The Masquarade

The Masquarade is a shadowy council in the lands of Varonia which rules over the small yet mighty Traders Union. While the Union and by proxy the Masquarade son't control many of Varomia's many provinces what they control almost makes it feel like they own so much more. As the Masquarade is part of the Trader Union's goverment, that goverment being a corpretocricy in which a coilition of all major buisnesses and corporations have come together in a joint ownership of the goverment. Representation in descision making is decided in a way similar to shares of a company, that means the more shares you can buy the more representitives that you can have. While thousands of companies big and small make it up in recent years a triumverate of corporations has given these titans of buisness a majority for decisions with their combined shares giving them 51% of total representitives present meaning they can pass almost anything that they desire. This triumverate is formed from three companies who have been making a major profit due to war fueling each of their industries, these three include, weapons and veichle manufactuer The Rever Corporation, oil and steam power company Golden Gear Technology, and finally defense contractor company Helmsgaurd Continental. While that political move is recent the foundations of this ruling body has been held for a long while tracing its origins back to when the great ecenomic power of Forglect collapsed and threw the world into chaos as million of gold was lost due to the loss of many of its inventor in this terrible incident and the breakdown of the established Road of Gold lead to many wishing for some to fill the vacum of this production. At the time most other buisnesses were small only supplying locally and not being able to support much more than that. But as towns around the continent began to need this product they began to overwhelm these small buisnesses, this influx of buyers also lead to fierce compition in the cities as if their was more than one kind of a company in a city, dutchy, or whatever area they were in sabatoge, vandalism and in some cases gang war like fighting broke out. But this was hurting buisness and things would need to change to help dig Varonia out of a finacial crisis and these companies felt they could profit so during the year in this chaos thousands of buisness leaders banded together so that they could put aside their diffrences and gain all that they truely want, gold. To help stem this fighting for influence this coilition, who would soon become the Trader's Union and with this group voting for ideas and actions becoming the Masqarade, made the desision that each city would be split into diffrent zones which were divided amoung buisnesses of the city helping dictatte who could advertise where and helping to stop needs to fight for control. After this initial start this alliance would grow and grow as new buisnesses and technologies rose fueling the capital of the Trader's Union. One revelation made during this time was how profitable war was for this conglomerate, as these buisnesses where most of the time not goverment owned as this organization prides themself on being neautral which meant that most goverments both local and continental tend to diversify who they buy from which in turn helps the Union profit, for example the Empire takes on The Rever corporation as its main supplier for weaponry and mechss this would help profit smaller buisnesses as with the largest weapons dealer taken groups like The Flock buy from many diffrent smaller producers to be able to match their production. 
Back to the Masquarade this group gets its roles from the distinct outfits they wear as to avoid voter intimidation and to just look cool each member wears a simple white expressionless procilen mask with the logo of who they represent often artistically etched into the design with gold and rubies. The outfits the tend to look festive like something seen at a carnival celebration with most groups sticking to the colors of the group they represent for while they may be a political body it doesn't mean they don't wnat to look fancy while doing so. The Masquarade is a important part of decsision making for the Trader's Union acting as its main body of goverment thought it is assisted by the two other bodies of goverment that being the lower power of The Mask of Brass and the upper power of The Mask of Gold. These two groups are used less than the Masqarade as they only deal with certain issues. The Mask of Brass deals with issues deemed to be of not high importance such as low squabbles and turf wars between companies on more of a scale of a town rather than a province or continent scale. The Mask of Gold is a very rarley used group as they are made to cut down on voter itimidation and are the only group to be able to cut a company out of the Masquarade. This is rare as most companies dare not go against them as to be cut out menas that the Masquarade and by extent the Trader's Union will divert their resources to eliminate all of thos involved in managing this compamny that has been deemed as detrimental to The Masquarade. This descision can also be passed upon individuals or groups as well and one current example in Varonian history of this power being used would be the targeting of the The Phantom Cutlass, a pirate group who has been terrorizing their trade routes in the seas and having attacked and sacked both the settlement of Corsta and Port Rasha.

Structure

The Masquarade is a three branch system of goverment whcih governs the provinces of the Trader's Union and the buisnesses that are part of its conglomerate faction. The first Branch is the lower power of The Brass mask. This division is someone who deals with the smaller buisnesses that being the 1/3 of the coilition who are unable to afford a full share and acts as a mini version of the main Masquarade doing what that group does. That being settling disputes over small company vs small company polotics or dealing with advice for how to give these groups the most profit or resorces for dealing with people who disrupt buisness like pirates, bandits, gangs, or mobs. This group is made up of a smaller group elected by the masquarade to over see these buisnesses. The next group is the main branch of goverment, The Masquarade. This group has a constantly changing set of people who vote as the seats of representation are all bought with each seat representing a share in the company. To make sure that everyone who can afford a seat gets one and so that one company can't buy a exorbinent number of seats at once their is a long process of going company by company buying seats which only stops when no companies can buy more seats. The Masqarade is the law making body for basically all buisness and Varonia both,legal and illegal buisnesses are represented as all wish to profit. The Masquarade tends to vote on things like minimum wage, working hours, and saftey. They tend to favor workers as strikes are seen as very bad for buisness, though they have been known to call upon their personal bought mercanary army using them as strike breakers, homesteaders, and a militia to put down anything that is voted to be a problem worth eliminating. In the event of ties on issues in this branch the decision is left up for the Mask of Brass and Mask of Gold together to decide. Speaking on the Mask of Gold is a high branch of the goverment being 100 representitives from the families who hold the most power in buisness. They deside the fate of bigger issues such as views on religion, war, and the primordials and will pass laws for those things. They also have a special job of deciding if a company is to be cut loose, in other words eliminated and split up among the others due to going against rules of the Masquarade or being deemed a threat against a great majority of the buisnesses and/or continent.

Public Agenda

The public agenda of The Masquarade is a rather simple one, they wish to profit the whole of the Trader's Union and grow their influence and power in polotics. They are currently pushing into the goverment of the Neautral Aliance as they feel that is where they need to expand next.

The guiding hand of gold leads us forward.

Dissolution Date

N/A

Type

Alliance, Economic

Capital

Trader's Island

Alternative Names

The Faceless Council, The Hidden Hand, The Golden Weavers

Training Level

Professional

Veterancy Level

Veteran

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Mixed economy