Fraxian Guild of Caravaners
If you want goods, products or raw materials moving within the Underdark, then you have to do business with the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners. Based in the trading hub of Frax in the Upper Underdark, the Guild controls the portering services of all goods within the Underdark, having used a ruthless strategy of undercutting to wipe out the rest of the competition.
Structure
The Fraxian Guild of Caravaners is split into three sections, the Executive, the Brokers and the Porters.
The Executive are a small group of individuals, who are individually appointed by the other executives, who control the whole of the Guild and make the calls about its strategy and business.
The Brokers are a larger body of educated individuals that negotiate the jobs that are the Guild’s bread and butter. They fix the prices, negotiate the timescales and pick the best routes for thee individual caravans to follow. They also negotiate the mercenary contracts to protect the caravans when in transit.
The Porters, which is by far the largest group, are the Caravaners who actually carry out the services that the Guild provides, moving goods between locations and through this keeping the gears of the Underdark's economy well oiled.
Public Agenda
Ostensibly, the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners was founded to address a rising issue of drastically inflating prices for the movement of goods within the Underdark and between it and the surface world of Kelbonnar’s Material Plane. Just prior to the founding of the Guild, the price increase on the movement of goods was becoming so bad that the cost of moving goods far outweighed their value and the whole of the Underdark was approaching a real financial crisis.
The leadership of the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners still proport that they were founded to and continue to work to create economic stability within the Underdark, though most believe that their actual motivation was to gain hegemony over the transportation of goods, and that their current goal is to maintain this hegemony along with the vast profits it provides the Guild with.
Territories
The Fraxian Guild of Caravaners predominantly operate within the confines of the Underdark's, three levels, the Upper Underdark, the Middle Underdark and the Deep Underdark. However, they do also operate routes that connect the Underdark to the surface world, and very occasionally will take on jobs that are exclusively on the surface world, if the profit margins are good enough.
Military
Oddly, given the nature of their work, the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners do not have a military force of their own. Instead they hire mercenaries to protect the caravans that they run and they have a long standing relationship with the Bloody Wolves and other mercenary groups active in the Underdark to provide their trading missions with protection.
The reason for them operating in this way is to do with profit. Hiring mercenaries means not having permanent employees on the payroll and as the number of mercenaries needed fluctuates drastically depending on the work that the Guild have on at any one time, if they were employed directly by the guild there would be a not insignificant amount of mercenaries sat around doing nothing. Also, mercenaries have to be paid more, as the danger pay they receive drastically increases their wages, another incentive for getting rid of them when they are no longer needed. Finally, by using mercenaries, the Guild does not have to pay for equipment or provisions for the mercenaries, as they provide all of that themselves.
Foreign Relations
The Guild are in the unique position of having a good relationship with almost all of the powers on Kelbonnar’s Material Plane. After all, they have control over the movement of goods within the Underdark and between it and the surface world, so there is a fair amount of economic incentive for the powers of the Underdark and the Empire of Turelion to maintain good relations with them.
However, tensions over recent years have been developing between the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners and the Empire of Turelion, as it is known to the Empire, thanks to the work of the Imperial Inquisition that the Guild have no qualms about transporting goods through the Underdark to the rebel nation of Nova Norgantho, which the Empire still views as a part of its dominion. Whilst this tension hasn’t boiled over into out right conflict or sanction yet, increasing numbers of trade caravans run by the Guild are being attacked by so far unidentified bandits on their way along the trade routes that would bring them up into the north of the continent of Hunar and the territory of Nova Norgantho. Though the Empire of Turelion have not been so foolish as to claim responsibility for these attacks, the Guild are fairly certain that the Imperial Inquisition are behind them. However, the Guild is not foolish enough either to accuse the Empire of this, as it could mean them losing a substantial amount of valuable business with the surface world.
Founding Date
236BIF
Type
Guild, Merchant
Alternative Names
Cave Porters / FGs
Demonym
Guild Caravaners
Currency
Normally, the Fraxian Guild of Caravaners will only accept Fraxian Standard as payment for their services, as it is the most trusted coinage used in the Underdark. They will willingly make an exception, however for the Empire of Turelion, with whom they do a lot of business, as the amount of work they get portering goods to and from the surface world to the Underdark more than makes up the small loss that changing Imperial Coinage into Fraxian Standard incurs.
Location
Related Professions
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