Firm

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Wherever you find a person willing to do a days work for a days living you can usually find someone else, plotting ways to take it from them. Some people call this survival of the fittest, but most of us have a different word for it: crime. The Firm are the gangsters and organised criminals of Ulaya. Protection racketeering, theft, robbery, banditry, the sale and supply of illicit substances and services: all of these things are their stock and trade. Violent brutality and ruthlessness permeate all that they do. The true extent of their power is not known, and few are brave or foolhardy enough to find out.

Proud, resentful, arrogant; all of these words could be used to describe Kaneda Griss, the leader of The Firm's notorious "River Crew". But Kaneda is merely an underling, in the grand scheme of things. Disappointing son of a powerful Underboss, Kaneda was sent to Skyton to keep him out of the way. If there was one aspect of Kaneda's personality his father was truly proud of it was that his son was tough, but in every other respect he was a disappointment. His father wanted to train him as a successor, but it was clear from early on that the best kind of intelligence Kaneda could master was a kind of low cunning. His father was the master of control by selectively applied violence. Kaneda was an angry thug.  So to the River Crew with him - a gang of misfits and psychopaths who, while useful, have to be kept at arm's length.

Kassel: the Underboss of the 'Five Lakes Syndicate', the organisation which runs all the organised crime operations in the five Lakes District, and much of the Great Lagoon Network. Operating out of the Gilded Viper, a drinking establishment in the Undertown of Skyton, all those under his command quake at the thought of his attentions. He is feared, and with good reason. Ruthlessness goes with the territory, but Kassel tolerates no failure, with one exception: Kaneda, the son of Kassel's own boss. This is a situation Kassel deeply resents, feeling that his position is undermined by having to tolerate the ineptitude and insubordination of Kaneda Griss. Perhaps this frustration explains his occasionally nuclear violent outbursts and exactitude with the rest of his employees. Kassel is cold, ambitious, and terrifyingly proficient in close quarters, training in his private Dojo each day, despite rarely going out in to the field. Kassel can injure his own crew in order to guarantee command orders! Meanwhile he is devastating on the charge, and can dart in and out of combat at a whim.

Chasmids are reasonably uncommon in The Drowned Earth, but where they are found, usually they are employed as thugs, guards and enforcers. Makko grew up in The Firm, son of a famous Prize Fighter and Bodyguard, and his profession as Firm Enforcer was never in doubt. Capable of whatever kinds of violence are asked of him by his superiors, Makko is dispassionate, even cold. He does not rise to anger, instead, viewing violence and combat with a cold, analytical eye which makes him even more frightening than if he bellowed and shouted in rage. Instead, an air of laser focus comes over him, and he demolishes his opponents with an intense aggression which is terrifying to behold. Some who have looked deep into those eyes have said they see a gentle spirit wishing to escape a life of chaos and destruction, but nobody has ever been brave enough to reach out to him.

How Lakassk ended up with the "misfit crew" is a question he constantly asks himself. By the standards of the rest of them, he's actually quite sane. It's probable that, considering their reckless nature, Lakassk was seen as a tactical necessity: His Nova Cannon is certainly not the most subtle of weapons, but it's definitely a useful one. Firing flash-bang grenades, Lakassk is capable of shoring up even the most reckless of charges with a covering fire: and considering the Firm's general eschewing of heavy armour, that's a boon indeed.

Bez and her sister Romi were not born to suit the mundane village life they were born into. At a young age, they stowed away on a river-trader and fell in with a group of adventurers. However, they took very different paths... while Romi a loyal member of the Artefacters Bez joined their arch-nemesis... The Firm. Her darker impulses were a bone of contention between the sisters, and they have never yet met in battle. Nobody knows what will happen when they do... Not even them.