The Board in Brief

Compiled by Reece

The first error most people make when they think about the Bank is to consider it as one monolithic organization. The assumption can be forgiven for the commoners, visiting their local branch to deposit a handful of coppers or finance a cow or whatever. ‘Core services’, as they’re known within the organization, are regulated. No branch is allowed to deviate from the policy set by the board lest its owner gain undue advantage or tarnish the reputation of the organization, as ridiculous as that sounds. Operating a branch, in fact, leaves very little wiggle room in terms of operational policy. Walk into your local branch, and you should expect to be robbed no less or no more than at any other branch in any other city all across the world.

Things change once you start dealing in silver. Past a certain point, you begin dealing not with the branch but its owner, and it behooves you to know what manner of sleazeball you’re dealing with.

The Bank is run by its ‘board’, comprising the top ten individual Bankers as determined by wealth. The greatest of these is given the title of ‘Director’ and has minor, additional powers over general policy.

By the current rules, only board members are allowed to operate more than one key asset, defined as a branch, Goldship, or independent business. Anyone important enough to control such an operation is given the title ‘President’ or ‘President-Captain’ in the case of Goldship operators. Non-board members are constrained to a single operation and are further required to pay a percentage of their operational income to their regional board member. If you are dealing with one such middle manager, it is often best to find out who owns them and proceed accordingly. I’m not about to list out every President, so don’t ask.

The board, I broadly divide into three categories: Exploiters, Usurers, and Extractors. It is overly reductive to assume any board member engages only in the behavior associated with their category, but the grouping should give a sense of the strategy that each prefers.

The phrase “you need to have money to make money” characterizes the first and most important category, the Exploiter. More charitably, you might call them investors, but at the level of the board, charity doesn’t enter into it. These Bankers leverage their personal wealth to operate businesses—the Lightcore Foundry, Havenheild, and the Bellosian Trade League being the canonical examples. This usually involves maintaining a private pool of crafters, known as Makers, typically locked away in secure facilities away from the public eye.

In the past, anti-monopolistic policies within the organization held the Exploiters in check, but in recent times, notably since the rise of the current Director, these policies have been gutted. Bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption have left room for continued competition amongst the lower ranks, but collusion between the top three, unbeknownst to most within the organization, is moving the Bank closer toward the singular institution most assume it to be. This phenomenon is well-precedented and is part of a generations-long cycle of consolidation, rot, collapse, and rebirth within the organization.

Board Exploiters: Jien Initi (#1), Omar of Tae (#2), Kenn Trell (#3), Borjis Waak-San Tema (#7).

The second-most important category, Usurers, buy and sell debts, often bundled, and employ a large number of Enforcers to collect upon them, as Bank combat assets are commonly known. Though it rarely appears to be the case, lending is regulated as a part of the core services. Interest rates are capped and must be disclosed upon request, though there is no requirement for the borrower to understand the implications or the mathematics. Bankers engaged in lending are subject to internal auditing to prevent outright thievery. In other words, if the Bank is screwing you in this way, it’s because you bent over and said, ‘Yes, please.’

Now, the uninformed may ask how mere money-lenders rate as the second-most influential category of Bankers. You, though, know better. You have examples from your own world’s history to draw upon. Bank Usurers not only lend the fortunes that make and break kingdoms, they also maintain a stranglehold on finance and fiscal policy that spans the entire settled globe, supplanting governments in this regard. They are the ones responsible for price fixing, currency manipulation, and deliberate stagnation of markets.

Board Usurers: Luna Olentu (#4), Ewkur “Ironbite” Jao (#6), Conclair Harringbell (#8), Henjen I’Henjen (#9).

The last category, the Extractor, is a rarity in the modern Bank. In this category, wealth is not created through production of goods, nor siphoned through financial witchcraft, but extracted from the world. Seekers, as they’re styled, are employed to find new sources of wealth, be those natural resources, lairs, or equipment and accolades lost by the dead. All Bankers of any importance include at least a few Seekers in their organization, but Extractors build teams around them, operating much as Guild teams do but with even fewer scruples. There is more I could say concerning this category, but I shall leave it there given their relative unimportance in the Bank’s current internal political environment.

Board Extractors: Dielrick Meruta (#5), Reddel Eas (#10).

In summary, they’re all assholes. You happy?