WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0017 0017
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Chapter 2: THE STRUGGLE FOR KHITUS
Profit & Influence
Bleeding well crossing
Bleeding Well Crossing is the manifestation of
merchant house power in the wasteland. Named
for its history as much as the bloody color of the
local sand and rock, Bleeding Well Crossing lies at
the intersection of most of the major trade routes.
Its deep underground cistern once had only a small
wall and a few buildings around it when it served as
a way station for weary travelers. With the recent
wars and the devastating climate change, the cistern’s importance grew. For a time, Bleeding Well
was a prize sought by different tribes, cities, raiders, and the great merchant houses. Needing it
the most, the merchant houses put up the biggest
fight. War, however, was not a profitable endeavor—at least when they had to engage in it. A truce
split control of the Crossing between the great
houses, turning the growing village into a nexus of
trade and intrigue.
Each month, control of Bleeding Well Crossing
rotates to one of the eleven houses on the Merchant Council. This provides each house the opportunity to profit from the Crossing in both coin
and information. It is also the place first struck
when the Merchant Council targets another
Council house for extermination.
The Crossing itself mostly comprises taverns,
inns, stables, carpenters, and other establishments designed to service caravans. The citizens
ostensibly owe loyalty to no single house but serve
all of them. In reality, some are bought by regular
bribes or favors and others pocket more than one
paymaster’s coins.
their own soldiers, and keep a large staff of both city
and caravan merchants to ply their enormous catalog of
goods throughout Khitus. The vast wealth and influence
wielded by these houses allows them to play an important part in the regional politics of their home cities,
and they constantly jockey amongst themselves for position and prestige. The eleven most powerful of these
great houses sit on the Merchants Council.
Many hold that it is the largest merchant houses who
work in close league with the Bev al-Khim, entreating
eagerly with them and in so doing sealing the world’s
doom. However, most know deep in their hearts that it is
all traders, both great and small, who are easily tempted
by the silver falling from their pale hands.
“Profit is king, but influence is queen,” is a popular
saying amongst merchants. Merchant houses naturally
chase down coffers full of coin, but they all recognize
that profit is impossible without the influence needed
to secure the best contracts, trade routes, military protection, or government favor. City rulers, in turn, recognize that the merchants of the great trading houses are
the best sources of information about rival cities and the
wasteland itself. Indeed, because of their unique position within the bazaars, merchants are excellent sources
of information about the local citizenry as well.
Rulers and their officials recognize that, for all their
wealth, the merchant houses operate at their sufferance inside their city’s walls and are rarely in positions
to deny a bureaucrat’s “request” for information. Thus,
the great trading houses not only engage in commerce,
but often serve as begrudging agents and spies. In re-
affiliated or Unaffiliated?
Affiliated merchants belong to a merchant house.
This provides advantages like being able to draw on
the merchant house’s reputation protection, commercial resources, stronger negotiating position, and
built-in network of merchants and informants. However, an affiliated merchant is beholden to his merchant house and is rarely free to act on his own counsel. Affiliated merchants go where the house needs
them to go, make the trades the house needs them
to trade, and always keep the good of the house before their own needs. The larger the merchant house,
the more resources an affiliated merchant may draw
on. This conversely reflects how much less freedom a
merchant has outside of the house’s will.
Unaffiliated merchants have all the personal freedom they can want and afford. They also have no added resources beyond their own house to back them
up. They often get cut out of larger deals, lose out on
prime locations, or have to scramble to make a profit.
They live a day-to-day existence, but they keep all the
money they make and can do with it what they will.
Most new merchant houses rise from successful unaffiliated merchants wanting to start their own trade
dynasties. Affiliated lesser houses rarely break away
from their greater houses, save in coups that switch a
house’s ruling power.
As customers for stolen property, thieves tend to
seek out fences aligned with unaffiliated houses who
are generally freer to negotiate with a wink and a nod.
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