An organized crime group is a bit like an extended family. a little like a merchant house, and a lot like a den of vipers. But what really distinguishes them from merchant houses and corporations and extended families are their business: crime. Organized crime syndicates engage in structured illegal activities; where desirable goods and services are illegal or just heavily taxed (subversive literature, intoxicating beverages, mind-altering substances), one or more organized crime groups will organize a black market to link buyers up to their illegal goods. While the nature of technology and currency has changed, the mentality behind breaking the laws for personal gain remains the same. While an organized crime syndicate might present a unified front to outsiders and rival gangs, they'll stab one another in the back, but only after they've robbed everyone else blind.
Who the Organized Crime isAn organized crime outfit can be a diverse collection of lowlifes. Many of the members are related, either through blood or through shared experiences, and in many cases, share a similar clade, ethnicity, religion, and the like, and when they aren't "adoption" is a common way around it. They use the language of the outfit and the street, which can be a dense and sometimes difficult to parse jargon that only finds its way into the popular culture after it's gone out of fashion, and depending on the outfit, may refer to other members using familial terminology - brother is a very common one. Some members may be distinguished from nonmember partners and allies in conversation as "family" as opposed to "friends of ours."
Low-level mafiosi have a high portion of brutes, cutpurses, and killers, with a liberal addition of assassins and agents; shopkeepers (especially those of the same ethnicity when the criminal gang is an ethnic one) and business men to maintain fronts; and politicians and sometimes leaders of organized labor to help ensure that policies friendly to the family get passed. They may even include members of the local police force or guard, depending on how corrupt the society is. In some seriously corrupt societies - often called kleptocracies, which are the final sad, tragic devolution of an oligarchy - it can be almost impossible to tell the criminals from the legitimate authorities. A number of places in the Verge and Bleed are like this, from the various minor players in the Lucullus League to a number of major players within the Verge and Bleed. In all these cases, the society is run by organized crime syndicates. How these societies arise is a fascinating field of subject; often times, the society is on the backslide anyway, and so one day the populace wakes up to find the government has completely collapsed, and the criminal syndicate, which held positions high in the government, are left with the responsibility of actually becoming the government proper. This has happened quite a few times, and in those instances where the syndicate adapts and manages to institute a proper authoritarian dictatorship, they can survive. In those where they don't, the syndicate is quickly destroyed by the local population in a revolution. Yordam is arguably an example of this in action, although sociologists contest this and say there's more to Yordam and Murat than meets the eye. Organized crime syndicates can reliably get up to Rank 4 or 5. Now and again, a capo di tutti capi can unify enough of the criminal organizations to justify a Rank 6 or even Rank 7, but their reigns are typically shorted and followed by long interregnums where gangs and members fight one another. |
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What Organized crime Want
Money. Above all else, they want money, and they want power, and they want influence, and since those three things are often interconnected, they'll do anything to get any one of those three. Usually, they discover violence is a fast way to get what they want, and is a reliable way as well.
Although they tend to have a highly urban focus, especially around major cities (which is where people who can buy and sell are), one shouldn't discount the possibility of finding them elsewhere. After all, organized crime has to adapt to the New Urbanism meme just like governments and national economies do, and this meme presents its own pros and cons for organized crime. After all, it's easier to influence a smaller community but at the same time, it's also easier to get on the bad side of a small community as well, and omnipresent privacy-invading government surveillance is often replaced with omnipresent privacy-invading neighboring surveillance, which is arguably the worst and best kind for crime. Small communities also make easy targets for money nano-cleansing operations, since issues of IP ownership within these communities can be problematic, and it's easier to seize control over a small group of people than a large one.
Although they tend to have a highly urban focus, especially around major cities (which is where people who can buy and sell are), one shouldn't discount the possibility of finding them elsewhere. After all, organized crime has to adapt to the New Urbanism meme just like governments and national economies do, and this meme presents its own pros and cons for organized crime. After all, it's easier to influence a smaller community but at the same time, it's also easier to get on the bad side of a small community as well, and omnipresent privacy-invading government surveillance is often replaced with omnipresent privacy-invading neighboring surveillance, which is arguably the worst and best kind for crime. Small communities also make easy targets for money nano-cleansing operations, since issues of IP ownership within these communities can be problematic, and it's easier to seize control over a small group of people than a large one.
What Organized Crime can Provide
Criminals can offer a wide range of services for members and those who are in good standing with them, as can any organized crime family, such as:
- Accommodations.
- Backup and support.
- Favors.
- Hideouts. Organized crime is very good at doing this
- Immunity.
- Legal and Political support.
- Provisions.
- Special orders. It's remarkably what gets left lying around, unclaimed, at space ports.
- Transportation and Vehicles.
Rank
0 1 2 3 4 5 |
Title
Solider Footpad Made Man Underboss Boss Overboss |
Advantages
Rank 0, Holdout, Smuggling, or Streetwise at Attribute-1 Rank 1, Hiding or Shadowing at Attribute-1 Rank 2, Holdout, Smuggling, or Streetwise at Attribute Rank 3, Allies (Varies) Rank 4, Economics or Finance IQ-1, Leadership IQ-1 Rank 5, often Legal Immunity, Leadership IQ |
Black Markets and Red MarketsBlack market dealings are common throughout the Verge and Bleed; a number of habitats and governments maintain a list of things that are banned for what they feel is the safety of the society, and in the face of those bans, demand drives up the value of the goods and services so that someone, eventually, will provide them. This births a black market. Less common are red markets. A Red market is functionally a black market, but it functions as a black market for anarchists. While anarchists don't have laws, they generally have things that they have agreed to ban for the better of the habitat, but not everyone within the habitat will feel that said ban is for the best. Red markets, then are when criminal organizations traffic in these goods that anarchist habitats have banned. Many large criminal organizations maintain their own vibrant black and red markets, trading freely across the different economic lines. |
History of Organized Crime
Organized crime is often thought of as an Urban problem, but for much of human history, it was actually a rural one. Ancient Romans dealt with large collections of highwaymen, while the British in India claim to have dealt with the Thuggie cult. However, this changed during the 19th century, as urbanization increased. Feeling the need for comradery and community, a number of people unified into social clubs, and it was from these social clubs that the first organized crime syndicates would emerge. In the United States and elsewhere they took on the sheen of ethnic gangs, often offering "assistance" to others of their ethnicity for a cost, since the individuals of their ethnicity couldn't trust the police or authorities of their new home (often being unable to speak the language and, in the case of the Chinese, being heavily discriminated against). As biosculpting and mind-uploading became more and more common, the ethnic division gradually began to find. However, the one true constant is that these groups sought out money and political capital, so they could influence the goings on in their turf directly. Organized crime thrived in the early Interplanetary period and it was subsequently exported to every corner of the Solar System and then, beyond the Solar System. Where there is an economy, there is an underground component, and where there is an underground component, there is organized criminal families.
Even during the Utopian Era, there were still organized crime groups. The God AIs dealt with a number of criminal and criminal adjacent habitats, although much of the crime during the Utopian Era was outside of their sphere of control, since their angelnets allowed them absolute omniscience and omnipotence in their space of control, making crime all but impossible. The years after the Ascension Crisis and the Swarms were a golden age for criminal organizations, with many of the modern ones ascending to power during this time. This still remains true to this day; organized crime crosses meta-empire boundaries, which makes them incredibly challenging to deal with, and runs rackets like hacking, money nanocleansing, fork-napping, and maintaining both red and black markets. The next biggest advent was the Lucullus League, which is often considered to be nothing more than a confederation of organized crime syndicates shaped like a meta-empire (it's actually considerably more complicated than this, however). The current era is a golden era for organized crime; the factionalization and fragmentation offers up a lot of cracks for weeds to grow in between.
Even during the Utopian Era, there were still organized crime groups. The God AIs dealt with a number of criminal and criminal adjacent habitats, although much of the crime during the Utopian Era was outside of their sphere of control, since their angelnets allowed them absolute omniscience and omnipotence in their space of control, making crime all but impossible. The years after the Ascension Crisis and the Swarms were a golden age for criminal organizations, with many of the modern ones ascending to power during this time. This still remains true to this day; organized crime crosses meta-empire boundaries, which makes them incredibly challenging to deal with, and runs rackets like hacking, money nanocleansing, fork-napping, and maintaining both red and black markets. The next biggest advent was the Lucullus League, which is often considered to be nothing more than a confederation of organized crime syndicates shaped like a meta-empire (it's actually considerably more complicated than this, however). The current era is a golden era for organized crime; the factionalization and fragmentation offers up a lot of cracks for weeds to grow in between.
Major Organized Crime Syndicates
There are too many organized crime syndicates and groups to count in the Verge and Bleed; every planet and habitat seems to have two or three of its own. However, there are a number of different groups that operate on a quasi-sphere scale, and they often maintain smaller organizations in almost every system. Note that this list does not include the Lucullus League - despite many of them being criminal organizations, the League itself is considerably more complicated than that.
Night CartelThe Night Cartel is the remains of a number of formerly ethnic and racially diverse criminal organizations, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, and numerous Mexican and other agencies. The Cartel is one of the oldest outfits in the Verge and Bleed, emerging in the Solar System and being spread from there; the God AIs themselves failed to stamp out the Cartel. They hold legitimate status as a corporation in certain habitats while clearly working outside of the local law, and are involved in a number of different crimes: racketeering, extortion, kidnapping, fork-napping, pod slavery, ego-hunting, assassination, prostitution, IP theft, money nanocleansing, and the like. The Night Cartel is often at war with the various triad and tong groups, and it is also one of the largest groups to exist outside of the Lucullus League.
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Nine LivesOften called "soul-traders," the members of this criminal organization specialize in the acquisition, trading, and trafficking of humans; their primary business is in ego-trading. They steal back ups, kidnap and force individuals to undergo uploading, forknap, and so on. They are known to run illegal informorph-slave colonies as well as organize pit fights using a variety of different body styles that are loaded with a variety of different consciousnesses. The soul-traders are also incredibly ruthless and relentless; they will stop a nothing to collect a soul. Furthermore, they are also involved in organlegging in habitats where technology prohibits human cloning; they often kidnap young people, forcibly upload them destroy the brain, and sell the pieces of the body for money. This has earned them a fearsome reputation throughout the Verge and Bleed.
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PiratesMost pirate attack automated cargo ships and long-range supply convoys, while carrying out the occasional raid on asteroid habitats. Contrary to popular belief, pirates do not attack ships in mid-transit; rather, pirates wait until ships dock at a port of call that is friendly to them, and then they move in and attack the ship while it's docked. They may also use SOS signals to lure ships to a location to investigate only to attack there, although this is a gambit given how delta-V calculations work. Rather, what they prefer to do is hack into the manifests of legitimate port authorities and download those manifests, select a ship, and then figure out where it's going to be, what stops it's going to take, and how long it will take to get to a point, and then wait at that point. Most pirates also moonlight as free-traders or smugglers, using connections in the underworld.
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The Triads
Triad tend to dominate the Verge and Bleed's underworld by their sheer scale and history of centuries of economic and political influence. Having evolved into legit enterprises and small economic consortiums by the time of the first Interstellar age, the triads followed the teem masses of Chinese works into space, gaining a foothold during the early years of colonization. As Sino-Civ exploded and became a major early meta-empire, the Triads grew with it, taking advantage of the disparities in wealth and restrictive refugee policies to create flourishing gray and black markets. Part of their success relies on their use of traditional ethnic Han social cues to ensure their insularity. While there are numerous small triad outfits that exist, each one claiming a particular station, habitat, or city, there are four large groups that wield enough power they can affect things on the level of the entire Verge and Bleed:
The 14K Triad controls a large part of the gambling and casino industry and various forms of illegal gambling, betting, and game rigging. Through their Galaxy Entertainment Group, a legal casino and gambling corporation for both online and physical uses, they maintain tight connections to politicians, celebrities, and influential entrepreneurs and can even afford the luxury of a secret police force. They are also involved in money nanocleansing, loan sharking, and credit/ID fraud and faking.
The Shui Fong - while smaller than 14K - caters to vices and addictions of indentured habitat workers, miners, and other laborers, primarily in StarMech (like with most neoliberal governments, it can be hard to tell the criminals from the politicians in StarMech) but also beyond, supplying drugs, narcoalgorithms, and illegal XP, running prostitution rings and arranging pit fits and gambling tournaments. They animosity between them and 14K stems back to prehistory, it seems, and they've cared that animosity into space.
The Sun Yee On once ranked among the biggest of the triads but has since fallen from grace, due largely to a concerted effort by the leaders of the Sino-Civ and later Shangtao to undermine them, and they often make money selling cheap copies of nanofab blueprints and rigged makers and fabricators. Their legal products are distributed through Wushaung Corporation, while illegal goods are patched together by enslaved informorphs in virtual sweatshops in the remote corners of the Mesh and Grid.
The Big Circle Gang are the smallest of the major four and are often involved in drug trade, producing organic drugs, smart drugs, narcoalgorithms, xenopharmed drugs, and the like, all in abandoned habitats that were converted to drug labs after the Ascension Crisis.
The 14K Triad controls a large part of the gambling and casino industry and various forms of illegal gambling, betting, and game rigging. Through their Galaxy Entertainment Group, a legal casino and gambling corporation for both online and physical uses, they maintain tight connections to politicians, celebrities, and influential entrepreneurs and can even afford the luxury of a secret police force. They are also involved in money nanocleansing, loan sharking, and credit/ID fraud and faking.
The Shui Fong - while smaller than 14K - caters to vices and addictions of indentured habitat workers, miners, and other laborers, primarily in StarMech (like with most neoliberal governments, it can be hard to tell the criminals from the politicians in StarMech) but also beyond, supplying drugs, narcoalgorithms, and illegal XP, running prostitution rings and arranging pit fits and gambling tournaments. They animosity between them and 14K stems back to prehistory, it seems, and they've cared that animosity into space.
The Sun Yee On once ranked among the biggest of the triads but has since fallen from grace, due largely to a concerted effort by the leaders of the Sino-Civ and later Shangtao to undermine them, and they often make money selling cheap copies of nanofab blueprints and rigged makers and fabricators. Their legal products are distributed through Wushaung Corporation, while illegal goods are patched together by enslaved informorphs in virtual sweatshops in the remote corners of the Mesh and Grid.
The Big Circle Gang are the smallest of the major four and are often involved in drug trade, producing organic drugs, smart drugs, narcoalgorithms, xenopharmed drugs, and the like, all in abandoned habitats that were converted to drug labs after the Ascension Crisis.
Organized Crime Culture
The culture of organized crime is one characterized by loyalty and secrecy; everyone has a place in the hierarchy and their position is made obvious. Now, whether they try to advanced in position depends on the local culture of the group; some groups are more prone to internal fighting than others, but violence is often a way of life within organized crime. It's how they maintain their turf, and it's how they maintain their handle on the market. The precise way that violence is executed depends almost entirely on the group in question; some prefer direct violence, while others will act through intermediaries. Terrorism often overlaps with organized crime, so criminal groups frequently finance terrorists groups and there's often little conceptual space between them. In fact, many of the most violent criminal gangs in history have been called terrorists, and because their activities are illegal, many terrorist organizations are often involved in red market and black market economies. As a result, extremism can be, but doesn't necessarily have to be, a feature for organized crime culture ∎