Financial Institutions of Lorado
What is a financial Institution?
Financial Institutions are major economic players in the the Wasteland. These groups happen to be based in Lorado and are available for interaction, influence, and easy commerce for Colorado Survivors.
Rawhide Caravan Company
“This town ain't big enough for the two of us.”
Rawhide Caravan Company is a massive trade juggernaut headquartered in The Peaks (formerly Denver International Airport, which is now located after much Gravemind-related tectonic shifting since the Fall on the border between Lorado and the neighboring region of Kinsaw). They deal in resources of a general store variety, including Herbs, Gizmos, Basic Weapons and Armor, and miscellaneous goods like pomade and cattle feed — all of which they ship from place to place in massive Haulers: 18-wheelers modified to haul two parallel trailers with guard posts on top, usually also escorted by armed guards on horseback.
They first expanded into Lorado about a year prior to the Three Year Winter, during which time they wielded their economic clout to undercut and undermine competitors like the Carson family and the Idle Hands Trading Company. Rawhide is notorious for its conquest-and-monopoly mindset: they like their company towns and secure bottom line, and pull few punches against perceived threats and competitors.
Dealings with Rawhide in Barker Meadow go through the company's smiling face in the region: Friendly Dan Sutherland, who can always be counted on for a quick draw, a hard drink, a good hand of poker... and, above all else, to come through for you in a pinch when you most need a friend.
Bear Claw Hunting & Trapping
“It’s dangerous to go alone.”
The Western Wastes are a dangerous place. Settlements are sparse and far between, and beyond the ubiquitous dangers of zombies and Raiders, the psionically mind-bending siren song of the Overgrowth threatens to lure travelers to all manner of grisly ends. It is in the harsh and visceral environment of this untamed frontier that the survivalists of Bear Claw Hunting and Trapping thrive.
Bear Claw makes its profits from the buying and selling of meat, hides, bones, and trophies, as well as the sale of leather-based goods made from the aforementioned. However, the service upon which their name is built is that of safe passage. For travelers whose paths lead off the well-kept blacktops of the Rolling Coalition, a Bear Claw guide is considered a must; on the winding trails through the mountains, they can stop you being drawn away to be devoured out in the Overgrowth Pines, and on the plains, Bear Claw Burner teams travel ahead of caravans to push back the Long Grass thought to be the source of the nightmare-inducing Wind Sickness. And for many of the small, isolated communities dotting the Lorado frontier, injury or illness means sending for a Bear Claw sawbones, whose crude, no-nonsense treatment has left many a homesteader scarred but back on their own two feet.
The rumored darker side of Bear Claw is a nasty one — whispers have abounded across many a campfire and dim-lit dive bar throughout the Western Wastes that not all travelers who book passage with Bear Claw return, and that not all the leather from which their goods are made is animal. Bear Claw fervently denies any truth to such rumors.
In Barker Meadow, those looking to do business with Bear Claw know to find master Hunter Chloe Jane Duvall or Pure Blood outdoorsman Henry Aspen, the liaison from Bear Claw’s chief investor.
Big Rock Financiers’ Council
“The kings are dead; long live the kings.”
Following several years of region-wide wars with Pureblood families, regional tensions with the self-styled nobility were at a high not seen since the days of the Elways. The Pure Blood Council knew that they would need a public relations intervention to stem the tide of vitriol and mistrust, and that intervention came in the form of an expansion and rebranding. Now called the Big Rock Financiers’ Council, they consist not only of the entrenched families of the old PBC but also Digitarian and Solestros members representing new money, and financial movers and shakers entirely outside of the Elitariat Lineage. The age of aristocrats is over; and the time of the venture capitalists has come.
The BRFC thrives on investment. Secure in their seat of power at the iconic Silverline Citadel in Mile High and backed by the Lorado Reserve — which is under their management and control — the BRFC are often the deciders of which businesses grow and which fail across the Western Wastes. To get a bigger picture on this, the BRFC even hold significant stakes in some of their fellow Financial Institutions, including Bear Claw and Northheed. Beyond this, they deal heavily in social and political influence: accepting bribes to make bribes, setting up meetings, and generally providing a path for X grease to reach Y wheel… as long as the price is right.
One does not have to search hard throughout Lorado to find rumors that members of BRFC families or groups have their hands in the type of nasty business that only the incredibly rich ever get into, from tall tales of perverse addictions and obscene debauchery to secret bankrolling of scientific atrocities — no rumor is too small when discussing the BRFC with the region’s proletariat.
Unlike the other Institutions, the BRFC does not employ representatives to speak for the whole Council in Barker or elsewhere. You’re much likelier, at Trade, to rub elbows with representatives from specific families or groups who hold seats on the Council, and make your connections therein.
Black Diamond Mining Conglomerate
“Bringing the salt of the Earth to your table and the coal to your lungs.”
Lorado has always been a region rich in mineral wealth, and following the destruction of Fort Dedstop and the regional upheaval of the Von Lobo War, the largest mining interests of the Western Wastes got together and decided it would be to all their benefit to close ranks and operate under one umbrella. Thus, the Black Diamond Mining Conglomerate was born. Though a variety of smaller members dot the landscape, the real muscle of Black Diamond boils down to the Big Three: the Topaz Tribe, the Shane Family, and Lead Lode Mining Co.
Mining and mineral goods have always been a straightforward path to prosperity, but the true power of Black Diamond lies in collusion: member groups often negotiate loans of equipment and personnel to one another to keep collective production high, and work together to set their prices for maximized profit. Internally, the companies remain fiercely territorial about their sites, but one big benefit of Conglomerate membership is recourse for others’ encroachment, as the various operations under the Black Diamond name will form a unified front against members viewed as having broken their shared code.
This code of honor ends at their circle, however - Lead Lode in particular is notorious for claimjumping independent operations, and an incredibly high rate of horrible and suspicious accidents is noted among local companies who try to undercut Black Diamond’s prices.
The faces of Black Diamond most commonly seen around Barker are the Topaz Tribe’s emissary Scrawl and Cinderella Shane of the Shane Family.
Northheed Armory
“The cutting edge.”
Northheed Armory was once a tiny Digitarian village whose main export was humble Artisan work, but through cunning and business acumen, its leaders seized an opportunity to grow it into a flourishing armaments business. Following the regional Masterson War, Northheed launched a long-term acquisition campaign of arms companies and scientific institutions — such as the renowned science group Blue Sun — enabling them to extend their reach and accumulate wealth and power. An overnight success decades in the making, Northheed became a force multiplier, allowing combatants to engage in conflicts of all sizes throughout Lorado.
Once thought to be under the thumb of criminal forces and dark money, Northheed is now regularly in the public eye, and signs of such nefarious origins have so far failed to materialize. Looking closer at Northheed reveals an influential organization, bound only by its corporate codes and guided only by its bottom line. Northheed will investigate any avenue of potential profit, but takes care to ensure their members and associates are not accused of anything other than furthering Northheed’s publicly stated business interests.
Challenging them is a deadly proposition, as their loyal and lethal internal security is further bolstered by Northheed’s working relationships with almost every professional mercenary outfit in the Western Wastes. Most mercs these days source their gear from Northheed, and that’s a bridge you don’t burn after all.
In Barker Meadow, if one wishes to involve themselves with the corporation, their points of contact are tacti-cool Digitarian gear enthusiast, Vektor and Blue Sun’s head of Science Operations, Bill (from Blue Sun).
The Rolling Coalition
“Paved with good intentions.”
It was Summer Suns Shaman Chuck Sparkplug Bentley who first fielded the dream of uniting all the Diesel Jock clans of the Western Wastes under one banner as guardians of the roadways. Chuck’s Steel Coalition gathered members and eventually became the Rolling Coalition, a clan of clans dedicated to carving out a permanent niche for Diesel Jocks as contributing members of fast-progressing wasteland society.
In addition to shipping mail and supplies across the region, the Rolling Coalition bill themselves as protectors of the road. And, for the most part, they are but some clans’ tolls and shakedowns leave a sour taste in travelers’ mouths, while others’ tendency to alternate between guardians and highwaymen depending on the day’s mood makes for a deeply ambivalent reputation.
Chuck is no longer the Coalition’s so-called Big Chief, having ceded the role to a controversial Chieftain known only as Pacman, a rumored reformed ex-member of the long-dead raiding clan the Biters. Pacman speaks passionately of his commitment to the new leaf he’s turned over, and his belief that this is reflected in the Coalition as a whole, but questions linger as to exactly how much of his old-fashioned DJ mindset he’s truly left behind.
Barker Meadow is nestled in the territory of the Summer Suns & Dotters, and as such is regularly visited by the SSD’s Chief Mustang, as well as the occasional drop-in by Pacman himself.