The Aurous Consortium

The Consortium is led solely by the Golden One from Auronim, its beating heart. He is charge of appointing the heads of the various organizations that make up the Consortium, such as the The Golden Admiral of the Fleet or the Hilt of the Golden Blade, and then giving them directives of how to serve the city's interests. The only major position in the Consortium he has no control over is the Scion Council of Auronim itself, which is hereditary. Instead, the Scion Council is instead in charge of monitoring the Golden One's authority, both appointing the new Golden One whenever the old one dies and having the ability to remove the Golden One if they are determined to be harming the city.

In general, the Consortium has a cosmopolitan culture that takes in elements from the locals wherever the territory is held. However, there is a central culture that comes from the city that seeps in wherever the Consortium holds land. Auronites tend to be forward thinking, with an emphasis on improvement and progressing the world's knowledge and technological level. However, the focus is less on progress for progress's sake, and instead on getting the credit for improving the world. Most people in Auronim have a preference for skilled labor over menial labor, with the idea that a craftsman can hone their craft and make advancements while dock workers, shopkeepers, and farmers merely do a necessary function of society, so it is reserved for the poor.

The Golden One insists that the Consortium exists to improve the world, bringing prosperity and peace to as many people as possible, and this has born out with the recent intervention in the Mad King's War. However, many of its critics instead believe that its only goal is lining the pockets of the Golden One and the Scion Council.

The Consortium is incredibly wealthy with strong infrastructure in its capital, a load of weaponry to be used by its armies, and plenty of gold that comes from the mines located beneath the city. It also has many deals with other nations to be the middle man for all of its trade, using its military to facilitate the trade between nations, keeping them safe from bandits and monsters.

The Consortium began as a vision of the original Golden One after creating Auronim. He wanted to create a world as gilded as his city and began using the immense wealth from its mines to start forming arms, largely militant, that he could use to influence things across the realm. While the power of the Consortium had been largely rising, there was a huge boost when the Golden One lent the power of his Blade to stopping Silrioch in the Mad King's War, giving them credibility in the international community.