Summary

The web content discusses the Azurite character class in the tabletop RPG "Spire: The City Must Fall," and its expansion "Spire: Strata," emphasizing the game's unique approach to commerce and money as a central theme, reflecting on real-world economic ideologies.

Abstract

"Spire: The City Must Fall" and its expansion "Spire: Strata" introduce the Azurite character class, which embodies the sacredness of commerce within the game's universe. Azurites possess abilities that allow them to engage in mystical transactions, such as buying time or power, and even converting physical damage into financial loss. The game's mechanics treat money as a resource akin to health or sanity, with financial stress leading to consequences like debt or destitution. The "Society of Silver" cult from "Strata" further explores the theme of commerce as a form of reality-shaping power, with members who believe in the transformative nature of money and engage in unregulated market practices that mirror anarcho-capitalist ideologies. The Ironshrike market scenario serves as a critique of extreme transactionalism, drawing parallels to the chaotic and often cruel nature of unchecked free-market economies, and by extension, the political and economic climate of the United States during the Trump administration.

Opinions

The Azurite's abilities, such as "Gold-Blooded" and "Buy Anything," reflect a literal interpretation of commerce as a mystical force, suggesting a critique of the power of money in society.
The game's approach to money as a stress track alongside health and sanity is seen as a unique mechanic that emphasizes the importance of financial resources in the game world.
The "Society of Silver" is portrayed as an extreme representation of real-world anarcho-capitalists, highlighting the dangers of unregulated markets and the commodification of all aspects of life.

The Azurite character class portrait from **Spire: The City must Fall**.

Character Creation Challenge

Everything is For Sale and We Are Ruled by a Cult of Money

Spire: The City Must Fall + Spire: Strata

“The Azurites have devoted their lives to buying and selling. Clad in their trademark blue robes (and adorned with blue scarves, hats, buckles, flowers and jewelry) they make a habit of buying low and selling high, maintaining an awareness of the markets, and knowing precisely who to sell what to.”

— Spire: The City Must Fall, page 99

To an Azurite, commerce is sacred. Azurites adorn themselves with vestments that identify them as something more than mere merchants. If most character classes in Spire are types of cleric, Azurites are clerics of money.

An Azurite can buy things that aren’t normally for sale. For example, the Gold-Blooded Ability lets them take “financial damage” instead of bodily damage if they get stabbed or whatever. Spire’s magic is bizarre like that.

A completed Azurite for the Character Creation Challenge.

You could interpret Gold Blooded literally. Maybe the knife hit the Azurite’s purse, spilling money. Or, maybe the knife miraculously failed to pierce the skin, but when the Azurite checks their purse later, it’s lighter than before. Either way, it’s a miracle that the Azurite paid for with cold, hard cash.

Other Azurite Abilities take mystical transactionalism further. Buy Friends, Buy Loyalty, and Buy Power all let them magically make connections on a personal, community, or city level. Buy Some Time lets them travel a minute in the past, at no small expense. With Buy Anything, the Azurite can buy or sell “skills, memories, stress marks, injuries, relationships, time, etc”. To a powerful Azurite, almost everything in existence is potentially for sale.

Mechanically, money doesn’t work in Spire like it does in traditional RPGs. Players don’t keep track of exact currency. Instead, money is treated just like bodily health or peace of mind. By default, everyone has enough Blood, Mind, Silver, etc to survive. Buying something substantial might apply Silver stress the same way lifting something that’s too heavy might apply Blood stress. Azurite Abilities apply Silver stress too, because everything has a price.

“Each time a player character takes stress, the GM checks for fallout — to see if there’s any kind of on-going, serious effect at play.” When a character suffers Silver Fallout, instead of Bleeding or Dying, they become a Debtor or Destitute. Where a Minor Blood Fallout will cause continuing Blood loss, a Minor Silver Fallout forces you to do a favor for an NPC you owe. Where a Severe Blood Fallout will have you bleed out in the middle of the street, a Severe Silver Fallout sees you murdered by whoever you failed to pay back. Few games let players explore transactionalism so literally.

But Spire’s financial literalism doesn’t stop there. The Strata supplement introduces more monetary bedlam. The Society of Silver believes, “If a little silver disc can become a meal, a drug, or a weapon, then silver is like the stuff that underpins all reality — and to spend it is to create reality”.

Basically, they worship money. Their shotguns fire coins. The Invisible Hand Ability lets the cultist (and they are a cult) take on Silver stress for an extra die when they roll to Compel or Deceive. Their “leader” is whichever cultist has the most wealth at the time. Obviously, they’re insane.

“A shark-headed, swollen-bellied god of cannibal commerce reigns over Ironshrike market.” — from **Spire: Strata**.

The Society runs a market called Ironshrike, which is also the name of the scenario in which it’s featured. It is a destination for the most desperate of sellers, who hawk whatever they can to survive. To the Society, “Ironshrike is a sacred place, where the flow of unrestrained, cut-throat commerce glorifies and nourishes their strange deity”.

One of the scenario’s gimmicks is that an item might cause Reputation or Mind stress instead of Silver. This isn’t a mystical thing. It means the item is cheap, but the seller might blab about your purchase to the wrong people. Or maybe you find blood on the jewelry you bought, costing you Mind by making you wonder if you’ve now encouraged another violent mugging. Again, Spire finds a poignant angle from which to explore commerce.

A random table from **Strata**, page 161.

But the Society of Silver is more than just Azurites turned up to 11. They also worship the carnage and chaos of a market without rules or regulation. They believe that desperation, degradation, and depression are natural parts of commerce.

The best RPGs are metaphors for the evils of the real world. Obviously the Society of Silver represents real world anarcho-capitalists. Ironshrike, both the scenario and the market, is a stand-in for the blood-soaked nightmare known as the American free market.

Extreme transactionalism is fascinating to explore when it’s not real world policy, like it was in the U.S. for four years. It was inevitable a craven mercenary would sit in the White House. To Trump, everything was potentially for sale. We need more land? Let’s buy Iceland. You want us to stay in the UN? Pay up. You want protection from Russia, Ukraine? Do me a favor. You want us to support your side in a civil war? Give us the oil.

But Trump didn’t want free markets. He wanted captured markets, under his DIRECT rule. No wonder the Koch Brothers didn’t like him. For decades they’ve been molding America into a society in which everything is for sale, nothing is free, and consumer protections don’t exist. Some call that Anarcho-Capitalism, but anarchists will tell you it has nothing to do with anarchism. Ultra-libertarians like the Kochs just want a hierarchy based purely on wealth. Some would call that oligarchy. Or plutocracy. Or feudalism.

But Trump’s ideal economy would be even worse. Like Ironshrike, Trump’s economy would be a brutal reality show “where the wild forces of profit, loss, competition and ruin unfold their endless dramas”. It would be designed for maximum cruelty. Ironshrike made real.