Priman Merchant's Guild
A tightly organized and exclusively Priman syndicate that controls much of the trade and business on the Fringe, particularly on Alter-Dragon. The Guild also has a history of organized crime and piracy.
Origins
The Primans of Alter-Dragon, unlike their brethren in the Dragon Dimension, have never possessed a city to call their home. Alter-Dragon's oceans are home to the territorial (and for the most part, more technologically advanced) Simans, and constant clashes in times ancient and modern led to a intense rivalry and hatred between the two races. Pressed from what would be their natural home in the warm oceans of Alter-Dragon, the Primans formed tightly knit family units that traveled together for safety as they went about their trades. Over time, the necessities of trade compelled these family units to coalesce into larger groups, bound by pacts and written contracts. This in turn contributed to a distinct racial loyalty that is present in Alter-Dragonian Primans.
The Two Port Cities
Over the course of hundreds of years, and by virtue of their industry and canny knack at trading, Primans came to hold much of the power in the port cities of Capitan and Coursair. Even the Simans could not operate from those ports without Priman approval, or without paying a hefty tax. The largest and most powerful Priman families took up residences in the two cities and surrounding countryside: the Scarfabos, the Sciabolas, the Brancazios and the Gualtieris. An intense and violent turf war between the Scarfabos and the Brancazios led to the destruction of the Brancazios, and the other two families pledged loyalty and familial brotherhood with the Scarfabos, creating the Priman Merchant's Guild. Over time, lesser families joined the Guild as well.
Alliance-Triad War
The Guild would have amounted to little more than a moderately powerful trading and crime syndicate--had the Alter dimension not been discovered. Shortly after this discovery, the planet was beset with open war. The aggressive nations of the Triad, Simafort, Highfort, and Guntz openly pressed and attacked those of the New Drogen Alliance: Drogen, Windia, and the Pasturelands. The Guild immediately took advantage and set up trading connections with the Greater Web, ferrying in weapons and military hardware daily, and selling to both sides of the conflict. This increased the Guild's wealth and power expontentially, and when the conflict was over, Drogen lay in ruins, and the resources of all the other nations had been depleted and exhausted. The Guild quickly moved to fill the vaccuum of power, making treaties with each nation, and providing goods that the planet had never seen before.
The Combine War
And yet this power was not enough. The Pasturelands, producers of high quality wines and foods, had always resisted (successfully) the Guild's attempts to take control of their products. The Simans still maintained dominance over the majority of the planet's oceans by virture of their naval superiority and undersea bases. And pressure from the Tasnican corporations in Fringe markets was upending centuries-old trading practices and traditions. At the behest of Ludovico Gualtieri, the Guild initiated a plan to unite the free nations under their control--to found a new nation that would serve as the Web-wide face of the Guild, and dramatically increase their power and prestige. This plan succeeded (see Combine War), leading to the formation of the Alter-Dragonian Combine.
Current Influence
Almost all Primans native to Alter-Dragon and even some that are not have ties to the Guild. Most, if not all, goods that pass to and from Alter-Dragon are controlled by the Guild, and its most powerful members also serve as the Executive Council of the Alter-Dragonian Combine, effectively bending the resources of a nation towards their goal of Web-wide market dominance. The Guild punishes troublemakers or those who attempt to short the Guild its wages harshly, usually employing a stable of villainous assassins and enforcers to keep lesser members in line.
