The Coinlords

Lords of the Landing
Bloody Bean-Counters
His Majesty's Bankers

Coinlord Mary, face like a fairy,
Wrong her you’ll be sorry, very;
Coinlord DeVries, don’t tell a lie,
He’ll find out and you will die;
Coinlord Azar, he’s got a scar,
Killed fifty men at the start of the war;
Coinlord Varacco, in his cargo:
Damned souls, to the depths they must go!

- children’s rhyme, sung in the rain-slick alleys of Brigands’ Landing

Structure

Each Coinlord is effectively a sovereign ruler in their own right, as there are no legal documents or obligations compelling them to cooperate. Their symbiosis is born of necessity and pragmatism. The Coinlords collectively maintain a stranglehold on Brigands' Landing, but individually their enterprises are independent and not necessarily known to one another. Detailed here are their various exploits and tiny empires, painstakingly clawed from the criminal underworld of the Landing.

• Niles DeVries - the Dockmaster, the Union Head, the first Coinlord - though that term did not exist until the others appeared. DeVries was already wealthy and successful by the time Brigands' Landing began to grow. Currently he controls the docks and the shipyards, and the Shipwright's Union.

• Azar Ibn-Alhad - the Executioner, the Hammer that Strikes in the Night - Ibn-Alhad was a mercenary leader who rose prominence during the Whalers' War, due to his prodigious capacity for violence and ruthless nature. In Brigands' Landing today, Azar Ibn-Alhad keeps close ties with the Gentlemen, and several illegal slaver troupes who spirit unfortunate souls across the sea to the lawless southern continents, where slavery has not yet been expunged. He also owns most of the slums within the Landing, deliberately keeping them in oppressively abhorrent condition.

• Silas Varacco - the Oil Baron, the Collector of Debts, the Devil Himself - Varacco is often viewed by the people of Brigands' Landing as the most villainous and markedly cruel of the Coinlords, though ironically on paper he is the closest of the four lords to being a legitimate businessman. While the other Coinlords have their ties to the various black markets of the Landing, Varacco is singly focused on the whaling trade. Varacco's main intentions are to further the oil trade, to squeeze ever more profit from the Empire's coffers, and to butcher as many whales as he can. He is also the ultimate authority on all debts to the Coinlords, and employs a large, disorganized gang of "Collectors" to harry and assault debtors. Despite his veneer of civility, those who openly oppose Varacco's goals often fall afoul some terrible fate, and there are remarkably few willing to pull at the threads of this particular veil.

• Mary Culligan - the Whaler, the Turncoat, the Sea Witch - Mary Culligan purchased her place among the Coinlords with the blood of her fellow Whalers. After the war, Culligan set about becoming an information broker, weaving a subtle web of spies through the society of Brigands' Landing. Very little occurs in the Landing these days without Mary Culligan feeling a tremor through her trap-lines. Those things which interest or pester her are soon snared by some lie or another, and on the rare occasion that her quarry slips the net, her hunters are loosed.

---

Beware the Court of the Coinlords four
Should ye pass the Hangman's Door,
Kneel with head press'd to the floor
of the Court of the Coinlords four.

- Anonymous, an excerpt from "In the Court of the Coinlords". Archivists take heed: this publication is illegal in Brigands' Landing.

(pictured above) Sovreign Mary - Brigands' Landing currency, stamped with the likeness of Mary Culligan

Type

Illicit, Gang

Subsidiary Organizations

• The Gentlemen

Location

Brigands' Landing

Controlled Territories

• Brigands' Landing