The Golden League
The Golden League is a widespread and ancient organization, having existed since even before The Gap. It was founded in Lost Golarion's Tian Xia when a family of thieves and a family of merchants joined forces to survive a time of despair. This union evolved into an official guild, and in its earliest years, the League gradually took control of the economy in Tian Xia by means of bribery, extortion, thievery, and market manipulation. After finally being exposed and exiled from Tian Xia, the Golden League moved on to another area and proceeded to take a subtler approach to gaining wealth, quietly pulling strings to turn the economy in its favor. Now, the Golden League is no longer restricted to just one country on a single planet. Its membership has increased over the centuries and now hundreds of “families”—related by both blood and business—operate on various asteroids, moons, planetoids, and planets across The Pact Worlds in the name of the Golden League.
Structure
Public Agenda
Assets
History
Recruits who show resourcefulness and loyalty to the Golden League might be recruited into a family’s clique of Xun, a feared group of loyal warriors. These soldiers submit their lives and will to the Golden League and are set upon those who would resist the Golden League’s reign. As steel-hearted cronies, they’re not afraid to rough up—or even assassinate—any would-be resisters to make an example of them. Xun are often heavily augmented to make them even more fearsome, and also receive full-body tattoos through an almost ritualistic process that mark them as members of this terrifying enforcer group. The designs of these tattoos often bear a dedication to the families served, such as a family crest.
Those who desire to have more influential positions must show great wit and cunning, as well as the credits to cultivate a following—willing or not—of politicians, authorities, and the like who can influence the market in the Golden League's favor and help cover their tracks. Lowly patsies who don’t show the determination or ability to benefit the League are often unwittingly used as scapegoats, thrown as fodder to authorities or government officials who would otherwise catch wind of the League’s actions.
Among the hundreds of Golden League families across the system, a few are particularly infamous. The most recent addition is the Hafrigek “family” of Vesk-4, which operates out of Absalom Station. This tight-knit group of mobsters isn’t actually related by blood at all—they're actually a group of wealthy delinquents who attempted to wrest control of the economy from their planet’s high despot by force. This show of power was short lived, however, and The Veskarium's Hammers were sent out to execute the family for their insolence. But news of their impending demise reached them quickly, and the Hafrigeks packed up and fled the system within minutes. They have since found refuge in the suspect depths of Absalom Station’s Spike and have learned their lesson—now, they have assumed new identities and take the stealthier approach of leaving their Xun to do the dirty work.
Golden League activities are usually supervised by one family on a space station or asteroid, while larger astronomical objects usually require multiple families sharing power. As a whole, the Golden League's leadership is decentralised, making it impossible for law enforcement or rivals to destroy it by eliminating one or more families, although currently the Ichihara-Hong family, a prominent player in Akiton's criminal underworld, is dominating much of its activities. Each family employs a coterie of tattooed and augmented assassins called Xun, who are greatly feared in their territory.
By the organization’s very nature, the Golden League has no shortage of credits to spare. This vast amount of wealth goes toward maintaining influence and power—purchasing weapons and property, augmenting Xun, ordering the assassination of their enemies, and buying off politicians. These avaricious families also can’t help but spoil themselves with luxuries like mansions, private planetoids, and lavish vehicles and starships.
The Golden League has no centralized headquarters; instead, the various families each maintain their own personal manors within which they can conduct secret business deals.
The Golden League’s only goal is to manipulate the local economies wherever they operate in order to gain more wealth to fund lives of indulgence. The League employs subtle practices to accomplish their goals, including manipulating the market by controlling the scarcity of resources, bribing and extorting government officials, and maintaining laundering fronts and gambling rings. However, when those methods prove ineffective, some League families resort to violence to get what they want.
The Golden League has managed to survive the tests of time, but its most powerful opposition, the Way of the Kirin, did as well. Since its founding on lost Golarion, the Way of the Kirin has used its own wealth and power to uplift the poor and enforce fair business practices across the system. The Way is a secret society consisting of good-willed, wealthy members of various Pact Worlds who seek to oppose the Golden League at its every turn. In addition to the Way, the Golden League has many enemies in the local governments that each family undermines, and these agencies strive to undo the damage the League has done with their manipulation.
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