historical films. In the Polish translation, the spoken language of the Hammerites is a mixture of older Polish dialects, however, the Mechanists speak a more modern, scientific translation.^[12].

Magical Abilities[]

They could create Healing Fonts and Holy Water Fonts and bless water to turn it into Holy Water. At one time they could cast a spell that could lock objects in place as they did with the Talisman of Air (and earth in Thief Gold) that could only be broken by reciting a certain prayer.^[13]

A Dark Project/Thief Gold Hammerite projectile.
A Deadly Shadows Hammerite combat spell.
A Deadly Shadows Hammerite Blessing.

Their priests could cast hammers from their hand and in Deadly Shadows could cast hammer shaped explosions and bless their allies with increased strength with their wands. They could also bless simple metal hammers and turn them into holy objects. One of their priests even managed to created a special pool that could bless hammers by submerging them in it.^[14]^[15]

It is possible that they could also perform rituals that enable their dead ones to rise from their grave once they were disturbed although this seems uncertain.