Ecumenic Mercatoria

The Ecumenic Mercatoria is an organization consisting of various trading guilds, free ports, banking and other financial and mercantile organizations operating in the Holy Ecumene. The Mercatoria seeks to bring some measure of order to the economic chaos caused by High Charity's fall and the Great Schism, but they also have ambitions to expand their power and influence within the ex-Covenant sphere through access to valuable resources and trade routes of the Arterial Network.

Though the Covenant's merchant classes had already been rising in power and influence throughout the prior ages, the effective collapse of much of the Covenant's regulatory bureaucracy ushered in many business opportunities for those with the means and willingness to seize them. Formed in the 2560s, the Mercatoria represents a culmination of this development as the largest commercial power within the Covenant Sphere in recent memory. In practice, many of the members of the Mercatoria were already cooperating to various extents though the Covenant's formally-instilled hierarchy set certain boundaries for their activities. While the Covenant's fall created many opportunities, it also rendered the Holy Ecumene's economic landscape highly unpredictable. The members of the Mercatoria seek to balance this unpredictability by joining forces around their shared interests.

Unlike many of the more conspicuous post-Covenant polities, the Ecumenic Mercatoria has no overarching religious aspirations, and is not a coherent state in and of itself. As far as they coordinate as a singular entity, their actions are concerned with representing the interests of the member groups. In practice, this means presenting a more or less united front against traditional Sangheili aristocracies and regional governments seeking to regulate their activities with tolls and tariffs. This has had the effect of bringing enormous wealth to many merchant-states, but on the flip side also enabled those states to exploit their less fortunate subjects more freely than before.

The Ecumenic Mercatoria exists in a complicated relationship to major groups, most notably the Concord of Reconciliation, the Eternal Covenant, and the True Communion. As the Mercatoria is not a monolithic group and has no overarching religious or ideological aspirations, they do not actively seek military confrontation with major polities. Indeed, they see it as being in their best interests to continue trade with, or within, as many major factions as possible, something that is virtually inevitable as the Mercatoria's members comprise some of the guilds most vital to pan-Ecumenic trade. Much of the Mercatoria's physical territory also encompasses enclaves within the territories of more politically-driven groups, such as the Concord and the Communion. Even as those larger groups are troubled by the rise of the merchant class and view their large-scale organization with distaste, the Mercatoria is too vital to their own operations. As such, affiliation with the Mercatoria partly overlaps with other groups rather than membership being mutually exclusive. Many free cities affiliated with the Mercatoria are given special privileges by their feudal overlords, with said cities being independent in all but name despite occupying fiefdoms controlled by regional lords. That said, in practice the ways in which the members engage with the Mercatoria's politics at large can be minimal, with the member state or group only indirectly benefiting from the overarching organization.

While parts of the Mercatoria's territory are planetside port-cities, perhaps their most notable presence is in space, where the league's constituents occupy numerous stations, habitats, worldships and trading vessels throughout the Covenant Sphere. Many among the loose subculture of the Peripates have embraced the Mercatoria. Although the Mercatoria as a whole prefers to avoid large-scale military action or taking sides in pan-Ecumenic matters, its constituent polities are often engaged in regional conflicts for various reasons, such as trade disputes or access to valuable resources (e.g. Forerunner relics or other useful technologies). Often neighboring states and marauding groups attempt to raid wealthy trade centers as well, necessitating self-defense. Such conflicts are physically fought by whatever fleets those polities possess, with trade vessels typically doubling as warships. Owing to their distributed nature, very little uniformity exists throughout the Mercatoria in either aesthetic style, choice of equipment or doctrine, and most of the constituent factions prefer to keep it that way. More often than not, mercenaries are employed. Due to the chaos of the Great Schism, the number and influence of mercenary groups has surged throughout the Covenant, with many former warriors in need of an income, or with nothing to lose, enlisting in one of the many mercenary bands.

Though the Ecumenic Mercatoria as a whole exhibits no particular preference to any species, Kig-Yar are well represented throughout the alliance, but also Sangheili merchant families outside the traditional feudal aristocracy. A number of Unggoy-led factions have emerged as well due to the existing Unggoy presence in the Covenant's eclectic trader class. Even a handful of free ports governed by Yanme'e queens on the Covenant's trailing side have become involved. As well, peripheral human or joint-occupation zone worlds have had dealings with the Mercatoria.

Members and affiliates

 * Siakar-Hezzaggor Trade Pact
 * Haar Nappar
 * Jjaibii Shroud Nexus
 * Hirshum Mercatorial Enclave
 * Infinite Virtue