The Cor'a'tai

The Cor’a’tai is the shadow government that rules the underbelly of The Jointed Provinces and they are known by their symbol of a burning fist. The true nature of the organization is unknown to most and rumors and myths circulate through all of the duchies of the true identities of it’s members as well as their actual dealings. The most agreed upon theory on the Cor’a’tai is that it is run by a council of individuals that each govern over a certain aspect of crime, each given a title corresponding to their job. Keeper of Wealth, Keeper of Pleasure, Keeper of Pain.

Keeper of Wealth
The Keeper of Wealth runs smuggling operations and gambling aspects of the Cor’a’tai as well as managing debts and making loans. He or she keeps the organizations numbers in check, keeping a set of discrete numbers for the other two Keepers and contacting the Keeper of Pain when any debts are overdue or to make sure to repay any they themselves owe.

Keeper of Pleasure
The Keeper of Pleasure maintains the brothels, drug trade, and any other sort of fantasy that a patron might wish in both minor and major scales. Pleasure houses are known to exists legally in The Provinces, but more often than not the business is just a front for the Cor’a’tai’s more “exclusive” offers. The Keeper of Pleasure may have the most important job of the Cor’a’tai because they control some of their actual legitimate businesses and they have to keep their noses clean to keep from getting looked at too closely.

Keeper of Pain
The Keeper of Pain employs the Cor’a’tai’s thugs, assassins, and mercenaries. The bouncers at pleasure houses, the roving gangs of thieves and cutpurses, and the collection men that knock down a family’s door in the middle of the night all work for the Keeper of Pain. If a person needs killing or a beating, one goes to the Keeper of Pain.

Influence of the Cor'a'tai
Their organization can be found in just about every major city in the Provinces and their influence has even managed to make it’s way to Agralan where it is thriving from the slave trade. The Cor’a’tai operate through fences and dead drops and very rarely, if ever, do two members meet unless it is to discuss a job or attend a meeting of the councils. It is said that the government is also in the pockets of the Cor'a'tai and that is why the organization has flourished so well.

Crown Black
The Cor'a'tai have been in open war with a man, or group, calling themselves Crown Black. Many high ranking officials within the Cor'a'tai and people under their protection have been targeted for both theft and murder and it is unclear what Crown Black's true intentions are.

The following is an explanation given by Warwick Deepknife

“The current state of the underworld in Cortesia can be summed up with one word: dangerous. It’s always dangerous in the underworld, sure, you have murders and thieves aplenty, but that is on any given week. Things are, at the moment, incredibly tense and, much like a pot full of shit about to overboil, about to get messy. The Cor’a’tai, those shady fuckers that run the deep and dark alleys, are getting slapped around a bit by a fellow by the name of Crown Black.

The Cor’atai have been running things for a long time and have grown accustom to people stepping out of line every now and again. We’ve all thought about it, ‘Hey, I’m pretty good at making a dishonest wage off of someone’s honest one, why should I pay dues to some mangy asshole who doesn’t work half as hard as I do?’. That’s when you see your pal Roark Three-Balls (who had the same idea as you) floating down the Oldtown River except now he’s Roark No-Balls and he’s dead. That’s when you see the error of your ways. Then you remember that’s why you pay your dues. You keep your head down, you do what they say, and you continue to play the good boy that we all know you are.

Sure, sure, you got people who manage to make their own living without buying into the club - Rife and Barren being two such individuals, but you ain’t them, and for the most part they don’t make it a point to try getting one over on the Cor’a’tai. But you know who does? Crown Black. Crown Black started making his presence known just over 5 months ago; a little stealin’ here, a little murder there, and all with this black crown painted near the crime and always in Cor’a’tai territory. Always someone under the protection of the Cor’a’tai. It was basically saying “Go fuck yourself, you fucks.”

We all thought that this/these asshole(s) would get straight murdered in a matter of days, hell, maybe in a matter of hours, after the first time but nope! They kept right on fuckin’ with the order of things and boy did that piss of the Keepers. Someone was trying to muscle in on their territory! It was like if some shitbrain started dropping flags in random cities in the Provinces and claiming that they were his cities! The nerve.

It’s not like the Cor’a’tai didn’t try to stop it, oh no, they must’ve spent thousands of gold pieces trying to catch this little cuss. They had every bruiser on the street prowling for ‘em and every informant with their ear to the ground listening for ‘em. They might as well have been looking for a priestess in a whore house because they came back disappointed. That was just the beginning, I tell you. Then the higher-ups started getting killed.

I don’t mean just killed, I mean they got killed to bits! The shit killed out of them! It was like a fuckin’ piece of art with every new body. I remember one guy, Gorja Copperteeth, leader of the Coin Suits, he got killed proper. They found his body strung up by his own guts like a chandelier, but that’s not what killed him, oh no, they cut off all of his fingers and stuck ‘em in his gob and choked the fucker to death with his own fingers! That’s not the worst part about it, the worst part was that Gorja had 15 of his own men with him at the time it happened! They don’t remember anything!

Look, I’m not trying to scare you, but you are new in town and I gotta let you know. Times ain’t so good for us in the organization. You’re small time so you probably shouldn’t be worried about getting salt poured in your ass until you die or drowned in a bucket of fish guys or whatever crazy method of execution Crown Black decides is gonna be the next showcase, but you need to tread lightly around the Cor’a’tai. They’ve been killing more men than Black has been just trying to weed out any traitors or anyone who knows anything. So keep your head down, cut some purses or knick some pies from windowsills or whatever it is you do.”