The Hidden Hands
The Hidden Hands are a mafia who dominate the rural areas, and sometimes the towns, of The Calradian Empire. They thrive by making themselves useful to authorities and corrupt nobility: repressing peasant unrest, silencing troublesome unorthodox preachers, and robbing from merchants who compete with their patrons. Many of them go back and forth between a respectable life in the towns and a criminal life in the countryside, spending two or three months a year as brigands and enforcers and the rest of the year as "traders" specializing in stolen goods, knowing full well that no one will bother them due to their lofty connections.
The Hidden Hands walk the line between legitimate and outlaw, and sometimes even flaunt this ability to their rival gangs, who they help keep firmly in the underground.
The Hidden Hands have a not so secret headquarters in Ortysia, where the local Archon employs them to maintain his control over the many underworld elements of the city. Stolen items of unimaginable value and rarity flow into Ortysia from all across the continent, as Hidden Hand agents "aggressively acquire" them to be resold in their hometown. With the exception of this city though, they are almost unanimously found in rural areas, where they can easily threaten and coerce the locals with their superior strength and resources.
Comments