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Note: This was a handout given to the player of Vaden Crowfeeder as a result of his investigations and inquiries into House Mercur in Dwillingir in N.S. 22.
History:
House Mercur is one of the twelve sanctioned Merchant Houses of the Empire of Antorium. Its pedigree is ancient, tracing its lineage to its origins as a company of heralds and messengers. Known for their bravery and timeliness in getting messages through even hostile territory, Family Mercur eventually began to transport small parcels, and this developed into a large-scale transport and shipment company over time.
Along with the other Merchant Houses, Mercur was eventually powerful enough, squeezing its rivals out of the transport business by means both fair and foul, to attain House status. It has held this status continually for centuries.
In the Far Coast, House Mercur was one of the first Houses to enter the province, first setting up an outpost in the town of Noscrused. Their intent was to use the town as a hub to import Imperial goods to the soldiers and farmers who would populate the province. As such, Mercur became the premiere importer into the region.
However, it was House Riverine, its erstwhile rival for many centuries in the Imperial Heartland, which first recognized the province as a possible source of export to the Heartland from the Province. Mercur had missed this opportunity, and by the time they realized the potential profits to be made from the various riches of the land, including trade with friendly Thaneeri, House Riverine had insinuated itself into the mercantile fabric of the Province. Riverine, displaying its intent to trade to instead of from the Empire, based its House in Dwillingir…at the time a two-bit outpost of ramshackle buildings surrounding a small castle.
Riverine correctly recognized, however, that the Empire would want to move the Province's "centre of political gravity" as far north as possible, both as a means to consolidate power near the Thaneeri, as an effective deterrent, and to keep the vehicles of state as far from the Imperial Heartland as possible so as to discourage any uprising of veterans that might threaten the Emperor. In addition, Dwillingir's position at the mouth of the Chulette River and on the coast of the Oto Sea also ordained its eventual status as capital and most populous town of the Province.
House Mercur persisted in its ignorance of the opportunities of import from the Province for quite some time, too humiliated to admit that Riverine was right by adopting their markets and trying to compete with their rivals. Eventually, however, Mercur began to develop exploitation of markets in the southern half of the Province, far enough from Dwillingir to allow them to become the ascendant House in the region.
Even this proved insufficient in the face of the sudden demand for Ice People goods after the War of the Gem. The market for ivory, whale products (including ambergris) and other Ice Goods proved so lucrative that Mercur purchased the manor house of a nobleman in Dwillingir and formed it into a House outpost. In the last two decades, this new outpost has become so important that the Trade Lord of House Mercur in the Far Coast as relocated to it, and the old headquarters in Noscrused is now merely a southern outpost for the House.
As far behind Riverine as Mercur was, however, the other ten Houses of the Imperium were farther still, and this has allowed Mercur to become, arguably, the second most powerful House in the Far Coast, and certainly still the most powerful in the southern third of the Province.
Businesses:
Mercur specializes still in import to the Province, and it holds the best and most lucrative contracts for shipping manufactured Imperial goods into the Province. These include weapons, ceramics, textiles, craftworks, and other goods not found within the Far Coast. The caravans of Mercur travel to its massive warehouses in Noscrused and then are sub distributed throughout the Province. It is known that the House often attempts to fix the price of certain goods in the Province by regulating the inventory in its Noscrused warehouses, which it guards with the utmost secrecy. For example, it might withhold large shipments of blue-paint porcelain pottery until the demand is high enough that it can release its inventory onto the market faster than prices can fall.
House Mercur also runs a good many of the messenger and herald services in the Province, as well as passenger coaches. They are also well inculcated into the slave trade.
Mercur has also taken the lead in the transport of timber and rare woods from the Province to the Empire. She has lucrative contracts with many of the major shipyards of the Imperium and in many of these has exclusive rights to supply masts and hull timber for the yards.
The House also has good relations with certain of the Pasheks of Gerilong. In many cases these were the result of successful schemes of estrangement played upon the other Houses in the region, and although it by no means dominates the Gerilongi silk market, it is a player, peer to the half dozen Houses that ply that market.
Organization:
House Mercur in the Far Coast is run by a Trade Lord named Arghanisin Feristus. By all accounts he is a savvy businessman and consummate schemer, known for his devious and intricate schemes and his persistence in pursuing a market once he sets his sights on it. He is rumoured to have some ability with magicks, though whether this is simply Mercur propaganda cannot be ascertained. The Trade Lord is unmarried…some say because he ultimately trusts no one but himself, but he is known to prefer women and has dalliances from time to time.
Mercur's Enforcer is Ketushi Nodorium, a man said to be half Nygotian and half Antorian, and he is also called "The Invisible Blade" for his ability to wield daggers so quickly that they become a blur. Ketushi is known to display his prowess on occasion in the Dwillingir arena, carving up some hapless slave as a means to keep in shape and to display his prowess to the other Houses.
House Mercur is known to employ several mages. The most powerful and well known of these is Garastian of Fallismuth, who is said be an invoker of no small power, though it is also rumoured he fled from the college at Ferrantio when Queequeg came to assault the place. He is known to have several wands, including one that spits balls of fire and another that shoots lightning.
The House Guard in Dwillingir is likely the same size as Riverine's, three to four dozen warriors. Mercur employs mercenaries quite often…more often than does Riverine. Mercenary companies known to be in the employ of Mercur include the Splintered Arrow band, the War Shapers of Aghorrit (an obvious pun), and the Band-o'-Liars (another pun). Of these, Splintered Arrow is the most active, utilized by the House as bullyboys and muscle.
The Commander of the Guard of the House is Jenneil Hannastra, a women who is reputed to be an expert with a rapier. The fact that a female can command a group of rough and tumble house soldiery belies her forcefulness and capabilities.
Headquarters:
The House building in Dwillingir is a large structure, close in size to House Riverine, but with no fence or courtyard surrounding it. The building is likely four stories tall, with a flat roof. There are no windows in the place, and the roof is patrolled by guards and guard dogs.
There are several doors to the place, the front one being wide double doors sufficient to allow a large wagon through, though rarely do wagons enter the building directly. The House keeps stables near its warehouse at the town docks.
Rumours (warning…may be false!):
· The Green Arrows are hitting House Mercur hard, especially of late.
· House Mercur must have stockpiled metals and gems, because while other Houses go short of these items due to the orc wars, House Mercur continues to sell them throughout the region.
· House Mercur intends to capture the leader of the Green Arrows and turn him over to the Governor, gaining much fame and accolades for the House.
· Ketushi is going to fight that owlbear in the Dwillingir arena! My money's on the owlbear!
· Mercur is insinuating itself into the Lake Cald situation. That's a sticky one dontcha know…and old simmering feud. I wonder what they are up to there…