Organization Overview

The oldest business organization West of the Ancient Land, the Fivèndam League exerts its influence throughout Yrūni Vulmùra, and along the coasts of Tassèrus and Teréðor. The alliance of trading guilds maintains an iron grip on international trade, as it has since the fall of Andùl Allyra. The league controls the importing and exporting affairs of cooperating ports, while locking trading companies into contracts that restrict commerce to those ports. As the name implies, the league is based in the Free and Independent City of Fivèndam, once a thriving port in the kingdom of Dirímor. Unlike other Vulmùri cities that are ruled by Lords, the City of Fivèndam is ruled by a hereditary Prince that descends from the original Andùl Illyra ruler who was granted the city by the Emperor. Technically a Principality, the city’s governance has evolved since the establishment of the Fivèndam Council following the Second Acèntyri-Dekàli War.

Port cities that join the Fivèndam League receive valuable contracts to build extensive wharves. In richer cities, the League supports the building of merchant keeps (i.e., kontors) where ships can load and unload cargo within the confines of a walled compound and deep harbor. Special warehouses, weigh-houses, and customs-houses are provided within these areas so that League merchants don’t have to directly deal with local governments, thieves, and worse. Since the 3rd century DR, these merchant keeps have been commonly regarded as independent enclaves, separate from the surrounding locale. Taxes and bribes are paid to the Crown, with local governments being excluded from these arrangements. Within the keeps, the common tongue (i.e., Tradespeak) is often used to the exclusion of the local language. Law within the merchant keeps is maintained internally, using a canon of business-friendly laws handed down from the League. Breaches of these independent operations are dealt with harshly by the League and Crown. Entire ports are sometimes abandoned when the League is crossed.

Unlike kingdom governments whose influence rarely extended beyond their borders, the Fivèndam League possesses assets along the coasts of three continents and countless isles. One of the main concerns of the League is the perpetual threat of piracy. To combat this issue, the League employs a number of privateers whose job is to hunt and destroy pirates along all the League’s shipping channels. Over the centuries, a number of these privateers have gone rogue, seeking to take advantage of the swift and powerful ships supplied by the League. With few exceptions, these pirates have been located, captured, imprisoned, tortured, and executed by League magicians. The Fivèndam League maintains an ancient order of Allyri magicians for these very purposes.

Members

Organization

Major Ports

Tassèrus

• City of Æzàlar (Center of Tassèri Trade) Many think that the City of Æzàlar is the current-day capital of the Fivèndam League. While it is true that the major port sees more traffic and trade than most of the other League ports combined, the alliance still resides at its Allyri birthplace. The port of Æzàlar has seen a great deal of new construction and enhancements since the fall of the Old Empire. This is partially due to investments by the League, but is also a result of works done by the Burning Hand and East Tassèri trading guilds. This confluence of merchant organizations has been the driving force behind the city’s prosperity.

Teréðor

• City of Gardìren. The capital of Keshwir, Gardìren has benefited greatly from its ties (i.e., ownership) to the Fivèndam League and by extension, Vulmùra. Keshwir was annexed by the League from the Acèntyri war alliance during the post-war Occupation. It has remained in the League’s hands for over 600 years, the longest Vulmùri foothold in the Uncharted Land. This relationship has been tolerated along the North Coast due to Gardìren’s unrivaled access to goods and produce over the last centuries. With markets now flourishing in Kændal and Oð, the unpopularity of Keshwir’s politics is becoming less palatable.
• City of Kændal. (Center of Teréðori Trade) During the First Acèntyri-Dekàli War, trade from Vulmùra began drying-up and the North Sea Merchants’ Guild (see below) lost its prominence as ‘Gatekeepers to the East’. Trade within the Old Empire turned toward the South, where new markets were opening around the Sea of Pæð and areas inland. Kændal, already a bustling hub of agricultural commerce adopted the ‘crown of trade’ at the same time the prior trade alliance was crumbling. When the Fivèndam League began looking for new markets on the Teréðori mainland, they needed to look no further than the Fertile Coast.
• City of Oð. Oð lost the ‘crown of trade’ at the end of the 8th century HK, centuries before the Fivèndam League was founded, with the advent of the First Acèntyri-Dekàli War. At the time, trade throughout the North Coast and West Vulmùra was controlled by the North Sea Merchants’ Guild, a predecessor to the present-day Merchants’ Guild of Oð. During the war, guild-houses throughout Vulmùra were burned to the ground in protest of the Empire’s war-footing. Many of the practices and laws later enacted by the Fivèndam League however, were introduced by this early alliance.

Vulmùra

• City of Fivèndam. (Center of Vulmùri Trade) The Fivèndam League borrows its name from the Free and Independent City of Fivèndam, a prior holding of the Kingdom of Dirímor. From the brick guild houses of this Allyri port city, the world’s wealthiest trading alliance keeps a close rein on Western commerce. Over the centuries, the League has transformed the city into a terminus of merchants, clerks, administrators, litigants, and bureaucrats. Once the trading hub of Vulmùra, the city is now primarily supported by the scores of other ports who answer directly to Fivèndam.
• City of Palda

Other

• City of Nōyn Dag. A major trading port between Western Vulmùra and the lands of Teréðor and Tassèrus, Nōyn Dag has become increasingly significant over the centuries. Today, the guilds of Vulmùra regard the city as a gateway to ports within the Old Empire. Unlike other ports of the region, the rebellious Aylyryr have opened trade with a host of kingdoms and races that are still distrusted by the former Dekàli states. A 4th century DR trade agreement between the City of Nōyn Dag and the League was a financial windfall for northern Ildûn. Increased trade into Nōyn Dag was funneled to support resistance movements within the separatist region. Not to be outdone by the Aylyryr, southern Ildûn signed trade pacts with the far-reaching Burning Hand Trading Guild of Julūn.