Kayleesa Venexia
Mother Kayleesa Venexia (a.k.a. Mother Kayleesa)
Intro
Mother Kayleesa Venexia is the owner of The Roaring Stag, a major tavern in Bastion 's NorthHarbor neighborhood. To equate Mother Kayleesa to the identity of a mere tavern owner would be doing her a grave disservice, however. She is, in fact, one of the most powerful political players in the city of Bastion, and her influence, control, and interests reach far into every corner of the city.
Known for being guarded with even her closest allies, and ruthless to her enemies, Kayleesa's favor is both incredibly valuable and incredibly fragile. Do not mistake these traits for fickleness, however. Kayleesa, while shrewd, is true to her word, as she knows that her reputation is the most valuable of her many assets. Her influence can command the most bloodthirsty of Bastion's gangs, pirates, and thieves to stand down, as all know that crossing the city's mother is never in their best interests.
As the owner of the Roaring Stag
Mother Kayleesa's empire begins at her bar. The Stag is a popular, upscale establishment, especially by Bastion's standards, but certainly, one does not gain immense influence by simply owning a popular place to get a drink. Kayleesa built the bar up from nothing; much of the work constructing the structure she did herself, on the ruins of a warehouse near the deepest port in the city of Bastion that had burned down. As the closest bar to the piers, hers is the first stop for the sailors of the largest ships handling the greatest amount of cargo to spend their coin. This excellent position led to the Stag's quick success financially, and an influx of capital for Kayleesa. Rather than sit on this money, however, Venexia had other plans.As Bastion's Bank
With the cashflow from the Stag, Venexia began offering loans to those around Bastion. Cautiously, at first, ensuring that any transaction had sufficient collateral to ensure that her risk was covered. Sometimes, this took traditional forms. Trading contracts, major assets, service contracts, but, as time went on, and her influence grew, she became the collateral. Ensure you're good with Mother Kayleesa, or nobody who wants to stay good with her will give you the time of day. And everyone wants to be good with Mother Kayleesa, everyone had to be good with Mother Kayleesa, because doing business with her is more likely to result in success, and doing business without is sure to result in failure.
As a broker of power and influence
Once established as the financial center of Bastion, Kayleesa worked to make herself the political center. Favors became an essential currency of hers. There was always some poor sod who couldn't pay with gold, but could pay with SOMETHING; Secrets, skills, services, or connections. The good mother will pay a premium for the right information, the right favor, if she knows it can be used to increase her power later. She has an instinctive sense of who is lying, who is not, how to prove people's claims, and who's guarded knowledge is worth forgiving a debt or two to earn. She very much uses these skills to her advantage to ensure that she has her finger on the pulse of ALL the important happenings within Bastion... And how she can profit from them.
While Mother Kayleesa is not the absolute wealthiest person in Bastion, she is unquestionably the most powerful, and has more wealth than all but a select few, and a diverse range of assets to her name, or promised in collateral. Many of these are ships, whoose captains use loans from the Roaring Stag to purchase or make major repairs to. As such, she gets a share in a good portion of Bastion's cargo operations.
As a peacekeeper
Mother Kayleesa knows that profitable commerce depends on order and stability. So she creates it. She makes it known that there is to be no violence within her walls. Ever. It is also understood that deals that happen within her walls are to be respected, even if she is not a party to them. As such, the Stag is considered a safe place for all to do business. Rival gangs, mutineers and their former captains, bitter enemies, and distrustful trading partners ALL trust the Stag as a place to meet, break bread, and come to mutual understandings. This is where Kayleesa's massive base of influence becomes apparent. When a deal is signed at the Stag, she keeps record of it, and is responsible for its enforcement. As such, regardless of who you're doing business with in Bastion, everyone owes SOMETHING to Mother Kayleesa, be it from a broken deal, a favor promised but not yet delivered, a debt unable to be repaid, or goodwill for the benefit her services have brought the user.
Her role as a mediator has served to bring stability to the city, which used to be far more lawless than it is today. Petty gang activity is permitted only where Venexia deems it unimpactful on the overall economy and too expensive to stop for the gains brought by it's absence, infrastructure is maintained where it is useful, public works projects are created where they are necessary, and the common defense is provided for, regardless of if the citizens of Bastion are defending themselves from governments, from natural disaster, or from the monsters of the deep.
The money for these common projects come from the ways Venexia has found to take cuts of commerce throughout the city. Taxes, in a traditional sense, are no where to be found in Bastion, nor is the concept of formal land ownership fully respected; if you own the business, you own the land it sits on. If you open a market stall, it's yours for as long as you are there. If you found yourself a corner to live in that nobody else claims, it's yours. Despite these facts, Venexia has found ways to raise funds regardless. Interest on loans, of course, but also protection for high value commerce; not "protection" in the organized crime sense, but true assurances that you will be able to take your goods to market, that you will be paid in real gold, that, as a buyer, the goods you recieve are what you thought you were buying, that the ship you purchased won't be stolen off the docks in the middle of the night and then permitted to do business as if the theives were the legitimate owners. All for a price, of course
Influence on Bloodmarket
Venexia's lofty position within Bastion's ecosystem is exemplified in the Bloodmarket district of the city. While once just a convenient place for commerce: Far away from the dark alleys and rough edges of Ratlan, and the urban decay of the city center, but still close to wharfs that can moor midsized vessles, and a quick hop across the straight from NorthHarbor, a high value marketplace was all but guarenteed to develop there. It was Mother Kayleesa's influence that drove bloodmarket to its current height, a marketplace where anything can be found, from cargos of gold pirated from trading vessels, to rare magical items, and standard trade goods like lumber. Other, more exotic goods can also be found. Assassin services, illicit drugs, the finest potions and poisons, forged documents, and much more can be found if you know where to look.
This came about through the coordination of a dozen or so individuals commonly referred to as the Bastion Elite, including Mother Kayleesa. This group of powerful individuals all have significant resources, influence, and interests within the city. They worked to organize Bloodmarket into a place where these goods could be sold with some level of security, through systems like escrow services, approved buyers and sellers, and more. Buyers flock to the bloodmarket because it is the only place to find some of these goods, and those that are available elsewhere are often cheaper here, due to their questionable origin. Sellers flock to the Bloodmarket because it is safe to sell such goods, and because, through careful, intentional market control, the elite are able to keep the prices high on goods, without scaring off customers. That big shipmentt of lumber? That will be at commodity prices for getting it, maybe a bit higher as it's not native here. Never mind that the pirate who seized the ship carrying it didn't have to pay the lumber mill for it. That's a nice profit margin, while still being a bargain for the buyer relative to anywhere else they would be able to get that timber. That poison? Well, it's illegal anywhere else but here, who KNOWS what it will go for?
The entire system of market control, the guards who make their presence known in Bloodmarket if needed, the ships bringing supplies in, the institution people trust their gold in; Mother Kayleesa is at the center of it all.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Kayleesa is physically small, but can still control a room despite that. Don't let her slight frame fool you, she has enough experience throwing drunks out of her bar to be able to lift just about anything. But the way she carries herself, you know she never has to lift a finger... unless she wants to to prove a point.
Facial Features
Her ears are short by the standards of Wood Elves. Her left ear is missing a chunk out of the upper part of the Helix, nobody knows how, save Kayleesa herself. This ancient injury has long been smoothed by the sands of time.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Before her time in Bastion, Kayleesa does not detail her history. It's not presently known. The archipelagio hasn't been largely populated for the full ~450 years of age that she claims, so it's unlikely she was born here.
Intellectual Characteristics
Kayleesa is incredibly smart, wise, and calculating. By any standard, she'd be a genius, and fast on her feet to boot.
Morality & Philosophy
The one thing Mother Kayleesa will not sell is slaves. Slaving is not banned in Bastion, but not due to a lack of effort on her part to try to ban it. As is, the slave trade is banned in Bloodmarket, and looked down upon through most of the city, but that's merely driven the trades underground. Stopping them entirely is an ongoing project of hers.
Divine Classification
Mortal
Alignment
True Neutral
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Age
450
Children
Current Residence
The Roaring Stag
Pronouns
She/her/hers
Gender
Female
Eyes
Silver, large, but narrow, usually peering at whatever or whoever she's looking at, to assess honesty, value, or usefulness
Hair
Her hair is straight, and would be shoulder length, if it was not always kept in a low military bun. Its color is a rich, sleek black.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Like most woodelves, her skin is a middling brown. Where most are of a walnut complexion, Venexia is lighter, perhaps a "Cherrywood" tone
Height
148 cm (~4 ft 10 in)
Weight
64 kg (~141 lbs), carried fairly evenly
Other Affiliations
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