The Crest
Dating back to 504 AO, The Crest is the dominant merchant guild of sea traders across Omiralon. Any seafarer has heard of The Crest, as their flag and sigil are recognized across the seas of Omiralon, from the Sea of Swords to the Black Depths.
The Crest was originally founded when 3 small trade families banded together, hoping to find safety in numbers. In those times sea trade was wild and dangerous, each trip bearing paramount risk. Most merchants stuck to short-distance trade on frequented routes. The self-proclaimed leader of the three, however, a Shodani by the name of Gale Marbanthis, was a charming and visionary man. He saw the potential in trans-continental trade, in a network spanning the seas. And so at Gale's encouragement, the three families sailed their meager fleets under one banner, portraying outward strength.
The ingenuity of Marbanthis was not in his unification however, it was in his expansion. Instead of the cut-throat, copper-by-copper mentality that the harsh trading environment often cultivated, he offered a safe harbor. Assurances of security and steady profits for merchants, and of undiminishing resources to sailors. Every town and city they passed, Marbanthis preached of the waves of the future to come, and with welcoming arms urged those who would listen to ride the crest. It is so that they got their name. For every shipment lost to raiders or pirates, five new ones would take up sails with them.
The Crest rapidly became a unified confederation, with hubs of activity in every major port of Omiralon. Regular sea passages to any coastal settlement were suddenly possible and trade boomed. With Marbanthis at its head, sea-traders and families flocked to be associated with the Crest. Tensions run high in the rough industry, however, and in the present day, members range widely from loosely affiliated to fervently loyal.
Still, The Crest is a highly-organized society of sea traders, with an uncanny understanding of logistics. At any given point in time, there are dozens of fleets sailing routes, ranging from small squadrons to full-sized flotillas, all impeccably organized. The governing group, managing the guild from their seat at Shodan'Qi, is made up of highly-skilled merchants and functionaries which are periodically appointed based on merit. Although membership is a loose thing, to sail within one of The Crest's hundreds of fleets one must fly their banner, and accordingly, pay their dues.
Structure
The organizational hierarchy of The Crest is a progressive, centralized form of the early tribalism which was prominent across Omiralon for centuries. There are only a few levels to the hierarchy, providing a lot of freedom to the actual sailors and merchants at the bottom, but the few rules and impositions set by the organization must always be strictly followed.
At the head of The Crest are 11 elected officials; a mix of the sharpest scholars, functionaries, logisticians, and merchants that Omiralon has to offer. In recent years, regions surrounding Shodan'Qi have suffered an intellectual shortage of sorts, seeing the brightest among them make their way to Shodan in hopes of serving under The Crest. Below them are departmental teams that work directly under one of the 11 officials, each with a concentration in a specific sector. The 11 chambers are as follows: free trade, geography and cartography, maritime diplomacy, finance, efficiency and resource management, enforcement, shipwrights, procurement, legislation and regulation, defense, and internal affairs. The teams that fill up each chamber vary in size and discipline but are often hand-appointed by the chair of the department and their aides. In total, The Crest's headquarters are staffed by anywhere from 250 to 700 employees at any given time.
Outside of the headquarters, there are the sailors, merchants, shipwrights, hired security, and trade groups, which are all on the same hierarchical level. They get freedom to operate within their desired boundaries, as long as they do so with a Crest Chief at their center. Crest Chiefs are the middle ground between the functionary force of the organization and the manpower, nodes trained and appointed by the Shodani leadership that laborers can form around. They are not so much the leaders of fleets, security groups, shipwrights, and all other groups as much as they are the center of the units, present to enforce Crest regulation and schedules. While The Crest is rather lax about the legality of certain goods and the ethicality of sellswords, the organization's top two priorities are efficiency and information. Each of the hundred of trade routes across the world is delicately scheduled and maintained, and to disrupt the logistical madness of the organization is equivalent to being blacklisted for life.
Crest chiefs are given freedom in their decision-making and do not respond to any one chamber of the Crest. They are in constant contact with the various departments, feeding back reports, information, and consulting with them. There is at least one Crest Chief openly present for each and every single fleet of boats in operation, with many more deeply embedded within trading groups, protection agencies, and other organizations. While being a Crest Chief is a lucrative and sought-out position, it requires a berth of skills that must be developed over 10 years of training at the headquarters in Shodan'Qi.
The organization is known more than anything for running like a well-oiled machine, with any threat to its efficacy quickly and efficiently removed. Despite this, there is still some friction within the organization. Representatives can only serve one turn in office for 5 years, picking a promising candidate to begin their studies for the next head of the chamber halfway through their term. Over the years this apprenticeship system has bred long-lines of like-minded individuals in each chamber, severely stratifying the intellectual diversity of each group, and threatening the foundation of cooperation on which The Crest has thrived for so long.
Culture
There are different levels of fervor for sailing under The Crest, but most merchants and sailors fly the banner high and proud on their ship. Due to the vast freedom The Crest provides to them, they are happy to abide by the meticulously planned trade routes and schedules that their Chief provides them. There is never any contractual obligation for a fleet or group to abide to more than the immediate job, but most groups tend to work symbiotically with The Crest for many years at a time, rarely taking on independent work.
Due to the stability and reputation of The Crest, its banner attracts many forms of travelers looking to set sail, creating rich and intricate social environments within every fleet. A notable group which has become inseparable from the ecosystem of The Crest is The Wayfarers Divine, with a hefty part of their followers perpetually aboard or working on a Crest ship. Often these ships will provide travel for clerics and other leaders of the faith in return for safe passage and a traveler's blessing, enthused to have someone watch over their journey.
Even some of the shadier organizations of Omiralon, like the Cobalt Crow, have developed a positive relationship with The Crest, simply due to their open door policy and loose regulation. These bands of sell swords are common aboard Crest ships, especially along more pirated waters such as The Sea of Swords.
Assets
The CFS Wanderer's Gift is a 150ft first-rate ship-of-the-line, and the flagship of the Crest. It is a fixture in Shodan's harbor and still sailed on short journeys as protection for important cargo or escort missions by the Marbanthis family.
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