The Ophirian League considers comparison with the other organizations within Suburba insulting. It is, according to its own charter, a professional association established to preserve orderly commerce in Suburba.
Their merchants have made their fortunes from whatever scavengers drag home from the world above. The League certifies provenance, maintains standards of assay, provides credit, arbitrates contracts, organizes auctions, and connects salvage to buyers throughout Deshret. It also fixes prices, blacklists competitors, corners commodities, and has arranged enough convenient bankruptcies that most independent traders eventually discover the virtues of membership. Just like any good cartel!
At its summit are the Merchant Princes, fabulously wealthy by Suburban standards and surrounded by factors, clerks, brokers, debtors, and clients. And then of course the League has their Serjeants - and unlike the militias and irregular muscle employed by local factions, Serjeants are salaried professionals equipped and trained at the League's expense. They guard warehouses and auctions, escort valuable salvage, accompany Merchant Princes and intervene when commercial disputes threaten League interests. Serjeants cultivate a deliberately respectable appearance, but it's all really semantic and they're mostly thugs pretending to be something they're not.