The Coin Merchants
From Summoner
The Student Council, The Indulgence Men, the Purse, the Vaishya
He walked into the darkness, and the darkness opened its eye. He was not afraid. The darkness howled and raged. He was not afraid. The darkness whispered truth and lies. He was not afraid. The darkness offered him gold and torment. He smiled at the gold, laughed at the torment. He opened his eyes. The darkness recoiled. So he took, and took, and took.
There is one need that must be met, before the Self can flourish: comfort. By the oath of the Coin, the Indulgence Men take everything they can from the World and the Mirror, and try to shape it into something stable, not just for their own riches, but to enrich others as well. Many consider the material a distraction from the Self; the Coins scoff at this. We are beings made of matter. To transcend matter, we must first accept matter. To rise above a thirst, it must be met and examined. Fasting leads to enlightenment, but starvation leads to a premature death.
The Coin Merchants have traded between cultures since time beyond recording. They point to pharaohs and Babylonian god-kings, and see hints of themselves in their images and legends. They provide arms, safety, and protection to Summoners of other Estates, while cultivating contacts and wealth to better aid them in their personal quests. Possession isn't a sin to a Merchant; being ruled by mere possessions, however, either the having or the wanting, is a sign of unforgivable weakness.
The Mercantile take on demons is well-known and oft-reviled by many Summoners, but it is both more simple and more complicated than the stories say. To the Purse, the Mirror is a resource, a frontier full of rich treasures...and great dangers. Any venture that garners a profit for the cause of the Purse is to be commended. Any fool who wastes his life and wealth on a mad dream or the lies of demons beyond their power? She deserves what she gets. Better to cut losses and call the Cups and Swords to fix it, and the Wands to figure out useful externality to the chaos.
Membership: Members of the Coin Merchants are invariably confident in something, even if not in themselves. To play the games of an Indulgence Man, it takes a bit of brass in the pants/pantsuit. Many members of the Coin are the rejects of other Estates, cast out for ineptitude or over-eagerness. The former make useful subordinates. The latter make for spectacular proteges...or object lessons.
Icons: The Coins bear the coin and the pentagram at all times, and are rare distant from some form of currency. Credit cards, checkbooks, and purses are common tools, and high fashion tend to show off a Merchant's place in the world. If you can't display your achievements in your garb, then what have you really achieved, after all? Not everyone is gaudy, preferring to display their mastery of the World in more subtle, but undeniably expensive ways.
Exams: The test to join the Purse is simple: Bring something of value forth, and give it away. They often guide these tests towards assisting other Estates, if only as a way to get them off of their collective backs. The nature of the prize is highly negotiable, and a little cleverness can give someone an early leg up...and likely a quick pack of rivals.
Art: The Art of Coins
Stereotypes:
Sword Nobility: Their loyalty is to be commended. Their paranoia is to be ignored or put to work.
Cup Clergy: You don't get ahead by paying costs. You get ahead by making a profit. If they really cared, they'd step off of their pedestal and dig their hands in with us.
Wand Peasants: Keep two on hand. One to come up with something valuable. The other to defuse it once it explodes in someone else's face. Two rewards are better than one.
Vampires: Their networks are a model to behold. Their slavery to avarice is an education in itself.
Werewolves: Never have I seen so many, fight so hard, over so little...
Mages: They understand, as we understand. For better and for worse. The price of power is written into the universe.
Prometheans: Cowards.
Changelings: To the ones who want their lives back, look again. To the ones who realize the gift they've been given, look behind you. Both of you are rather poor.
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