[hider=Merchant Houses]
[centre]The Merchant Houses[/centre]

[b]Government[/b]

The country is ruled by a Council made up of the most powerful Merchant Houses who each send a representative to Council meetings. These representatives are usually someone highly influential in the Merchant House, either by having the most money, soldiers or ships. The Council has five seats for the most powerful Houses, but the other Merchant Houses may enter the meetings and view what happens and voice there thoughts. The Five main Houses are selected by gaining votes of other Houses, the five with more votes than the other Houses take the seats. Voting for seats takes place every five years. Once put in power, the Big Five as they are called make the big decisions regarding the overall welfare of the Houses, from who to fight, who to ally, who to pay etc. They also decide what percentage each product is marked up by to make a profit, as well as who to sell to.

[b]Geography[/b]

The Northern Island between the light green coloured lands and the grey coloured lands. There are four major cities placed on the southern tip, the eastern and western corner, the fourth is placed in the middle of the island. The north side of the island is a sheer cliff and covered in rocks which prevent landing. Each city is connected by large roads. The fourth city is the main one, its where the Council meets and where all the main warehouses sit. There is few trees since most went to making ships, and mines and workshops dot the landscape, with the gem and gold mines concentrating on the north side of the island.
The Merchant Houses also control a small group of five tiny islands. This is where ships dock on their way down south. The islands have man made docks as well as watch towers and a fort on the largest of the five.

[b]Culture[/b]

The country is full of mainly humans, however there are Merchant Houses made up of non-humans who can run for council. For the main part anyone can join a Merchant House or become a citizen, so long as they have the coin for it. There is no standard religion for the people since most come from other nations with their own Gods and customs, but there is a Church in the main city with idols and priests from many different religions. However, anyone who goes against the laws put in place by the ruling Council is either exiled, sent to work the mines are thrown from the cliffs depending on the severity of their crime. If an entire Merchant House is found guilty of a bad enough crime, their House is dissolved, their assets seized and their workforce given to other Houses. Treason, selling drugs, blackmailing or bribing a Council member or considered the worst crimes of all.

[b]Military[/b]

The Merchant Houses rely mostly on their Navy and on paid Mercenaries that they hire to protect their convoys, both land and sea ones. Their land caravans are escorted by the Mercenaries and led by the Merchant in charge of the caravan. The strategies employed by the Merchants is mainly simple, if on land they circle the wagons and defend the merchandise until the attacks stop, if on sea they split up the ships, getting the escorts to distract the attackers while the merchant ships flee in different directions, either making it back to their home port or to their destination depending on where they are and how the winds and tide are. Their convoys rely on speed and numbers to push through attacking forces, hitting quickly and in numbers to overwhelm enemies and scatter them as they move past them. 
In land battles the bulk of the force will be made up of mercenaries with the rest being memeber from Merchant Houses. They usually have the main line of hold their ground till the enemy troops march to engage, while archers pepper the back lines of the opponent force. Then once the lines have converged and started fighting, cavarly will sweep in from the sides and hit the flanks of the enemy force.
In naval battles, the escorts ships will try and ram the opponents ships, then once close enough they will attempt a boarding action to either seize the ship or destroy enough of its crew or structure to render it unable to pursue.

[b]Heroes[/b]

Superior Hero: Jacob Mrroant, an Orc Mercenary who started his own Merchant House after fighting for coin for eight years for other Merchant Houses till he had enough coin to build his own Merchant House to fight for. Now, he leads a large band of mercenaries and is known as the Merchant of Blood, mainly because he sells livestock and mercenary services.

1st Hero: Luke Perchant, a Human Merchant known as the Lord of Accounts, he is also from one of the few Merchant Houses who have held a Council seat the most over the years. Perchant is now a representative on the Council and is charged with maintaining a list of numbers on the costs of mercenaries, convoys and prices for merchandise. 

2nd Hero: Captain Krack, a Human Merchant who controls the largest Merchant House Fleet, he is renowned as a good sailor and can outrun any pirate or foreign ship. 

[b]History[/b]

The island was first inhabited by explorers looking for new lands. Later when it was discovered that the island was full of gems, gold ore and the like, merchants from all over flocked to it like a moth to a light. When a foreign Noble tried to claim the island for his country, the more powerful merchants hired mercenaries to fight for them, and they beat him. Since then a few countries tried to take the island from the Merchant Houses with little success, till basically everyone got the message. The island was for coin makers and exiles. After all the civil wars and invasions, the Merchants decided to join together and form a nation under a Council who they vote for.

[b]Relations[/b]

For the most part the Merchant Houses trade with anyone who has coin. They export valuable gems, jewellery, metallic ore, some livestock like sheep, cows etc, as well as the services of their fleets for transports and their Mercenary Houses sell their services. They do however have some grudges with their neighbours, The Ogryn Kingdom and the Clans of Tarkima who have raided their convoys and caravans in the past. They would declare war on them, but it would be too costly and may not end in their favour. 

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