The Rahani Mercantile Consortium RMC
Brief Overview
The Rahani Mercantile Consortium (RMC) is a prestigious and aristocratic trade empire, controlling the Sultanate’s inland trade routes, luxury goods markets, and elite transportation networks. Unlike the brutal efficiency of BTC or the risky ventures of SWTU, the RMC operates with an air of refinement and exclusivity, serving the noble class, elite merchants, and high-ranking political figures.
Their greatest asset is the Indrethi, massive damselfly-like mounts native to the Indred Archipelago, which they breed and train in the Void Spire. These creatures allow for rapid desert travel, giving RMC an unmatched advantage in overland logistics, messenger networks, and elite transportation services.
Despite its aristocratic nature, the RMC is not without its fangs. Altair Rahani ensures that competition is suffocated before it becomes a threat, using economic pressure, political leverage, and well-placed alliances to maintain the Consortium’s dominance over inland commerce.
RMC operates under an uneasy but necessary non-compete agreement with BTC and SWTU, ensuring each maintains its trade niche. Leaders of all three organizations meet regularly to discuss the financial state of the Sultanate, ensuring the balance of power remains intact.
Structure
1. Marquis Altair Rahani – Supreme Leader
Holds absolute authority over the Consortium.
Directly oversees political maneuvering, noble alliances, and trade agreements.
Ensures loyalty among high-ranking RMC officials through strict contracts and family-based control.
2. The Gilded Council (RMC’s Inner Circle)
A small but powerful council of elite merchants, financial strategists, and logistics experts who manage different facets of the organization.
Key Council Members:
Nashir Al-Fayad (Master of Caravans) – Oversees overland trade routes and caravan operations, ensuring safe passage through the desert.
Samira Velqen (Master of Luxury Trade) – Controls the sale of fine textiles, gems, and noble commodities, ensuring only the elite gain access.
Jalil Ibrahmir (Master of Indrethi Breeding & Training) – Manages the Indrethi stables, regulating who is permitted to own or lease these prized mounts.
Rehan Varis (Master of Security & Internal Affairs) – Oversees RMC’s private security force, ensuring sabotage, theft, and corporate espionage are dealt with swiftly.
Sayyida Zarim (Master of Foreign Relations) – Manages RMC’s foothold in Indred and relations with foreign trade partners, particularly within the Al-Muru Daxin Contingent.
3. The Merchant Nobility (Regional Governors & Trade Lords)
RMC operates like a noble house, with wealthy merchant families overseeing key regions.
Each major trade hub or caravanserai is managed by a "Trade Lord", reporting directly to the Gilded Council.
These Trade Lords act as overseers, enforcers, and financial managers, ensuring every gold coin in their region flows back to RMC.
4. The Gold Guard (Private Security & Military Forces)
RMC’s elite mercenary force, specializing in desert combat, caravan protection, and enforcing trade agreements.
Trained in Indrethi-mounted combat, allowing them to strike with speed and precision across the desert.
Acts as both a defensive force for the Consortium and an intelligence network, ensuring rivals and threats are identified early.
Public Agenda
RMC presents itself as the refined and noble face of commerce, promoting stability, tradition, and luxury within the Sultanate. Their official goals include:
Preserving Trade Stability
Ensuring safe and efficient overland trade routes.
Working with the Sultan to maintain a balanced economy.
Enforcing trade laws to prevent market instability.
Expanding the Indrethi Network
Regulating the breeding, training, and distribution of Indrethi mounts.
Controlling elite transportation services, ensuring that only those worthy may own or ride an Indrethi.
Elevating Luxury & Artisan Markets
Providing only the finest goods to the Sultanate’s nobility.
Upholding elite standards for textiles, gems, and artisan crafts.
Strengthening Foreign Trade Relations
Expanding RMC’s foothold in the Indred Archipelago.
Securing exclusive trade deals with noble houses and foreign powers.
Reality: While RMC publicly promotes noble ideals and stability, in truth, they operate as a silent economic aristocracy, controlling who profits, who fails, and who is allowed to do business in their domain.
Assets
1. Financial Wealth
Holds vast liquid wealth, with deep reserves of gold, gemstones, and luxury commodities.
Funded by noble families, making them one of the most politically connected trade organizations in the Sultanate.
2. Real Estate & Infrastructure
The Void Spire (Headquarters & Noble Estate) – A fortified mesa-city acting as RMC’s central hub.
Numerous Caravanserais & Desert Trade Outposts – Provides safe checkpoints for merchants and exclusive trade zones.
Indrethi Breeding & Training Facilities – Only those authorized by RMC may own or ride an Indrethi mount.
3. Military & Security Forces
The Gold Guard – A 1,200-strong private force, including mounted Indrethi riders, caravan enforcers, and elite bodyguards.
Hired Mercenary Contracts – Temporary forces contracted for war-time profits and regional enforcement.
4. Trade & Business Holdings
Overland Trade Monopoly – Controls major inland routes between the Sultanate’s cities.
Exclusive Luxury Goods Trade – Regulates who is permitted to sell fine textiles, jewelry, and exotic imports.
Indrethi Leasing & Sales – Controls the breeding, training, and distribution of these mounts, allowing them to manipulate elite transportation markets.
5. Foreign Investments & Influence
Foothold in Indred (Indred Archipelago) – Maintains a strong trade presence in Al-Muru Daxin’s domain, securing rare commodities and Indrethi breeding stock.
Strong Political Ties with Sultan Grada Vorr’Khal – Their relationship ensures that RMC is untouchable, despite its foreign dealings making some uneasy.
Influence Over Noble Houses – Many noble families depend on RMC for wealth, mounts, and luxury goods, ensuring their ongoing political power.
History
The Rahani Mercantile Consortium (RMC) has long been a pillar of noble commerce in the Vorr'Khal Sultanate, built on a foundation of tradition, exclusivity, and strategic alliances. While not as aggressively expansionist as BTC, the Consortium has secured its power through carefully cultivated relationships, political marriages, and absolute control over inland trade.
1. Founding & Early Growth (382 – 428 AEL)
Founder: Faria Rahani (346 – 428 AEL)
Founded in: 382 AEL at the age of 36
Faria Rahani was a brilliant and ambitious merchant woman who recognized the growing need for structured, reliable inland trade networks across the Sultanate.
Initially, she established a caravan network between Al-Hajjad and the eastern trade routes, ensuring safe passage through the Al-Kir Desert.
Structured the Consortium as an aristocratic enterprise, treating it not as a mere business but as a merchant dynasty.
By 400 AEL, the Consortium had gained the favor of the Sultanate’s ruling elite, becoming the primary supplier of luxury goods, textiles, and artisan crafts to noble households.
In 405 AEL, she secured exclusive rights to establish caravanserais along the Sultanate’s inland trade routes, ensuring safe and profitable trade stops.
Faria Rahani’s Legacy:
"Gold flows where order is kept. Power belongs not to the one who sells, but to the one who decides who may sell."
By the time of her death in 428 AEL at the age of 82, the Rahani Mercantile Consortium was a dominant inland trade empire, though still far from the political and economic powerhouse it would become.
2. The Rahani Dynasty & Expansion (428 – 455 AEL)
Faria’s Successors: Azim Rahani (Son) & Yasmina Rahani (Wife of Azim)
Azim Rahani (born 388 AEL) inherited the Consortium at age 40, ruling with his wife, Yasmina Rahani (born 390 AEL), an astute financial strategist.
In 430 AEL, their son Altair Rahani (born 424 AEL) was chosen as the heir and began his formal education in commerce, diplomacy, and trade negotiations at the age of 8.
During this time, RMC expanded its luxury markets, securing a major textiles and gemstones contract with the noble families of Al-Hajjad.
In 437 AEL, RMC signed a lucrative trade agreement with the Al-Muru Daxin Contingent, establishing a foothold in Indred, which later became their primary source for Indrethi mounts.
By 445 AEL, Azim Rahani had successfully positioned RMC as the undisputed authority over inland trade, while keeping a balance of power with the BTC and the newly rising SWTU.
Azim Rahani’s Philosophy:
"Let the Basaras fight wars. We will build roads they cannot afford to burn."
3. The Political Marriage & Strengthening of RMC’s Noble Ties (447 AEL)
Altair Rahani & Princess Layla Vorr’Khal (Marriage Treaty)
In 447 AEL, at the age of 25, Altair Rahani was wed to Layla Vorr’Khal, a first cousin of Sultan Grada Vorr’Khal.
This cemented RMC’s status within the royal court, making the Consortium not just a trade empire, but an integral part of the Sultanate’s noble structure.
The marriage granted RMC even greater autonomy, allowing them to dictate trade regulations on inland commerce.
As part of the marriage agreement, the Sultan allowed RMC to expand its Indrethi breeding and training facilities, ensuring RMC’s monopoly over elite desert transportation.
Sultan Grada Vorr’Khal at the Wedding Ceremony:
"The Vorr'Khal bloodline and the Rahani legacy are now bound in commerce, wisdom, and fortune. May your union secure prosperity for the Sultanate."
4. Altair’s Rise & Modernization of RMC (455 – Present)
Altair Rahani Takes Control
In 455 AEL, Azim Rahani passed away at 67, and Altair, at 33, inherited full control of RMC.
Yasmina Rahani continued advising him until her death in 462 AEL at age 72.
Altair restructured RMC, shifting it from a traditional merchant aristocracy to a modern economic force, increasing its foreign influence and reinforcing its noble alliances.
In 465 AEL, RMC brokered a three-way agreement with BTC and SWTU, ensuring a non-compete status quo while allowing joint trade councils to meet annually to maintain balance.
Between 468-470 AEL, RMC funded the construction of new fortified caravanserais, strengthening their desert trade routes against rising bandit activity.
Altair Rahani’s Words Upon His Coronation as Marquis:
"Our wealth is built not in war, but in permanence. The sand shifts, but the Rahani name will stand as long as the Spires themselves."
5. Major Trade Agreements & Treaties
437 AEL – RMC’s First Treaty with Al-Muru Daxin Contingent (Indred Archipelago)
Established RMC’s foothold in the Port City of Indred, securing the first shipment of Indrethi breeding stock.
Granted RMC priority trade access to rare alchemical ingredients, silk, and rare Indred pearls.
447 AEL – The Royal Marriage Treaty Between RMC & Sultanate
Strengthened RMC’s ties to the Vorr’Khal dynasty through Altair’s marriage to Layla Vorr’Khal.
Allowed RMC to expand and regulate Indrethi breeding and training.
Granted RMC the authority to oversee merchant tax policies on overland trade.
455 AEL – RMC Secures Trade Exclusivity in the Al-Kir Desert
Sultan Grada Vorr’Khal officially recognized RMC as the ruling body over caravan trade routes.
Created the Gold Guard, a desert security force loyal to RMC, approved by the Sultan.
465 AEL – The Non-Compete Agreement Between BTC, RMC, and SWTU
Avoided a potential economic war between the three merchant powers.
Established a rotating meeting system, ensuring all three trade factions cooperated in managing Sultanate-wide commerce.
Final Thoughts
The Rahani Mercantile Consortium has grown from a simple caravan trade company into an economic aristocracy, maintaining a delicate balance of power between the Sultanate’s nobility and the three dominant trade factions.
Altair Rahani is the culmination of generations of careful political and economic maneuvering, ensuring that RMC’s legacy will continue for generations to come.
Though cooperation with BTC and SWTU has maintained peace, the tension between these three giants remains, and the future of the Sultanate’s trade power is always one negotiation away from collapse.
"The Roads of Gold Lead to Rahani."
Founding Date
382
Leader
Founders
Location
