Council of Factors

Start-class article · First seen: pre-campaign brief · Last seen: ongoing reference

The Council of Factors is the ruling power of Velkris: five powerful merchant houses, House Brask, House Marr, House Orlan, House Tallow and House Vaunt, who meet in the Silent Hall behind closed marble doors to decide the city’s taxes, trade rights and punishments. Each house dominates one major industry, and together they rule through debt, contracts, private guards and control of the city’s necessary industries rather than by divine right, blood or conquest. The factors do not call themselves kings; that would be vulgar. It is world-brief canon only, and the party has never visited Velkris, though The Broker has twice pointed it that way [3][4].

The Council of Factors
The Council of Factors

Overview

The Council of Factors is the body that, in the world brief, governs Velkris, the Veiled Gate: five powerful merchant houses who meet in the Silent Hall and decide the city’s taxes, trade rights and punishments behind closed marble doors. Each house dominates one major industry. The Council does not rule by divine right, blood or military conquest; it rules through debt, contracts, taxes, trade rights, private guards, public donations, court influence, ownership claims, political favours, and control of the city’s necessary industries (world brief). The brief adds: “The factors do not call themselves kings. That would be vulgar.”

The Council has not appeared in play, and nobody has named it at the table. It is world-brief canon only.

Known traits

The five houses and their factors, as the brief gives them:

HouseIndustryFactorSaying
House BraskPrivate force, mercenary contracts, debt enforcementTor Brask, scarred hobgoblin“If Brask guards the door, someone paid for fear.”
House MarrThe flesh trade: slaves and debt-workers below, bonded service and household placement aboveLysa Marr, tiefling“Marr always offers a way out. The price is the trap.”
House OrlanFinance, debt, banking, contracts, arbitration, recordsIven Orlan, dwarven banker-lord“Orlan does not forget. It only waits.”
House TallowRefined alchemy: medicine, perfume, contract wax, embalming oil, legal poisons, inks, antidotes, reagentsSella Tallow, yuan-ti physician“If Tallow made the cure, ask what else it treats.”
House VauntPrestige, property, elite construction, civic beauty, old wealthElian Vaunt, sapphire dragonborn“Vaunt does not destroy a street. It improves it until the old residents disappear.”
  • Taxes. The brief names three: the River Passage Levy, based on cargo weight and destination, which every ship pays; the Current Tithe, for passing under Velkris’s watch even as a transiting barge; and the Breathing Tax, paid daily on goods stored in the city’s marble warehouses (world brief).
  • Enforcement. The masked Order of the Veil makes sure taxes are paid, magic is registered and debts are collected; House Brask handles private force where the Veil is too slow, too public or too polite (world brief).
  • Records and faith. The High Registry holds the documents that decide who owns and who owes what, and the temples of Myrana double as banks and courts (world brief).
  • Bonded service. The brief calls House Marr the institutional spine of the city’s slavery, House Brask its enforcement, and the High Registry and House Orlan its paperwork.
  • Not stated. The brief does not say how a factor is chosen, how long one sits, how the Council votes, or how the five houses get on with one another.

Relationships

  • Velkris. The Council is its government. The brief sets the Order of the Veil (enforcement), the High Registry (records) and the temples of Myrana (faith, banking and law) beside it as the city’s other institutions.
  • Silent Hall. Its meeting chamber.
  • The table’s brushes with Velkris. None names the Council. In session 4 the DM called Mirestrand “almost like a extension to some degree of Velkris” and showed masked Velkris tax agents there [1][2]. In session 7 The Broker told the party where in Velkris to sell Maelis’s forged shipping papers: an organisation “near the entrance to Velkris” [3]. In session 10 he called it “the city of money” [4]. In session 19 Hugo named it as the next destination, “to redeem the shipping order stuff” [5], and Terry asked in passing whether Tor Brask’s house is run by hobgoblins [6]. In session 20 Caelumn’s recap had the party going back through Eldwythe, Umbrafall and Mirestrand to end up in Velkris [7].

Notable named figures

  • Tor Brask, factor of House Brask: a scarred hobgoblin, known for short contracts and shorter warnings (world brief).
  • Lysa Marr, factor of House Marr: a tiefling known for warmth, charm and contracts no desperate person should sign (world brief).
  • Iven Orlan, factor of House Orlan: a dwarven banker-lord whose family has remembered debts for longer than some nations have existed (world brief).
  • Sella Tallow, factor of House Tallow: a yuan-ti woman with a physician’s calm and a poisoner’s patience (world brief).
  • Elian Vaunt, factor of House Vaunt: a sapphire dragonborn known for elegance, cold manners and treating poverty like bad architecture (world brief).

History in the campaign

Not yet seen in play.

Status

As of session 23. Off-screen and unvisited. The party has not met a factor or set foot in the Silent Hall. Both Velkris leads the party was given are still unused: the forged Duskwatch papers, and the Broker’s remark that Velkris would pay for what the party knows [8]. The Council itself has not been named at the table.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 4, line 812: Inline citation.
  2. ^ Session 4, line 820: Inline citation.
  3. ^ Session 7, line 745: Inline citation.
  4. ^ Session 10, line 1256: Inline citation.
  5. ^ Session 19, line 271: Inline citation.
  6. ^ Session 19, line 586-587: Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 20, line 47: Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 10, line 1251-1256: Inline citation.