Deacon and Morvengarde

**Georgie Moselle (snorting)**: Deacon and Morvengarde did. They care about anything they don't get a piece of the profit on.

— *Greenglass House*, pg. 312 |  | ”

****D******eacon and Morvengarde** is a catalog company that wanted a monopoly on Nagspeake business. They hate smugglers and are quite ruthless with them.

## History

### *Bluecrowne*

Trigemine noted that Morvengarde was the head of the Deacon and Morvengarde company.

### *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*

Reever told a tale of how a whalebone spring was constructed. A man called Drogam Nerve had brought catalogs, and the townspeople ordered parts from it, and sent away for some from the warehouse of Nerve's partner, Octavian Deacon. In Madame Grisaille's story, a peddler called Trigemine brought catalogs from a company called Morvengarde, a name quite similar to Drogam Nerve.

Foulk mentioned the company Morvengarde had founded and how it was such a part of Nagspeake. Morvengarde gave Foulk a brochure for Deacon and Morvengarde, Incorporated. Foulk was later made to work for the company, and did many terrible things in their employ. When he failed, he was spared because his powers made him very valuable to Deacon and Morvengarde.

### *Greenglass House*

When telling her story about the time Fenster saw the ghost of Doc Holystone, Mrs. Pine, not wanting to tell many strangers that Fenster had sailed with the famous smuggler, said that Fenster had recognized Doc Holystone's ghost from the Wanted posters Deacon and Morvengarde had put up around Nagspeake.

When telling of Lowell Skellansen, Dr. Gowervine mentioned Deacon and Morvengarde. According to Dr. Gowervine, it appeared that D and M agents had been involved in the death of Doc Holystone, but that he was not surprised, as the customs agency was almost part of the catalog company. A smuggler had come to the workshop of Lowell Skellansen, panicked and afraid for his life. He asked Skellansen to find someone who could tell what Deacon and Morvengarde's agents had done to Doc Holystone, as he knew the whole story. He did not want to tell it himself, as Deacon and Morvengarde's enforcers would come after him. Skellansen decided to create a window about it instead. He planned for the possibility of Deacon and Morvengarde sending someone to smash the window the day after its unveiling, deciding that even then, many people would have seen it and the story would have been told.

After figuring out that Mr. Vinge is a customs agent, Milo realized what the inscription on his watch meant. *To D.C.V., with high esteem and thanks for a job well done, from D. & M.* Milo confirmed that it was from Deacon and Morvengarde, and asked his parents whether the customs agency was in league with the catalog company, as Dr. Gowervine had said. According to Milo's father, Deacon and Morvengarde's business was the only thing harmed by Nagspeake smuggling, and that everyone suspected, but hadn't been able to prove, that they were indeed in league with the customs agency.

Mr. Vinge said that Doc Holystone had been very hard for the customs agency and Deacon and Morvengarde to catch. According to him, they had made Doc Holystone their top priority, and they had more agents in this city than any other. Throughout Mr. Vinge's story, in which he called Doc Holystone and all associated with him criminals, Milo noted that most people were more on the smugglers' side than that of Deacon and Morvengarde, but Mr. Vinge did not appear to be one of them. According to Mr. Vinge, the agent in charge of Deacon and Morvengarde's investigation had found a member of Doc Holystone's crew willing to give information on Doc Holystone. Dr. Gowervine interrupted to say that this was not true; Deacon and Morvengarde had tortured the smuggler.

Mr. Vinge said that Doc Holystone had smuggled weapons all the time. He responded to the other guests' protests by saying that no one would have cared if he smuggled plants or toys, but Georgie interrupted that Deacon and Morvengarde cared about all those things because they did not get to share the profit. Fenster agreed. According to Fenster, Doc Holystone had been smuggling copper pipes because none of the contractors in the Quayside Harbors could afford them due to how much they cost from Deacon and Morvengarde. Fenster told Mr. Vinge that the weapons were always made up, and just an excuse for coming down on the smugglers. Meddy told Milo that she should have recognized Mr. Vinge as being from Deacon and Morvengarde, though she revealed that it had been him who had killed Doc Holystone and that she, as actually the ghost of Addie Whitcher, had seen it.

### *Ghosts of Greenglass House*

**Ben Pine**: Yeah. Smugglers would die for a resource like that. The customs department or the folks from Deacon and Morvengarde would kill for it.

— *Ghosts of Greenglass House*, pg. 41 |  | ”

According to Mr. Pine, Deacon and Morvengarde would kill to have a derrotero of the Skidwrack. Violet Cross had supposedly ran circles around both the customs agency and Deacon and Morvengarde.

Milo noted that Mr. Vinge had been deputized by a Deacon and Morvengarde employee and was not actually a customs agent, though Emmett Syebuck was. Milo wondered if this was good or bad, knowing that Deacon and Morvengarde wanted to destroy the smugglers that took away their monopoly on goods in Nagspeake, and that most thought that the customs department was controlled by Deacon and Morvengarde.

Deacon and Morvengarde had gotten the licenses to be the ones to make maps of Nagspeake. They claimed that they were the only ones who could do it right, although their maps were truly awful. They did not admit this, however, and instead claimed that the problems people found were traps, things that they had purposefully mapped incorrectly so that they would know if someone tried to copy their maps. Some might have been. A market began for illegal local maps, but Deacon and Morvengarde could not figure out where they were coming from (Emmett commented that this was normal). Violet Cross had been doing this, and her maps went on long enough to break Deacon and Morvengarde's monopoly.

Milo noted that Mr. Vinge was a Deacon and Morvengarde operative. Mrs. Kirkegrim said that Mr. Vinge was planning to give the derrotero to Deacon and Morvengarde.

### *The Thief Knot*

According to Emmett, Winston Hyde was broke because he was the only candidate for mayor who refused to accept money from Deacon and Morvengarde. Marzana noted that she, as the daughter of a smuggler, had heard many tales in which the villains were named Deacon or Morvengarde. Mrs. Hakelbarend wondered if Deacon and Morvengarde had kidnapped Peony Hyde, as they would not want someone in office who did not like them. Emmett agreed, though he thought kidnapping was a stretch, even for Deacon and Morvengarde. Marzana's parents did not agree.

Honora told a story of one of Violet Cross's smuggling jobs, which was made harder because Deacon and Morvengarde had put up a blockade in the waters near Nagspeake. Marzana mused about how Deacon and Morvengarde had made smuggling such a large part of Nagspeake, and how they were almost always the villains of Honora's stories.

Marzana noted that it was almost entirely the fault of Deacon and Morvengarde that Nagspeake did not have new technology. Deacon and Morvengarde had a monopoly on the rights to all things concerning cell phones, which, while extremely expensive, didn't even work because there was no infrastructure, and the government didn't do anything about it because they were bribed not to mess with Deacon and Morvengarde. The library at Marzana's school used a card catalog because the digital search, due to Deacon and Morvengarde, was extremely slow.

Upon finding the Windrose and the Portolan, Marzana recalled how these kites had been the way Violet Cross had gotten maps into Nagspeake when the only ones allowed had been those of Deacon and Morvengarde.

## Trivia

* Although "Deacon" comes first in the company's name, Deacon and Morvengarde was actually founded by Morvengarde.
* The current Deacon, apparently, is Julius Honorius Deacon. Another is called Marcus Aurelius Deacon.

## References

1. ↑ *Bluecrowne*
2. ↑ *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*
3. ↑ https://nagspeake.com
4. ↑ https://theexpat.nagspeake.com/