Maiden's Shield Trust

One of the first and the most successful banking systems in the world of Aradia is the Maiden's Shield Trust-founded by Volia Dul-Sansiska within years after the close of the Demon Wars in a bid to exercise control in a weakened Aradia. With most nobility being bankrupted by the fighting, and the entire world in a state of disrepair and reconstruction, nobody challenged it when the drow began loaning funds en masse in order to help reconstruction along, most of their lands had been spared the worst of the war due to their genetic make up making them prolific fighters against the portions of Vermithrax's forces that had moved out eastwards.

The Everglowian Senate, rebuilt at the time, tried to halt the extensive loaning as they knew it would hand the weakened continent to the Drow as, they would own just about everything needed to maintain the continent. Volia however had far too much power and backing from the other nations to be halted outside of military action. Desirai Sanistar threatened with an invasion into Ques Novich if they did not halt their reckless, this would wind up halting her aggressive actions. She was still a relatively young woman at the time after all, and without her siblings or her mother the only military strength she had was her father and loose alliances.

So it came to pass that the gouging levels of debt began to subside as the financial decisions were restructured, and the Senate had been given major oversight. Thanks to the contributions, repairs were done within record time of the destruction caused by the demons. What businesses and nobility could not pay back were assimilated or paid by larger major Houses, the financial influence catapulted Volia's family to the top echelon and she was to hold this position for centuries after. (insert pending Blackthorne lore)

In the end, without two major powers in a struggle to hold domination the Senate felt emboldened in threatening Volia with military interventions and economic sanctions if she did not pull back her own holdings. Volia begrudgingly signed several decrees that limited her influences on the continent, as well as relinquishing several major holdings which severely damaged her ability to puppeteer the Aradian economy tot he point she was almost starting from scratch. This didn't seem to bother her in public, as she would later to put to her family, it was merely humans staring at the face of eternity and hoping to have some control over the inevitable.

In the centuries to follow despite to the restrictions placed on her, the bank transformed into a cultural cornerstone, if you did not work for Blackthorne then you were more than likely storing your funds into the banks. Dul-Sansiska strangled out competitors-by force or by severely limited partnerships; and thus over centuries of time Maiden's Shield has spread out to every part of the main continent. They have a separate set of holdings operating out of Coldharbour, under Blackthorne's supervision and own security protocols while working as an invited merchant within Stormrise. Due to the large number of dark elves working there as merchants themselves it's still extremely profitable and the House tries to stay on well enough terms to keep the business flowing.
Otherwise the main branch anyone knows about is the massive one sitting in the Silver Circle, that tends to hold a large percentage do the city's notable wealth for those who wish to make sure their coinpurses are kept light. The Bank offers not only safety for one's money but: loans, insurance, safety deposits, and a staff of accountants and auditors for any business. They're a one stop shop of financial solutions and are one hundred percent staffed by elvish workers as there is a thought that people will only trust the Drow with their money, and drow know that elves are what humans and elves want to see handling wealth.

For this reason, The bank owns many businesses but does nothing with them, simply makes profits off of their hard work. This combined with everything else has made House Dul-Sansiska rich beyond any current measure. Were the Senate to ever allow it, they could outright buy the City of Everglow without a second thought. There is so much wealth created b the bank's practices that it has allowed them a lot of freedoms in how they do business-anyone who asks too many questions just has steamer trunks filled with gold shoved in their face to move along.

## Keeps and Vaults

The logistics of moving such a huge amount of wealth around Aradia requires a large measur eof seucrity systems be put into place. One of the most major fo these are the Keeps and Vaults system.A Keep is an intermediary between a Branch and a Vault, where as a vault is a fortfied location built specfically around contrianing the vast amounts of wealth.

Keeps are typically heavily staffed fortifications in key routes within a region to handle loads of deposits coming in from any given branches they're asociated with. Most of this staff lives in housing outside the security area, so in case of attack there is a minimal amount of forces maintaining the Keep itself in order to hold out for months for back up. To any surious onlooker it's simply a military outpost with some permenant residency spread out across it and guarded by stone walls. All Keeps go through the meticilous ledgers and forms for each branch and ensure that all funds are accounted for and that everyhting is being handled as it should. Armed convoys then take a majority of funds to the Vault location.

## Security

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