Goals: 1. Create a syndicate to fund expeditions into [[Light Vaults]] and collect profits; bring in as many other merchants as you can. 2. Contribute to someone else's grand project, be it a warship, an expedition, or something stranger. 3. Make sure the temple is opened and the power within harnessed by [[Ebonwatch]]. You are Merchant Baam, the "Purveyor of Wonders." Unlike most of the officers of [[Ebonwatch]], your life isn't devoted to the Holding's endless wars for survival. You certainly keep an eye on such things, but not for any altruistic or nationalistic reason. No, you have made a name for yourself across the galaxy selling the wonders and horrors looted from [[Light Vaults]], sending in scavenger teams after each grand battle and selling the findings for fantastic profit. Though you tend to struggle with liquidity -as is currently the case, nations' worth of wealth has moved through your hands, only to be reinvested in the search for what's next. There is more to you, though, than an endless loop of scavenging and selling. You're old by the standards of your Holding (~44,000 GY), old enough to have seen nearly twenty Vaults open, and you've know that they aren't all full of monsters. You've recovered religious artifacts from the dawn of humanity, scraps of poetry from legendary lost cultures, and yes, more than a few weapons fit to shake the pillars of the firmament. You love the history the Vaults reveal, and the secrets they imply. You've come to the [[Council of Chains]] because [[Catka, Who Sees in Darkness]] passed word to your Holding that this temple contains a power older than the [[Celestial Empire]] itself, great enough to cause even [[Celestial Empress|Her Majesty]] to fear. You doubt that peerless monster can feel anything at all, let alone fear, but the idea of a treasure billions of years old, and the things you might learn from it, is more than enough to convince you to come. Though you agree with your Governor's on how it should be used, you *need* the temple to be opened, regardless of the cost. ## Asset: [[Went to Market]] You begin play with a number of resources. These resources are represented by cards marked "Raw Resource", "Refined Resource", or "Fuel". These resources may be expended to fulfill other characters' Liens, spent in service of [[Endeavor|Endeavors]], or traded in [[Negotiation|Negotiations]]. You can't lead Endeavors or Negotiations without a Governor's express, case-by-case permission, but you can participate in them and lend your resources as you see fit. ## Lien: [[Blood Money]] The galaxy is not an innocent place, and commerce cannot be innocently conducted within it. The kind of resources necessary to be a player on the galactic stage simply cannot be sourced from a single planet, or even a few hundred planets, without brutality and oppression baked in somewhere. In order for you to lead a [[Negotiation]], in addition to permission from your Governor, you must be accompanied by at least one Martial officer (from any Holding).