OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Image Source: Created Using Worldspinner Heraldry Artist
- Canon Link: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Corporation Name: (Straight forward. What's the corporation called?)
- Headquarters: Svivren
- Locations: Svivren, trade routes across the Outer Rim
- Operations: Mercantile Trade & Shipping
- Parent Corporation: N/A
- Subsidiaries: N/A
Velair Mercantile is one of merchant families on Svivren, founded by some of the earliest humans to settle on the planet. Originally little more than local merchants importing from off-world, they eventually expanded into interstellar trade and contract shipping.
As Svivren developed into a trade hub at the end of the Five Veils Trade Route, they leveraged their contacts to establish themselves with significant wealth and influence among the older and more established Old Families, who were all Svivreni. Other human clans established their mercantile and trade companies around the same time, along with numerous other species, eventually even including Ewoks. These became more known as the New Families. Wealthy and influential, they rarely hold significant political power for lengthy amounts of time. They often compete with the less well-established and less-wealthy trade companies from the neighboring Suarbi system. However, that system's industrial and raw materials create fewer areas of market overlap.
Velair Mercantile House is owned entirely by the members of the Velair Family, with the senior-most family members sitting as the board of directors, led by the current head of the family. They operate primarily out of the capital city of Wrils, where they have their day to day office complex, although the family estates are well outside the city.
They operate primarily in the Western Reaches and Trailing Sectors, with the bulk of their work along the Five Veils Trade Route and Core-wards, although they do occasionally go out to the very far reaches for more local trade routes. As they have grown, they have developed several divisions within the company to focus on specialized skills.
All Velair family members own shares in the company and receive quarterly dividends based on their position within the family and company. Official employees of the company also receive a salary and a share of each journey's profits. Non-employee family members can invest in particular cargoes or expeditions and receive an equivalent share of the profits.
Those aboard ships are also allocated a certain amount of cargo space, depending upon their rank, for their own personal use. They may use it either for their own personal items or to engage in trades of their own, paying a small commission fee to the company for each transaction.
Senior Captains have the most space allocated to them, as they often live permanently aboard their vessel, while the junior officers and crewmembers may rotate between them more often. As a result, they also have the largest shares granted to them from successful trips and the highest salary. Senior Captain is not an easy position to attain, even for family members, as they tend to oversee an entire trade circuit, with their ship as the primary vessel and any junior captains and smaller vessels also on the route.
Junior Captains are a more middling rank, being given command of the smaller vessels, but not in charge of their route, most of their cargo, or many of the negotiations, except in remote areas where Senior Captains may be overseeing numerous routes across a wide swath of space. For some Junior Captains, this a chance to gain valuable experience with more responsibility, but in exchange, the profit margins were small. Junior Captains out in the Reaches may only earn as much as a lower officer on one of the bigger, more profitable routes.
Family members have a general education growing up, and then begin choosing their specialized education at around age thirteen, lasting until age sixteen, after which they spend two years rotating through vessels and departments until age nineteen. From there, they can choose what to do- work as a crewmember, work in the office complexes after business school, or for those wishing to be ship's officers, attend a merchant-marine academy for the next four years. Traditionally, this is the Svivreni Merchant-Marine Academy, but with the establishment of the Rimward Merchant-Marine, their options have expanded, and several have gone to the rival academy at Yumfla.
Those interested in the Market Assessment department often serve a stint with local law enforcement and the defense forces. However, the Ranger Corps and Outer Rim Intelligence Operations Network are also growing in popularity for those willing to commit. For the actual Market Assessors, they attend specialized training in economics, data analytics, and computer learning to predict market trends and possibilities.
Velair Mercantile House prides itself on always fulfilling its contracts on time and under budget, with perfect reliability and unshakable trustworthiness. As a result, any member suspected of smuggling or other nefarious activities (Other than Security and Intelligence) is disinherited and fired. One of their main rivals is Tillian Family Enterprises and Velair prides itself on earning its fortune honestly, rather than the rumors and allegations that the Tillians clawed their way up through smuggling and other crimes.
DIVISIONS
- Administration (Wril Office Complex)
- Legal (Wril Office Complex)
- Maintenance (Wril Office Complex
- Crews distributed to Svivreni spaceports and aboard ships
- Acquisitions (Wril Office Complex)
- Market Assessment (Nalvar Analytic Compound)
- Corporate Intelligence & Security
- Shipboard (Distributed aboard company vessels)
- Officers
- Crew
RATIONALE
Sidra does not control the company. She is not even remotely close to controlling the company. She is a member of a younger cadet branch of the Velair family. She is instead a Junior Captain, responsible for one ship on one trade route, without authorization to extend far beyond that or to access the large business accounts.
The head of the company is the head of the Velair family, typically passed down to the children of the previous head.