ESB-Jörmungandr Group

The ESB-Jörmungandr Group of Teldrin of Upper Lunaris is a trading company under warrant of the Kingdom of Goldshire. The ESB Group remit is to serve as a Joint Stock Company trading in goods, commodities and services on the Benacian Continent.

Logo of the ESB-Jörmungandr Group

The company was established by articles of association signed by Thorgils Tarjeisson, Daniel Dravot & Dr Ernst Cryptsinger on Izillare, 2 Gevrader 1634, at the saloon bar of the Bethlem Hotel, Teldrin.

One tenth of all profits derived by the activities of the ESB Group are remitted to the Queen of Goldshire, Noor bint Daniyal Ayreon-Kalirion ibn al-Majeed bin Sathrati af Ettlingum Freyu.

Headquarters

The Seat of the Board of Directors is stipulated to be in Teldrin, Upper Lunaris, Goldshire and corporate offices have been established in the suites of the the Bethlem Hotel (Formerly Bethlem Lunatic Asylum).

The Group also in 1635 commenced the construction of the 'Sanitorium' in Teldrin as a fortified residential cantonment for employees based in Lunaris who wished to retain their sanity in the midst of a population of habitual lunatics. It is expected that the headquarters of the company will relocate to a suite of offices in the Sanitorium once construction is completed in 1637.

Organisation

The Group is organised into seven Directorates subordinate to the Board of Directors, these being:

Directorate	Function	Employees
Secretariat:	Reports to the Secretary to the Board of Directors. Supporting the Board of Directors of the ESB Group in following the obligations enjoined by the Articles of Association and the Grand Ducal Warrant upon the aforesaid board. Additional duties include the Organisation and Internal Governance of the Group and it's directorates. Prospectors and Observers, both resident and itinerant, report directly to the Secretary of the Board of Directors and thus belong under the Secretariat's Pay-Roll.	997
Directorate of Commodity Services:	Production, import and export of all goods, commodities and services to and from Teldrin as well as supplementary trades in any and all jurisdictions.	4,324
Directorate of Logistic Services:	Maintenance of Harbour and Transport Facilities.	2,723
Directorate of Outsourcing Services:	Administration of public bodies on behalf of Government.	154
Directorate of Financial Services:	Administration of revenues, banking for clients & and the allocation of capital within the ESB-Jörmungandr Group.	3,625
Directorate of Security	Close Protection of ESB Group corporate officers, personnel and property	1,002
Euran Directorate	Military and political aid to the Kingdom of Constancia	Classified

Business Activities

Contract	Contract Value	ESB Directorate	Awarding Authority	Activity	Year Awarded	Contract Duration
Teldrin Trade Monopoly	No Fixed Value	Commodity Services	Kingdom of Goldshire	Monopoly on all goods, commodities and services to and from Teldrin	1634	In perpetuity subject to per annum remittance of ten percent of all profits to the Crown
Teldrin Mint	12.2M Teldrin Thalers (Th)	Financial Services	Worshipful Corporation of Aldermen for the City of Teldrin	Production and Circulation of Teldrin Thalers	1634	10 Elw Years
Teldrin Transport Docks Board Ltd	2.795M Th	Logistic Services	Worshipful Corporation of Aldermen for the City of Teldrin	Management of Teldrin Dock & Associated Warehouses	1634	7 Elw Years
Imperial & Emirati Bank of Alalehzamin	400M Th	Financial Services	Emirati Government of Alalehzamin and Utasia	Banking Services to the Emirate of Alalehzamin & Utasia	1634	10 Elw Years
Bountiful Harvest Ltd	16M Th	Financial Services	Emirati Government of Alalehzamin & Utasia	Management of the 400M Th Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Emirate	1634	20 Elw Years
Boat Yards of Teldrin Ltd	3.96B Th	Logistic Services	MoMA	In-Service Maintenance of the eleven Duchy Class Destroyers of the Imperial Shirerithian Navy	1635	12 Elw Years
Royal Government of Goldshire	No Fixed Value	Outsourcing Services	Kingdom of Goldshire	Public Administration	1635	In perpetuity, subject to Royal discretion
Boat Yards of Amity Ltd	3.48B Th	Logistic Services	MoMA	Construction and In-Service Maintenance of the three Poltroon Class Submarines of the Imperial Shirerithian Navy	1635	12 Elw Years
Amity Ports Authority Ltd	No Fixed Value	Outsourcing Services	Emirate of Amity, Mirioth & So-Sara	Construction and civil administration of the dockyards operated by the Boat Yards of Amity Ltd	1635	12 Elw Years with options to lease back facilities
Shrubway (Shireroth) Ltd	No Fixed Value	Financial Services	Church of Minarbor/Third State Arbour (Empire of Minarboria)	Franchising authority for vendors of the Shrubway fast-food chain in the Imperial Republic of Shireroth	1635	Yearly renewal, subject to remission of 12% percent of profits per annum to the Church of Minarbor.
County of Ran Public Insurance & Cudgelling Ltd	2M Th	Outsourcing Services	Count of Ran	Property Insurance, Public Administration, Emergency Services and Law Enforcement	1636	For duration of the Count's tenure of office.
South Sea (Ura'Bos) Company Ltd	No Fixed Value	Commodity Services	The Kaiser	Plantation of a Colony onto the Imperial Dominion of Ura'Bos for the purpose of trade with Natopia	1636	In perpetuity, subject to Imperial oversight.
ESB Imports	17.9B Th	Commodity Services	Imperial Forces Union Defence Force Goldshire Regulars	The reassembly, reverse engineering and unlicensed reproduction of military hardware acquired from sources of dubious veracity.	1639	10 Years
Cedrocomando S.A.	39.5B Erb	Outsourcing Services	Ministry of Military Affairs	The creation of the Cedrocomando Security Force within the Shirerithian Condominium of Greater Tellia.	1641	10 Years

Personnel

As of 1635 the ESB Group employed 12,828 members of staff, not counting contractors, sub-contractors and short-term hires. 9,046 were reported to be resident in Goldshire. 3,601 were domiciled in the Emirate of Alalehzamin & Utasia. 181 members of staff were reported as domiciled in Shirekeep for tax purposes.

Board of Directors

Director's Name	Post	Area of Operations	Employee Number
Thorgils Tarjeisson	Chairman & Director of Commodity Services	Ardashirshahr, Alalehzamin and Utasia	1634-001
Daniyal Dravot	Director of Logistic Services & the Directorate of Security	Teldrin, Goldshire	1634-002
Deimos Jasonides	Secretary to the Board of Directors, Director of Financial Services & Outsourcing	Teldrin, Goldshire	1634-004
Marcellus Paixhans	Director of the Euran Directorate	Constanica	1635-01003

Notable Employees

Employee Name	Post	Area of Operations	Employee Number
Deimos Jasonides	Secretary to the Board of Directors	Teldrin, Goldshire	1634-004
Huldah Llynadorion (f.)	Resident Observer	Duchy of Raikoth	1634-148
Laqi Hyrrion (dec'd)	Itinerant Observer	Lichbrook & Minarboria	1634-902

Notable Former Employees

Reginald Smythe (Employee Number 1635-346), a prospector assigned to the Southern Islands was kidnapped by the Tegong of Jingdao and his body mutilated in a manner consistent with an internal bomb blast before his remains were deposited at the scene of a staged suicide bombing in the Imperial Assembly of Epoli. As a consequence of the abduction and murder of one of its employees the ESB Group in late 1635 created the Security Directorate to improve the safety of its workforce, at home and overseas.

Ernst Cryptsinger (Employee Number 1634-003), one of the founding partners of the company, Doctor Cryptsinger served as Director of Finance and Outsourcing before becoming Martial Law Administrator of Goldshire. He was caught in Goldshire Hamlet when a mutiny swept the Goldshire Regulars and died defending the Palace at Goldshire Hamlet whilst various heirlooms and artefacts were evacuated by order of Queen Noor.

Controversies

Some jurisdictions have questioned the presence of paid Observers in their ports - considering them to be either a nuisance on a par with impertinent news correspondents or else as poorly disguised practitioners of industrial espionage.

Although the ESB-Jörmungandr Group has no openly declared rivals its monopoly on trade with Teldrin is not favourably thought of by would-be competitors. This, together with encouraging the River Trade bound between Shirekeep and Musica on the Red Elwynn to accept hospitality at Teldrin and for their Erb to be exchanged for Thalers in the pubs, hotels and brothels of the town whilst the goods they carried were repackaged for export under the ESB label, for which a fee was charged, has been considered by some to amount to sharp practice.

By operating the Teldrin Mint the ESB-Jörmungandr Group is also reported to have incurred the enmity of the Assayers of the Avakair Mint who consider the project to be little more than a systematic attempt to debase and supplant the hallowed gold-standard of currencies with worthless fiat money.

Operation Ithaca

Operation Ithaca commenced in 1636 when the ESB-Jörmungandr Group received a licence from the Basileusa of Constanica to mount an expedition to the city of Vey in the interior of the Euran Continent, for the purposes of examining a ruined Babkhan ziggurat as part of the Secretariat's ongoing Industrial Archaeology Programme - which focused primarily on salvaging technology from the many ruined civilisations of Micras. This expedition also marked the first overseas deployment of the Directorate of Security, to provide close protection for the archaeologists, at a time of heightened tensions between Jingdao and Constanica.

There were however critics of the operation who maintained that it served primarily as a cover for quasi-covert deliveries of weapons, munitions and spares, as well as technical experts and advisers to prop-up the Constancian Armed Forces during their war with the Empire of Jingdao.[1]

Furthermore the Euran War had, during the course of 1636, to eat away at the otherwise very healthy profit margins of the organisation. Leading to some internal discussion within the organisation as to whether the growth orientated business model was being undermined by increasingly political considerations.

A ESB-Jörmungandr charted cargo plane landing at Vey International Airport

The ESB Group neither confirmed nor denied that the disturbances on Walstadt in 1636[2], which resulted in the sinking of an ESB owned barque - the Seahawk, was a cover for an attempt on the life of the Jingdaoese Emperor. The Emperor, it should be noted, was siezed by a mob and decapitated by persons unknown, during the course of the brief tumult.