House Kundarak by Anne Stokes

Overview:

Once their watch of the banished clans was complete and their old homeland reclaimed, Clan Kundarak fell into a slump for a few decades. What was their purpose in this new world? With no more gate to guard, what were the guardians to do?

Fortunately, the rest of the world found something to occupy Kundarak’s energies. The dwarves’ gold was sought after by the people of Khorvaire, and someone had to watch over the wealth accumulated. The Mark of Warding, long wondered about amongst the dwarves themselves, gave the clan instant credibility in the halls of power.

Clan Kundarak did some restructuring, and soon presented House Kundarak to the outside world. Ever since that day, the dwarves have been as solid as their mountain homes, and just as wealthy.

The House runs two enterprises: the Banking Guild and the Warding Guild.

The Banking Guild is where most clan members test into. It is by far the larger and better known of the two guilds. Promotion in the Guild is steady but slow, and most of the shorter lived races simply can not put in the required time to advance to upper levels. Because of this, dwarves make up the vast majority of Guild members.

For the dwarves, banking is a magnificent way to live. While they do not own the precious objects that pass into their vaults, it is the fact they possess these beautiful, prized items that gives them joy. The rich wonders held in the vault may belong to you, but so long as they’re in my vault, they’re mine as well. A banking dwarf also sees the gold in his bank as a sacred trust placed in him. “I place my most valuable items in your protection,” a customer is implying when they bank with the Guild. “I know you will not falter.”

Gnomes, both belonging to House Sivis and as part of the Banking Guild itself make up a large group in the Guild. These gnomes do the paperwork and behind the scenes organization of the bank, generally leaving negotiations, security and policy to the dwarves. While the dwarves enjoy the trust of holding precious items for others, the gnomes get an almost visceral thrill from knowing what people are squirreling away.

The Warding Guild is the divided into two branches. The first is the Guardians. These are the warriors and soldiers of the Guild. Favouring heavy armour and defensive feats, these stalwart defenders hold the line against intrusion.

The other Warding Guild branch is the Engineers. These specialists use their knowledge of construction and building to design and create structures that resist invasion. This section also includes security consultants and artificers who work on magical protection.

Business Overview:

The Banking Guild is one of the most widely known institutions on Khorvarie. Everyone has the fear of loss; Kundarak allays those fears. For the dwarves it is not entirely about holding most of the money on the continent, it is about possessing a duty.

The Banking Guild

As an institution, the Banking Guild holds money and property. It provides capital and investment for large entities such as nations, Dragonmark Houses, and other recognized guilds. Smaller groups are generally seen as too risky for the Guild to trust with other’s money. In a world of changelings, mind clouding enchantment and tricky illusion magic, a Banking Guild dwarf can never be too careful.

While the Banking Guild does offer small safety deposit boxes that can teleport items to any recognized Guild branch, Kundarak is not interested in competing with House Orien in the transportation business. The amount that can be transported at a given time is small (maximum of 10 pounds), also the arcane system involved is finicky and requires expensive alchemical ingredients to upkeep. It is provided as a convenience to clients, and those who attempt to abuse it for personal profit will have their accounts suspended.

As the repository of large amounts of wealth, the Banking Guild has need of a large number of well trained guards. They are the primary employer of the Warding Guild, but support troops hired in times of need are not unheard of.

These support troops are often used for clandestine missions. With the belief in their work as a sacred trust, the Banking Guild needs deniability for any break-ins. If something is stolen the enclave manager is more likely to hire adventurers on the sly to recover the property than go to the authorities. In order to prevent such events from occurring again, adventurers are expected to problem solve ‘with extreme prejudice.’

The Banking Guild held great amounts of property in old Cyre, the cultural and business crossroads of Galifar. The Mourning wiped out these facilities and vaults, trapping them forever behind the dead-grey mists. The Guild has sponsored attempts to recover portions of their lost property, but the rate of success has been abysmal. It appears the proud defences of the Banking Guild are made even more deadly by the horrors of the Mournland.

In their youth, dwarves of Kundarak undergo a battery of written and physical tests to determine proficiency. The clearer minds of the House generally choose Banking. The more militant minded and the best craftsmen (or, those with the craziest ideas) are assigned to the Warding Guild.

Warding Guild: Guardians

The Guardians serve as the protectors of the vaults and security in a Banking Guild establishment. While the services of the Guardians are available for purchase, relatively few are on the market since the Banking Guild employs the lion’s share. As well, most Guardians are interested in long-term contracts that provide a sense of stability. Protecting your warehouse until you can clear out the current season’s product would not interest them. But they might contract to protect the warehouse for the next fifty years. This long-term view of things limits the use of Warding troops outside Banking Guild enclaves.

Guardians also run Dreadhold, Galifar’s most secure prison. The dwarves signed an agreement in perpetuity to run the place and guard prisoners. However, they quickly discovered that keeping disreputable people out was more enjoyable than keeping disreputable people in: you actually have to deal with the scum if you’re running the prison. The dwarves will do their duty at Dreadhold… but you haven’t heard a dwarf truly curse until they learn they’ve been assigned to that barren outpost.

Skills common for a Guardian include spot and sense motive. Listen is relatively frowned upon in order to protect the privacy of customers’ transactions. Many Guardians pick up a few levels of spellcraft, just to recognize if a customer is casting something on the sly (blatant casting being pretty obvious). Visitors casting in a Banking enclave are escorted out at axe point or arrested. While Guardians generally do not follow the ‘cleave first and cast the divinations later’ school of thought, once on their bad side no amount of skill focus: bluff is going to help you.

Warding Guild: Engineers

Engineers are the specialists of the Warding Guild. They design, craft, and evaluate the protections for the Banking Guild, as well as manage most of the magical protections. Along with that they offer consulting services to people and institutions outside the Guild. Only a fool would build a castle or a manor without consultation from a Warding Engineer, who are considered to be the sneakiest, dirtiest, most downright nasty people when it comes to thinking of ways to impede (or impale) an intruder.

It is the Engineers who are assigned the task of enscrolling the diaries of young nobles. This is absolutely the lowest of the low assignments; many members seriously consider a transfer to Dreadhold rather than protect some simpering twit’s attempts at poetry. Countless dwarves would as soon eat their own beards as do this work… except for the fact this job is insanely profitable.

Over the past few centuries the dwarves have been advancing their artificer skills. Under direction of Engineer artificers, the magewrights of Kundarak have been creating a remarkable number of magical wards to protect buildings and locations. The Houseward (ECS p. 262) was initially created by Warding artificers, but their lack of practical magical experience at the time required the Mark of Sentinel to complete creation. The dwarves recently overcame this limitation, and a new generation of magical defences are expected from Kundarak enclaves soon.

Many bad people would pay good money to know what devices will soon be out there.

The magewrights of the Warding Guild ensure that most entries to a Banking Guild establishment have a constantly functioning detect magic effect in play. A more recent upgrade has a targeted dispel hit anything that trips the detect upon entering.

Surprisingly, there are a remarkable number of kobolds working as unsung Engineers in the Warding Guild. Despite themselves the dwarves are impressed with the clever nature of kobold traps, and just how vicious the contraptions they make can be.

Personality:

Being trusted with holding the line against all comers, House Kundarak and all its Guilds are strongly lawful. Put two Kundarak dwarves together in the same room and you’re more likely to see the middle of Argonnessen than the dwarves change their position on a subject.

On their own however, the dwarves can be surprising risk takers. They would never gamble with the money entrusted to them, but for the chance of a good return many dwarves are willing to bet their personal funds. Always remember, the heart of a warrior beats inside the breast of every dwarven banker. Even if they never swing a bloodstained axe or risk their life in combat, nothing gets the blood tingling like the danger of your personal fortune riding a long shot.

Allies:

House Medani:

Offering detection services, the half-elves of Medani are often hired to run scrying sweeps through Kundarak enclaves. As they both focus on protection, the dwarves look favourably on the young House.

And the rampant paranoia that exists within many Medani agents is seen as a ‘fine, upstanding character trait’ by the dwarves.

House Sivis:

Scribing is a gift the gnomes brought to the dwarves. It was Sivis gnomes that first came to the barbaric clans of the Mror Holds and helped them rediscover many of their lost literary traditions.

In the modern age the gnomes serve as record keepers and scribes, providing the background work to keep the wheels of commerce flowing. As the two Houses both promote a policy of non-intervention in the business affairs of others, dwarves and gnomes find they have little conflict in their world view. In some places, the two even share a Banking facility and a Speaking station in a joint enclave.

Rivals:

Nobles, Dragonmark Houses, Guilds:

As Kundarak holds the wealth of these groups, they also hold great power over them as well. This does on occasion breed resentment. Some would pay great sums to have certain Banking information or items in Kundarak vaults… disappear from sight.

House Cannith:

As the House of Making, Cannith’s reputation for building wonders is unequalled. However, the Engineers of the Warding Guild are known for creating and building some very excellent fortresses over the years. As the Warding Guild tends to focus on specialized projects and consultation there isn’t too much bad blood, and many projects have both Kundarak and Cannith people working side-by-side.

Although… the tension levels on such projects are pretty high.

The Aurum:

As a polite society of the rich and influential, many member of the Banking Guild consider joining the Aurum a way to mix with the right people. The copper concord has many branch managers listed among its members, leaving the many who are not members feeling somewhat left out.

The truth is much more sinister. This collection of the ruthlessly wealthy is always looking to expand their wealth and power. Having influential Banking members as low ranked lackeys gives the true leaders of the Aurum a good grasp on what happens in the Bank. When large sums of money are moved around, the Aurum is one of the first groups to know about it.

So long as Banking Guild members want to join the Aurum, those who controls the acceptance into the club hold a great deal of quiet power over the actions of the Bank. In some quickly hushed up cases, assassins have been paid for by the accounts of the very person they were sent to kill.

Clan Soldorak:

One of the the more vicious and bloodthirsty dwarven clans during their banishment, Clan Soldorak have always begrudged Kundarak their role and position. Now that the dwarves are a civilized and cultured peoples, Soldorak is incensed that those who sacrificed the least during the banishment occupy positions of so much power. The dwarves who suffered those long centuries of banishment were forged into a strong people, but those who hid behind their walls in comfort were not tempered with the same steel.

Using their great wealth, Soldorak opperates a competitive Finance Guild. This is a much smaller organization than the Banking Guild, and without the added support of the Warding Guild and the Mark of Warding, they have yet to achieve the same levels of success as the Banking Guild.

However, the Finance Guild is willing to accept ambitious people into the fold, and promotion is far quicker and based more on performance than in the Banking Guild. This gives them a sense of vitality and drive that many Bankers don't show. Soldorak is also eager to deal with smaller organizations and individuals, a niche that Kundarak does not support as heavily.

However, because of their willingness to delve into riskier ventures, Soldorak is also a whole lot meaner than Kundarak. Sure they'll give you that loan, but the interest rates are punishing, and the Hosts help you if you miss a payment. Failure --both for employees and customers-- is not accepted by the Finance Guild.

Soldorak is heavily involved in risky enterprises, financing a number of businesses in Stormreach. It is rumoured they have contacts with, or back several criminal organizations, but so far any witnesses have taken any such information to their (early) grave.