"If you pick the right port of call, anything can be a profitable cargo."
-from a conversation with Vorith Axelhode, of the Free Traders Group
Overview
The Free Traders Group, also known as the Free Traders, were perhaps the most influential spacefaring mercantile company to originate in Greyspace. After only five years in wildspace, the Free Traders grew from relative obscurity to become one of the heavy hitters in interplanetary trade. Free Trader vessels could be encountered anywhere within Greyspace, the Flow or in many of the other Known Spheres. They carried just about any commodity or trade good that people would pay money for, with the notable exception of slaves.
The company's crest was a representation of a dromond in gold against a star-speckled black field.
Activities
Within the last three years, the Free Traders established a trading outpost in the outer reaches of Greyspace on the discworld known as the Spectre, which was personally managed by the company's founder, Vorith Axelhode.
Base of Operations
The Free Traders had their headquarters in the Free City of Greyhawk on Oerth in Greyspace.
Ships
The Group's spacefaring fleet had expanded to a total of 12 vessels, including the clipper Flying Cloud, four tradesmen, two galleons, two hammerships, two shrikeships, and a single swanship. The dromond Free Spirit remained the company's flagship for sentimental reasons, despite being their least effective ship (and even appeared on the company's crest).
Relationships
Rivals
The Free Traders' principal spacefaring mercantile rivals were the Lacross Brothers and Anything Inc., both interplanetary merchant costers from Realmspace.
Enemies
Free Traders vessels have had to fend off frequent attacks from various pirate bands, including the infamous Black Company.
History
Over 10 years ago, Vorith Axelhode, along with his business partners, established a mercantile company known as the Free Traders Group in the Free City of Greyhawk on Oerth. At the time, international trade became a major source of income for the city, which then attracted interplanetary, and later intersphere, trade as well. Many small business popped up to take advantage of the opportunities represented by this new trade, and while many traders did make their fortunes, many more went bankrupt.
After five years of focussing almost exclusively on terrestrial trade, Axelhode decided to expand the business into wildspace after purchasing a spelljamming dromond at a cut rate price from a small interplanetary trading concern that had fallen on hard times. Within a few years, the company had expanded its fleet to a total of twelve spelljamming ships, and within the last three years they had established a trading outpost on the Spectre.
Members
The Free Traders Group was founded by Vorith Axelhode, and his business partners, Trelestina Waymouth and Link Pipinenses. While Axelhode busied himself with their trade outpost on the Spectre, Trelestina and Link ran the bulk of the business from the company's headquarters in the Free City of Greyhawk on Oerth. One of the Group's most notable ship's captains was Ralnoor Evenbower, the elven captain of the clipper Flying Cloud.