“The living Fires abound
In all the things
That lie or move around
Upon the shining Earth,
And in the hidden Worlds
Of Inner Being.
* * *
They smoulder in the smallest mote,
Or glow within the Poet’s eye,
And blaze within the Heart of Love,
Or sparkle in the bright reflections
Which all good deeds irradiate
About them from Within,
And inwards from Without.
* * *
All brilliant Fires from God’s own Breast,
To light and guide upon the winding Path
Along which ev’ry Soul or Thing must wend its way,
Back to the Source from which it fell
Within the dreaming voids of deep Illusion.”
It has been long while, perhaps even too long since we have posted a Misconceptions post but surely the wait is worth it. We have been very busy with all the inter-guild stuff, in particular the Gold-Stone Concordance... But that is in part why now is a good time to throw this gorgeous information out there.
It has been a good time researching all of this, and so without further pause let us jump into..
(Please note, the following is a matter of opinion (except for the facts, obviously) and is presented as suggestions, and an attempt at providing a different perspective)
Haha, how does a store owner have anything to do with politics or power?
Well, I am glad you asked Tom, my consistently inquiring friend. It is fairly simple, it comes down to only a handful of general factors. One being the idea of capitalism; is it a free or heavily regulated market? As a business owner, we would obviously want lower taxes on trade goods, and less red-tape to go through to set up a store and sell various goods so, we would influence politicians, Noble families, advisers, officials, etc to vote or act in such a way. With gold for days, arguably sometimes more than even the Nobles we can bribe like there is no tomorrow - there is even stories of entire Noble families having their wealth being made primarily from bribes, or “donations”.
When Civil War, political strife, conflicts, etc arise gold is what keeps things turning, making or breaking empires and kings. Gold has got Popes, and other religious figures elected/chosen - and has won entire battles, such as when Cesare Borgia’s army of mercenaries famously betrayed him and turned him over to the opposing army when the mercenaries were offered gold. It would be in our best interest typically to support a candidate in whatever situation that is in favor of the free market.
In addition, businesses like Nobles have money to spare and can typically make a positive name, and impact for themselves such as donating to the common folk and hosting public events to get their image out; much like running a political campaign it's powerful to have your name plastered everywhere.
Moreover, lets not even consider gold for a moment and instead thing about Trade, and Trade Routes. For example, if Business X is the -primary- supplier of medical goods and supplies to a Military Organization that’s currently in a war and/or warzone; what do you think happens if Business X decides to stop supplying that Military Organization? Clean bandages will be scarce, infections will rage, pain killers will be few and far in between, so on and so forth - not to mention food shortages. One of the primary ways to end a siege, or to siege successfully is simply to starve out your adversary.
Oh, hrm... Well, those are all very good points. But it also seems a bit overlooked, and powerful.
Well, yes - they are good points, and yes it is overlooked - that’s why we’re here, and yes it can be powerful, that’s also kind of the point. For too long, I believe it’s just been president burned into the minds of I’d dare say the majority of folks that if you’re not a Noble or a larger military group, then, there’s essentially no hope for power, no hope for political intrigue, and all you’re going to do is run a shop and sell things like an NPC. Selling items can be fun, a lot of fun - especially for folks that enjoy being charismatic, or enjoy practicing psychology and sociology. But, there is just so much more that can be achieved.
I think for one people generally are very, very, very, very, very, (very.) unwilling to even fathom the idea of losing, or hitting any kind of roadblocks. I, personally, have seen it many, many, many times - in both advisory roles, working with other groups on storylines, and even myself. Humans, people are not inclined nor wired to like the idea of defeat, or losses. However, I think it’s a very crucial step in adding a robust depth to any storyline, personal or guild wide. Does this mean we should just, lose all the time? Let folks roll over us? No - not at all; what I recommend and have always recommended and will continue to recommend is STRONG communication between X and Y parties. The Dungeon Masters of each group should communicate their ideas and workout an -overall- storyline that only they are aware of, and you can be as general or detailed with one another as you’re both comfortable with - but understanding who is winning and who is losing behind the scenes, while keeping everyone ICly out of the know is crucial. It creates suspense, and draws the crowd into an immersive situation. As much as you may think you, or your group would enjoy winning every time for months at a time - let me assure you, it gets old; it gets stale.
For your viewing pleasure, and just to get the ol’ brain oiled up and thinking; please look over these two short stories and tell me which of the two are more appealing, intriguing, and immersive:
1) “Yestermorn we approached the County of Duchem, we vastly outnumbered their army that had come to meet us out on the field. Their young king was bold, I’ll give him that much - standing out in the open with a flat-lined formation of the few hundred soldiers he had, holding their ground in the sight of our massive army ahead of them. Finally, we descended upon them but as you’d expect my Liege, they were no match for our armies and we quickly overwhelmed them, killed their King and took their Lands, while also killing all his heirs and supporters by daybreak. “
2) “My liege, your infiltrators were successful. They managed to kill the elder King of Mercia, leaving the inexperienced Lord to fend for the realm. In their weakness, we did as you asked and marched our forces to meet their army at the County of Duchem. But... The young Lord found evidence of your involvement in the murder, and subsequently rallied the local peoples to fight with him on the field. Fortunately, we still outnumbered our foes two to one... The young Lord kept most of his forces within the nearby forest, eager to be rid of him we attacked foolishly - learning quickly that he had kept half his units hidden, and flanked behind us - we were shaken by the sudden pincer maneuver. But, your skilled generals managed to hold the lines and push the the young Lord’s forces back... However, in the dust of the battle the young Lord managed to retreat from what was a looming defeat, we fear now that he is free he will have more time to rally a larger army against your rightful rule, my Liege.”
I see, so defeat can be a good thing? Who would have thunk it. So what do you suggest?
Well, I think one of the best things that we can do is treat the Merchant class like we treat the Nobility and Soldiers. Many, if not most folks do a decent amount of research into the lore and culture, and also do research on historical encounters or take influence from modern interpretations such as Game of Thrones. Why not treat the Merchants the same way? Venice, Genoa, the Silk Road countries, Moscow, and even the Vikings are all related to trade and merchant-oriented details; Moscow was just a small trade city when it first started. The Vikings were more interested in trading than they were raiding; they were -infamous- on all historical accounts for their Midas touched ways of Trade; not just raiding. Don’t even get me started on how fascinating Venice, a small island nation with practically no dry land, managed to influence most of Europe for a very long time.
You can see a lot of influence of such things within our own guild, such as the Patrician rank and Viceroy rank.
But, other than that I think it’s really important to not see competition as some OOC clause to dislike folks, to OOCly try to break up guilds or harm people OOCly. IC competition is good, OOC competition gets you on WrAsecrets; and no one wants to be on that place. But, if you see a fellow merchant guild pop up, why not say hi? Why not see if they’re interested in creating a Trade League, or opening a store together, or just trading, or creating a storyline. There’s so much potential out there it just hurts me.
So, so, so often I see shops, stores, merchants, etc pop up and disappear within a week and the majority that I’ve spoken to have said that it’s largely because they got bored of trying to sell things. To that, I’ll point to the above - expand your horizons, being a merchant is never just about selling things.
Hrm, this is quite a bit to take in... But, I do like what you’re saying.
I hope you do like it, otherwise this is a bit pointless - if not, I hope it’s at least informative. But, I want this to remain as an OPEN INVITATION to ANY, and ALL merchants, store-keepers, traders, business folks, etc - if any of you need any help, support, just want to vent, or bounce ideas; we will always be here to support the Merchant Community the best we can. It’s a small platform that a lot of folks don’t even consider, and we’d like to change that - and we can do that together a lot better than we can on our own. On top of all that, Tideguard (Co-GM) and I are obsessed with creating storylines that’ll never get used; so if you’d ever just like to talk to get a free storyline idea, again just hit us up and lets talk.
Thank you all so much for the read; I want to stress that this is all very opinionated and just suggestions. We have no intention to say this is wrong, and this is right - we just like to discuss things that folks may not have originally considered.
Thank you for all the likes, reblogs, comments, and feel free to hit us up on Tumblr or in-game at (Elstine.)
