The Blackfingers

The Blackfingers is a crime syndicate found across Northern Tregaron. They specialise in a trade that mostly focuses on rackateering and arms dealing -- especially in regards to alchemical goods that use cursed blood.

One Happy Family

The Blackfingers follow a family structure and hierarchy. Becoming a member is to join the family, which follows a very specific set of principles that set themselves aside from typical crime rings. They will always refer to each other as the family when holding casual conversation.

Hierarchy

Joining isn't a process that's for the faint of heart. Recognised members of the family are called Fingers, but it will often take a lengthy amount of time before prospective recruits are fully recognised as a member of the family. This process can typically take a month, but is done through a series of brutal and cutthroat tasks to test their mettle and loyalty.   The grunt work is always handed to the recruits; they carry out missions that involve kidnapping, shows of force, and raw brutality aimed towards the people that have wronged the family. A very common way of initiating newcomers to the Blackfingers is by instructing recruits to torture, maim, or kill someone.

Fingers

Recruits that have proven themselves are given the opportunity to become a Finger. While recruits are generally treated as associates, people that have become a full-fledged Finger are considered a member of the family and are treated as such. It begins by tattooing the pinky finger black; as they rise in ranks, more fingers are blackened to show their loyalty, until they eventually become a Pointer. The Family is expected to protect and always back other memberes of the Blackfingers no matter the consequence — so long as that protection isn't done against the family's interests. Failure in doing so forfeits your position as a Finger.   Once a finger, always a Finger; joining the family is joining for life. If anyone leaves the family be it through exile or personal interest, every finger they marked on their hand is to be removed.

Pointers

The Pointers are esteemed members of the family that have managed to earn four inked fingers. They act as second-in-command and representatives to the Hand, directing members of the family whenever the Hand isn't currently present.

The Hand

The Hand is the leader of the Blackfingers. Unlike other Fingers, the Hand has their entire hand blackened with ink. The Hand is expected to always select a successor from their Pointers to act as the next in command.  

Criminal Activities

Rackateering

Most of the profits earned by the Blackfingers is through 'clean money' that is earned through rackateering; they use legitimate businesses to act as a smoke screen for their shadier operations. Casinos, Inns, and Taverns are the most common forms of business operations -- though they're particularly notorious for installing apothecaries and alchemists to help fuel their drug trade.  

Drug Trafficking

As abhorrent as it is, Cursed Blood is by far their most peddled product, be it pure or distilled into dangerous performance-enhancing mutagens. Users of these products are often doomed to walk a path that inevitably dooms them into joining the syndicate due to the addictive qualities that come with their chemical cocktails.   Worse yet, the nature of Cursed Blood numbs one's senses to violence; the Blackfingers can quickly turn an entire group of eager customers into dangerous bioweapons at the snap of a finger.

Extortion

"I'm gracious enough to grant you clemency in the form of a warning. After that, I hope for your sake that you happen to be a man with nothing to lose."

Rival businesses outside of the family are often suspciously cut from supplies until they inevitably dwindle into bankruptcy.   Detectives investigating them wind up missing teeth that are sent as an example to the offices that dare oppose them.   The Blackfingers are viciously cutthroat with their intimidation tactics; it is the most important part of the Blackfinger playbook. Raw brutality and violence to terrorise anyone into submission -- or worse yet, simply erasing the problem so that it will never trouble them again.

Black Market

A large swathe of the black market is directly managed and maintained by the Blackfingers. Strict laws severely limit the ownership of magical artifacts, which leads to a high demand for their ownership.