500 & 1/2 Power and Status Club

This tight-knit cabal of executive business folk are trying to establish an objective status quo/worth and wealth system in the Gri’x. They have had some success, but they get their most of their clout (such as it is) from the Powers That Be–and since no one pays any attention to them, either, the Club's attempts to influence the Gri'xian Economic System are shaky at best. Their preferred currency is the Big Green Dollah, prompting suspicions that they're either agents from, or working for people of, a certain region of the 'Node.   Gri'xian members of the Club constantly play at posturing and power-grabs among themselves: stoking or striking their fellows' egos with flattery or subtle little jabs, secret side deals in metaphorical corners, alliances and rivalries weaving and unravelling like manic macramé. Despite this, there's no apparent hierarchy within the known ranks. It is presumed that their leaders, if they have any, are pulling the strings from other dimensions.

PUBLIC AGENDA

  The Club supports many Gri'xian cultural and educational projects and events. We know this, because they won't let us forget it: their logo is plastered all over arenas and exhibits throughout the Realms. Despite all of the self-aggrandizing fanfare, no one outside the Club is exactly sure of what else they do, when they do it, or why. Some say that they gather to invoke their strange deities in secret when the Whorls are in the right position. Others whisper tales of clandestine meetings in posh little bistros or shady deals beneath the bleachers at the Dreary Lakes Interdimensional Speedway.   Is pushing the Big Green Dollah on the Gri'x their only agenda? Or is that just a front for some other, even more inane, scheme? What does the "1/2" mean? Do those business suits get uncomfortable after awhile, or is that actually their skin?   All these questions and more have been deftly evaded time and time again, leaving a trail of disgruntled reporters wherever Club representatives may deign to appear.

ASSETS

  They have access to a seemingly endless supply of Big Green Dollahs. Why they refuse to use them for rides on the GRABS (one of the only operations in the Gri'x which gladly accepts such currency) is anyone's guess. Perhaps they are afraid that if they take the bus, their luxury vehicles (of which they also have a seemingly endless supply) will get dusty.

HISTORY

  If it's true that the Club is based in the 'Node, they may even be older than the Gri'x. Perhaps they thought to seize the fledgling planes before they had a chance to form, but if that's the case, they clearly failed to restrain or direct the natural expansion of energy fueled by countless imaginations and individual perspectives.   Once upon a time the Club made a bold move on the First Bank of Symbolencie, prompting Alfred Thumbolt himself to come storming out of his office and rap some noggins with his fine ebony cane. (Later, when the bank had closed, Mr. Thumbolt took all of the tellers and security guards out for ice cream.)