"My dear, I need you to run down the street to Sattar's shop, and tell him I'm calling in the debt for 10 nails. If he gives you any trouble over it, tell him he has a smack coming to him."

-Rug Merchant, Mahya Teymoori

Merchant Upbringing

Merchants are the salesmen, mongers, caravanners, and traders who make up the trading economy in any country. Unlike the Artisans, they tend not to produce the goods they sell or trade, and unlike the Bourgeois, they don't have any or much real property or capital behind them. They fill the town squares, agoras, and marketplaces across Adra, and serve as the middlemen between goods in one place and consumers in another.

          Merchant Upbringings tend to be filled with travel and movement - often merchants move from town to town, trading wares in one only to purchase cheaper goods from another and bring them to sell in a third. Even the more stationary shopkeepers will often have to travel at least momentarily to facilitate deals with their suppliers in other places. Furthermore, Merchants often have their children serve in their shops or caravans, carrying merchandise, minding the shop, or running calculations if they are particularly sharp. These skills often leave an imprint on those who had the upbringing later in life, though this sometimes can manifest in a distaste for mercantile matters.

          Characters from a Merchant Upbringing will have a useful tool leftover from their parents or guardians: a Masterwork Lockbox. This lockbox was used by your family to keep any coin or very valuable goods locked up safe, to prevent any petty thieves from taking the family wealth. The box has a fine lock that requires a DC 20 Thieves' Tools check to open, or a DC 30 Athletics check to wrench open. It has convenient slots that allow coins to be inserted without opening the box. It can hold 1,000 coins of any denomination, or a combination of denominations, or it could hold a small amount of other types of small goods (such as gems or silverware). It weighs 10lbs empty, and 30lbs when full.

If you choose the Merchant Upbringing, you gain the following:

~Either a +1 to your Wisdom score or a +1 to your Charisma score~

~A -1 to your Dexterity score~

~A language of your choice, one taught to you by a parent, guardian, or mentor from your upbringing~

~A Sub-Discipline in every social skill on checks dealing with other members of Merchant Upbringing~

~A Masterwork Lockbox from your family's old business~

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