Dwarven Merchants' Guild

The Dwarven Merchants Guild is a powerful and extensively connected organization comprised of surface dwarves. Some of the Guild's members left the dwarven city of Orzammar to pursue business and trade on the surface while others joined after being exiled from the city.

The upper-class surface dwarf members of the guild are composed of two distinct groups: kalnas, who insist on maintaining caste and rank (typically those from Noble caste or Merchant caste families) and ascendants, who believe in leaving Orzammar's traditions behind and embracing surface life.

Background
Dwarves emigrating to the surface bring with them the skills and talents they possessed as members of their caste in Orzammar. For those of the Noble and Merchant caste, this also means ties to surface traders and suppliers and the wealth to begin trading of their own on the surface. Many formerly Noble or Merchant caste dwarves maintain respectable if unofficial ties to their former houses and use them as a means to trade. For many years maintaining ties to Orzammar via trade was seen as essential to making a lucrative living--even as a sacred duty to their kin or a patron in Orzammar as leaving the city meant sacrificing their caste and clan. However, in recent years, many surface dwarves, particularly ascendants, have developed new ways of making a life on the surface by starting banks, mercenary companies, and overland trade caravans. These entrepreneurial dwarves became investors and speculators in purely surface trade without connection to Orzammar. These new industries have proven tremendous sources of wealth, but are looked down upon by those dwarves who respect maintaining strong ties to Orzammar.

For less affluent surface dwarves, association with a powerful kalna can open many doors. They can get credit with dwarven merchants and are offered work opportunities by the powerful Dwarven Merchants Guild more readily, sometimes, than more qualified but less-connected individuals.

Surface trade and the Carta
Those dwarves who lack ties to Orzammar, either because they were cast out or had no contacts to begin with, must return to Orzammar to trade directly with the city, where they are treated as outcasts. For those dwarves the Carta acts as an intermediary, selling the surfacer's goods on the black market for a cut of the profit. The Carta's ability to facilitate black market trade between the surface and Orzammar is integral to the survival of the dwarven city, and as such the Carta has infiltrated all aspects of dwarven life--including the placement of Carta members in the Dwarven Merchants Guild.

Organization
The Merchants Guild is a world unto itself, one of social hierarchy as rigid as that found in Orzammar, as well as influence and manipulation. Being a member of the Guild affords power and wealth and the membership is exclusive.

The Guild is administered by a council who hold meetings to maintain the functioning of the organization. Missing meetings is considered an insult. Crossing the Guild is also seen as a deadly offense.

Known members

 * Bartrand Tethras (ascendant)
 * Dusana Helmi (status unknown)
 * Varric Tethras (ascendant)