Adaere Doneim


The Northern Marches » Northern Imports and Exports » Adaere Doneim
framed|Trademark of Adaere

Male Anuirean Noble 3/ Rogue 2; CR:5
Guilder of Northern Imports and Exports, Collector of Tolls in Dhoesone
Lineage of Townsfolk
Minor Bloodline of Reynir, 17
N Medium Humanoid

VP/WP 23/10
Init +0
Languages Anuirean, Sidhelien

AC , touch , flatfooted
Fort + , Ref + , Will +

Speed ft
Melee Atk + (damage /critical, weapon)
Ranged + (damage /critical, weapon)
Base Atk + ; Grapple

Abilities Str , Dex , Con 10, Int , Wis , Cha
Feats:
Skills:
Special Qualities: including linked blood abilities
Description: , lbs
Possessions:
Italicize feats and abilities followed by a brief description
framed|Adaere Doneim


Typical Dialogue:

"You know, Martin, we could make much more money if we guilders stuck to commerce and left the armies and destruction to the nobility."
"By Sarimie! If Mheallie is going to play that way, I am going to have to beat her at her own game. Send word for Martin."
"Wise Prince, you see how I love your forests and seek no harm comes to them. I would seek your aid, good Prince, in helping me restore the old ways, when we guilders only dwelled in towns, buying, selling, and lending, leaving the land to the nobles."

Biography:

Adaere Doneim is a tall aristocratic man whose family has been in banking and shipping for as long as anyone remembers. His father, Howard Doneim, was a financier of the realm as well as many of the guild activities in the Northern Marches. Under Howard, the Northern Imports and Exports had gone from being a shipping company, bringing goods in and out of Dhoesone, to a significant banking concern as well. Adaere was trained as a banker with some preparation to over see the dozen ships. However, before Howard had passed from this world the world of the guilds was shaken.

The guild world in Dhoesone had been largely divided between a number of small independent guilds , who controlled the trade on the Northbyrn River, Northern Imports and Exports who controlled shipping and banking, and the Upper Anuire Traders who were dominant in the craft guilds in the towns.

Over the last twenty years, guild relations went form a sleepy cordiality to cutthroat rivalries. The Northlands Exchange entered the market with some backing from Mheallie Bireon, a ruthless guilder from Cariele, and carved out a place in Tradebhein and Sonnelind by utterly destroying the holdings of the Upper Anuire Traders and Northern Imports and Exports. Adaere and his father were more effective at defending their holdings until their lieutenant, Bannier Andien, decided to break away with a few of his friends, effectively tearing holdings in Romiene and Hidaele away. Adaere had just married Beckah Dhariel, younger sister of Aulay Dhariel, Count of Hidaele, and hearing their views, believed that Northlands Exchange had encouraged this Great Captain to depart their organization.

Soon after, Adaere took over the Northern Imports and Exports from his father and has defended it since. He adopted the ruthlessness of Mheallie Bireon, who lurked somewhere behind the Northlands Exchange, but he was also forced to change the nature of his business. Northern Imports used to be a mercantile guild, selling the products of the Upper Anuire Traders in foreign ports. Now guilds raised their prices making inter-guild trade impractical. So Northern Imports now is forced to recruit its own craftsmen and acquire its own raw materials. Each guild seeks to reduce prices and out-compete his neighbors to steal his customers, and this requires obtaining raw materials more and more cheaply.

Adaere recalls the days of his youth when the local lords and druids regulated the extraction of raw materials, and the guilds were craftsmen and merchants, not lumbermen and miners. He is a trained banker and mercantilist and would gladly return to the ways of the past, but to do so without the other guilds returning to the old ways would spell ruin. So, Adaere does what he must, extracting what is required, but hoping to seek the bulk of his profit in the shipping and financing of his guilds, not in the ever more rapacious destruction of the land.

When iron was discovered in Dharilein, Count Vertico Dhariel consulted with his cousin, Adaere's nephew, and satisfied himself that Adaere was capable of conducting himself as an honorable guilder. So Vertico and Adaere agreed that the count would grant him a monopoly of guild business and would protect the guild from smugglers, interlopers, or claim jumpers. And in return, Adaere would operate his mines according to the requirements of Madalyn of the Stones, the local druid. That workers would be justly paid, and that things would be done justly, honorably, and fairly.

The proclamation allowing merchants to conduct business in Tuarhievel was a welcome one for Adaere. He was openly and directly able to convince the elves that he would respect the land and he has. The Northlands Exchange has entered the markets of Tuarhievel by deception, trickery, and force, setting up puppet companies, acquiring the holdings of others, and setting up operations in secret without sanction.

Adaere wears only the finest clothes and eats only the finest victuals. His wine cellar is said to be near bottomless and has won him many friends amongst the nobility. It is a fringe benefit of conducting long distance trade with the wine growing regions of southern Anuire.

Günther Brandt regards Adaere as a tragedy. Here is a man who would be good and protect the land, operating as a guilder who would please Erik, but instead he conducts himself like the worst of his rivals because maintaining his profit is too dear to him. The Archdruid acknowledges that should a guilder like Adaere fail, at present he is likely to be replaced by a ruthless monster like Mheallie Bireon. But as long as Adaere is willing to act like Mheallie, what really is the difference? One hopes that the law of Dhoesone will compel men to harmony with the land, and then Adaere could be relied upon to be a good man, but such a happy future is not likely in Dhoesone or anywhere else on the Tael Firth.


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