Three guildmasters who rule the Guild Concord — and despise each other — bound together only by the vast profits of the Heartwood trade and the fear that disunity would let the Aurean Throne seize their power.
The Triune Council consists of: Magister Valerius Kane of the Amber Guild (ruthless, meticulous, controls the amber-diver contracts); Lord-Merchant Dorna Salt of the Salt-Reach Syndicate (controls shipping and docks, rumoured to have sunk rival fleets in "storms"); and Master Artis Greymantle of the Ironwood Charter (a dwarf of few words, whose craftsmen are the only people alive who can work ironwood). They meet once per season in a rotating, neutral location; each meeting begins with poisoned-taster checks and ends with a new round of quiet betrayals. The Concord's internal cold war is the worst-kept secret in the empire.