Who runs the banking system in your fantasy world?
For me it a tribe of persecuted people that used to be peddlers. Very smart group, but envied by other races, due to this they were expelled and shunned by every other country. They now mainly reside in The Empire and specialize in banking after assimilating with the populace.
Depends on the bank.
There is a central bank run by a country that uses government owned slaves to back the currency. Currency is backed via labor and any currency can be exchanged for unskilled labor, basically for government owned slaves working for you for some amount of time. The bank itself is run by a self sustaining bureaucracy with a non-elected official at its head.
There's not a single central authority, various factions have their own system of evidence for deposits and loans, their own standardization of wealth. For mechanical convenience, the exchange rates are rather stable.
Each of those factions is ruled by a single Changeling - either directly or through some puppet figure. The Changelings are blood related to one another and ultimately work towards a common goal.
That's very subtle and clever.
Definitely not Jews.
No banks, it's unnecessary detail that my players will never engage with so I dont bother with it either.
For me it's generally the priests. They take a small cut for the poor and upkeep. The basis of all current money is a small island that became a merchant republic, so much that the common words for the coinage are derived from their words for gold, silver, and copper (zlato, srebro, and bakar) in all languages.
The First of the Magi
>Banks. They are made of air. They spin money out of guesses, and lies, and promises. Secrets are their currency, even more than gold.
Dragons
A cabal of nine liches. Seeking immortality, they foresaw that their pact would eventually falter in the millennia to come. Together they constructed the world's greatest vault. Seemingly endless levels each more dangerous and secure than the last. At the very bottom nine chambers securing their phylacteries. The chambers are only able to be opened from the inside, or without if nine secret keys, each belonging to a Liche, are used. The vault would come to be known as The Phylactery, after its greatest treasures.
Legend of it spread, some looters of course, but others sought the liches' favour seeking to secure their own gains safely within. The Liches intimately knew the nature of power and welcomed it
From their seats in the financial center of the world they wage shadows wars against each other. Proxies, espionage, predatory investments. Each attempting to gain leverage over the others.
Nice bait
Is it really bait when OP's obvious intention is to attract more /pol/tards to his thread?
Why isn't it working then, we seem to be getting actual answers?
Anyways how does money and/or banking work in your world user?
>Why isn't it working then, we seem to be getting actual answers?
It's possible, though unlikely, that we've finally hit maximum bait saturation and can no longer be roused to bite at it.
I run Engine Heart so it varies from place to place. Currently it's a complex system of wagering against which building is going to collapse next, weighted against your past wagers.
best system coming through here
Reminds me of shadowrun
The government.
Dwarves, the setting is late renaisance moving into the age of enlightenment. The Dwarves have abandoned the underground due to be chased out by drow and retreated to a Switzerland style area in the mountains to fortify and isolate. Unable to manufacture or mine like they previously had they traded the few resources they had left, their security and lawful natures, into banking which provided them the wealth, and the trading contacts, which allowed them to get the resources they needed. Now Dwarves are Bankers, Craftsmen, Alpine farmers and engineers (for fortification and building vaults) rather than the diggers they previously were. Even though I modelled them more on the swiss it hasn't helped the Dwarves=Jews jokes at the table.
The dragons do
But thhe swiss are just mountain jews...
There aren't any banks. What kind of idiot would just give his hard money to somebody else who promises they'll give it back when you ask? They could just take half to buy mercenaries to guard the other half and then what?
Clerics of Abadar, the Gold-Fisted and Master of the First Vault, the god of cities, law, merchants, and wealth. Abadar and his followers wish to bring the light of civilization to the wilderness, to help educate all in the benefits of law and properly regulated commerce. He expects his followers to obey all meaningful laws, but not those which are ridiculous, unenforceable, or self-contradictory. He is also a great proponent of peace, as war inevitably leads to the degradation of trade and the stifling of prosperity for the general public. He advocates cautious, careful consideration in all matters, and frowns on impulsiveness, believing that it leads to the encouragement of primitive needs. Abadar discourages dependence on government or any religious institution, believing that wealth and happiness should be achievable by anyone with keen judgement, discipline, and a healthy respect for all sensible, just laws.
The clergy structure their orders like mercantile houses, with Bankers and Archbankers responsible for territories of increasing size with each church counting each coin in its vault as a blessing unto itself. Temples are usually large, elaborately decorated buildings designed for not just worship but also banking and other services.
The priesthood sees their role as responsible for encouraging civilization, trade, and law by promoting cooperation and fairness and by providing loans and other banking services. They encourage thrift and neighborly behavior as a means to enhance each individual's self-interest. Their own service to the community may include pro-bono legal services but they do not donate healing services—except those that help overall community and public health.
Knowledge of the law and community news are important areas of concern and part of the daily routine to the priesthood. Younger members are expected to carry news and administer justice, typically carrying a golden bolt to compensate the family of any criminal executed.
The fishmen, but they're the rulers of the world anyway. Many of the inland banks are ran by humans and trolls though, because it's uncomfortable for the fishmen to live there.
Wizards secretly run everything from behind the scenes. Most nations have their own banks in one way or another, but mages are constantly trying to one-up each other by infiltrating every kind of established economic & political institution they can. There are only two things that competing high-level casters unite to dsal with: clumsy mages that might expose the great game to the unwashed masses, and the ever-present threat of technological innovations that could potentially rival magic. Nations that begin employing gunpowder on a large scale are often mysteriously destroyed, for example. One guy invented a flying machine that floated with a huge canvas balloon, but he was unfortunate enough to get swept up by a freak tornado, presumably with all of his notes on the design. A research team of gnomes who were determined to generate lightning with coils of metal and chemical reactions were all electrocuted in a tragic accident.
The list of mysterious mishaps goes on and on, but most people get the idea that magic is simply the safest and most reliable avenue of research for harnessing the power of nature.
>That's very
Fixed that for you
Fuck it, a few dragons have skin in the game now, too. This idea is simply too awesome to pass up.