Post/Author/DateTime	Post
kiddoc 06-29-06, 12:37 PM	Thread starter to speculate on the true "motives" of the Blackwheel Company. The cleverly designed faction name could imply two things: 1) Financial/corporate background. Company--a corporation providing goods or services, acting in the interest of profit. or 2) Military background. Company--an organized group of soldiers. This provides a pair of continuums, which when set perpendicular makes an axis: + The question is, where on the axis is the true Blackwheel Company? As a factionmaster I've intentionally designed the modules to allow the players to shape the outcome of how the BWC emerges. Still, I'm curious to know where most players think the BWC currently falls. The competing interests of the Dragonmarked Houses (Orien vs. Lyrandar, Thuranni vs. Pharlian, etc.) set up some economic friction. The War of the Mark resolution strictly forbid the Dragonmarked Houses from again raising an army. Could the BWC be their clever way of circumventing those rules? So, what do people think. Is the BWC more of a Company... or a Company? ;)
Docrailgun 06-29-06, 02:18 PM	The way I see it, the Company, it's a little of both... a way for the Dragonmarked Houses to pool their resources, both economic and military, to exploit Xen'drik for the good of all the Dragonmarked heirs. I'm not exactly sure how "public" the various Houses involvement in the Company is, but if it's not common knowledge, the Company makes for a great way for the houses to have deniability for things that they might not want to be overtly attached to. Looking at organizations in Earth history that are close to the Company (the East India Company, et cetera), we see that these were both economic and military organizations. In fact, it was the projection of military force which made the economic exploitation of the territories involved that made those organizations' backers wealthy. Xen'drik is a dangerous place, and so there is a need for powerful adventurers to protect the flow of artifacts and dragonshards back to Khorvaire. Perhaps most importantly, there's a need for adventurers loyal to the Dragomarked Houses to snatch away snippets of the Prophecy from those who aren't marked by destiny as the Houses are. I don't see that there will be much friction between the various Houses' members, other than their natural tendencies to dislike one another. Hopefully, what they have in common (their Dragonmarks) are stronger than their various agendas. Besides, any scion of a House that is really useful to their House is probably not going to be shipped off to Xen'drik. :) Thread starter to speculate on the true "motives" of the Blackwheel Company. The cleverly designed faction name could imply two things: 1) Financial/corporate background. Company--a corporation providing goods or services, acting in the interest of profit. or 2) Military background. Company--an organized group of soldiers. This provides a pair of continuums, which when set parallel makes an axis: + The question is, where on the axis is the true Blackwheel Company? As a factionmaster I've intentionally designed the modules to allow the players to shape the outcome of how the BWC emerges. Still, I'm curious to know where most players think the BWC currently falls. The competing interests of the Dragonmarked Houses (Orien vs. Lyrandar, Thuranni vs. Pharlian, etc.) set up some economic friction. The War of the Mark resolution strictly forbid the Dragonmarked Houses from again raising an army. Could the BWC be their clever way of circumventing those rules? So, what do people think. Is the BWC more of a Company... or a Company? ;)
Marcus Majarra 06-29-06, 06:52 PM	The way I see it, the Blackwheel Company is a business of opportunity. Simply put, the Dragonmarked Houses are already quite powerful in Khorvaire and have access to everything except genuine political power over Khorvaire (which is both an advantage and a drawback considering the tense relationships between the various nations of the motherland). As it is, the Last War produces a great boon for the Dragonmarked Houses when it comes to establishing a powerbase at minimal cost. They remained neutral in the conflict and provided their support to the Five Nations indiscriminately. At this point, the Houses are powerful, as opposed to the nations of Khorvaire (which are divided and weakened from the Last War). With access to the Continent of Secrets and a much reduced need to actually support the Five Nations, Xen'drik could very well be the stage for united activity on the Houses' part not seen since the War of the Mark. While the political scene is tense in Khorvaire, the Dragonmarked Houses are mostly unaffected by it, and they have the potential to establish a political empire in Xen'drik without any significant opposition on the part of the nations of Khorvaire. With this in mind, the role of the BWC would be to secure the Continent of Secrets for the Dragonmarked Houses, much like mercantile settlers. Given the dangers Xen'drik presents, however, it's no surprise that the BWC consists of capable war veterans and adventurers able to contend with the local opposition.
maijstral2 06-29-06, 10:08 PM	The house may realize the best way to deal with rogue adventures and war veterans is to hire them. I think of the BWC as Khorvaire's verson of the french foreign legion as sponsered by the dragonmarked houses. Rather than let all the displaced war vets run rampant put them to work for you doing what they do best. Because they may respect old national loyalties you create and organization outside those loyalties where your past is your own business and no one elses. This allows people who may have a checkered past or even be wanted in some countries to start anew. If you have a dragonmark chomping at the bit for excitment,he doesn't like being pigeonholed into a house,just wants to get out and adventure but you want to keep some sort of control over him let him join the Black Wheel Company.
JonathanRobker 06-30-06, 09:05 AM	At least up to this point, I have seen little profit motive in the company. That may be because my character was too stupid to add, so they didn't let him near the books, but as of yet, I have seen little that makes it look like their objectives are primarily financial. The military aspects of it remind me of (now stay with me after I say this because I don't mean it with all of the natural negative associations that come along with it, and I apologize if the CIA begins trolling the boards because I say this) al-Qaeda. They aren't fascists though, and there is no claim to religious zealotry as support for their objectives. Other than that, the organization does remind me some of al-Qaeda, at least from the little that I know about it, not having anything to do with it and not being a member of the NSA (as far as you know). There are many big groups that back it financially and have an interest in its success. It works independently of any nation and has goals that may be at odds with some of the nations that would seem, under normal circumstances, to have the same interests at heart. It doesn't matter what nation or race you come from; the BWC is an equal opportunity employer. They give you the info that you need to run on little missions with your group and report back, without giving you much of an idea of the big picture of how things are going down. That overall plan seems to be left in the hands of very few people, most of whom will probably never reveal themselves. Basically, I see it as a secret army out for its own good, regardless of what that may do to the other countries and organizations that it might serve. The BWC will most likely do what it needs to, even if that means compromising a dragon-marked house. The motivations in this case may be primarily financial, as opposed to political (once again, at least based on what we have seen so far), but there is still somewhat of an analog to al-Qaeda there...just they are not terrorists or fascists. Does that make any sense? I didn't think so either.
Docrailgun 06-30-06, 09:30 AM	Isn't that pretty much what a "terrorist" organization is (to its enemies)? A non-governmental group that attacks or otherwise commits espionage? So, what I'm gathering is that the members of the Blackwheel Company don't go around advertising the fact that they're part of this group. Woudn't that mean that the Company has to be divided into a "cell" heirarchy, so that its membership can't be discovered by the Sentinel Marshals or other groups all at once? Is there a public face to the Company, or is it all black-ops? Basically, I see it as a secret army out for its own good, regardless of what that may do to the other countries and organizations that it might serve. The BWC will most likely do what it needs to, even if that means compromising a dragon-marked house. The motivations in this case may be primarily financial, as opposed to political (once again, at least based on what we have seen so far), but there is still somewhat of an analog to al-Qaeda there...just they are not terrorists or fascists. Does that make any sense? I didn't think so either.
TheOtherChris 06-30-06, 12:00 PM	Al-qaeda? Ermm that's a bit stretching it I think. Foreign legions, not really because we aren't fighting to gain citizenship. I think of it more like the Dutch East India Trading company back in the day. Or a security force for one of the oil groups. Like the guys that provide security for digging the wells etc etc. The thing is the BWC aren't "straight up evil" but the ends justify the means to an extent. If the BWC were to lay waste to Sharn, then I have a feeling the leaders would have issues. Also terrorists tend to be religous motivated. BWC is more loot oriented. Cabal of Shadows is evil, (axis of evil, terrorist, Dr Evil, MiniMe etc etc) Covenant of Light is good, (religous zealots, think IRA or alqaeda again) Crimson Codex is a in it for knowledge. Think nerdy Indiana Jones. BWC is in it for the loot. (At least that's the main cause left) Think Oil Cartels (or if you want Drug cartels) and their security forces. At least that's my take on it. I see BWC as the least of the terrorist action type groups, (other than being non governmental) because they are the only one that is just paid. All the others are in their cause because of strong beliefs.
JonathanRobker 06-30-06, 05:30 PM	Good call on the Drug Cartels, Chris. I couldn't think of a better analogy than al-Qaeda, which I admited wasn't perfect because of the religious overtures (although they use religion as a prophylactic through which to...well you know what they do to society, so I won't spell it out here). The drug cartels fit much better with what I was trying to get across. Once again, I was trying to avoid any labels or associations of "evil" and "good" on this, since it seems most likely to me that the BWC will end up being more neutral....maybe that is just my mis-interpretation of the way that the group acts. My guess is that it is more lawful (you have to want the organization to succeed, even if it isn't part of the law per se, it is still lawful to support that organization) and neutral (doing some really great things and some things that might be suspect, although up to this point, we haven't seen anything that I would call overtly evil). As for the organization, I don't know if "cells" are really the way that it is done. Up to this point we have really seen a platoon based structure, which while similar, does not preclude interaction with or knowledge of other platoons, though again, we haven't really had much experience with this. I think since everyone in the company knows who runs the show (at least whom we have been told runs the show), "cells" seem unlikely to be the best unit to describe it. I think the drug cartel model seems to fit...have an army, make it private, win $Texas.
boolean 07-02-06, 09:03 AM	This provides a pair of continuums, which when set parallel makes an axis: + Parallel: = Perpendicular: +
kiddoc 07-02-06, 09:53 AM	Parallel: = Perpendicular: + Ha, I've cleverly tricked you into posting by my well-placed mistake! Er... I'm a goof, sorry. :P Fixed. :D