Volitant Merchantry

Overview

Commonly known as Guild Volitant, this trade organisation originated within the Cilostratan Expanse but now has connections and routes all over the Queendom of Vreabia.

Founding History

Originally founded by Handel Ticaret, a small time trader from one of the lesser expanse skylands. He started running trade runs between his home settlement and ones nearby to improve his people’s situation in life. He couldn’t afford one of the new skyships with an Orb-Stone of Cyvest, so being somewhat of an arcane artificer himself, he developed his own solution. A flying balloon device he invented. It didn’t travel as fast as the other skyships, but it wasn’t beholden to the winds either. He had a series of large, magically powered propellers that drove it forward. Another upside of his device was that it required significantly fewer personnel to run.
After he had made himself moderately rich, he decided to upscale his business and made three more ships to run other trade routes. He picked out a name for his new company and over time just kept getting bigger and bigger. He ended up buying other trade concerns that appeared until he was the only trade guild in the expanse of any importance.
When he died, he died one of the richest men in history. He left the business to his children, and it’s been a family run guild ever since. The Ticaret name has become synonymous with money and the flying balloons he pioneered.

Organization Structure

At the top of the chain of command are the descendants of Handel. They frequently give junior members of the family a job running a small guild chapter house on the fringes of their operating domain, just to cut their teeth and learn the business. If they succeed, they bring them back to the main offices and give them important responsibilities there.
Below them they have the different trade routes. Each of them has a person in charge of making sure it runs smoothly and they give them autonomy to run it how they wish. They call these Route Captains. They audit any route that is underperforming and then go through an organisation reshuffle to bring profits back in line with expected numbers.
At the start and end of each trade route they have a guild chapter house, they deal with any guild concern in the settlement they base them in. These have a chapter leader who is in charge of any staff within the settlement and also the smooth running of all trade in that settlement. They work with any route captains that use their based settlement as a port.

Public Agenda

The guild goals are simple. Gain a stranglehold on trade across the region within the Storm Wall. In doing so, they expect to make themselves disgustingly rich. They care little for morals or ethics in their search for greater profits. Accused of repeatedly tricking people into signing contracts that only benefit the guild, many are wary about dealing with them. However, it is becoming difficult to find anyone else running trade because of being bought out or forced out.

Assets and Technology

Their trade vessels are very recognisable because they are balloon based airships instead of based on the design of a normal seafaring ship. The balloons themselves bear the gold and black livery of the guilds seal. The ships have gone through many designs and improvements since Handel’s time and are now much faster and stable. They give a smooth ride, allowing cargo to arrive in a safe state and also in good time.
Their central base of operations is a marvel created during Handel’s grandsons time in charge. A large floating fortress, suspended by many balloons, it isn’t a traditional skyland but a construction. This allows it to move, albeit slowly, from place to place.

Conflicts

Because of the amount of valuable cargo and money they carry, they are a constant target of sky pirates. Now armed with harpoons and cannon, their balloon ships are more protected, but the more nimble pirate ships still put a large dent into their profits.
They have standing rewards for any returned cargo and bounties on the head of any pirate captain. They have even higher bounties on any of the governing pirate members. Especially sought after is the head of Savdo Kayda who is a constant thorn in their side.
They also have a conflict with the Itani whom they desperately want to trade with. The Itani, however, refuse to have any dealings with such a gluttonous and greedy people. There are secret plans in motion to steal the Itani’s resources that they want.