The Club of Oligarchs is a private organisation formed within the Free Merchants’ Guild. It was established by the six original Representatives of the Artel Assembly as a closed association for coordination between its most powerful members, and has changed over time as individuals entered or left its ranks. The existence of the Club is not secret, but its internal workings are not known outside its members.
Members as for year 1010:
Nomarch Iblis
Nomarch Iblis is the premier dealer of advanced weaponry in Sarnout. “Iblis Arms” design, manufacture and sell luxury mana-tech arms, M.E.C.H. suits, combat vehicles, automated defense systems such, turrets and golems. He owns several allods dedicated almost entirely to manufacturing and housing workers. His primary allod, Forge, serves as both production hub and corporate capital. His weapons are common among high-end mercenary groups and private armies.
Ivan the Iron
Ivan the Iron controls Dayn, the largest known allod and home to the largest Free Merchant polis in Sarnout. What began as a dock settlement for his logistics network became Jeleznogórsk, also called Iron City, now the main cultural, trade, and transport center of Sarnout and one of the largest astral ports ever built. Ivan’s fortune comes from a unique kelp harvested from Dayn’s inland sea. Processed forms of this kelp are used to produce Ivan’s Water, a popular vitalising decoction, nutritious rations widely used in MREs across Sarnout, and mana-conductive wiring that is sturdy and easy to produce.
Ivan is third in wealth, and even Iblis relies on Ivan’s materials for his own production chains.
Hawker of Honests
Hawker of Honests controls a vast shipping empire that includes astral freight, astral fishing fleets, astralium extraction, and the largest mercenary fleet in the Astral. Unofficially, he is considered the central figure in the pirate world. He owns or bankrolls numerous astral stations and maintains influence over the largest pirate bases, though never on record. Hawker is rarely seen in one place and maintains no fixed residence. He refers to himself as a freelancer facilitator with no fixed abode. His manner and lifestyle are so plain and discreet that many people do not realise he is the second wealthiest man in Sarnout.
Sigurd Spiv
Sigurd Spiv heads Spiv Industries, the dominant force in meteoric iron extraction and forging, as well as mana extraction machinery and anti-mana protection technologies such as shielding, linings, and AM suits. His family fortune predates him by generations: his great-grandfather was a powerful Astral corsair who controlled an entire Red Ribbon Traverse, and the wealth looted there was later converted into industry by Sigurd’s grandfather through aggressive acquisition of a meteoric iron extraction technology. Sigurd Spiv was born into this wealth and easily inherited both the capital and the monopolies.
Hugues di Pluie
Hugues’s company, Splendour, specialises in luxury ship parts and weaponry. His products are expensive and known for distinctive brand aesthetics paired with extreme performance. Splendour equipment is favoured by nobles, private collectors, and elite captains.
Victoria Kornilina
Victoria manages the Kornilins Agency, Sarnout’s most prestigious mercenary organisation. The Kornilins Agency has a reputation built on professionalism and a gentlemanly veneer intended to put rich clients at ease. The Agency is polite, well-dressed and efficient: the acceptable face of bounty hunting. But scratch the surface and underneath you’d find mercenary thugs like all the rest; proud members of the biggest gang in Sarnout.
The Very Respectable Goblin and Gobliness
The Very Respectable Goblin and the Very Respectable Gobliness are the wealthiest individuals in Sarnout. They founded modern banking and control the Great Goblin Bank, which holds and moves most large-scale capital in Sarnout. Popular belief holds that they control all the money in Sarnout. They possess the largest magical private artifact collection known. They also own an allod commonly called Goblinland, a closed goblin-only society that basically functions as a goblin utopia.