Vetthi Merchant Fleet

The Vetthi Merchant Fleet of the Vetthi Merchant Company is the most prestigious merchant navy in the world, with trade concessions and trading rights in virtually every port throughout the Civilised World. Its influence, wealth and prestige is the pride of the Vetthi Republic. Their famed neutrality, as well as their speed, reliability and naval skill, makes them the number one choice for merchants who wish to sell their goods between nations who are otherwise suspicious of foreign ships. Hence they dominate international trade between Hartheraplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigHarthera

The Hartheran Union, commonly named Harthera, is an imperialist maritime nation state dominating the northeast of Anásthias. It is one of the two great powers of the modern epoch, arguably the most technologically and militarily powerful nation in the world, only matched by the vast size and wealth of its neighbour, viridviridOrorrMEOrorrOrorrOrorrOrorr and Ororrplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigOrorr

Ororr [o-ROARR, ɒ̝rɔ'ɾ], also called the Holy Motherland of Ororr, is a theocratic nation in Anásthias, one of the world's great powers. It the largest nation in the world, perhaps the largest empire in history, occupying the entire northwest of the continent between the mountains and the sea. Ororrviridlanguagelanguagelanguage, two nations with often fractious diplomatic relations.

Its captains are all independent owners of their ship, with letters of marque from the Vetthi Merchant Company enabling them to trade freely in foreign ports. This gives access to extremely valuable privileges, since official Vetthi merchantmen are considered to be the most trusted and safe traders. Vetthi vessels ship goods for a set price based on distance, quantity and nature of the goods and other factors. Independent traders can undercut this price, but are considered more risky.

Life aboard Vetthi ships is also strictly regulated. Vetthi sailors also carry personal letters of marque, with their service record. Sailors work under contract from captains, either for a certain number of journeys, or as full time crew. At the end of a contract the captain signs the sailor's log, and also notes in their service in official ship's log. Both of these must be registered with the VMC office in the next major port, so that reliable records are kept even if the ship's log or sailor's log are lost.

Having a log of the seaman's record and experience enables the captain to be sure they are contracting experienced and reliable crew, and similarly crew can check that the captain is in good standing with the comany. Breaking trade contracts, mistreating the crew, accidents and so on are permanently on a captain's record, so poor captains soon find it difficult to recruit crew, and may even lose their letter of marque entirely. Forged letters are an issue, but any documents can be cross checked with the VMC, and forgery is looked upon as a serious crime by Vetthi and international authorities.