Bluewheel
"What modern merchant doesn't aspire to the greatness of the Old Guild in their operations? Sure, the goods of Pegasus are usually a little more under the table, so to speak, but any merchant worth their coin still uses the procedure or symbology Whitewheel developed. It's universal, by now."
One of the earliest and most successful guilds in the world before the Wake. Connected major early civilizations of the supercontinent through the the Dry Between until a curse at a key point along its routes caused its collapse.
Mercantile Operations
Structure
Because this guild was not tied to any one nation, it often had a small organization set up in each city they traded between so they could negotiate deals for the next caravan to carry out whenever it arrived. This approach made the guild extra profitable for its efficiency.
The merchants themselves made up the core of these units, but when the unit was a mobile caravan, they were often supplemented by a handful of hired guards to protect their goods from thieves and monsters. Independent merchants outside the operation were only allowed to use the guild's protected routes by paying hefty portions of their own goods, so many eventually opted to join the guild. That is, if they could; the guild kept their membership tight, since they had a high reputation to uphold.
History
What began as separate strings of mercantile operations in the late Bronze age coalesced into one international company with many local branches. Cultures grew, flourished, and blended along their routes.
Disbandment
Like many other institutions after the Wake, this ancient merchant's guild fell when the world was turned on it's head. Specifically, a key outpost where multiple intercontinental trade routes crossed was compromised. The _CULTURE_ people in the region today recounts that the guild began defiling a sacred lake, so the spirits who gifted it took the waters away and caused blights upon the outpost until they all fled or died.
Although different regional pieces of it continued on after the Wake, this organization's collapse was directly connected to this curse by the nature spirits of the Suscoln.
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