Brotherhood of the Crocus

To a prosperous city and trade’s increase! - Traditional toast of the Crocus

Political Views

Trade built Thul'Ka; trade sustains it, and trade is its future, or at least that’s what the Brotherhood of the Crocus maintains. The Crocus is an old party in the city, having its origins as a trading consortium some three centuries ago. And though it began modestly enough, the continued wealth of the spice, perfume, and cloth traders that form the essential core of the party has been such that is has grown in power and influence to the point that it now rules in Thul'Ka. Among its members it counts the more generally civic-minded merchants, some scholars who hold to the theory of the primacy of trade, and a number of ordinary citizens who find themselves in general agreement with the Crocus’s platform of strong trade and strong civic infrastructure.

Due to its historic origins as a trading consortium with much interest in the cultivation of relationships between merchants, to this day the Crocus tends to operate on a patronage model and in internal economy of favors. This has led to innumerable charges of corruption and graft by its historic rivals and enemies, the Fat Purse party, who view patronage with the deepest of suspicions.

Traditionally, the Crocus has been regarded as possessed of liberal, even progressive, ideas and a conservative methodology, being nominally in favor of reform and the opening of trade, but cautious of disruptions to trade and undue haste or enthusiasm for some new fad in public discourse. As such, the Crocus has not often been at the forefront of new and daring policy, but once the party comes around to it, they tend to implement policy with an admirable thoroughness.

Current Politics

Of late, however, events have forced them into the uncomfortable and wholly unexpected position of advocating for a radical, and even disruptive change. The present currency crisis and the deteriorating situation on Anaxas has made the use of the Anaxi concord untenable and the Crocus, like so many other factions in Thul'Ka and wider Mugroba, advocates for a native and national currency. Further, the traditional mercantile habit of credit and trading on futures has lead the Crocus to put for the nearly unheard-of notion of a currency not backed by gold or other precious metals, but by government securities and the strength of the economy.

Beyond these ventures into the troublesome waters of current events, the Crocus has formed a somewhat strained but politically necessary alliance with the Pipefitters in order to maintain controll of city government. The strains of this alliance are well known and in the run-up to the city elections it is growing more tenuous still.

Crocus Leadership

Bulu Erlu Bandu - Mayor of Thul'Ka and leader of the Saffron Crocus Faction, the more conservative faction.
Ilje Namnoor - First Speaker of the Assembly, Chair of the Continuing Committee, and one of the Purple Crocuses, the more reform-minded faction.