Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management

Overview

The Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management is a bank. Well, it was a bank, now it is a whole system of banks, scattered across Koria. Every bank has the same tasks and the same three departments: financial services, capital, investments.

Every bank - mostly just called "bank" or "hoard" - offers its service for a small fee depending on the service and the amount of money worked with. You can just put money into the bank for savings which is the most obvious way, even peasants can do it.

Then you can store an amount of money into the bank and let it work for you which means, that the bank takes your money and do trades with it; your earnings is the profit made out of this trades, excluding the fees.

And the last option is to invest into small and big projects around the area the bank is located in and get the return of investment later down the line. Most of the projects are buildings, farms, small settlements, reconstruction, archeology projects, and area developing projects (Mills, dams, etc.).

And last, but not least: you can exchange currencies at the bank of your choice. It is irrelevant which currency you have and which you want to get, the bank can exchange it for you. You can even bring your hides and furs with you and get an acceptable price for it. But most banks buy it for a quarter of the normal price and sell it for at least the double. They do have a base limit on things they buy from you. So if you want to sell a lot of your goods at once a bank might be a good choice. They normally have the coin and the space to buy it from you. We are talking a huge amount of goods at once, say a few dozens up to hundreds, depending on the goods.

*sigh* Yes, I need to take those to the hoard. What? The Hoard? The bank? You...oh, you do know it, good. It is just a name for the bank because they do hoard everything in the belly of their bank. I mean, they are Dragons afterall.
Why not the market? Because no reasonable merchant would buy fourhundred sheephides at once, thats why. At least they can distribute it and I have my fair share. Well, as far as fair can get.

— Sheep shepard to a curious adventurer

History

Founded by Horifax the Golden, one of the oldest Dragonborn on the entire surface of Koria, it was first brought up to the Human kings, the clan leaders of the Dwarfs and to the elven lords and their councils.

The biggest problem the Dragonborn encountered was the egoism and fear about new ways, especially on the side of the dwarfs who feared that their "good ol' coins" might lose their value and historical significance. So Horifax had to come up with a more complex solution. With the help of his wives and consultants he created the whole and everlasting "Contract of Fees, Currencies and Acknowledgements of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" where every currency has its own value and exchange rates to every other currency, be it old or new. It is a highly complex document with a few dozen pages for every currency, bound in thick leather and cold iron.

After being reviewed at least five times the "Contract of Fees, Currencies and Acknowledgements of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" was signed by every leader of every race and clan with a currency, even Orcs signed it. They even knew that the Dragonborn weaved a spell that even on the death of one of the leaders no one can withdraw from the contract, except for negotiations.

The "Contract of Fees, Currencies and Acknowledgements of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" is going under review every ten years where the leaders of every species can negotiate new rates and details with each other. It is mostly a meeting in the length of a month, only a few were cancelled or aborted in the middle of the meeting due to misunderstandings.

As the "Contract of Fees, Currencies and Acknowledgements of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" came into effect, the Dragonborns were given the right to build a bank in every larger settlement if needed, including small warehouses and logistics, say mules, horses, and carriages. The whole network of banks is now scattered all around the continent, even the Garladans have one bank in close proximity of their capital.

A'right, me lads, bring out the huge drills, will ya'? This archive o' that bank isn't going to fucking built itself, aye?

— Dwarven master architect to his builders

Departments

Every bank of the "Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" network consists of three departments. Every department has to report to the Head of Bank which also reports to the main capital bank.

Financial Services

Financial Services is mostly self-explanatory. You can open up to three deposits and put money into each of them. If you open a new deposit, you have to put in money as a starting capital. After that you don't have to add something to your deposit and let it work on its own.
Each deposit consists of three parts: the deposit itself with its protected door, a deposit ledger and a crystal were every transaction and the deposit balance is engraved into.
There are three different kinds of deposits: normal, fluid, corporate. You can mix them, interchange them, get one from each or three of one.

• Normal deposit is as normal as one can get: put money into it, let it work or put more money into it. Normally safeguarded by a small Ritual of Lock.
• Fluid deposits are designed for merchants with a more or less high fluctuation in their deposit while selling or buying. Depending on the merchant and the parameters each deposit can be guarded by a medium or heavy Ritual of Lock.
• Corporate deposits are deposits only for companies, may it public hand or private. They come with different prices and parameters and are not purchasable for private people. Most of the corporate deposits come with a heavy Ritual of Lock so they are protected as good as possible.

You can close and open a deposit to your liking or you can negotiate swapping between old and new parameters or entire deposits. Closing a deposit gets you everything with interest & profit minus the fees.

Capital

The Capital Department of each bank is the heart of the Golden Hoard, this is where they accumulate the most wealth. There are two types of deposits: private and corporate, including merchants, public hand, nobility. This is the way if you want to accumulate wealth over time because the bank works with the money stored into this deposits. The private deposits have a set of standardized parameters, fixed and not negotiable fees.

Corporate deposits have a various amount of parameters every customer (no private customers) can negotiate in a specific range. Corporate deposits have no limit upwards and have mostly a percentage fee depending on either the profit or the throughput of the deposit. The more transaction you have the more you have to pay; every transactions amount accumulates to this fee and gets charged depending on the contract with the bank.

Investments

This department is self-explanatory as well. As a customer (private or corporate doesn't matter) you can sit down with a Dragonborn and discuss your budget, your vision of the project you want to invest into and the Dragonborn - or other employee - is presenting a list of projects to you.

After chosing a project the employee presents the parameters, fees and possible profit to you. You sign the contract with the bank and let the money work for you. No deposits necessary and you can get an information on your money and the possible profit at the end of every month.

You get paid triggered by two events: end of contract stated in the deposit contract or end of project. At both events you get your money back with interest and minus fees.

Currencies

The current currencies are:

• 6x human currencies
• 1x Garladan currency
• 1x "new" dwarf clan currencies
• 14x "old" dwarf clan currencies
• 3x "old" elven currencies
• 1x "new" elven currencies
• 1x Underling currency
• 1x "old" dragonborn (there is no new one, they use what they have at hand)

That makes 28 currencies in total and every bank has at least a relatively high amount of it in the treasure chamber.

"How do you keep track on all of this? How can you remember every currency by name with the right exchange rates?"
"Well", said the Dragonborn with scales in the colour of brass, lowering his glasses, "I'm a Dragonborn after all, am I not? I also know every transaction of your deposits, the value and your actual balance."

Roles & Structure

There is one main bank, located in the west of Koria, where all transactions, reports, ledgers, balances and deposits get archived. There are also reports for the head of every bank and in the main bank they make the decisions if and where a new bank is opened or maybe closed. Even negotiations are possible and every ten years the "Contract of Fees, Currencies and Acknowledgements of the Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" is being reviewed, so the Dragonborn provide rooms, food and a conference room.

Horifax the Golden is at the top of the main bank and on top of the entire management structure with his wives and consultants. They are more or less encapsulated from the daily business. Horifax has the last word on the new head of every bank when a new bank is going to be build. He elects new heads of the bank when the old one is killed, too old or is going to retire.

Every bank is run by a Dragonborn as the head of the local bank and one Dragonborn as the head of each department. There are also two Dragonborn for the treasure chamber to protect and keeping the inventory nice, clean and all accounted for. There are three ledgers for the chamber, one per Dragonborn and one for the entire chamber, so they can keep a clean track of everything.

Every Head of Department has at least one other Dragonborn as a substitute and can employ various helping hands, even Orcs if needed. Most of the employes are humans with a few exceptions like dwarfs and Underlings.

Each department has a budget per employee and position where the Head of Department can decide on its own how much it wants to pay its employees.

Each department has its own storey and archive, so the building of the bank is pretty massive in most parts of the continent. The archives are often beneath the building or at the back, depending on the location.

Safety

As the "Golden Hoard Capital and Investment Management" is a conglomerate of banks run by the Dragonborn it is only natural that the Dragonborn are self-tasked with the safety of every bank. And so it is also natural that they use the magic of Dragons to keep the bank and the deposits safe.

Every banks door is engraved with powerful sigils and once activated, they don't let anyone out or in and shut the door airtight. Also the runes activate larger runes, deeply nested inside the walls of the bank so they get near to indestructable from inside or outside, fallbacks included.

The treasure chamber is safeguarded by living spells which means that they react to the danger or thieves once activated. The door is imprinted with a lock with seven sigils - yes, Dragonborn are very traditional in some ways - and the lock itself is protected by a heavy Ritual of Lock. Some banks even created living statues with weapons and fire and magic, rendering most treasure chambers a deathtrap.

Speaking of deposits. Every deposit is guarded by a Ritual of Lock, the strength of it is stated in the deposits contract. Additional to that the door of the deposit is engraved with runes to keep it shut until someone uses the deposits crystal. With this crystal the deposit can be opened or it just projects the balance and transactions - inscribed in the crystal - onto the door. It is a three-key-failsafe: ledger, door with the Ritual of Lock and the crystal. Many information are stored inside the crystal, even the owners (and possible substitutes) name and face to prevent trickery or fraud.

Bank Deposit Door by Midjourney

Bank Deposit Heavy Lock by Midjourney

Crystal Key to a deposit by Midjourney

Reports

Every Head of Bank is reporting to the main bank. Every deposit ledger, decommissioned deposit crystal and inventory ledger of the treasure chamber is copied every three months and sent out to the main bank archives, heavily guarded of course. If one of the banks is getting decommissioned as well, they get an entire chamber for themselves which is sealed after that. The artifacts, coins and other things of wealth are being inspected by the wives of Horifax or Horifax himself. They decide if the inventory gets sold, archived, destroyed or infused into the cycle again.

Communication

Besides personal communication the Dragonborn are using communication crystals, speaking spells/scrolls or just good old paper/parchment via courier.

Dragonborn Communication Scroll by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Dragonborn Bank Entrance by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Type

Financial, Bank

Leader

Horifax the Golden

Related Species

• Dragonborn