Hawker of Honests controls one of the largest private shipping networks in the Astral. His business covers freight hauling, astral fishing, astralium extraction, and a large armed fleet used for escort and contract work. Many routes, stations, and crews depend on his schedules, credit, or protection to function normally.

Origins

Hawker began as a low-ranking crewman on a pirate ship, but he was never a violent type. He simply happened to be there, in bad company, and avoided boarding actions and other direct fighting whenever he could. While being a terrible fighter, he was a natural talker, blessed with a silver tongue. On board, he was mostly dealing with captives, fences, and intermediaries. He was good at it and knew how to promise things without committing himself.

His first vessel came from that very pirate ship. A small scouting sloop, which Hawker detached during one of his night watches and left with, just like that. With only the sloop, no money, and no standing, Hawker managed to hire a small crew of misfits on promises alone, offering future profit and better work.

The early jobs were dangerous and poorly paid. The sloop ran messages and small contraband, and picked through recent wreck sites. What kept the work coming was Hawker’s habit of following through. He finished the jobs he accepted and stayed in contact even when things went terribly wrong, even if it meant he had to finish the contract himself. Over time, word of such a hard worker spread, and people came back to him.

Funnily enough, his first investors turned out to be the very same pirates he had stolen the sloop from. Lucky for him, they managed to forget that incident over the course of several years of his entrepreneurship. Hawker knew his way around the sector they were most interested in, and so they equipped him with one sturdy, hasty carrack and a competent crew. His task was to smuggle elfin porn magazines and illusion-boxes with naked dancers to distant Imperial allods.

He never failed a task, and soon word of him spread even further. The name of his carrack, Katerina, was heard in many taverns. Other crews, and even thieves’ guilds, began using him to arrange transportation of all kinds, funding him to hire more ships and captains.

Story of success

Smuggling for thugs alone could not last forever. Hawker knew he needed to legitimise as soon as possible, and to do it gently and only partially. Thus began Hawker Fishing Co., an astral fishing side project meant to attract law-abiding investors. Hawker was skillful enough to continue working with his richest shady clientele using only a few ships from his ever-growing fleet, while equipping the rest with proper gear to hunt small demons of Upper Astral. These were either pickled and sold as bait for larger demons or taken apart for resale.

Astral fishing was a niche market at the time. After the Night of Astral Portals and the following Great Astral Crusade, people were terrified of demons and the deeper Astral layers. But Hawker was made for dangerous, dirty business, and he filled that nearly empty niche.

At some point, during a run in the Subastralis layer, where few dared to tread at the time, one of his trawlers came across the rotting corpse of an Astral Devil. That alone was great luck, but they never expected what they would find inside. It changed everything, for Hawker and for all of Sarnout.

Disassembling the corpse was a long and dangerous operation. When they reached its stomach, they recovered crystals never before seen in the world. Astralium, or astral bezoar, the “Pearl of Astral.” Hawker immediately sensed its potential. Whatever it was, it was new, it was rare, and he was the first to find it.

He quickly sponsored a research program, securing the best demonologists and astrologists from the ranks of the Demon Hunters. At the time, with the demon threat eliminated, they were unpopular with the public, few in number, and lacking funding.

The marvelous properties of astralium, most notably its ability to scare away lesser demons and distract greater ones, brought Hawker immense wealth and fame. More importantly, they marked a new stage in the history of Astral sailing. Thanks to Hawker, navigating the Astral Sea became far safer.

By the time Hawker Fishing Co. was fully established, Hawker was already a well-known name within the Free Merchants’ Guild. The appearance of astralium on the market rapidly changed his standing. Enormous profits from the “Pearls of Astral” earned him a place in the Club of Oligarchs.

This membership granted access to premium ship gear, and he soon expanded his fleet. Within just a few years, no private force in the Astral Sea matched its size or firepower.

It is widely speculated that Hawker maintains working relationships with established pirate lords to this day. Rumors suggest he is behind the largest investments into several prominent pirate bases, including the Maw and Stalnoy Island.

Around the same period, Hawker sponsored the construction of the first Astral Stations in collaboration with House di Ardeur, the architects behind the glorious Galleon-Palace. Today, Hawker Fishing Co. controls more of these stations than any other individual in Sarnout.