Household Staff

The Household Staff were the human staff of the Strange and Wonderful House.

Nature

Recruitment

Children aged between six and twelve were recruited from the people of the surrounding Fields on some Harvest Days to grow the ranks of the Household Staff. If chosen, they would spend their whole lives within the House. On one occasion, twelve-year-old boy Rondel was chosen, despite being the son of the current Master of the Fields. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Great South Gate) Adults could also apply to become Servants. If accepted, their old life and “any of [their] sins” would be “forgotten by all”, but in exchange, they could never leave the House again, and could only marry among the other Servants. Additionally, even after swearing to abide by these conditions, they had to undergo the Test, which not everyone survived, before they were formally accepted. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Maids)

Subgroups

The Maids claimed to “answer directly to the House, not those who claim[ed] to rule Her”, and appeared to have ways of communicating directly with the House's intelligence. Among their duties was to “watch the House while the Master [was] away”. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Maids)

Directly under the authority of the “Masters of the abode” were the battle-ready, all-female Housekeeping corps, who were sworn to clean out every room in the House at least once per year. They were led by a forceful woman. They had an enmity with the Artifectors, eccentric inventors who worked in the Laboratory on devices nominally intended to make the lives of the residents of the House more convenient, although they often did the opposite or else wholly failed to pan out. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Lab, The Lab: The Alarum Goes off, The Lab: Setting The Alarum)

Other staff included the guards keeping watch over the door to the Conservatory from the Guardroom, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Guardroom) the zookeepers patrolling the Zoo, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Zoo) Malthus who watched over the morgue, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Rose Cottage) Montresor the Keeper of the Cellar, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: Montresor) the man with the crimson cloak who distributed invitations for the Ball, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Ballroom) the mysterious Sid who once led the Master of the House on a journey through the Gardens, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: Into the Gardens, etc.) Frank the Janitor, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Vault, The Note) the Triplets who ran the Fabulous Salon, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Fabulous Salon) the Guardian of the Ink Wells, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Guardian of the Ink Wells) the Librarian, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: There is No Dripping in the Library) and the unkempt inspector who spent their career travelling through the House examining each of the hundreds of Airing Cupboards. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Seven Hundred Nineteenth Airing Cupboard) A giant robot guarded the Basement. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: Safety Catch)