Trade & Underworld
Goods still need to move around Tidefall, legally or otherwise. Merchants compete for customers, thieves seek buyers, and criminal organisations charge for protection. The Storm has broken old networks and created opportunities for those willing to take risks.
The Crimson Brotherhood
For many Sarnath shopkeepers, the Crimson Brotherhood means another demand for money. Its collectors expect payment, and refusing them can bring threats, broken property or a public beating. The guards rarely seem eager to interfere.
Behind the street muscle is a disciplined organisation. Members follow a strict hierarchy, informants report on useful people, and agents maintain contacts far beyond Sarnath. Betrayal and failure are punished severely.
The Brotherhood demonstrated its strength when it destroyed the city’s Thieves’ Guild. It continues to pursue rivals, leaving independent criminals little room to operate without attracting attention. Its ambition is to control the underworld, including the people who buy stolen goods and pass information.
The enigmatic Jacks is associated with its leadership. Rumours also connect it to the Black Keep, encouraged by its confidence around officials and soldiers. Darion Quince plainly tolerates its presence. Residents seeking help against the Brotherhood often find that nobody wants to test the limits of that protection.
The Thieves & the Magpies
Seven years ago, the Crimson Brotherhood broke Sarnath’s Thieves’ Guild through arrests and killings. Its surviving contacts scattered, and anyone trying to rebuild risked the same treatment.
The Magpies are trying anyway. Using the old guild’s serpent-and-flask mark, they encourage rumours that the thieves have returned. Some residents admire them; others doubt there is an organisation behind the name at all.
Their ambitions go beyond picking pockets. They watch valuable stores, study supply routes and seek thefts large enough to embarrass the city’s powerful institutions. Such work needs fences, information and people willing to provide a hiding place when things go wrong.
The poorer streets offer recruits and sympathetic contacts, but trust is difficult to establish under the Brotherhood’s scrutiny. A successful theft could bring money and standing to the Magpies. Exposure would put everyone helping them at risk.
The Sovran Mercers Guild
The Sovran Mercers Guild built its wealth through merchant fleets, free cities and privateers across the wider world. Its contracts carry weight because its members can protect a trading route, or pay corsairs to make a competitor’s route dangerous.
Money and support determine rank. Captains lead ships and trading houses; Guildmasters command larger businesses and fleets. A council seat requires substantial wealth and captains willing to back its holder.
The Storm has cut Tidefall’s members off from that wider organisation. They have fractured into rival Free Sovrans, competing for the goods and opportunities available on the island.
These merchants retain valuable contacts, experienced crews and considerable resources. They can arrange business that smaller traders cannot manage, but their interests come first. Working with one group may mean entering a commercial rivalry that reaches well beyond the cargo being carried.