Blue Cooperative of Margade

The Blue Cooperative is the largest and most powerful of the Cooperatives of Margade. A large and tangled network of shopkeepers, workers and gangsters, its membership is dominated by the workers of the Central Docks.

History
The Blues were one of the regiments of worker-militias raised when eastern barbarians attacked the Appanage of Mar, and fought their way to the very walls of Margade City. In the wake of the barbarians' defeat, and the attempts of merchants to force their disarmament and disbandment, a ferocious one-year conflict known as the Calamity of Margade broke out.

About nine months after the fighting had started, Tamus, Prince of Mar sent emissaries in an attempt to end the conflict, and the result was a split among the previously united Five Regiments. While the Reds, Grens and Whites decided to accept the offer, the most powerful regiment - namely the Yellows - refused to negotiate, and in this they were supported by the Blues.

For nearly a month, the situation in the city teetered on the brink of war; the Prince commanded the Reds, Greens and Whites to prepare for war against the Yellows, in return for receiving most of their territory within the city. Just a few days before the attack was to start, however, the Blues struck first, slaughtering the Yellow leadership at a meeting later known as the Blood-washing of the Peach Hall (the Peach Hall being the Yellows' headquarters). The Prince promptly granted the Blues all the territory of the Yellows, increasing their strength enormously, and earning them the lasting hatred of the other three cooperatives.