Benefactor
==In place of the moneylenders common elsewhere, the Highborn are proud of their Benefactors. Often older merchants, Benefactors make their wealth work for themselves and others. They try to encourage virtue by acting as patrons to other merchants. They may help a young trader get established, or participate in a risky but ambitious venture that has potential benefits beyond purely economic ones. Rather than lending money and charging interest, benefactors invest in enterprises and in individuals, sharing the risk – and sharing the profits.
Beyond purely monetary concerns, Benefactors actively encourage people to make moral decisions when dealing with economics, discouraging the rapacious economic practices of other nations in favour of a virtuous approach to dealing. Benefactors believe that virtuous men and women set prices for things which are fair and buy and sell them accordingly. To do otherwise, to justify price gouging by citing market forces, is to abdicate responsibility for your own actions to an impartial and consequently immoral force. In the eyes of many Highborn this is equivalent to stealing food from a child “because nature made you hungry”.
There is no formal organization of Benefactors, but some have been known to gather in co-operation, and many of them use the symbol of the unbalanced scales, the upper pannier containing coinage and the lower (heavier) pannier containing some symbol of morality or mankind such as a heart or a skull.
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men,
I will find something in them which will hang him.
Introduction
Benefactors operate a wide range of entrepreurial endeavours, whether this is a business that operates solely in the field, such as a place to eat, or through more infrastructure-based trade through downtime resources, such as mines. For most Benefactors, wealth is not an end in itself but a means to fund and support the projects that truly interest the Benefactor, a principle that even extends to the Bourse. A Benefactor may take a less advantageous trade if it means that they have the resources they need for their desired project, though a Benefactor that beggars themselves may be seen as lacking Wisdom and not to be taken seriously.
Creating Benefactors As Characters
A Benefactor character will have a means to support themselves, either through commerce at festival or through the season. They will also have one or more Projects that interest them, and may feature in their Chapter's Creed, to which the Benefactor's funds and resources are primarily directed. Groups of Benefactors may collaborate on a Project, and may even be part of a particularly commerce- or project-focussed Chapter. Alternatively, they may come together with an intention of pooling resources that will collectively benefit individual projects or investments.
Examples of possible Projects or Investments that may appeal to a Benefactor:
- Supporting an individual or group in their political aspirations
- Providing material support to a Chapter in living to its Creed
- Outfitting and funding an expedition to locate or obtain lost relics of Paragons
- Funding research into metaphysical lore around the Labyrinth of Ages
Playing A Benefactor
The role of the Benefactor can be found in various forms throughout various media. There are few adventurers and heroes who get very far without the means of a entrepreneur to aid them on their way. Examples include:
- Marcus Brody, who underwrote so many of Indiana Jones' adventures
- Professor Inkling, who funds and equips the Octonauts
- Squire Trelawny, who supported the expedition to Treasure Island
Though some of the example above involve characters who play subordinate roles to the titular characters, the Benefactor in Empire can be more of an equal partner and is rarely silent.