Silken Cord Syndicate
The Silken Cord Syndicate is the largest and most influential criminal organizartion in @Corvinium, at least half as large again as either the Guild of the Pale Blade or the Guild of the Ebon Moon. Headquarted in the Drumchapel district, with easy access to the nobles' quarter of Ashbrook, the industry of Blackrow, and traffic on the Cold River, the Silken Cord controls almost all the smuggling operations both into and out of the city, and offers protection rackets to minor nobles, South Warren laborers, and dockworkers as far as New Moon Pier.
In addition to smuggling, the Silken Cord controls most of the narcotics trade in eastern Corvinium, particularly the manufacture and distribution of angel spume. Minor sorcerers in Moonbreach, indebted to the Syndicate, brew spume in quantity, which is taken to derelict factories in Blackrow and cut with powdered willow bark, then sold to clients throughout Silken Cord territory - often traumatized Sard War veterans, laborers seeking respite from their misery, and even nobility under pressure from their duties. While angel spume is technically illegal, agents of the Watch are often encouraged to look the other way, since a spume-addicted citizen is a suboptimal worker but also unlikely to entertain ideas like "revolution" or "civil disobedience."
While the Syndicate has cordial relations, by and large, with both the Pale Blade and the Ebon Moon, it is also invested in preventing its rival guilds from becoming overly friendly with each other, since one of the few things likely to pose a real threat to its power would be a true alliance between them. Syndicate agents have had a hand with most of the major turf wars in western Corvinium over the last half-century or so.
While its reach is long, the Silken Cord steps most carefully in the districts south of the Greyroar, where all three guilds have some influence. The Ebon Moon and the Pale Blade have both stayed clear of the Syndicate's smuggling operations in New Moon Pier, but if the Silken Cord were to follow through with its ambitions to gain territory west of the Cold River, this could quickly change.
The symbol of the Silken Cord Syndicate is a length of red cord held taut between two clenched hands, a reminder of the silk garrotte that is the Syndicate's signature means of execution.
In addition to smuggling, the Silken Cord controls most of the narcotics trade in eastern Corvinium, particularly the manufacture and distribution of angel spume. Minor sorcerers in Moonbreach, indebted to the Syndicate, brew spume in quantity, which is taken to derelict factories in Blackrow and cut with powdered willow bark, then sold to clients throughout Silken Cord territory - often traumatized Sard War veterans, laborers seeking respite from their misery, and even nobility under pressure from their duties. While angel spume is technically illegal, agents of the Watch are often encouraged to look the other way, since a spume-addicted citizen is a suboptimal worker but also unlikely to entertain ideas like "revolution" or "civil disobedience."
While the Syndicate has cordial relations, by and large, with both the Pale Blade and the Ebon Moon, it is also invested in preventing its rival guilds from becoming overly friendly with each other, since one of the few things likely to pose a real threat to its power would be a true alliance between them. Syndicate agents have had a hand with most of the major turf wars in western Corvinium over the last half-century or so.
While its reach is long, the Silken Cord steps most carefully in the districts south of the Greyroar, where all three guilds have some influence. The Ebon Moon and the Pale Blade have both stayed clear of the Syndicate's smuggling operations in New Moon Pier, but if the Silken Cord were to follow through with its ambitions to gain territory west of the Cold River, this could quickly change.
The symbol of the Silken Cord Syndicate is a length of red cord held taut between two clenched hands, a reminder of the silk garrotte that is the Syndicate's signature means of execution.
Type
Guild, Thieves
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