Steward
From FiranMUX
Contents |
Overview
Stewards are often hired by large noble estates to manage the domestic affairs of the house, typically reporting to the Lady of the House. Usually male, and usually keeping watch over a team of housekeepers, nannies, cooks and the like, the steward ensures the floors are polished, the wood is not dusty, and the tapestries are cleaned all on a regular basis. The steward also ensures the kitchen is functioning smoothly. Often, but not always, stewards begin their careers as servants and rise up through the ranks to become managers of the house hold they work in.
Great trust is usually given to household stewards, and a fair bit of power. A steward might receive an annual budget and bank account to manage for house hold needs. Some Stewards are even in charge of hiring and firing all household staff. As steward is usually in charge of all other household servants (with the exception of lady's maids who typically report only to their lady), he or she is generally expected to live in the house and be available to the family they serve at all hours. On occation these positions are inherited through families of servants who dwell along side the nobles they serve.
Given that stewards work so closely along side the nobles they serve and reside within their house holds, typically in better conditions than the servants they over see, stewards generally come from or become middle class citizens. As such, they are generally the spokespersons for all the other household servants.
While perfectly appropriate for a Steward to address the lord or lady of the house, it is much more frowned upon for any other servant to do so without being given an explicit invitation. Thus, if a household servant has a concern or complaint, it first goes through the Steward.
Equipment
A steward doesn't need any particular equipment but cooking utensils, patience and a great deal of discretion can certainly be assets.
Attributes and Skills
While no specific skill is required to be a steward, many are useful, infact most have a wide variety of diverse abilities. Skills that can be assets are: the mainy appraisal skills, child rearing, cooking, economics, etiquette, fashion, hairstyling, mass org, and negotiate. As most stewards begin thier careers as servants, most tend to excel in the area of their initial work and expand outwards from there.
As with skills there is no particular attribute that defines the steward, but a variety of social (sociability, mobility) and emotional (particularly self-esteem and maturity) attributes can be useful. Primarily though the steward relies on their mental skills. A keen memory, sharp eyed perception, attention to detail and of course sanity all are very valuable traits in a household manager.
Game commands
There are not many commands a steward must use to be successful but there are a great deal that can be useful. First of all appraise may be used to assess the value of a given product, and the value command allows a person view the market price of a given item.
The make command can be useful in a myrid of ways to create new objects such as food, wine and crafts.
Literacy is represented by the read and write commands which often times might be nessesary to keep track of lists, instructions and accounts.
Lastly, for speaking quietly and descreetly with one's employer while others are present both whisper and mutter can be extreamely useful.
Though a Steward is not technically a cook or a hairstylist or a nanny, he or she may be called upon to perform these duties if no one else is available. Thus, it is handy to know the skills that servants use.
Suggested Roleplay Ideas
Make Rules
Because stewards are considered the middle-management of Firan life, they should not hesitate to issue "rules" within their spheres. (By way of example, Harvinia IstaQuonasi, longtime steward of the Oshta household, has issued a rule that anyone who bleeds on the floors must clean it up themselves.)
Family Dinners
Many families on the grid have a designated "Family Dinner" night. (This idea originated with the Didoron Family.) A steward should serve the dinner, and might even be asked to join as an honored guest (as long as he or she keeps the wineglasses full). This may give a rare opportunity to interact with the household on a more equivalent and meaningful basis than the usual servant/butler roleplay.
Noble Children
Noble children can be a blessing and a bane for the manager of a noble's household. Some children thrive on order but most either bent on acting out or grappling for some control of their household themselves can ever be stirring up trouble for the ones who are charged with maintaining peace and order and font of roleplay for the stewart that's trying to clean up after them.
Errands
Every day errands can take on a whole new light when you're doing them with the weight of a noble or better yet royal house behind you. Buying wine... well you want the best, go find a brewer and ask to taste all his wares before you choose what to stock the cellers with. Need a new scroll rack? Only the finest carpenter will do and you'd like a tour of his workstop to be sure he is indeed the best.
Other Servants
In large noble houses, particularly royal households there are other PC servants to interact with be it bossing them about and being over critical of their work, training them, or simply working along side of them. A stewards success relies heavily on the work of those whom they supervise and each has their own management style that precures (or tries to) the results they need.
