Fresh Start Soul Traders

Fresh Start Soul Traders is a controversial trading firm founded in Milcia. It is run by followers of Penguin, and therefore has deep ties with Avernus and the rest of The nine hells. They describe themselves as innovative revolutionaries, leading the charge to a brighter tomorrow by making one of the world's oldest industries far more open and ethical than ever before. Some of their customers agree with this analysis, while others see them merely as particularly supernatural loan sharks. As the name implies, Fresh Start Soul Traders deal primarily in mortal souls. The catch, however, is that they do not follow the "old way" of buying entire souls in exchange for some supernatural favor. This practice, or so they say, was often unfair, unreliable, and more importantly just difficult to get mortals to agree to. Instead they hire a large staff of actuaries and economists who carefully track the exact value of a mortal soul in cold, hard cash. They then invented a means to take only fractions of a soul instead of the entire thing, such that mortals need not sign away their entire future in order to capitalize on their own soul. As with any commodity soul prices fluctuate due to supply, demand, and general economic conditions. Even with such fluctuations, though, the valuation is quite high. Most mortals find that they can pay off an education for 6-9% of their soul, a modest house for 12-18%, or purchase their own high end airship for 20-25%. The firm will even distribute loans using the lender's soul as collateral, a practice which has led to the rise of Soulswords, adventurers and mercenaries who take out large loans on their own souls in order to fund their adventures.