“Gold speaks.”
Masters of Coin and Trade: The Golden Sails are always searching for a new opportunity, looking for a new profitable enterprise and diversifying their assets. Gold is their creed, their god, and their code. Everything is for sale, the only question is how much are you willing to pay?
Headquartered on a massive 9 masted treasure ship that slowly traverses the seas, with a surrounding complement of warships, merchant marine, and scouts it is one of the heaviest armed and armored fleets in the Southern Sea. Trade flows into and out from this floating city of a ship, with the organization’s merchant marine bringing many of the ill gotten gains of the pirate aisles to this ship for redistribution into more “legitimate” markets abroad. “The Hand of The Market” sometimes simply referred to as “The Hand” is the name of this floating fortress of mercantilism. While its guns are many, what is far more impressive is the magnitude of ships that sail alongside it as vigilant bodyguards, buoyed servicers, and speedy couriers.
The Golden Sails has their tendrils out into the greater world and has made dealings under the identity of various other trading companies, auction houses, and import/export caravans in nearly every part of the known world. All of the gold flowing to and from “The Hand of The Market” like an intricately designed vascular system moving currency and goods instead of blood. All moving towards the center to only be pushed out and moved again to another stretch of the network in some distant part of Arthos.
Being on the good side of The Golden Sails has been known to be extremely profitable and beneficial so long as they have stood more to profit from your success than your failure. Being on the bad side of The Golden Sails has caused entire townships to starve, the supply lines to them being abandoned and cut by the merchant marine and their control of those supply lines.
The worst sin that someone can commit against The Golden Sails is to either not pay for goods or services rendered or steal from them. To The Golden Sails both are the same, and while it may be possible for someone who has offended The Golden Sails in this way to buy themselves out of trouble, those who brave the wrath of these merchant men have found themselves hunted and brought to a watery grave.
This is not to say that the Golden Sails are a monolith, within the organization is a complex structure of often competing agents, employees, and middle managers leading all the way to the top wherein sit the wheels. The only way to ascend the hierarchy of The Golden Sails is to prove more profitable or successful than your those of your same rank, this leads to a very competitive environment where success is often gained to the detriment of the person next to you. Business is a cutthroat endeavor, sometimes literally.
-Dress For The Job You Want: A member of The Golden Sails can be spotted rather easily, often by the wealth that they wear upon themselves. They dress themselves lavishly in the icons of wealth of their respective cultures and more often than not work in gold and precious gemstones into their attire. A member of The Golden Sails on official Golden Sails business and not just merchanting can often be found adorned with the symbol of The Golden Sails.
-Start From The Bottom and Work Your Way To The Top: What started out as a loose syndicate of different trading houses and merchants looking to make a profit off the wares sold by pirates and smugglers laundering them into legitimate markets, it has over decades become an extremely successful and profitable cabal of businesses and tycoons that have seen the opportunities to be had from an extragovernmental approach to business. At the top of The Golden Sails sits The 5 Wheels each specializing in their own form of trade and material. Below each wheel sits an arrangement of managers and captains, below these are the associates that make the organization work in its day-to-day dealings.
*It is rumored that there is someone who sits above the Wheels within the hierarchy. But due to the meetings of The Wheels being private to all but The Wheels themselves and them not sharing the inner workings of their organization, it cannot be confirmed or denied at this time.
Iron Wheel: Mercenaries and other human resources led by Chief Steward Yaz Gul Skullcrusher
*You do not deal with the Iron Wheel, the Iron Wheel deals with you.
Silk Wheel: Soft goods, such as services including but not limited to houses of healing, brothels, translators, and the like. Led by Lady Mythiria Mercy.
*It is amazing what whispers and secrets can be heard from the lips of the dying or from someone caught in the throws of passion.
Gold Wheel: The movement of rare goods and resources such as rare minerals, historical relics, and magic items led by Director Ibraham von Wulf
*Accusations of tomb raiding, grave robbing and other worse things have been dealt with after the removal of the last head of the Gold Wheel and a thorough internal purge was conducted of its membership. Rumors of this actually being a recent takeover from within have been unfounded.
Mithril Wheel: Sells Chemistries, Alchemies and other miracles in a bottle. Led by Doctor Malorie Goodwall
*The rumors of their involvement with Ambrosia dens is highly exaggerated and any that have previously stated otherwise have soon recanted their statements or been unable to be found for follow up by authorities thus proving their innocence.
Pewter Wheel: Specializes in the transmission of bulk resources and the provision of permitted or restricted trade goods and materials. Led by Admiral Amal Faizan
*The rumors of their involvement with illegal smuggling have been proven wrong and salacious after a thorough internal investigation.
-Harbor History:
Previously standing as a financial institution servicing the harbor’s more illicit goods and services with a means of bringing them into the outside world. Over the years they have shifted towards being a more legitimate trading group and have aggressively and rapidly expanded their operations across Arthos. Still relatively unknown by the wider world, they prefer the measure of anonymity that they have from the prying eyes of Imperial bureaucrats or the judgment of the paladins of the Church of Light or The White Raven Alliance.
They for decades have had extremely good relations with Dark Harbor until 2264 when an incident occurred where members of the Dark Harbor community raided a Golden Sails owned warehouse and stole the contents inside. After this, the Golden Sails placed a moratorium on trade going into the Harbor until the debt was paid and those responsible were brought to justice.
The stolen goods were eventually returned fully by the beginning of 2265 and relations were starting to warm again when a Golden Sails merchant was assaulted and robbed in the beginning of 2266. If not for the immediate intercession by members of the town and the return of all the stolen property with a compensatory payment the Golden Sails would have left forever.
However, because of the quick action of the citizens of Dark Harbor The Golden Sails has been willing to open itself up to the Harbor once more, and even assisted with finding the location and assassination of gnoll war leaders that threatened the harbor under the banner of Gnoll Warlord and Dreadknight of Baaagh, Ripthroat.
-The Prize Room: There is a rumored hall inside of The Hand of The Market that leads to where all of Wheels of The Golden Sails meet on those rare occasions where they must. In this hall known as “The Prize Room” sits rows upon rows of statues forged of gold. These are statues not of the heroes of The Golden Sails, but of their enemies. Those who have wronged the Golden Sails the most through attempted thefts, attempted outside takeovers, murders, or egregious debts. These statues act as a grim reminder to any who sees them, even the wheels themselves, that The Golden Sails will not take such sins lightly and retribution is absolute. For they are not statues of those criminals and hated peoples that wrong The Golden Sails, but hollow sarcophagi wherein is encased the body of the one depicted. Each criminal having been captured and then buried alive inside for their final death.