The Legion House

by

A Wandering Legionnaire

Born from the club houses formed by disillusioned traditionally minded men as think tanks and drinking holes in reaction to the modern world The Legion House soon expanded into havens for travelers and temporary homes for unemployed youth looking to acquire a trade and guidance from seasoned men.  The Houses developed into hostel like franchises in cities around the world in private homes run by veterans to renovated buildings run by Legion Clans as dormitories and training centers for their local guards - but all providing a welcoming space for the weary wandering Legionnaire.

The first of the Legion houses were formed in garages and basement in private homes. They were simple and rugged manly spaces filled with the aroma of tobacco and coffee mostly.  Old shelves filled with old books and prints of old ships and soldiers covering the walls.  There could also be found dumb bells on the floor and icons of saints hanging over small alters with lit candles and a bible.  Most drinking was done outside of these clubhouses but it was not frowned upon to enjoy a drink or two with your brothers after a meeting.  The Club House was more a place for contemplation and the forming of ideas on the salvation and restoration of western civilization and the preservation of the Catholic tradition.  As more men gathered to the cause of the Legion many groups began to purchase houses and old warehouses to renovate for their expanding tribes. 

A Typical Legion House

The first Legion Houses were either privately owned or formed out of old  two or three bedroom houses purchased by groups and then renovated for their Legion needs.  One Bedroom was always set aside for the House Captain - usually the home owner. The second bedroom was often reserved for a legionnaire traveling with his family but was mostly for the second in command who traditionally acted as the House Prefect who would organize all group activities ranging from the scheduling of meetings and classes to camping trips.  The House Prefect also was responsible for keeping in touch with other Legion Houses around the world and help traveling Legionnaires with arrangements to stay at other houses but we will discuss more of the duties of the Prefect later.

In the Legion House the basement or the garage was turned into either the gymnasium or the dormitory with a couple of rows of bunk beds and lockers for the Legionnaires belongings.  If the house had a back yard then it would quite often be where most of the exercising would be done in warmer weather, depending on the size of the yard, the house traditionally grows it’s own vegetables and one may also find Chickens wandering about

There is a kitchen and the pantry is regularly stocked and the meals served are small but filled with protein - mostly meat and potatoes, chicken, fish and steak or pork.  Breakfast in the smaller houses are mostly cold cereal or oatmeal and may depend on who is cooking that day. In the bigger houses there is more organization in their kitchens and meals are prepared according to schedule whereas in the smaller houses meals are prepared according to availability.  The dining room in the smaller houses are cozy and consist mostly of one big table able to accommodate at least a dozen guests.  The larger houses have much grander dining halls with rows of tables and the rooms double as lecture halls and study areas when not in use for dining.

In smaller houses the living room acts as the common room and library and one must be careful in observing if there is much reading going on as not to disturb others in study, however in bigger houses there is a common room close to the dormitory for members to gather in a less formal atmosphere and the receiving room and library are separate.  You will find that in the much larger renovated buildings a floor or two have been set aside as dorm rooms and they have class rooms for different fields of study for their members all properly scheduled and one must sign up with the Prefect before attending a course. While we are on the subject we should briefly talk about the courses of study most offered by A Legion House.

Class Rooms

From the very beginning of its formation The Legion Has gathered to it a wide variety of men from all walks of life and classes, from the blue collar worker to the white collar intellectual but all coming from a traditional Christian background.  When joining most Legion Clans, members list their skills and qualifications with the House Prefect and many men with skills and experience often volunteer to teach these skills to their fellow Legionnaires. The Legion has among it’s members military men as well as professors and skilled laborers. Most of the dormitories of Legion Houses are in fact filled up with young men there who cannot afford to go to school looking to learn a trade.  The Legion encourages it’s members to learn trades such as electrical maintenance and repair along with other mechanical skills as well as carpentry and plumbing - skills that will  allow a Legionnaire to be self sufficient as well as help him to find work anywhere. But we also learn philosophy and finance, economics and ethics, culture and religion.  In a Legion House one can learn other languages and military strategy, how to fix a car and how to kill a man, how to ride a horse and how to sail a boat, how to build a house and wire it for electricity and how to drill for water.  The Modern Legionnaire is a well rounded and learned man - but most importantly we encourage Legionnaires to learn and preserve their cultures, traditions and to preserve their Christian faith and much study is encouraged in that direction.

As the Legion Clans have grown and more rural lands purchased for Tribal Villages many small colleges have been built and are operated by The Legion Monasteries with separate schools for men and women, of course with space being limited in the larger cities many of the Legion Houses that offer courses also provide classes for women with some classes being coed, this is depending on how liberal a particular Legion House is run.

List of portable trades and occupations for wandering Legionnaires

Actors                               Health instructors and trainers    
Artists                               Buskers
Authors                             Entertainers                                  
Cooks                               Disc Jockeys
Dancers                            Musicians                                                 
Gamblers                         Consultants
Models                             Language Teachers                             
Athletes                           Photographers
Event Promoters             Software Designers                                  
Health Care Givers         Waiters
Mechanics                       Webmasters                             
Engineers                        Nurses
Tax Experts                    Journalists                                                 
Mercenaries                   Bartenders                                                            
Traders                          All Around Hustlers

The House Prefect

The House Captain fills the role of surrogate father and spiritual leader or the equivalent of a tribal chief, offering guidance and instruction on faith and personal strength, he often finds himself with very little time to actually run the house, there fore it became customary for the houses second in command to take on the role as a prefect - or vice principle.  The House Prefect is the first person one should make themselves known to upon entering a Legion House as one must of course sign into the guest book if they are traveling guests, listing your name, lodge house, tribe and tradeable skills, you should also inform the Prefect if you will be giving any courses on a particular field. 

The Prefect helps many traveling Legionnaires by assisting in finding work locally, and securing lodging in other Legion Houses - it is of course known among all Legionnaires that each house has its own pass words and tests before travelers can enter and the Prefect who is a skilled Concierge can acquire this information from his brotherhood of Prefects - they are the gate keepers.  The Prefect of  houses big and small is responsible for all schedules and coordinates meetings, classes, and all training exercises and outings as well as assigning work duties and overseeing that all chores and house maintenance is done efficiently and according to schedule.  It is important for traveling Legionnaires to remember that Legion Houses are mostly run my the Military Monastic Order of The Legion and they run on strict budgets and very strict schedules.  The Prefect is also responsible for all House acquisitions, trades, and bartering, and keeps the kitchen’s pantry and cooler filled according to the House budget and needs.

The House Prefect also helps traveling families  in securing lodging or work and help in coordinating local charity events such as food drives for the needy, elderly, or veterans.  And The Prefect is also a preferred source among local Legion Clans for a variety of reasons such as finding seeds for a garden to finding markets for their harvests.  In many cases  House Prefects have acted as  brokers between tribes - they are among the most trustworthy of  Legionnaires and their resources are limitless.

Customs and Traditions

Each Legion House has its own customs and traditions but I will focus here on what has become customary among all  Houses.

As most Houses are homes for young men learning a trade it is important for traveling Legionnaires and those in transit from one Monastery to another to remember that you are in their house and as a guest you must allow them their space.  Students come first in Legion Houses second of course to the Guards, but Guards in larger cities are housed in their own dorms with their own common rooms and Libraries... but in smaller cities Guards might share the same Houses with novices - either way, Most travelers will be sharing dorms with students.

Upon first arriving to a House, Travelers will sign in and inform the Prefect of their skills so as to be assigned a work duty - one must pay his way in a Legion House and it is mostly done by bartering ones skills for lodging... if one cooks then you will help in the kitchen, if you garden off to the garden you go... if you are a carpenter you will be kept busy fixing something or out in the shed to make something the House can sell locally.

It is no secret that many Legion Houses own and operate local business and often times travelers may find themselfs working in a Legion owned gym or market or auto repair shop or a Legion owned construction company.

Most Houses being run by the Military order are given a very small budget with which to work with and are expected to be fully self sufficient - that is, to grow as much of their own food and be able to provide a service or product with which to sustain itself. Though few house have been able to accomplish this - most of the very successful houses being the smaller more rural ones, others are dependent on their local Clans and Tribes for donations as well as donations from travelers themselves. Therefore it has become customary for travelers to not only help in donating food and money for the House but to leave a little bit of money when they depart. As most travelers stay for a few months in a city they always end up finding work either in a Legion company or else where, so there is never a question of not having enough money to donate.

All House guest are expected to clean up after themselves but it is customary for all guests to participate at one time in the cooking and cleaning after a meal usually for dinner... it is a tradition among houses that this is a  communal experience and often in a smaller house things can get quite chaotic with a dozen people preparing a meal, but a very funny thing to witness. Prayers before a meal are said by the House Captain and dinner conversation is mostly about one’s travels and life before the Legion.  Now that we all have a purpose and direction we already know where we are going so not much need to discuss that which we know must be done - but it is always interesting to hear about another’s life before they found their purpose.

The Legion is a brotherhood and for many men it is a family and their tribe. The Legion does not believe in wasting anything that can be reused or re-purposed, and it has become customary for Legionnaires to make donations of old clothing or household goods to Legion Houses to either be traded or sold among the less fortunate among us or sold to others - we take care of our own first and foremost before we trade with others and make others rich.  And There are, in Larger cities, Houses that have their own Commissaries for Legion Families to shop in.

In this brotherhood sharing is also customary in a House - it is now a tradition and custom in all Houses that whatever is on a table is shared among all - such as a pack of cigarettes on a table are there for anyone who wish one, or say, a box of cookies or snacks, if it is on a table in a common room or in the dinning hall it is understood among Legionnaires that all are welcome to partake without having to ask. And you will find yourself without friends if you complain about someone grabbing one of your cigarettes, so if you are not the sharing type best to keep to yourself and out of the common room.

A custom among traveling Legionnaires is to volunteer himself for a patrol tour for a couple of nights with a local guard around the neighborhood or a tribal community.  Many seasoned Legionnaires also volunteer as instructors in the Monasteries and in House class rooms.  You may of course heard of the several traveling Legion Tribes made up mostly of single men that go from Monastery to Monastery giving instruction on various martial arts techniques and providing missionary services in poor countries.

A Legion House can find itself very crowded around the Christmas Holidays as many students don’t have anywhere to go or find themselves lacking the funds to get back home to be with their families and there are the lonely travelers who have no home to go to other than their Legion House.  But it has become a custom for local clans to drop off gifts for the guards and students some even offering to take House guests to midnight mass and to dine with their families, but Christmas Morning finds the House of students and travelers turned into a home of a tribe of its own and everyone has at least one gift to open and carols are sung before we all make our way to Church.  Houses are always decorated for Christmas with a nativity scene in the receiving room and a tree in the common room and someone from the community will donate a ham and a turkey for the House.  There are no lack of friends or brothers in the Legion.

Before a traveler departs it has become customary for him to share his list of resources with the House Prefect and to send a gift of thanks to the last house one stayed in. For some travelers it is their custom to send a box of chocolates or candies for others it is a gift for the house - books for the library or a nice work of art for the halls - but one always remembers their Legion house and its hospitality and pays it in kindness any way they can.

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