Union is a planar trading power — “a plenary city of commerce” — that appears in every inter-planar transaction without any visible location. It is recorded as “a multinational and oppressive bank”.
| Type | Place / institution |
| Plane | Intermediate commercial plane (location unknown) |
| Territories | Antigua and Tortuga |
| Spanish entry | Union |
Nature
The records describe Union in four ways, none prevailing:
- a city: “the city of Union”, which Arian “was sort of putting together”;
- a company: “certain companies called The Union”;
- a multinational bank, oppressive;
- an individual planar merchant, whose inventory can be stolen like any fair vendor’s.
The vaults
Union’s only physical feature on record is its “very ancient” vaults, which form a collection of their own, “the collection of the vaults of Union”. They hold the ancient objects that later circulate through Celefais and other territories, and the deposits of clients and collections. The deposits can be traced by magic, as a recorded question shows: «¿así que estás rastreando los objetos de las bóvedas de union?» (“so you’re tracking the objects from the vaults of Union?”).
Portals, islands, speech
- Portals: “there are portals to Union”; their number and destinations are unknown.
- Islands: Antigua and Tortuga fall under the formula “these islands belong to them” — its own territory, where traffic runs outside any other jurisdiction.
- State of the Union: “the presidential address, begun, to say how the economy will be”. Who delivers it is not recorded.
Trade
Union buys and sells and accepts payment in kind, through merchant intermediaries; the recorded form is geisha. Beneath the declared trade runs “a traffic in which you are involved”, with corruption, leakage and smuggling whose source is under open investigation within the world.
Theft is a recognized third way: “stealing from UNION and other planar merchants” is a declared method of financing the Revolution.
Union is an adversary across worlds: “the same adversaries of the other gesta (campaign-cycle), but now inside a more capitalist world”.
The branch in the ice
Sidqa of Ascalon came before the lads of Sogol as a mercane after eleven years infiltrated among giants. Sidqa’s seal, deposit leaflet and communications revealed a network beyond the local war. The watchtower of the Halls of Frost has an access that allows Sidqa to withdraw, resupply and return.
In the Halls, Sidqa proposes opening a branch in stages: buying ancient obsidian, dwarven steel, crystals and ritual materials, restoring the forges, and trading loot for gold or credit. The lads imagine another counter in their neighborhood. Sidqa demands they earn any exclusivity and offers rewards for securing the permits and security required. Full establishment would take about a year. Burkestein has yet to meet the mercane and decide whether to accept a supplier who aims to sell to everyone. The companions went to Karlstorf and then toward Calíope; no operating branch exists in Sogol. The oracle had denied that the alliance would bring peace to the region.
Open questions
- Appearance of the city, its vaults and its agents is not recorded; nor its plane or its distance from Celefais and the islands.
- No prices are fixed for payment in kind.
- Of the gem, the record says «después la pargaron los de Union»; the verb pargar is not understood, so Union’s action on the gem is unknown.
- The phrase “unión negra” («Alicantor que la rompió su unión negra») has no established link to the institution. Who Alicantor is remains unknown.
- What “fajiraca” means in the context of the market and the geishas is unknown.
- The ultimate source of the smuggling is unknown.
Gallery
