The Wolf's Bay Free Traders' League

The Kingdom of Tyrnabay is a politically complicated place. There is a king, of course. In fact King Riwallan Le Trocquer can trace his royal lineage back through a dynasty that has reigned since before the The Great Strife over 2200 years ago. But though he is king, he does not rule truly in Tyrnabay. In reality, nobody truly rules in Tyrnabay; it is a nation rife with petty fiefdoms and rival factions.

This does not mean there are no powerful people or entities in Tyrnabay. There are, and the most powerful of these is the alliance of business interests - and that term is used quite loosely - that calls itself the Wolf's Bay Free Traders' League. The League is an alliance of nine wealthy and powerful groups that have used their wealth and power to either secure military power or place chokeholds on key economic interests, or both.

Origins

After the Great Strife, Tyrnabay became a refuge for members of all of the sentient races of Cartyrion that had been on the wrong side of the God War's outcome. Not surprisingly, these groups fell to fighting amonst themselves. This infighting, which ultimately involved and weakened whatever regal military power remained in Tyrnabay, went on for a thousand years. It stopped when everyone realized there was nothing left to fight for - there was nothing of value left in Tyrnabay.

The next six hundred years saw a peace of sorts as the kingdom functioned day-to-day on a tribal or village level. Slowly, though, villages and clans began to join up either through agreement or conquest. The leaders at the time looked back to the ancient history of the Humans to grant themseives titles. A leader who could claim allegiance of two or three villages or clans took the title of Baron. When a powerful baron overtook another, the leader's new title became Count. By two hundred fifty years ago, six of the counts had consolidated all the others beneath them; they declared themselves Dukes. Technically, they answered to the King or Queen, but in practice, regal authority was ignored.

While the Six Dukes continued their political territorial struggles against one another, other powers were rising in Tyrnabay. Four Barons decided to give up on the "land grab" of Tyrnabay politics and instead formed independent military companies. These mercenary groups hired themselves out to the highest bidder for fixed terms, and didn't concern themselves with the politics of their employer as long as the coin was good gold. Over the years, these four companies: the Bloodsingers, the Dedicated Axe, the Swarm, and the Silent Shield became known beyond Tyrnabay, and today they fulfill contracts across all of the Kingdoms of Man and beyond. Often, they found themselves pitted against each other.




The rest of the world was recovering from the Strife, and maritime trade was extensive. The pickings for a well equipped pirate were rich. The most successful privateers (as they preferred to call themselves) attracted good crews and more ships. Small privateer fleets became commonplace, all competing for the rich prizes at sea. The five most powerful of these fleets were able to use their influence to have the Tyrnabay crown grant them permanent Letters of Marque, essentially giving them license to pirate the seas beyond Tyrnabay's ports. The leaders of these fleets were even given noble titles - each one declared a Lord of the Sea.

Two hundred years ago, one of these company leaders came to the realization that Tyrnabay was heading toward another collapse. Fleet Captain Goulwena Le Borgne (Countess Le Borgne as she fashioned herself) of the Legion of the Tides realized that skirmishes among the Tyrnabay fleets were weakening them all. Furthermore, the internal political struggles of the Six Dukes meant that there was no hope for intervention by the crown. She called for a conference of the leaders of the five most powerful privateer fleets: the Raging Storm, Ysoki Revenge, the Scourge of the Waves, the Fellowship, and her own Legion of the TIdes. Leaders of the four powerful mercenary companies were also invited. They discussed ways to ensure that Tyrnabay would not tear itself apart as it did after the Strife, and the result of those discussions was the formation of the alliance known as the Wolf's Bay Free Trader's League.

Internal Politics

The fact that the signatories have all agreed to cooperatively limit their business efforts for the betterment of the League and Tyrnabay belies the fact that these signatories are still all rivals, and don't necessarily like each other. In fact, several of the member organizations do very little to hide their contempt for others across the League meeting table. Often the political hostilities are race-biased at their roots. The best simplification for attitudes of groups toward one another can be summed up as follows:

• The Ratfolk (Ysoki's Revenge and the Swarm) are despised by everybody else. No fleet other than Ysoki's Revenge will transport the Swarm to an engagement, except possibly the Fellowship, and only then for large sums of treasure.


• The Bloodswarm is looked upon with distaste by all of the fleets except the Fellowship. The Orcs and Half-orcs are considered to be crude brutes, especially by the Elven contingents in the other companies.


• The Fellowship is the only organization among the nine in the League that can claim to be on somewhat friendly relations with every other. They are certainly the most open-minded of the organizations when it comes to race and culture.


• Apart from these, the various mercenary companies are indifferent to one another ever since the League prevented them from openly warring against each other, even when in the employ of others. This is seen as one of the biggest positive results of the League.


• The Seafarer Dwarves of the Scourge of the Sea don't really trust anyone else; they are convinced the others are constantly out to steal their superior catapult and ballista technology.