CHUNG MAI SAN ("brotherhood of merchants" in the Archendian "Royal Tongue")
Goals: to promote ethical trading practices, and support aspiring merchants and traders
At the peak of the Archendian Empire (ca. 3550) many of the richest citizens were the merchants who owned the networks of the Empire's far-flung trading
houses. While these were mostly staffed and operated by a growing middle-class of Mantaten sailors and peddlers, these Sapoy owners grew immensely wealthy.
Given time and lots of gold to spend, they developed a sort of club, with bases wherever the Empire had interests, where they could met, discuss plans, dabble
discreetly in new interests, and generally enjoy the sort of life to which they felt entitled. Over time these clubs evolved a more formal structure with
memberships and a hierarchy.
Four hundred years later at the end of the Empire, most of these clubhouses were destroyed, forgotten or abandoned. However, the benefits of an "old boys network"
with contacts, power and wealth were not forgotten by a few key survivors, and they soon created a new "brotherhood" with far more selfish goals. Having seen
(and experienced) the effects of "fallible" and "misguided" governance, they undertook to ensure that they had the means in the future to guarantee
their own fate. Using a large part of their still considerable wealth they researched the available options, and agreed that a long-term plan to secure the levers that
would influence future events was the key. To this end they have sought (among many other projects) to ensure that the Tower of Knowledge would eventually belong to them.
There are four levels within the organization. At the ground level is an almost "public" brotherhood, open to most lawful and acquisitive merchants. They are
offered low interest loans and business camaraderie in exchange for regular fees and a willingness to share any "tidbits" they happen to learn. The second level
is where members are exposed to another level of "purpose", and are told that in part the Chung Mai San not only promotes ethical trading, but also helps influence
laws and ethics. Members at this level are offered the chance to obtain "special" exclusive contracts and access to more powerful and experienced traders in return
for regular fees and active lobbying and support of Chung Mai San policies and objectives. For the vast majority of members this is the innermost circle so far as they know,
and will ever be exposed to.
The 3rd level is far more exclusive and secretive, consisting only of a select few elevated from the 2nd circle. These members now begin the delicate task of cajoling, bribing,
blackmailing and threatening influential personages. They seek to dictate law and change policy to suit the Chung Mai San and their members, but do not themselves come up with
the objectives, nor have any overall sense of why they are doing so. That guidance is strictly the domain of the 4th and final circle, where only the most ruthless and effective
are finally allowed understanding of the true long term goals and objectives.
The symbol of the 1st level is a plain Gold Coin. The 2nd, two partially overlapped coins, signify the interrelationship between customer and supplier, supply and demand, and
the Chung Mai San's power and the success of their members. The symbol of the 3rd level places a thick black circle around the outside of the symbol for the 2nd level. Finally,
the 4th level uses a stack of 4 circles, concentrically declining in size to the top, to signify the 4th level is "above all".
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