Bargemans Guild

Based in Porto Lascone, the Bargemans Guild is a coalition of barge sailors working along the Guteng River, hauling cargo back and forth from Fort Rinza and Fsamâng to Porto Lascone and Turosebimi. Although anyone making her living on Guteng's rivers is welcome to join the guild (including fishermen and shipwrights), only those who actually own or operate barges are allowed to hold one of the five voting seats in the guild. This is obviously not an entirely fair system, and while the people of Porto Lascone know better than to speak openly of it, other Gutengi speculate that the "bargemen" are actually just a collection of thugs, robbers, and murderers.
Rough and brutal, the members of the Bargemans Guild do business ruthlessly and violently, beating or even killing the guild's competitors, stealing or sinking their cargoes, and hijacking or burning their barges. Many of their number are merely businessmen and workers (albeit mercenary ones), but reports hold that the upper echelons of the guild are the truly corrupt ones - though a sufficiently vicious and ambitious underling, with hard work and dedication, can rise through the ranks. This happens so often, in fact, that only two of the guild's five masters - Lodo Salzona and Julia Ranos - have held their positions for more than 5 years; the others have been murdered or simply disappeared, and new members have taken their places.
The "open secret" aspect of the Bargemans Guild means that while anyone can join, new inductees have to prove themselves before being invited to participate in the guild's more lucrative operations - and woe betide any who commit an unauthorized crime in hopes of being noticed or even refer to the organization as anything other than "the guild." The guild takes a dim view of careless talk, and those who jeopardize its operations tend to find their way to the bottom of the Fira Sea. Although several colonial governors have attempted to disband the Bargemans Guild and arrest its leaders, the task is notso simple. Despite the fact that everyone knows the guild is engaged in crimes throughout Guteng, finding anyone to testify to that fact is a difficult proposition, and the guild maintains enough legitimate business to make disentangling its affairs from those of lawful merchants (and politicians) extremely difficult. Several years ago, General Paulina Sturiga, Guteng's governor, rather infamously sought to shortcut the legal process by rounding up the guild's leaders and executing them; after the families of the men she sent were abducted, she relented, and no one has dared confront the guild since.
Category:Organizations
Category:Organizations in Guteng
Category:Organizations in the Sabo Jungles
Category:Criminal Organizations