The Syndicate

If one were to eavesdrop on a meeting of the top-ranking police officers from across the world, the experts on the different facets of organised crime from the Pacific Rim to the West Indies, one just might hear them whisper of the Syndicate.  One might hear the same whispers among the capi of the Cosa Nostra and the Five Families of the Hong Kong Triads.

To most, both in law enforcement and those they pursue, the Syndicate is nothing more than a myth.  A 'bogeyman' for the top echelons in both crime and the law to laugh about.  But the laughter soon dies out and the jokers glance over their shoulders in momentary concern.  

In truth, the Parallax Club have discovered that the Syndicate is anything but a joke.  It is real, and it is as dangerous as any group on Earth.

The Syndicate is a gathering of the world's most powerful lords of organised crime.  An oligopolistic council of global kingpins, where the self-styled 'Board of Directors' divide up the riches of the planet and ensure that no one group gains too much power over its competitors.  There are six members, each a figure so powerful in organised crime that their very existence is generally believed to be merely the stuff of gangland legend.  Their resources are beyond counting, their secrecy impenetrable and their ruthlessness absolute.

The members are : 

DON VINCENZO ORSINI - The capo supremo of the Sicilian Mafia, the shadowy figure to whom even capi di tutti capi like John Gotti and Carmine Lucchese owe fealty.  He is an ancient vampire of immense power, known in Kindred circles as the Monster of the Sicilian Hills, and has ruled La Cosa Nostra with an iron fist for untold centuries.

KAO CHUN - Grandfather of the Chao Tei Triad ("Eight Thunders Triad"), greatest of the Five Families.  He is the final word on almost all organised crime in Asia, a Fu Manchu-like figure whose secular power is almost as great as his spiritual strength.  Curiously, like Laos, when seen from the Umbra his spirit-aura is a great Chinese Dragon.

KEIKO TOMURI - The only female member of the Syndicate, Keiko is the undisputed ruler of the Japanese Yakuza.  Her young, petite body is covered with the many tattoos that signify the Yakuza ganglord, and she is known to show her displeasure by changing into the form of a giant silver fox and ripping out the intestines of those who have displeased her.  She is undoubtedly a potent werefox, with the animal cunning to match.

TREGEMMON - His name is the Jamaican patois for 'trigger man', the traditional title for the shadowy master of the Jamaican Yardies.  This dreadlocked ganglord is a voodoo houngan of considerable power and it is said his skull necklace holds the bound and tormented spirits of his fallen enemies.

ALEXEI PASHENKO - Up until recently, the top man of the Russian underworld was Dmitri Verdakov, the mysterious head of the Dolgoruki Mafia.  However, with his unfortunate demise Pashenko, his lieutenant, has taken over.  Like his predecessor Pashenko is a sorceror, and his fellow Board Members are concerned that like his predecessor he has been suborned into the service of the mysterious force that has hidden the former Soviet States behind the Shadow Curtain.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD - This person may not even exist, but those who believe in the existence of the Syndicate believe that all the shadowy kingpins mentioned above are subordinate to an even more enigmatic figure.  If he does exist, this 'Chairman' would be able to exert de facto control over more than 90% of global organised crime, making him (her? it?) one of the most powerful beings on Earth.