Loros Customhouse

Loros Customhouse is the main institutional presence of the Commercial Guilds in the city of Loros on the southern coast of the Sea of Jars. It is a focus of wealth and a locus of calm in the often chaotic dock district of the city.    

Location

  Loros Customhouse is located on the Loros waterfront, on the eastern (or "right") bank of the broad estuary around which the city is built. Within sight of the building are two sets of stone inscriptions, both very worn and degraded but recognisable to the trained eye as shrines to Zargyod, specifically related to his role as a sea-god and protector of sailors. A short distance inland is a fountain with a pair of stone feet on a pedestal in its centre; waves are sculpted onto the pedestal, making it highly likely that this was once a statue to Zargyod removed during the anarchy that befell Loros during the Wesmodian Reformation. The area was clearly something of a hotbed of veneration of Zargyod in the pre-Wesmodian era.   It is interesting, therefore, that the city does not appear to have had a monumental or central temple to the god. The cult of Zargyod in Loros appears to have been very much a grass-roots affair consisting mostly of sailors and - it is speculated - their families rather than any sort of organised or institutional clerisy. The fact that this state of affairs seems to have endured even after Loros - and indeed its sailing fraternity - came under the influence of the Chogyan Hegemony, a nation in which the organised worship of Zargyod as a god of good fortune was a prominent feature of public life, is a matter for debate among historians and thaumatologists.   The Loros Customhouse is therefore not a repurposed temple building but a small complex of robustly utilitarian, clearly post-Wesmodian structures.  

Facilities

  In contrast to the Customhouses in the western and northern environs of the Sea of Jars, Loros Customhouse devotes little space and few resources to providing merchants and speculators with a place to arrange business. Nor do they operate any money-lending operations. The role of the institution is rather more utilitarian. In the three and a half centuries since the anarchy of the Wesmodian Reformation, Loros has been only spottily and sporadically governed, an ongoing problem which has had serious consequences for the lives of its residents. The reach of law in the city is limited at best and, for years after the Reformation, effectively non-existent. Few merchants cared to sail to such a doubtful market. The Keepers of Light, who might have been expected to take an interest in the resulting humanitarian problems, were slow to get involved. It is probably only the ongoing efforts of the farmers of the Alluvial plain to the south, calmly maintaining the flow of food into the city, which prevented a major famine. Farmers cannot provide everything, however, and the resulting shortage of building supplies and absence of institutional initiative meant that a reconstruction which might have been accomplished in a few short years took decades to even get started.   It was the Commercial Guilds, in the end, who began to bring order back to the streets of Loros. Guilders from Chogyos and Ramoros hired many of the corsairs who in previous generations had provided coercive leverage for the Chogyan Hegemony and directed them to bring Loros's port district under control. Although not universally popular, this was successful, and Guilders eventually established a headquarters in the city to oversee the ongoing maintenance of the resulting relative peace. The operation was originally headquartered in a pair of ancient warehouses on the waterfront, although as it became apparent that this exercise in social control would need to continue on a permanent basis these buildings were gradually refurbished, fortified and eventually expanded, to the extent that little of the original structures remain. With this strong base to operate from, and ongoing funding from the Commercial Guilds, the city watch of Loros managed to bring the city (or at least its port district) back to some semblance of meaningful operation.   Loros Customhouse now operates primarily as the headquarters of these guards. It contains barracks, an armoury and discussion rooms where assignments are given out. The complex also includes a small hostel where visitors - either Guilders from other cities or esteemed merchants - may stay. The lobby section of this building features a painted mural depicting the myth of Zargyod and the Sailors, which is of passing interest to thaumatologists in that it depicts the sailors swimming back to their stricken ship. Whether this wholly post-Wesmodian interpretation of the myth contradicts any depictions that might survive on the decrepit shrines to Zargyod outside the customhouse is an interesting question yet to be conclusively answered.   Where the Guilders keep their revenue in Loros is an interesting question and a top institutional secret. Various conclusive answers are put forward in the taverns and alleyways of Loros every night, as precursors to plans to rob the treasury, though nobody has ever proven they have successfully located the place.  

Institutional structure and purpose

  Loros Customhouse follows the rank structure laid down in The Book of Favour; it is commanded by a Guilder of Gold rank, with two Silver deputies who run a staff of Copper officers, who give commands to Iron, Tin and Lead subalterns. The local guild is known for the trimness and efficiency of its structure, especially compared to equivalents in cities like Chogyos and Halumay, as there are seldom more than three or four Copper Guilders at a time. These individuals generally serve as senior clerks and counters, running the revenue-gathering side of the operation from a heavily-fortified building wiithin the complex.   Iron and Tin Guilders serve as guardsmen. A detachment sent on patrol will usually be led by an Iron Guilder with as many as half a dozen Tin rank-and-file troops with them. On rare occasions more than one of these detachments may be needed, in which case the Copper Guilder masterminding the assignment will generally designate one of their Iron colleagues as the commanding officer.   The guards concern themselves primarily with the smooth operation of the port and the collection of duties and tolls by which the operation is funded. The first function makes them a crucial feature of the government of Loros, which has never really recovered from the breakdown of the Wesmodian Reformation. Although magistrates are still appointed their capacity to enforce any of their laws is sorely limited, and they largely rely on the co-operation of the Commercial Guilds for this to happen. The Guilds themselves see the smooth operation of the port as crucial to their general international mission to facilitate maritime trade and co-operate wholeheartedly; indeed, opinion is divided over which group first approached the other to suggest this venture. As such the right bank of Loros has been patrolled by Guilder soldiers for the last two hundred years.   Conversely the collection of tolls and duties renders these guards and their commanders resiliently unpopular with the significant fraction of the Lorian community who adapted rather well to the loose government of the post-Wesmodian era. Much of the city regards the liveried Guilder soldiers as "Yellow scum" and co-operates with them as little as possible. The Guilders, whose primary concern is that the port stays open, have long since responded by quietly ignoring much of the remainder of the city, particularly its inland environs and The Left Bank, where their distinctive saffron-coloured jerkins are seldom seen. These regions remain, at least by comparison to the immediate port district, substantially lawless and are the origin of Loros's reputation as a city of thieves, pirates and ne'er-do-wells. Such regions see a huge amount of contraband move through clandestine marketplaces as merchants of doubtful cast seek to avoid Guilder tolls. Should the Yellow scum set foot on the Left Bank it is generally as part of their periodic attempts to extend their highly localised influence in the community.   Lead Guilders in Loros serve as cooks, cleaners and other menials. They comprise most of the very small number of indentured labourers to be found in the city.