#9 – Urtror Ingotson CXII

 

While Dwarves are renowned for loving Gold, that is not really entirely fair.  Dwarves are divided into what most closely translates into “Nations” which have very little to do with territory, and are more to do with what product specialty each produces.  To produce a certain product, you must be a member of that particular nation, and a handful while some dwarves may be adopted into certain nations, and all nations trade with each other, producing outside your own nation is one of the worst crimes under Dwarven law, considered effectively similar to breaking international law.  On the occasions when two or more nations need to combine their products to produce a new finished piece, a third “Child Nation” may be created as an intermediary, which individual Dwarves can migrate to if their skills fit. This ends up creating elaborate family trees of Nations, which individual Dwarves can move down (but never up) to take advantage of new products and technologies.

Historically, there have been five Great Nations around which all others circle – Iron, Coal, Stone, Enchantment and, of course Gold.  These five are so core to Dwarvenkind that they even have more influence than ones who provide everyday products such as farmers of Mole-sheep and Brewers of Mead. For obvious reasons, Gold has long remained the richest of all houses by several degrees of magnitude, but has but a single child nation (the Jewellers) compared to the ten or more for the other Great Nations.   They haven’t needed to, after all, they are the ones who mint Dwarven currency.

This may soon change due to the Ingotson family, and specifically Urtror Ingotson CXII, the current head of the house.  For the first time, he wants to create a child nation with the second party not being Dwarves, but human accountants.  The Ingotson has always been considered very strange in that they have always loved Gold the substance rather than the craftsmanship which the rest of the Gold nation loves.  His proposals are to split off with the help of humans and form a Banking Nation. There is good reason for this, while Urtror is notoriously greedy and a hoarder and unlikely to give much in the way of interest, Dwarven vaults are about the single most secure location on the planet, designed to resist any kind of assault be it magical, technological or mundane. The Ingotson Banks particularly are claimed would survive the destruction of the planet.

This new house is broadly feared by many, no human nation has really any ability to affect policy of Dwarves, and Urtror is probably already the richest man on the planet, and his inherited wealth is less than a fifth of that.  He is a cruel and canny business, who by all reports would would happily watch nations burn for an extra 0.1% income…

Category: 2013, Fantasy