Raga Durbin

Race: Dwarf, Durbin-family Sex: Female Age: 103 Status: Master of the Durbin Merchant holdings in Irill Background

Born into the wealthy Durbin merchant family, Raga grew up in an environment where the world was hers for the asking.

Shortly after her fifty-second birthday she traveled to the 15th temple of the Guardians and studied under Weaponmaster of the 3rd, Jared of Lorraine, where she quickly developed a fondness for the flail and mace. Just weeks shy from her ceremonial knighting she packed her belongings and left the temple. Her and Jared had a heated discussion just before she left, but the exact content is known only Raga as Jared was killed when Lightfeld killed Jared in a duel to become the new Weaponmaster of the Third.

Returning home she quickly took over running the family's Irillian spice business from her cousin Warrik. It was always one of the weakest lines of the family ledger, owing to fierce competition and Warrik's dislike for that area of the business. and her cousin Warrik was only too glad to let her take control. Much to everyone's amazement within three years she had made the business profitable and within eight years it was one of the family's most profitable holdings. So it was only ten years after leaving the Guardians that Raga was made a member of the Durbin Merchant's Inner Circle and given control over most of the Irillian businesses.

However, all was not what it appeared to be within her spice caravans the moved from town to town. In addition to dealing in spice they also pandered several exotic drugs from far-off Turan and slaves from every race. Her “merchants” rarely worked with the spices, instead allowing the few actual merchants to ply their trade. Instead, they would capture the slaves, rob the locals, and generally raise the crime rate while they were in town. These goods would then be sent through several caravans as each met at set locations far from the eyes of the local constables. After goods moved through several different caravans it was impossible to trace them back to their original owner — even if somone knew they were stolen and carried about seeing it returned to its rightful owner.

At the center of all of this stood Raga. She hired each caravan's master and let them worry about getting the right people of the job. She then hired her own group of hardened mercenaries to raid her competitors and punish anyone that pushed back at her. She even keeps a few spies in each caravan in case any of their masters is thinking about taking his business independent. On the surface she is a hardened and experienced merchant who is also a very skilled warrior — while in reality she is a merchant in the most dark and sinister trades who has killed anyone that has stood in her way.

However, there are other fish in Irill that are much bigger than even Raga's gang — eventually her activities reached a high enough level that The Guild was forced to intervene. For over three years a small war existed between Raga's merchants and Shadowhawk's Guild. While the Guild had far more resources both in terms of men and materials, Raga was not about to quietly back away from such a good business. In the end she struck a deal with Shadowhawk that allowed her to operate independent of the Irillian Guild as long as she continued to trade favorably with the Guild on certain items they had a difficult time acquiring. In addition, her caravans have be used to help get someone into our out of a difficult situation. This is an agreement that both sides have profitted from in the past twenty-seven years.