The White Fangs
An underworld organisation that treats bloodshed, murder and violence as a professional activity, the White Fangs are one of the foremost criminal groups in Kelbonnar. Unlike their main rivals, the Scarlets, the White Fangs prefer to operate through murder and intimidation and are well known as being cunning and effective blades for hire for whoever has enough coin to employ them.
Structure
The White Fangs are governed by a single individual known as the Rector, whose identity is only truly known to their immediate retinue, with every holder of the position deliberately surrounding themselves in secrecy and intrigue. The position of Rector is held until its incumbent dies, at which point, those who wish to be appointed for the role must put themselves forward to undergo a gruelling and brutal trial that picks the next incumbent by killing all but one of those who stand for selection.
Below the Rector are group of individuals referred to as Fang Captains, who undertake a whole raft of duties related to the organisation of the White Fang’s activities, including the allocation of jobs to certain underlings and advising the Rector on overall strategy. Each Fang Captain oversees a bevy of Fang Lieutenants, who themselves give orders to the general mass of members they are charged with leading.
Culture
As their selection process for the Rector shows, the White Fangs value strength, brutality and cunning amongst all other qualities, something that is also reflected in their much more regular involvement in violent crime than their rivals the Scarlets. Murder, kidnapping, abduction, battery, intimidation and protection rackets are the order of the day for the White Fangs, though they do stray into other kinds of crime when the mood suits them, or when the profits are too enticing to miss out on.
The White Fangs often run fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas in which their members are encouraged to fight, to help weed out the weakest, slowest and stupidest from their ranks. These operations are generally overlooked by the Imperial and Provincial authorities, their blindness aided by the well placed bribes regularly dished out to them.
All members of the White Fangs identify themselves through a tattoo of a jagged fang somewhere about their person, with some, Half-Orcs in particular going as far as to paint or gild one of their canines so that they appear permanently white.
Public Agenda
As a criminal organisation, the White Fangs have no agenda but to enrich themselves and their members. On occasion though they are happy to brand themselves as something other than criminals, the operation of their network of arenas being an obvious example of this.
Assets
Unlike their rivals, the Scarlets, the White Fangs operate a far more centralised system, which means that they are averse to establishing truly permanent bases anywhere but their home town of Alkashar. Rather than taking the approach of hiding in plain sight, they take the approach of being as mobile as possible, with their members in the towns and cities across Kelbonnar constantly moving around to avoid detection. Normally, White Fangs’ groups will circulate around properties and businesses that pay them protection money, the periodic housing of the gangsters who ‘protect’ them deemed to be part of the overall payment terms.
The only exception to this rule are the numerous arena, cage fighting and pit fighting structures that the White Fangs have set up across Kelbonnar, which are based in permanent, specifically built structures. Some of the arenas are incredibly grand public buildings, such as Salastar's Arena in Meltaro, which through a sheer stroke of genius was built with the blessing of Emperor Salastar I ‘the Savage’ after whom it is named, which is still run by the White Fangs to this day, and puts on gladiatorial games for the whole of the Imperial capital. These publicly acceptable fronts to their organisation also act as bases for the disbursed members to receive orders from.
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