In the wastlands there are few rules, yet there are some everyone should heed... Beware of meerkats, always carry a towel, and don't cross the trade guild.

The trade caravans are the life blood of the wasteland, connecting cities and communities far and wide as everyone depends on their trade goods. Just how the trade guild came to be is uncertain, though it is generally believed the giraffes started it all as they had always been wandering traders before the guild's first recorded history, and many depended on them to move goods around back then as well yet they didn't enjoy as much protection as they do now as few would dare to mess with the trade caravans. Some new raider gang might try their luck attacking a caravan or two but they'll soon find out the mistake in that when they get wiped out with military force backed up by the guild's resources.

It's no surprise many want to become traders, just for that level of protection alone, untill they relise it takes more than just hauling goods around if you want to make a living since every caravan still needs to stand on it's own to make a profit and stay in business. And life as a trader isn't always as peaceful as they may think. Kopano knows this better than anyone perhaps and he still carries a reminder around his neck that fortunes can always change.

When he was younger Kopano's caravan was attacked by raiders and those that weren't killed were held for ransom untill the guild's militia freed them, then some years later he found himself captured by slavers, yet no rescue would come this time.
He learned to barter there in the slave camps, tradign what few things he could get his hands on that others needed, eventually even managing to buy his own freedom promising to offer a large part of his caravan profits to the slavers if they'd let him go and start one up. Now slavers are know to never negotiate, let alone with their merchandise, yet it seems he made them such a good deal for a side profit that they accepted. He's spent years paying off the slavers untill the guild finally caught on and bought him out of his deal with the slavers (though they reclaimed their money soon enough once Kopano sold his information about the location and numbers of the slavers and the guild's militia wiped them out.

Nowadays Kopano is one of the youngest caravan leaders, and he's mostly put the whole thing behind him but he has kept his collar of a reminder that life is never certain and sometimes you have to drag yourself up from the mud on your own and grow from it.

Artwork by  Foxena
Character belongs to me  Chakat_Blackwater