Brackish Consortium

Overview

The Brackish Consortium is a hidden alliance of merchants, smugglers, and shadow-dealers who span the world’s deserts, coasts, and cities. Bound by secrecy and mutual protection, they specialize in the trade of what others forbid: poached beasts, cursed relics, memory-tinctures, and rare curiosities scavenged from forbidden ruins. Their symbol is subtle—a braided bracelet woven from black kelp and silver thread, and each sworn member also carries an engraved obsidian coin, a mark of the Unspoken Pact.

Appearance

There is no uniform look to the Consortium, as members come from all races and regions. What binds them is secrecy and subtle signaling: coded hand signs, embroidered wave motifs on garments, or faint perfumes of particular resins and oils used to identify one another. The bracelets and coins are the only universal marks, hidden in plain sight.

Culture and Society

The Consortium thrives upon three unshakable principles:

  • Trade without restriction – No good is too sacred, dangerous, or forbidden to sell.

  • Silence before scrutiny – To speak openly of the Consortium is death.

  • Mutual protection over profit – No member is abandoned, for exposure of one endangers all.

Each swears the Unspoken Pact, a vow sealed not in ink but by carrying the obsidian sigil-coin of the Consor. There is no central hierarchy; instead, the Consortium operates in cells scattered across trade routes and coasts, each self-sufficient yet loosely allied.

True leadership, if it exists, is hidden behind layers of misdirection and rumor—some claim no single leader exists at all.

Territory

The Consortium has no fixed homeland, thriving instead in the shadows of other powers. They have contacts in all societies, and even respected and influential citizens are secret members of the Brackish Consortium.

Resources and Sustenance

The Consortium’s wealth is diverse and illicit:

  • Rare herbs, poisons, and forbidden tinctures.

  • Poached beasts and their alchemically useful parts.

  • Stolen relics, enchanted curiosities, and memory-scripts.

  • Contraband goods (slaves, weapons, narcotics).

Rather than direct production, they thrive by controlling the flow of these goods through hidden routes, bribed guards, and covert exchanges.

Military and Defense

The Consortium has no standing army, but wields immense strength through its network of mercenaries, pirates, raiders, and poachers. The Khenan Raiders are often employed for caravan strikes, while coastal smugglers provide naval cover. Their true defense lies in secrecy—removing anyone who threatens exposure.

Assassins and poisoners are common tools of their justice, making the Consortium feared even where its presence is not seen.

Relations

All the relations of the Brackish Consortium are secret and even their collaborators and allies are unaware of their existence; as usually this relations are covered as the interest of single individuals which are not part of any bigger network.

  • Khenan Raiders (Desertborne Humans): Frequent unaware collaborators, the Consortium funds and arms them in exchange for stolen goods.

  • Shishan Tribe: As the main desert traders, the Shishan are necessary partners. Usually commerce is made in the official trade hubs with lícit means apparently not linked with the Brackish Consortium. Thats why the Shishan mainly ignore its existence. But some of the older members of the tribe have some limited knowledge and suspicious about the Brackish Consortium existence, although no clear proofs. Under the official surface, there is a trade competition.

  • Other Desert Tribes: The poaching activities the Brackish Consortium funds are viewed with hostility by the Desert Tribes, but are unaware of who funds it.

  • Green Republic: Even if they are unaware of the Brackish Consortium existence, the Green Republic officially outlaws their illicit dealings. But even with that, most of their ports and cities secretly benefit from the contraband trade, and even high rank merchants and officials are members of the Bracksih Consortium.

  • Other Races and Factions: The Consortium welcomes all races—lizardfolk, elves, humans, orcs—so long as they honor secrecy and profit, but relations with the deep desert regions are scarce.

Reputation

The Brackish Consortium is a completely secret alliance. Their activities and the goods they offer, can be found in nearly all cities and societies, although nearly no one links it to a big network. But even the ones that suspect their existence, do not have proof or even a name for it.