Emerald Dragon: Old Foes, New Clash

“Narco lords” by Arute (@ast05water)

Anna rarely has any true enemies. Will Harrison is one of them. He’s been plaguing Anna ever since our queen discovered the existence of the Exalted, of which he was once a member. He was her first truly international enemy, and the only one that managed to best and humiliate her, dealing severe economic harm to Arendelle.

When she ascended to the Exalted’s leadership not too long ago, Anna managed to return the favour by expelling him from the secret society. But since then, he’s grown wealthier and more powerful. And he’s on the hunt.

Now, as Anna rises in stature and authority among the world powers, he would love nothing more than to drag Anna down and reduce Arendelle to his private fiefdom.

Will Harrison and his equally ruthless secretary, Tiffany Hunsecker, are back. And they plan to make Anna’s life hell.

*

Will Harrison

Born on a vast Virginia plantation and enjoying every privilege offered to an American First Family member, Will Harrison is one of the most dangerous and despised foes in the queen of Arendelle’s gallery of enemies. Among the few American seafaring tai-pans that have outclassed the British in the opium trade throughout Asia and China, Harrison built a commercial empire on addiction and misery, and maintains his trading advantages over his corporate foes with his vast private fleet, led by his flagship Enslaver.

His greed for Arendelle’s trading rights with China drove him to clash with its queen last year. His ruthlessness and private navy won out back then, but karma has a way of making one eat equivalent humble pie. Despite suffering expulsion from the Exalted by Anna, Harrison has learned all the wrong lessons from losing his membership. His privilege and success have gone to his head, and he can only see Arendelle as a resource to be milked, or an enemy whose sister-queens he must subdue. He also despises Kristoff, who once went toe to toe in a corporate war with his Arendellian proxy, Lars Krogh of Skau-Krogh, Bjorgman’s main rival.

But, as hard as it is to imagine, it gets worse with this opium dealer.

To consolidate his smuggling routes across the seas and rivers of Asia, Harrison has recruited the Floodgate triads, the deadliest faction in the criminal underworld of China, to help him. Sabotage, racketeering, human and drug trafficking, ransom, and assassination: they do the works, and no one does it better than them. There’s nothing that the Floodgate won’t do for the right price. Promised a share of Harrison’s incredible wealth, they’ve become the long, illegal reach of the tai-pan, raiding and forcing the closures of rival companies, holding sway in colonial ports, and intimidating the government of British Hong Kong while corrupting its law enforcement with bribes and kickbacks.

With his power so deeply embedded in local networks throughout the Celestial Empire and the world, Harrison resolves to crush Anna anew, setting his hungry sights once more on making Arendelle his financial playground.

Harrison has always acted with impunity – until Anna became queen. Now she’s in his way.

Tiffany Hunsecker

“Heaven save the ladies, how they dress! We have seen more colors in these ten minutes than we should have seen elsewhere in as many days. What various parasols! What rainbow silks and satins! What pinking of thin stockings, and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk tassels, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings!”

– A Traveller’s New York Diary, 1842 

Although nominally Harrison’s underling, Tiffany Hunsecker operates and talks on an equal basis with her boss, and is perhaps even more ruthless and calculating in business and war. Born to a clan that stepped off the earliest ships to the North American continent, her prestigious family hailed from Switzerland and built their fortune from hunting and selling furs. The Hunsecker love of the hunt remains strong in Tiffany. Her mink coats and leather handbags help her get her message across and rub her wealth and power in the faces of her enemies: “Your feeble laws can’t touch me.”

The world is a chessboard and life is a game, but in the glamorous private clubs and opera halls of Manhattan, Tiffany is deadly serious when holding court on behalf of her boss. Some corporate rivals wonder whether Tiffany and Harrison share a bond beyond her job contract, be it romantic or platonic. “Let them speculate,” thinks Tiffany, as she calmly buys up their properties on Fifth Avenue and shorts their stocks, bankrupting entire communities in a day and plunging whole families into unemployment. “All I know is that I like working for Mr. Harrison.” All in a day’s work for Tiffany: to strengthen the Harrison cartel of opium smugglers.

She’s bought off the city council and the senators representing her city. She has many policemen on her payroll. She’s set her sights on roping in Congress and the Senate for Harrison’s growing opium empire. America isn’t large enough for the two of them, but Arendelle is still a worthy prize.

Despite her vanity and gauche passion for conspicuous consumption, she’s feared by Arendelle’s allies. She’s a highly competent naval officer and commands the Enslaver flagship when Harrison isn’t available. She defeated the Duke of Weselton handily, and supervised Kristoff’s business rival Lars during their corporate war in Arendelle. She watched with interest as Bjorgman survived the onslaught of Lars’ company, eventually triumphing over it. Harrison might not think much of Anna, but Tiffany is wary. “Anna is unlike any other monarch we’ve dealt with, and is the current leader of the Exalted,” she muses to herself.

It will take more than the usual gunboats to break the queen of Arendelle.