Worlds to play, cards to import

Licensed lenders and auction valuers, with a murdered collector and blackmail beneath legitimate trade.

Cathedral administration and musicians, balancing public worship against patrons who buy influence with beauty.

Western estate and tenant association, carrying old privilege into contested leases and a vicious succession dispute.

Theatre musicians and makers whose intimate performances attract patrons eager to buy more than a ticket.

Burial and abbey salvage cooperative, protecting dignity while stolen funeral silver circulates through its own yard.

Mixed-race professional hunters and guides, tempted by a wealthy client seeking an unnamed living quarry.

Marsh ferry and drainage association whose public votes conceal a profitable night landing.

Inn and coach mutual aid, offering generous shelter while members disagree about protecting dangerous guests.

Regional hotel and property-services company selling Calder's southern assets from Marden Atrium, with valuable leases and strictly local access powers.

Odetta Shaw's workers' association at Service House, sharing repair tools, dispatch and legal help while its technicians keep Calder's occupied rooms liveable.

Saskia Rhee's hospitality and introduction business at The Ninth Room, where a good table can lead to a performance booking, a private deal or a dangerous favour.

Ivo March's paid transport, recovery and tuning outfit at Switchyard Four: fast cars, difficult pickups and repeat clients whose business is worth defending.

A small worker-owned escort and horse-handling cooperative that sells reliable passage without pretending to own the road.

Cattle producers and working members pool losses and bargaining power, while disagreeing over whose future the railway would improve.

A contracted railway survey crew measuring possible routes through the valley, with enough influence to move prices but no power to seize land.

Landfall's major supplier and disputed claimant, represented by Gilbert Senn at Bellweather House; wants exclusive pilotage and turnstone rights.

Bea Rusk's pirate anchorage compact at Borrowed Quay: protects trade inside the inlet while its members keep raiding elsewhere.

Ada Fenn's independent charting cooperative at The Sounding Shed, selling reliable bearings while resisting a pilotage monopoly.

The war-hero house of Flame and Iron: claim by battlefield regency, beloved of veterans, whispered to prefer another war to a lost vote.

The commons' house of River and Grain — young, charismatic, broke, and possibly steered by its own stewards.

Salt-oath bankers turned claimants: patient, contractual, convinced the crown is a formality they already own.

The provisional government: seven Oathseats and the Graftwarden, paralysed by design.

A commons movement from the print-shops and tenements: let the Tree choose no king — let it choose the realm.

Organized crime wearing banking's face — or the reverse. They finance all three claims and keep the receipts.