Blue Lion Merchant Guild
The Blue Lion Merchant Guild, also called the Blue Lion or even the Lion for short, is one of the oldest and most successful merchant organizations on the main continent of Aradia. Their main function is land transport and sale of goods. They are particularly favored by adventurers due to having shops in remote locations. As a result, they greatly specialize in the sale of adventuring gear and other general equipment that adventurers and mercenaries find useful.
The Blue Lion was originally founded by Octavio Benezari, a down-on-his-luck adventurer and ship captain that recently lost his wife and long-time adventuring partner to a fearsome oceanic beast. Unable to carry on adventuring due to his own injuries and the grief over losing his wife, Octavio settled down in a small town on the shore of the Kingdom of Valiant and invested what remained of his worldly possessions into founding the Blue Lion Trading Shop, named after the ship he and his wife travelled on before her demise. Following Octavio's death, his daughters took over and expanded the business. over the years, it grew to the point where being called a mere 'shop' was misleading and at times downright insulting, and thus it was renamed into the Blue Lion Merchant Guild.
The Blue Lion is still owned by the Benezari family and the original location of the shop now serves as the central HQ for operations, though they have central hubs in most nations' capitals, as well as branches in many remote areas. Their main competition is the Black Eagles Trade & Merchant Association, which, despite being in operations for a shorter period of time than the Lion, occupies a niche enough market to both butt heads with the Lion's business and attract its own loyal customer base.
Public Agenda
The Blue Lion strives to expand the network of merchandise access to farther reaches by purchasing goods from large settlements and distributing them to branches throughout the more remote regions of the various nations they have a foothold in. They facilitate trade of goods and resources and their land-based transport from one place to another. As they strongly believe in supporting the local economy, the Blue Lion Merchant Guild works closely with local government bodies to ensure both parties make a profit.
Their secondary goals are to help adventurers be better prepared for adversity by giving them easier access to equipment that they might not be able to get at a regular small town general store.
