The Union

A native faction of the  Underworld.

## Before Zac's conquest

“We are facing an extinction event. If we didn’t provide people to the incursions they would start raiding our settlements, resulting in a far larger loss of life. Besides, these people are convicted criminals!” (c) a Union merchant in **(Chapter 331)**

The Union was led by a group of merchants and controlled most of the high-grade mines and many other lucrative resources, so they were extremely wealthy. That’s why many elite cultivators joined them to enjoy great benefits **(Chapter 325).** This group represented some of the best and the brightest of the Underworld, bringing together not only strong warriors but skilled non-combat cultivators. The group even transcended the racial barriers, something the surface still hadn’t accomplished. But instead of working together to rebuff the invaders, they had sold their souls for riches. **(Chapter 332)**

The invaders provided the Union with pills and other items that were hard to get down here, and the Union provided them with raw resources and slaves. In the beginning, the Union truly only sold murderers, rapists, and other heinous criminals to the Incursions. It was a simple solution to get rid of dangerous people while also appeasing a very strong enemy. But the Incursion’s demands for slaves were insatiable, and the Union ran out of criminals soon enough. So eventually they started to capture anyone that didn’t provide any benefits to them or was unable to pay the fees to live within their cities, convicting them with fabricated charges. When that wasn’t enough they started to target whole settlements that wanted to relocate to the Union for safety. Some settlements that were said to be eradicated by the golems were actually captured by the Union’s people and sold to the invaders for forced labor. **(Chapter 328)** **(Chapter 331)**

### Mentioned leaders:

* Little Treasure (Human)
* Copperfield (Ishiate)

## After Zac's conquest

“The rabbits in the forest do not care which wolf is the pack alpha. They just want to survive.” (c) Verana in **(Chapter 328)**

The Union had used the same type of system as the New World Government, with one Lord creating a hub for all the mayors in the network. It wasn't clear who the true Lord was, but many believed it to be Little Treasure who had fled before Zac made his entrance. And since he even didn't stay behind to defend his domain when their headquarters was assaulted the whole system was immediately awarded to Zac as the assaulting Lord. **(Chapter 333)**

The Union was a huge enterprise, and it soon became obvious that not everyone was aware of the slave trade, even at the top. In fact, in the meeting that Zac interrupted, it wasn’t obvious that it was a slave camp they lost, but it was rather called a mining camp. Everyone had known about the trade with the invaders, but many thought they were using raw materials rather than people as a currency. When Zac explained the situation with the slaves, everyone professed their ignorance of the matter, staunchly arguing that they only dealt with traditional business ventures. But as the days passed Calrin and his gnomes easily unraveled who was guilty and benefitted through the revenue streams, and with the interrogations that a shrouded Ogras led they soon had a full picture of what was going on. **(Chapter 333)**

Almost two-thirds of the leaders of the Union had been found complicit to the slave trade, and they were executed as punishment. **(Chapter 334)**

As for the normal employees of the Union, things went even smoother than Zac could ever have expected. Verana had been proven right. The moment they started to release the news that they only wanted to deal with the brass because of the slave trade, the normal workers quickly calmed down. There were a few that fled and disappeared among the large population, either for fear of the unknown, or perhaps because they had done something they were afraid would be unearthed. But most happily went about their days, especially after Zac increased the general salaries by 25%. **(Chapter 333)**

In such a way, Zac and his allies got their hands on a working infrastructure for everything from Teleportation Arrays to Mines to personnel to massive archives of intelligence that the Union had gathered. All matters related to the Underworld were considered a separate company from Port Atwood and the Thayer Consortia -- the *Underworld Venture*. **(Chapter 329)** The shares/profits were splitted in the following order.

* 50% for Port Atwood.
* 25% for Ogras Azh'Rezak / the Demon faction of Port Atwood. "The demons had risked their lives for Port Atwood over and over without any payment apart from getting to pick a skill. They were long overdue to reap some benefits for their work."
* 10% for Verana Tir'Emarel / Incursions, especially the incursion of Abyssal Demons.
* 10% for the Alyn's Academy to make it self-sustaining.
* 5% for the Thayer Consortia.

Also the **Thayer Consortia** became the sole trading partner for the Underworld Venture, setting up a network of shops through the Underworld to rid all the wealthy Cultivators of their Crystals. **(Chapter 329)**

The soldiers that worked for the Union mostly kept up their previous duties. Further, Zac used them for scouring the areas of defeated Incursions for lingering threats and points of interest **(Chapter 365)** and bolstered with them the numbers of Port Atwood's army for thinning out the zombies of the Undead Incursion. **(Chapter 366)**