Six Days Six Lessons, Three Brothers (2)

Returning to the tent the next day, Cyrus was this time led by Tribum. While one would be hard pressed to tell them apart as they took it upon themselves to act, dress, and even wear their facial hair in a similar manner. With his keen eye, however, it had been noticed that the length of their beards were in fact different….

Tribum, not knowing of the comical thoughts going through his one-day student's mind, led Cyrus to a large table that had various assorted objects set up on them.

"In each city there will be an entertainment district, of that there is no doubt. The Empire is extremely interested in supporting any merchant who deals in this sort of stuff. Long has imperial power learned the hazard of having a ton of citizens locked up behind towering city walls with no outlet for their accumulated stress and with such lessons learned they actively support all sorts of interesting things to do."

He then pointed towards each of the items on the table,

"Art from an artisans guild, glasswork from a crafts district, delicious treats that can survive long travel known as candy, and piles of fictional work written by authors around the clock. Each and every one of these items is but a small piece of product sold by the powerful merchant families, groups and guilds. Not only is this great because it allows entertainment-philes like me to get all I need from almost anywhere, it is also an important source of revenue for the Empire itself. Not to mention this wealth is not sitting around doing nothing as these wealthy merchants will often hire Venators to fetch rare materials, sign contracts with Legionaries to protect their caravans or supply lines, and even hire mages to join them in research to help them create the next hot product to sell to the market."

Realization dawned in Cyrus' eyes as he understood exactly where he stood to benefit from this piece of information, of the possible profits he could earn if he so chose.

"Clever as the imperials are, they restricted how many combat personnel any one merchant can have. Doing this makes it so that the merchants will readily throw money left and right to other outlets of imperial society so that they can continue their profits and meet the fearsome demand of the Empire's citizens. Anyone who has a knack for combat can easily find themselves paid more than enough to guard a supply line, to protect a caravan, or to venture out into the unknown looking for certain materials."

Tribum then explained the many different types of entertainment guilds and how they classified and ran themselves. From pleasure guilds, who specialized in rather pleasing physical sensations of one kind or another, to the Horruit, a group of merchants who deal in vicious and bloody gladiatorial fights or awe-inspiring duels of intense skill. Cyrus took in all the information and pondered on the many ways that he could seek the benefit from it. After which he was pulled into yet another game of Ur, this time faring far better than before.