Five Families
The Five Families are the oligarchy that controls the Dalian lakeside town of Ravniy. They all occupy the four council positions and the mayor's office, the latter of which they rotate between themselves every four years when the previous mayor's term ends. All five families' houses are located in the central district of the town, from which they gently pushed out the main temples and previous government buildings. The five families, in no particular order are: Sankovich, Grafiollo, Pietra, Cherno, and Shemsk. Their ruling of the town was not an overnight coup of the previous leadership, but rather a carefully orchestrated plan over several decades and centuries to manipulate politics and slowly get more and more of the families into the council positions. They all had a pact with each other to cooperate and see this through, knowing that each other family had the leverage and power to crush them if any betrayed this agreement. And once they gained control of the town, a new pact was forged to keep all five families in power and make sure no one tried to usurp the others' authority or take over on their own.
Structure
There is no specific hierarchy within the Five Families. They all operate as equal entities in terms of the local government and authority. Each of the families, however, oversees a specific portion of the city and a specific fleet of fishing vessels. There is some amount of jockeying for success between the fishing fleets and competition for beauty and efficiency amongst the neighborhoods, but so far this has not affected the relationships of the Five Families toward one another.
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