The Dust Mites

Sole Purveyors of the Drug Bright, the dust mites are a seen as both menace and savior of the cities magical population. Bright itself can greatly boost a mages natural magical abilities far past what they should ordinarily be capable of. As such it is highly sought after and as the sole source in the city this has made the Dust mites somewhat powerful in the underworld of Arbor. This of course does not come without its own issues but generally the The Green Cloaks look past most of the operations of the Mites preferring instead to take kickbacks and bribes to actual police work.

"Bright is either the best or worst thing to happen to mages in this city..." -Mage of the Collegiate Arcanum

Public Agenda:

In Public the mites only goal is to sell a product they tout as the cure to early magical dysfunction or E.M.D. as they call it. They sell out of dealers and locations scattered throughout the city though they do their best to keep discreet in places where some might turn their nose up on a little edge to get ahead. They also deny any potential harm Bright can do though almost everyone out there has some cousin or brother that has had a bad batch and ended up a mushroom or worse for a few hours. In the end the only goal of the mites is to push Bright on to the mages of Arbor and there are a lot of them so business is very good.

History:

There are two mysteries concerning the Dust Mites that have no clear answer, the first is where they came from and the second is how they make or procure Bright in the first place. Both questions are tied up into each other and while no one is sure exactly how they were established there is a prevailing rumor on how they managed to establish themselves.

The Great Heist

Soon after Dust was discovered to be highly dangerous the problem of what to do with the collected dust that was all over the city needed to be addressed. As the group responsible for outputting the vast majority of it The Black Hands were forced to find a solution that would keep the majority of the citizenry safe from its influence. In response they created the Dust Collectors and while this removed the problem from one spot it created another, namely where to store the stuff. In high concentrations it was dangerous to get near it and dispersing it was would just push the problem down the road. They found that containing the substance in lead would dampen its effects enough that it could be stored though. This of course is where enterprising nefarious minds come in, some bright spark realised that perhaps they could sell the dust on the black market, so they got several of their best people together and managed to pull off one of the biggest heists in the history of Arbor. In total they made off with nearly 2 years results of the dust collectors results, hundreds of drums filled to the brim.

Refinement

Once they had the dust though the stuff was far too volatile to do anything with except make bombs and that was a quick way to end up on the The Green Cloaks shit list and they didn't want that. A alchemist by the name of Nagai Ogata managed to work out a way of refining out the dusts more dangerous properties to finally produce Bright. With their drug now produced it was an easy transition into selling the new substance to every mage in Arbor who wouldn't want a little boost to make their magic just that much stronger.
Of course all of the above is merely rumor and the Black Hands deny that Dust has anything to do with Bright or the Dust mites.

Attire / Common Garb / Quirks:

The consequences of working and dealing with a substance like Bright is the random and severe mutations that occur within those that handle the drug in its raw and more unpredictable form. These mutations mark the Dust mites quite clearly for all to see and also their territory is a cavalcade of nonsense and magical weirdness that defies explanation. Each mutation is random and has no bearing on anything about the person their station or anything else however it should be noted that the most severely mutated are those who directly interact with Bright in its raw form or the Alchemists. The dealers themselves are usually minimally mutated and from outward appearances maye appear fairly normal for their species.

Structure and Hierarchy:

The Dust mites company is organized into broadly speaking two section the dealers and the alchemists however along with these two groups are a number of hired muscle to make sure people pay their dues and no one tries to cheat them.

Dealers

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These are the face of the dust mites and the ones responsible for standing on street corners pushing product to desperate or otherwise mages and magical practitioners. Though they don't all stand on street corners opening up their trench coats to passers by asking if they want to get a hit that is the stereotype that has followed many of them. Many dealers can be found inside clubs, pubs or other establishments acting as bartenders or security. For the dealers they get a small cut of the profits from the sale of everything they sell so they are encouraged to sell as high as possible and avoid undercutting other dealers too much. Broadly speaking then there are two types of deals first part and third party, the first party are directly employed by the mites and usually only provide dust these are usually present only in the Upper Class areas of the city and offer discrete access to Bright, the second are third party dealers who are provided a pack of blight selling it and returning an expected amount of profits, not returning with the money is a good way to end up at the bottom of a river.

Alchemists

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The true value of the dust mites, the Alchemists convert the raw ingredients into bright for sale. Unfortunately due to their direct interactions with unprocessed Bright they are heavily mutated in many horrific ways. No two alchemists look alike and many believe that they have played in the realms of the gods for far too long resulting in their disfigurement, the Alchemists seemingly don't care what the people think and continue to doggedly pursue the perfection of Bright. Each of the Alchemists has a supply of the raw ingredients though where they get them or what they are is a closely guarded secret.

Territory:

Third Ring second Branch (The Dust Mites control nearly all of this district recruiting from it and maintaining their control within it.)

Notable Structures:

The Twisted Tavern (A major meeting point for the Dust Mites)