Quartz 4

Dockworkers Union of Valinport

2 min read

Dockworkers Union of Valinport

Synopsis

The hands that move Valinport’s wealth, bound together for protection, profit, and quiet defiance.

What People Know

The Dockworkers Union of Valinport represents those who load ships, unload cargo, mend nets, and keep the docks running day and night. To most citizens, the Union is a necessary fixture—loud, insistent, and occasionally disruptive, but impossible to ignore.

The Union negotiates wages, settles disputes, and ensures that dockworkers who are injured, widowed, or blacklisted do not simply vanish. Life on the docks is still hard, but without the Union it would be unbearable.

Many guards and merchants complain about them. None try to operate the docks without them.

Influence

The Union controls labor, and labor controls trade.

Work slowdowns, missed tides, or “misplaced” cargo can ripple through Valinport in a matter of days. Officially, the Union denies responsibility for anything illegal. Unofficially, everyone understands that the docks run on favors as much as coin.

The Union is widely believed to be under the influence of the Thieves Guild of Valinport, though nothing has ever been proven.

Goals

Public

  • Secure fair wages and safer conditions for dockworkers

  • Protect workers from abuse by merchants and officials

  • Ensure dock families can live prosperous, stable lives

Private

  • Undermine the entrenched power structures of Valinport

  • Shift real control of the docks away from nobles and officials

  • Ensure the city cannot function without Union consent

Headquarters

  • Union Hall – A reinforced stone-and-timber building near the docks in Valinport

Key Members

Values

  • Fairness

  • Solidarity

  • Mutual protection

Anathema

  • Oppression

  • Exploitation of workers

  • Breaking Union solidarity

Those who betray the Union rarely work the docks again.

Reputation

Among dockworkers, the Union is life-saving.

Among merchants, it is dangerous.

Among city officials, it is a problem that cannot be solved openly.

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