Steel and Gunstones Merchant's Guild

The Merchant's Guild


History:

When Thuron began to fall and rebels and barbarians gathered on her borders, most of the colonial troops were withdrawn back to protect the Grainlands. During this time Merium was invaded by Gallion, and Drazid and Shelo freed themselves from the Thuronian rule. In Kaharah Char, along the Hazur River, things went differently. The traders who made their living along the Hazur were rich and had already sunk a great deal of money into forming trade routes through the Kaharahs. Instead of leaving with the soldiers, they banded together, hired mercenaries and built a string of fortresses down the Hazur to secure their holdings.
As trade increased this trading guild became more and more powerful. All the original founders became incredibly rich. Antrock, at the mouth of the Hazur became as much a Thuron city as any in the Sealands. Trade expanded to Kahareth and down the Ebone coast. Eventually the trading guild became a power in its own right.

During the Civil Wars the Guild shipped supplies and goods to a beleaguered Sealands and strengthened their coffers in the process. At the end of the wars the economy and stability of the Sealands were non-existent. The newly dubbed Merchant’s Guild was one of the few entities that had money. The Guild began rebuilding inns and roads. It also created a mail system. These blessings were given to the Sealands…. for a price. Every traveler had to pay a toll and peddlers who sold their wares outside of city state walls were forced to either pay to join the Guild or pay duties to the Guild. In recent years the Guild has found a new treasure source. Just west of the Hazur river, some of the largest deposits of dragonsdust, the most essential ingredient for gunpowder, were found.

Today the Guild is still very powerful, especially in Southern Thuron. Influence of the Guild is reaching north into Thuron proper and east to the Galingian lands. The near monopoly on dragonsdust has made the Guild a power broker on the highest levels.
Along with this good fortune has come some trouble for the Merchant’s Guild. Many of the Kings as well as the nomads are becoming hostile toward the Guild. Many of her colonies and lands are turning on her. Some of the nomad tribes along the Hazur have vowed to rid the land of the northern "gift-bearers". The Utus, a fierce tribe of ebony giants have suddenly turned hostile to the dragonsdust minors who dig on their mountains. Pirates on the Cythian Sea have begun to effectively cut into the Guild's shipping lanes. The Merchants Guild is slowly being choked. Although still inconceivably rich and powerful, she has begun to worry for her stranglehold on Kaharah Chur.

Role in Society:
The Merchant’s Guild affects almost all levels of society in the Sealands and the entire Cythian Sea Region. The Merchants control trade on almost every level. In the Sealands, the Guild mints the coin, patrols and regulates trade on the primary roads and toll ways, as well as holding monopolies on many foreign imports. Almost everything that is bought or sold in Southern Thuron has paid some sort of tax to the Merchants Guild.
In return the Guild has brought prosperity and trade to the Sealands. Goods from far off exotic places commonly find their way into the city states. Well guarded caravans frequently travel the byways of southern Thuron and Guild rangers often patrol the major roads keeping them reasonably safe from bandits and other nastier things.
The Merchants Guild is large enough that they effect not only the Sealands, but also entire kingdoms and trade routes throughout Efirvia. Guild ambassadors can be found in almost every minor kingdom and province. If the Guild is not the most powerful political entity in Efirvia, it is definately the most widespread.



Order of the Guild

Associate Guild Members:
Associate guild members are merchants who pay their taxes, tithes and fees to the Merchants Guild. They may travel with any guild caravan and enjoy the protection of the merchants Guard as well as trade in guild festivals and use guild booths. Almost all traders and merchants in Southern Thuron are associate guild members or have been at one time. It costs 20 guilders to become an associate guild member at which point a guild member receives a brass key pin which denotes them as associate members.
Associates only pay 1/3 less tolls and taxes than non-Guild affiliated merchants.

Full Guild Members:
Guild members are those Merchants who work for the Merchants Guild itself. Guild members consist of managers, common laborers, packers, accountants, tax collectors and other support staff. Guild members are hired by the Guild and work for salaries. Guild members are usually paid quite well.
Guild members wear a silver key with one wedge as a badge and are not required to pay any Guild taxes. Guild members also get a 10% discount on most items that they buy through the Guild.
The Merchants Guild will pick up 1/3 of all combat, navigation, or Language training for a guild members. They will also pick up 2/3 the price of any bargaining skill that a guild member learns. Guild members may also learn gun combat skills at normal price.

Journeymen:
Journeymen are the officers of the Guild. Higher level managers hold the rank of journeymen. Most of the traveling positions are led by journeymen who command ships and caravans for the Merchants. Journeymen also command the expeditions which explore and expand the new trading routes. Journeymen wear the Merchants gold key as a badge with two through five wedges cut into it depending on the journeymen's rank.
Journeymen are taught any skills normally taught by the Guild that their time allows for free. They are also paid anywhere from 50 to 500 guilders a week depending on their position. Journeymen may also buy any Guild merchandise for 1/2 the price provided it is not used for resale.



Guild Masters:
The Merchants Guild is managed and run by the Guild Masters. They are the powers that set prices throughout Sealands as well as control the trade of their particular region. They are only answerable to each other and to the Guild of Barons.
Every Guildhall and important trade route has a Guild master assigned to it. There are some twenty five Guild master positions; some more powerful than others.
Guild Masters are not usually adventurers, but rather very competent managers and impeccable businessmen. They make incredible amounts of money both for the Guild and for themselves. They are treated as dignitaries and are feared throughout the Sealands. Guild Masters wear gold jeweled keys when they wish to show their office.

Baron's Guild:
The first and greatest branch of the Merchants Guild is the Guild of Barons. This very limited society is made up of the issue of the original twelve houses which started the Guild. The membership to this elite society is guarded quite well and is, for the most part hereditary. The decisions that this group make change the world. All major decisions regarding the Merchants Guilds are made by this small group. Members of this guild are filthy rich and most kings do not control the amount of wealth that each of the Guild barons do. Most have townhouses as well as sprawling estates in the Sealands in addition to small colonial kingdoms, baronies and holdings in the colonies.




Merchant's Guard:
In order to defend their holdings home and abroad, the Guild formed a special order of mercenaries known as the Merchants Guard. Originally formed from Northern barbarians and Karah-charian nomads, this guild still maintains a wide flavor of races and nationalities. Whether there claim as the best mercenaries in the world is true is a matter for conjecture, but they are definitely the best paid. Most of the Guard still comes from the barbarian states in the northern seas or from the Kaharah Churian Nomads. Most of the Guard is stationed in the Guild colonies, but their is also a sizable force in and around the Sealand City States. Outside the individual city states the Guard acts as a police force and patrols the roads and other trading lanes. The fact that they are always well supplied with gunpowder usually makes them a threat to any lawbreaker or non-Guild merchant. The city states resent such a large and powerful force maneuvering inside their borders but they really have no say in the matter.
Merchants Guard members wear keys to denote rank in the same way that the main branch of the guild does except a guardsman's key is a small dagger. Guards keys have slightly different meanings.
Brass key: means that the wearer is a mercenary hired by the Guild but not necessarily a member of the Guild. Most of the foreign Mercenaries are brass key wearers.
Silver key: denotes a full time working fighter for the guild. Most silver key wearers are well trained in the use of gunpowder, Particularly in the use of the musket. Silver Key wearers may train in combat skills for 1/3 the normal price. ( The Merchant’s guard option in character backgrounds are considered to be silver key members)
Gold key: Officers of the Guard may train in combat skills for free if time allows. Gold Key officers must be masters at least one weapon before they are commissioned.

Seafarer's Guild:
One of the most important tools of the guild is the Cythian Sea shipping. The transport of goods between the Sealands and the Southern Continent are paramount. In order to insure shipping the Guild bought up much of the Sealands merchant marine. They required that all who work for the Guild need to belong to the Merchant Maritime Guild. The Maritime Guild has been in operation ever since. This guild controls an impressive portion of the shipping coming out of the Sealands. If ships do not belong to the Guild they must pay expensive tariffs and also pay high docking taxes, because the Merchants Guild owns many of the best docks and harbors in Southern Thuron. Other shipping still exists though. The Merchant's Guard has formed a small fleet of twenty battle ships to protect convoys from pirates and corsairs and this strategy is working, if somewhat clumsily.
Although the Guild was formed by the Barons, it is still somewhat loose and separate from the main Guild. It is not what the founders had hoped it would be. Most of the time its members are far from land and the strangling grip of the Barons and they tend to trust each other more than some rich man living miles away.


Alchemist's Guild:
An important organization under the power of the Guild barons is the School of Alchemy. Sometimes called the Alchemist Guild, this subsidiary of the Merchant's Guild trains men in the arts of chemically and magically creating potions, unguents, and of course gunpowder.
This school will train students from a young age to become absolutely loyal. Alchemists are tatooed on the neck with a blue flame at a very young age. The Alchemists are very closed mouthed about their studies and deal almost exclusively with the Merchants Guild. Students and products from the School are sent all over Efirvia. Almost every Merchants Guildhall has at least one resident Alchemist working for them and the Alchemist’s products are quite common throughout the Cythian sea region.

Caravan Guild:
The last arm of the Merchants Guild is the insidious Caravan Guild: the agents which operates in the southern lands of Kaharah Char. This Guild has tried to place the oasis and caravan routs of the desert lands under its power. It is well known for its intrigue and foul play. This society originally began in Shilo and has since spread over all of the Kaharahs. It is this organization that keeps the dragonsdust flowing to the north. The Caravan guild is very powerful due to its almost unlimited use of gunpowder and its powers of bribery. The guild also has created a society of killers known as the Nizzarg Assassins. With these tool the Caravaners have formed a huge trading network throughout the dangerous Kaharahs and secured the dragonsdung trade.
Although the Caravan Guild worked with and for the Merchants Guild, in many ways they are separate entities. The Caravan Guild is not controlled by the guild barons, but rather by Guild secretaries and ministers. In actual matters of trade the two guilds often compete; especially along the Hazur River. Most of the Caravaners are from the south and feel they have no obligation to their so called bosses far to the north in the Sealands.

User Bonds
It is often necessary to distribute large sums of money over perilous lands and waterways. In order to avoid the risk of losing hard cash, the Guild created a system of bonds and credit. User bonds are notes written by Guildmembers that stand for money.
A guildmember can give a bank a large amount of money in return for a bank note or user bond. When the bond carrier arrives at a distant city they may cash in the bond for the assigned amount of hard currency. All major guild halls will redeem bonds. The bonds may be traded again and eventually returned to the issuer for full credit.
Non-Guild members may buy bank notes at regular price, but may only redeem them at 80 to 90 percent of their value at any guild hall. Bank notes may still be stolen, but large sums of stolen money may be tracked down easier than silver. Bank notes are also easier to conceal and to carry than the cumbersome metal coins.

Sawnchial
As the Merchants Guild rose to power she left in her wake many powerful enemies. Merchants, escaped slaves, dejected nobles and disenchanted politicians were left without a purpose in life. These rogues have bound themselves together to oppose the ever growing power of the Merchants Guild. They formed a shadowy brotherhood called the Sawnchial or "those that oppose".
The secret society has since rooted itself in all major cities in Southern Thuron. The primary sanctuary of the Sawnchial is in the ruins of the once great city of Cyrithia. From there they oppose the Merchants Guild at all levels. Their exploits include everything from political opposition and intrigue; to pirating, banditry and smuggling freed slaves. Some of the best thieves have now joined the ranks of the Sawnchial and it has become a very powerful underworld organization. Every sort of criminal has run to the Brotherhood to seek sanctuary at one time or another and the character of many of the members is questionable. Others have aligned themselves with the Sawnchial for monetary gains and still others for their hatred of the Merchants Guild.