Axel Moorcraft
Financier
“I wish no man ill; a monthly repayment at five percent is worth more to me than a deceased estate. I wish all my debtors a long, productive life.”
The notion that money cannot buy happiness is personified by Axel Moorcraft, who is both the richest and dourest man in Devlin’s Dower. Florid and hale, he squints at you from beneath furrowed brows, as if you owe him money. He writes in a tiny notebook with the shortest stub of a pencil that you have ever seen, constantly tallying debts owed to him and performing elaborate calculations of compounding interest.
Once a humble farmer, Moorcraft’s enterprises expanded rapidly, encompassing mercantile trading and moneylending. Styling himself as the first bank of Devlin’s Dower, in reality he trades in debt, loaning money freely during lean seasons before converting it into significant stakes in many farms and smallholdings. He wields the influence this has garnered him to further expand his power, forcing his own appointment to the Town Council.
A while ago, Moorcraft purchased and restored one of the oldest and largest dwellings in the Dower, renaming it Moorcraft Manor. He has developed an interest in history and now collects antiquities. He employs a browbeaten serving girl called Lobelia.