The Icerunners Guild

The mercantile organisation whose power challenges that of the nations of the world. They control the lucrative ocean trade routes known as the Silver Reaches and the Golden Tides that stretch all the way from the shore of the Protectorates to The Gleaming City itself. They get their name from the primary source of their wealth, which is in trading water in the form of icebergs, which they gather and tow from the Sea of Black Ice all the way to the Gleaming City.

Origins of the Guild

The Guild had its origins with a particluarly independant and entrepeneurial member of The Returned called Marq D'Or, also known as the First Breaker. Having grown up in the physical and social confines of Refuge, Marq D'Or was transformed upon seeing the open skies, mountains and plains of the world they had returned to. But it was the sea that called to him most fervently. He spent many years exploring the oceans, and the Sea of Black Ice, where he partnered with members of the clans from the iceflows there. Combining the technologies of the Returned, with the nautical skills and traditional magics of the clans, the first of the great icebreakers of the Guild were created. These anabled the Guild to traverse the treacherous expanses of water along the edges of the Sea of Back Ice known as Silver Reaches, and opened up the first of tradeways between Novallucca and The burgeoning settlements of the Protectorates.

The first Ice Run

Many years after the death of the First Breaker, trade was already well established across the Twilight Lands. The Guild controlled the ports in all the Protectorate cities and their merchants had made it as far as the Shimmerlands and the great tent city of Kukutana. The Guild became even wealthier through the trade of ores from Novalucca and the fine-foods from the Shimmerlands. It was there that the Guild first encountered the Merchantry of the Torrent, who brought rumours of the Gleaming City far to the sunside of the parched deserts, and the vast wealth of crystaline Uhd they harboured there. It did not take long for an enterprising merchant within the Guild to identfy the one thing the Gleaming City lacked - water. And a daring idea was sparked. The great Icebreakers that the Guild used were adapted and fortified with magics, in order to carve off Icebergs from the Sea of Black Ice and transport them half way across the world to the Gleaming City itself. Strong magics were used to protect the ice from melting over the long journey, and while much of it was lost, the sight of the first berg being towed into the port of the Gleaming City heralded a shift in global power that is still being felt. The ice was a wonder, and quickly became a cache for the social machinations of the Lords of Fire against each other. The larger and purer the ice the better - to be flavoured and used in their feasts as appetisers, or as vast sculptures that would display their majesty and cool their visitors as they entertained. It became a fashion overnight, and the Lords paid the Guild handsomely for their efforts.

Founding Date

2870

Type

Consortium, Business

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