Great Circle Trading Company

"It is neither wise nor desirable to attempt to know everything."

- Excerpt of the Handbook of the Angharite Janissaries

This article contains optional lore or worldbuilding that may or may not be true at the discretion of your Dungeon Master.

The Great Circle Trading Company is a dual-chartered mercantile guild headquartered in the cities of Tripolis and Oversea, with subsidiary offices in Coldwater, Southport, Albassaria, and South Point. The guild is notable for two primary reasons: it is one of a very small number of guilds whose operating charter is recognized in both the Atarlie Empire and Bastonia (where it originated), and it is one of few mercantile guilds with a strong association to wizardry - all of its highest-ranking officers are Wizards trained in the laws of Ars Magica by masters of the craft. The guild was founded in 1500 of the Age of Summer of Mortals, and specializes in the trade of magical reagents and finished materials through mundane means.

Guild Offices and their Officers

The Great Circle Trading Company is a highly organized enterprise and subdivides itself into regional or functional offices, each with an appointed officer who forms a part of the internal "Great Circle" office, as detailed below.

• The Great Circle Office is the enterprise's equivalent to a military headquarters company and is a roving entity, operating either out of Tripolis or Oversea depending on the location of the guild's flagship, Firmament. The Great Circle Office is responsible for the monitoring of all guild operations, facilitating communication between members of the office (being the heads of other offices themselves), and negotiations between the guild and state entities such as the Atarlie Senate or the Duke of Zeemarch. The Great Circle Office does surprisingly little to generate direct revenue for the guild and operates at a loss, funded mostly by its share of operations of the other guild offices, on the understanding that Great Circle Office negotiations make all enterprises the guild engages in more profitable. The Great Circle Office is managed by Callisto Carsine, a human divination specialist and one of the guild's original founders.

• The Rising Sun Office is the guild's permanent hall in Tripolis and by extension most of its fixed operating positions and offices in the Atarlie Empire. This office serves as a sort of regional command and control for trade operations in the Atarlie Empire as well as the Hearthlands, and is largely responsible for the recruitment of new free traders into the guild as well as the hiring and disbursement of appropriate bands of hirelings and mercenaries to escort its shipments in that region. The Rising Sun Office is managed by Cithrel Valfir, an elf conjuration specialist, who cofounded the guild.

• The Falling Sun Office is the guild's permanent hall in Oversea and the lead office of all subordinate offices in Bastonia, and by extension western Wisteria. The office serves as both the fixed locus of control for the guild's operations along the western coast of Wisteria and throughout Bastonia, as well as overseeing all shipbuilding efforts through its private shipyards in Oversea. The Falling Sun Office has been notably reluctant to get involved in Bastonian contracts that work toward supplying its war effort in the Frontier Counties. This office is managed by the Evocationist Kudal Roy, a native of Pashkhara.

• The Office of the Arcwhale is a dedicated local office operating out of the city of Coldwater whose focus is almost entirely on procuring and transporting Arcwhale Oil by bidding on contracts of the Arcwhalers and through armed shipments to allied ports. Given the great expense (and great reward) of this enterprise the office has disproportionate influence and is often seen as separate from, if not equal to, the Falling Sun Office. The chief officer of the guild is the half-elf Nara Kudel, a specialist in the use of Conjuration magic.

• The Office of the Vault is one of two militant arms that hires high-level adventurers and other powerful individuals, operating in a role of transportation and protection of guild holdings to a fixed position in the Atarlie Foothills known simply as the Vault. As the guild's banking and repository arm it holds disproportionate influence despite operating at what is effectively a loss (much like the Great Circle Office). One of the original guild founders, Nenya Hapathea, an elven abjuration specialist, is the primary officer of the Vault.

• The Office Sundry is much like the Office of the Vault in that it is known for hiring and contract with mercenaries, adventurers, and other powerful individuals to facilitate its operations, which are concerned with the exploration of lost corners of the world and recovery of ancient artifacts or prospecting hazardous locations for the Office of Ahren. Its primary officer is the human merchant and enchantment specialist Coral Blank.

• The Office of Artifice is a general office with subordinate offices found throughout the territories the guild trades in and the juniormost of the offices which contain officers. With the increasing success of Arcwhalers somewhat depressing the price of Arcwhale oil, the guild has been increasingly looking toward other avenues of revenue generation, including the creation of material goods. Previously, the guild focused on raw material delivery between those who could extract it and those who could consume it; now, it diverts at least some of the raw materials it obtains to its own companies of artificers, who produce finished goods suitable for delivery directly to markets. This has made its chief officer, the transmutation specialist Dyson Zane, increasingly unpopular, as less profitable manufacturers are being cut out of Great Circle Trading Company supply deals if their contracts cannot be renegotiated.

• The Office of Ahren is another general office with wide distribution, and is only a decade or so older than the Office of Artifice, being built under much the same logic. The Office of Ahren is concerned with the direct operation of resource extraction efforts for commodities where either magical expertise is required for successful extraction, or the margins are too narrow to justify purchase as a commodity before supplying to the Office of Artifice. The office is directed by the guild's most elusive officer, Rowan Fell, a native of Boischateau who is rumored to be an expert in the forbidden art of Necromancy.

Guild Operations

The guild will have at least one office in any large city in Bastonia or the Atarlie Empire and other locations as listed above. Great Circle Trading Company guild officers all wear a pair of rings - one each on their index and middle fingers of the right hand. The index ring is a signet bearing the mark of the guild - the middle ring is usually also a signet for the specific office to which they belong, and both are usually enchanted in some way. Additionally, the named officers listed above, being both ranking officers and wizards, all have unique staves or rods which are badges of their authority over their specific Office Major.

For the most part the guild leaves its members a great deal of independence in terms of the operation of their individual enterprises, so long as those members fulfill their obligations under the terms of their membership. In exchange, the guild offers its protection from criminal activities and its leverage as a large organization in contract negotations.