The Cartel

The Cartel is the great organised group of slaver bands brought together under Lyras to consolidate slavers' power in Avarnox. It comprises multiple, previously independent bands. Their old leaders do still hold power, but tend to defer to Lyras's leadership. Most of his negotiations didn't require a financial contribution to the Cartel for the first five years, allowing them to keep all their profits but providing protection and men from other bands. This allowed better organisations between bands, without resentment due to profits being taken. After that five year period, a few bands ceded from the Cartel (some only temporarily) to avoid paying the 10% fee taken as protection money, but Lyras's military leadership and the increased loyalty of the others, who saw firsthand how their profits increased under his charismatic leadership, regardless of the fee meant they were quickly reincorporated (without the five year probation period) or destroyed so that the Cartel could claim their lands.
There are still a number of free bands, especially on the outskirts of Avarnox where bands tended to be bigger to begin with, who choose to work with the cartel without joining them (for example, agreeing to stay within certain areas and staying at peace with one another), and some who resist them entirely. Within the band, there is some friction, especially between those who were previously rivals. For the most part, clever organisation keeps any real infighting from happening, but tensions are rising, especially with money now being taken from them and the cartel's wider expansion. Where it began in The Breadplains, most bands were informal, small and divided, and rivalries were generally superficial. Further South, they tended to be larger, more long-lasting and have deeper seated feuds that no amount of clever leadership can truly erase.

Founding Date

Circa 1491

Type

Illicit, Cartel

Alternative Names

The Slavers, The Slaver Cartel

Demonym

Carters, Slavers

Leader

Lyras

Location

Nightmount