The Mist Trading Company

The Oldest Organization to Profit from Division

A secret organization based in The Mist Sea that controls informal transactions in both The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm. Its founding circumstances are unclear, but documents found in the Fwarei Archives show it already existed in the same era as the First Bridge. Since the world was divided, it is the oldest organization to have profited from that division.

The organization's membership is a mix of people from both sides, with neither government able to fully reach them. The tactical advantages of The Mist Sea and the presence of informants hiding within both governments' ranks make this impossible. Its primary goods are Obsidian Aether Ore, Mistfish body fluid, prohibited Mycelium Medicine pharmaceuticals, and classified information from both sides.

Why It Cannot Be Destroyed

Both the Canopy Council and the Root Realm Federation have histories of independently attempting to destroy the organization but failing. One account holds that the Mist Trading Company is half-intentionally preserved by both governments as a buffer allowing them to "make necessary transactions behind the scenes while officially opposing each other."

Some researchers at the Great Fall Research Institute see the Mist Trading Company as deliberately limiting Obsidian Aether Ore mining volume. An ironic analysis: the commercial judgment to maintain the ore's scarcity and value and the protective judgment to avoid excessive mining that would trigger a Second Great Fall coincide.

The Three-Ring Organization Structure

The Mist Trading Company's internal structure takes the form called the "three-ring organization." The outer ring is end-member smugglers and informants, many of whom do not know they belong to the Mist Trading Company. The middle ring is executive-class, managing major relay bases in The Mist Sea. The inner ring is the organization's top leadership — its numbers and even its existence are completely concealed. Not a single inner ring member has ever been confirmed.

Information as the Greatest Commodity

The most valuable commodity the Mist Trading Company holds is "information." Selling classified information obtained from informants inside both governments' bureaucracies to appropriate parties as the situation demands — this is the organization's greatest revenue source and the greatest reason neither government can completely eliminate the organization. Some researchers at the Great Fall Research Institute speculate that some of the information the Mist Trading Company holds is content that, if made public, would completely transform the world's political structure.

On the Night of Silence, the Mist Trading Company also halts operations. This custom maintained even within the organization demonstrates that the majority of members are from cultural spheres holding memories of The Great Fall.