Five Families

The Five Families were formed by a group of five families who lived in Old Salt, and ran crews of smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, and all other sort of illicit activities. The heads of all of these families saw that many of the thieves' guilds throughout The Reach were forced to create complicated trade networks to go through in order to make simple trades. Together they pooled their resources and split The Reach into sections for each of themselves. They then set about creating trade networks that prominent thieves guild could use in order to have access to large scale naval power without having to go through corrupt governments or privateers who would extort them.

History

The five families who started this organization are The Alistairs, The Digbys, The Birkenheads, The Archs, and The Godwins. When the first formed, it was decided that they had to split up The Reach among them or they would become rivals with one another. When divided up Anor and The Iron Hills belonged to The Alistair family, All of the Vastran Kingdom and the Expanse belonged to the The Diggy Family the Gunnison Plains belonged to the Birkenhead's, Edeengard and Jarrenvale are controlled by the Arch's, and the Grand Republic of Durham is controlled by the Godwins.

The Alistair Family 
The Arch Family 
The Birkenhead Family