The Grave Diggers

The Grave Diggers

Territory	Kingsrise
strength	between 400 and 1600
Criminal activities	extortion, dealing in illegal substances, dealing in contraband, graverobbing, body snatching.

The Grave Diggers are one of the largest criminal gangs in all of Kingsrise. Most of their money comes from the extortion of small businesses and the sale of drugs, weapons and other contraband.

Gang Structure.

Street thugs

At the bottom are the street thugs. These are the common soldiers used for intimidation and the person to person transactions. The street thugs are divided around the city in smaller gangs varying in size of between 5 to 30 members.

Lieutenant

Above each of these gangs stands a lieutenant.

They are members who have proven themselves more talented, intelligent, cunning, influential or powerful than the common street thug and thus has been trusted with a position of power.

They are charged with direct control over there gang in a small territory. The lieutenants tell the gang members what to do and where to go, they themselves answer to a general.

generals

The generals are the leaders of the crime syndicate having to answer only to the boss.

There are usually around 12 generals in Kingsrise who have divided the city amongst themselves.

Each general commands between 5 to 10 lieutenants, depending of the size and importance of their district. The generals themselves try to keep a low profile working behind the scenes.

While most of the generals are unknown to the public many high profile businessmen and prominent members of society have fallen under suspicion of being a general.

The area a general controls is rearranged in the rare occasions that one dies or is arrested. The same happens in the even rarer occasions that one of the lieutenants get promoted. 

Most generals are not fond of the idea of promoting a lieutenant to general as they prefer to keep as much territory to themselves as possible. While each general holds the same rank,

they are not equal in power and influence. This is the organisations greatest weakness as it leads to infighting and internal conflict.

Executioner

A special position in the gang, the executioner has no real influence on the decisions made. He or she serves as brute strength or an enforcer to help their generals.

They are usually dispatched to reel in unruly elements of the gang. Most Lieutenants emulate this by appointing one of their most trusted underlings as executioner.

Executioners are high priority targets for the KRPD(Kingsrise Police Department) as they are known for being extremely dangerous and capable of causing death and an enormous amount of devastation.

The Boss

Head and undisputed leader of the grave diggers.

Excluding matters of the utmost importance the boss rarely gets involved with the day to day operations of the gang, designating this to his generals instead.

The boss serves to guaranty the stability of the gang. Keeping the generals in check, interfering in internal territory/land disputes that got out of hand.

He can promote anyone he wants to general when they are stretched to thin over the territory and he has the authority to make one disappear.

Founding

The Grave Robbers were founded by Marcellus Moradi. Member and black sheep of the prestigious Moradi family, a wealthy family filled with high profile businessmen and politicians.

In 1657 he was socially and financially cut off from his family after a dispute with its patriarch regarding how his debaucherous and borderline criminal activities smeared the family name.  

Marcellus, left on his own used what little personal wealth he had left combined with his intimate knowledge of his families business dealings to accumulate wealth and power, preferably screwing over his former family along the way.

Marcellus attracted accomplices from all classes of society with promises of wealth and power. It quickly became clear that he had no problem going outside the law to achieve his goals.

How Marcellus was able to so quickly assimilate or take out the many other smaller criminal gangs is a mystery however.

By the time KRPD had built a strong enough case to act against Marcellus he had already gathered enough associates and influence to disappear from the map. He controlled his gang from behind the scenes from wherever he’s hiding.

The gang quickly grew, eventually relying on the street gangs as a new way of amassing power and keeping the heat of the KRPD away from the upper echelons of the gang.

Recruitment

Most of The Grave Diggers are recruited when they are young, still in their late teens. The gang targets disenfranchised youth and promises them things like wealth, power, protection, camaraderie and a chance to be part of something bigger.

They are especially successful in the poorer parts of the city where for many joining the Grave Diggers seems like the best and only real option for safety and upward social movement.

Verry few of these members however will ever even reach the rank of lieutenant. More likely to die or be arrested.

The rare extraordinary member however can find themselves promoted to lieutenant but most lieutenants are recruited directly from the more unscrupulous members of society trying to climb the social ladder.

Name

Since the founding of the gang the number of grave robbing incidents had gone up dramatically. The increase in the theft of  both the valuables the bodies of Kingsrise’s deceased caused panic and a media frenzy. Papers warned the people to be on the lookout for mysterious and suspicious grave diggers in the depth of the night.

The gang on their part embraced the name, with the street thugs often decorating themselves the skull iconography and other macabre symbols.

What The Grave Diggers actually do with the bodies is unknown. It is suspected that it is part of some sort of initiation ritual.