Came up with this in another thread, discussing where all the gold we spend in the stores ends up -- thought I'd share it here as well.
biggrin Johnny K. Gambino may have been the most powerful man in Gaia, but he was by no means the richest.
You couldn't tell from first glance, but our sweet little
Bank Lady could very well be the greatest criminal mastermind Gaia has ever seen. She holds (quite literally) the keys to the system that keeps Gaia running: the bank vault, where all our gold is kept.
It's not as if everyone is carrying around thousands of gold coins in their pockets. Gold is HEAVY. So we keep it all in a bank account, and just keep track of how much we've got deposited in the vault. If you stop to think about it -- you never *actually* get to handle any of your gold, unless you're in the middle of a trade. And who's the one who handles trade transactions? You guessed it: Meredith.
Everything happens right there at the bank counter. She pulls a pile of gold out of the Vault. Both you and the trade recipient verify that the amount is correct. Then the gold goes RIGHT BACK IN THE VAULT!
Trying your luck at the casino? Lex wires the bank from the Token Booth, and Meredith transfers the sum from your account to the Gold Mountain Casino account. Lex gives you the appropriate amount of tokens. When you go to cash in your winnings at Prize & Joy, you don't get cash back -- just tickets. NO GOLD EVER CHANGES HANDS.
Buying something from the store? Again -- the shopkeeper wires the bank, and Meredith transfers the money between accounts.
Bidding in the Marketplace? Meredith
RUNS THAT TOO. She'll even hold your bids in escrow, so that you never have to worry about overdrawing your account.
So... where am I going with this?
Gaia currently has 4,516,137 inhabitants.
The vast majority of these inhabitants have at least one gold to their name. Many in fact have hundreds of thousands (or even millions!) of times more.
But at any given time, only a tiny fraction of them are actually physically handling any of their gold in an active trade. Let's be conservative, and say that on Mon Aug 28, 2006, at 9:22 pm, when there were 50,723 users active (the most ever!) -- everyone happened to open a trade, demanding that Meredith physically produce their gold at the teller window. Basically, a run on the bank.
That still leaves 4,465,414 inactive users with their gold sitting in some forgotten corner of the vault. That's over FOUR MILLION unattended bank accounts, at any given time. All day. Every day.
Now lets say (hypothetically speaking, of course) that Meredith wants to buy something really expensive. A halo for instance. Just, you know... for the heck of it. Current price estimations place the value of a halo somewhere on the order of the two hundred million gold.
So... Meredith skims a bit off of the inactive accounts.
45 gold per user, to be precise. That's the equivalent of one peasant top, and one pair of peasant pants. One or two long posts. Or a couple of polls. Would you even notice if that puny amount went missing? It wouldn't even have to be all at once. It could be over the course of weeks. Even months. Meredith is nothing if not patient. (See "Appendix B: Is Meredith an Immortal?" below)
But -- here's the kicker: you wouldn't ever even have to know. She could still tell you that all your gold was still there. The only way to know for sure would be to withdraw it all to make a trade -- but even then, our crafty Bank Lady could always temporarily make up the difference from one of the other four million or so accounts. The only way she could be caught would be if there were a complete run on the bank -- if
Every Single User simultaneously demanded to physically see their gold. But in that case, the smoke cloud from the burning servers would easily obscure her getaway.
Johnny K. Gambino may have been the most powerful man in Gaia, but pales in comparison to the most powerful
woman in Gaia.
So why doesn't she do it? Grab all the money and run? Retire to her own private island? Well, it could very well destroy the Gaian economy, if her actions got out of hand. Inflation marches higher with each new post, and any lack of confidence in the gold standard could bring the Exchange to a screeching halt. Unlike the Gambino family, Meredith understands the consequences of the power she wields.
/equip [Tinfoil Hat]
Appendix A: Meredith's Body Double
The NPCs many of you newer members recognize as "Ian" and "Meredith" are in fact not Ian and Meredith, but body doubles hired to maintain the appearance that they are continuing with business as usual.
(
Before and
After)
The whereabouts of the
real Meredith and Ian are currently unknown. Speculation has ranged from secret crimefighting identities to some sinister , as-of-yet unimplemented evil plan that may or may not involve the Rockpuppy. Some even say that Meredith did indeed clear out the bank (with Ian's assistance -- he is a known candy-stealer, after all), leaving only a tiny fraction of gold behind to keep up appearances, and is currently hiding out in a heavily fortified mansion east of Aekea, protected by an army of illegal bots.
Appendix B: Is Meredith an Immortal?
Supporters of this claim point to
This Photograph, taken in October of 2003 as evidence that Meredith is in fact not human, but in fact a member of a powerful Vampire clan.
Furthermore, adherents to the "body double" theory cite the fact that that Meredith herself has never been seen outside of the shadowy interior of the bank, and even her replacement is rarely spotted out and about.
Furthermore, the conversion of Barton Town's church into a Guild Hall has eliminated the only potential source of holy water and crucifixes -- key weapons in any vampire hunter's arsenal. Such speculation could easily be proved or disproven by examining Meredith's official birth certificate, but unfortunately (or perhaps, conveniently???), all records were lost with the destruction of the Barton Town Library. (By none other then Jack, another dweller of the night!)
Meredith's
Profile currently lists her date of birth as October 14, 2243.
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