The Underground (Criminal Underworld)

The Underground is the name of the criminal underbelly of Terrosian society that has existed for just about as long as civilization has managed. No matter what actions are taken it always returns, and is thus far an unstoppable juggernaut. That being said it always ends its eras with a catastrophic destruction and the survivors are forced to rebuild and repair, the most famous era was after the First Demon War, when the then small Ebony Tears began their operation and grew to the monolithic empire known as The The Family of the Liberated. In the modern era they are currently decentralized after having a false start under Pirate King Requiem, however The Vas Comorrah, the Twelve Brokers, and The Moontakers, who happen to run The Market, are all seemingly vying for control-though they are currently locked in a mutual agreement of powers between one another.

This shit really needs to be reworked but its something.

The Underground has its roots in the underbelly of the Empire of Dusk, where it spread tot he dwarven kingdoms, then the wood elven kingdoms, and all throughout he mainland, then to the far flung corners of the world, where even the Stormborn had to really work hard to keep them out. They were under far better control in this near mythical time and little evidence for what they managed to accomplished survives outside of the fact that at some point they were commandeered by Xankresh Avani. The Cataclysm would seal their fates alongside all other empires of the era and the Underground would not fully recover till the end of the First Demon War.

The Ebony Tears were a formation of refugees who, though thankful to the Drow, chaffed in the suffocating confines of the Eastern Obscuran Range under the ever imposing Maiden's Shield Array that kept out the powers of the Void. Though it had been safety it had also been a prison that many of the founding members had been born into due to the long standing sequestering during the war for all non-combatants after the Fall of Everglow. When 'liberation' came they quickly avoided being drafted by Jason's request that all the survivors follow his lead, and with a healthy cash infusion form none other than Divankul Dul-Sansiska, under the guise of beginning their own reconstructionist policies and resettlements, The Ebony Tears were born. They would quickly establish themselves throughout Aradia in the coming century, progress had been harsh and fast, and the displaced and disgruntled, who didn't buy into the rhetoric spewed out by Blackthorne and the new Senate, flocked to join the possibility of something more. By a century and a half after the end of the Demon War, the Ebony tears had managed to link up to remnants of the other traditional syndicates and criminal undergrounds, rediscovering long since abandoned hideouts and storehouses untouched by demons, and they accelerated.

By three hundred years after the First Demon War, the Ebony Tears had complete control over the entire criminal underworld, claiming their spot as the new Underground and leading another five hundred years of relative stability. The only people they never crossed were the Dul-Sansiska and the Blackthornes, everyone else was fair game, and they would become The Family of the Liberated and organize everyone else under their umbrella, working alongside other monolithic powers such as Xankresh Avani but always maintaining their hold as the rulers of The Underground. They would have the likes of small time gang like The Vipers cause mischief and mayhem while the proper syndicates running trafficking, racketeering, and extortion were in full swing and keeping a healthy profit margin up until the Second Demon War back to back with the Knox-Blackthorne War sent all centralization into a tailspin. Not a killing blow, but certainly a wounding one as the world shuddered for two years under the weight of the massive conflicts all occurring at once. The death of Xankresh Avani, House Arkon, House Notusi, and the rise of the Accord were all massive wounds to the stability of the trades, the loss of cohesive pirate command, of a majority of the slave market, the vast hub of Avamor, and the rise of a new commercial player with a vast fleet of ships all were devastating blows one after the other.

The the cats came in, Fang and his vigilantes began to attack small time groups like The Vipers and other generally nuisance level gangs and heist teams. Then they began organizing with Dul-Sansiska and Drake Morvala to clear out Avamor fully, and were given resources like nobody's business by the new Blackthorne Monarchy, the two houses the original Ebony Tears never wanted to cross had directly settled in to help dismantle the entire operation. They cleared them out of every Drow held island first, then the Accord began obliterating piracy left and right with heaps of volunteer cats all coming to the rallying flag of Fang Kyn's call for the utter war against The Underground. The Monarchy did a complete purge of their entire western holdings with every last officer who couldn't escape in time being sent to he gallows. Things were closing around fast and everyone who could was fleeing to Nagari as the last holdout, the Family was decaying from the inside out, and their leadership was shattered.

Vincent Ebony the Fifth, head of the family and all its operations, led a strike team alongside all three veteran cadres and what was left of their veteran soldiers and assassins. He targeted Fang Kyn, and hoped that he could take the big fucker down with him in a suicidal but honorable battle. It was a bloodbath on both sides, attacking the area known as Shade's Rest, the headquarters of the new House Kyn. Dozens killed in a mad dash to get to Fang, who came out to face everyone by himself, taking bolts and arrows like they weren't even there. He broke each and every soldier that got near him, and snapped every blade and blunted every axe head that tried to break through his steely flesh. Vincent and Fang fought only briefly, the former somewhat practiced in magic and swordplay, but it didn't matter, the ten foot half ton cat viciously broke his weaponry and then his hands and feet, before binding him to a wooden wheel and breaking his bones in sequence to provide recompense for the lost lives of his people. The sight of the broken body of the last head of the family was too much and the Liberated were but a husk after Vincent's body was brutally put on display and toured around as a sign of victory for the Kyn. In a few months, the entire network fully collpased and what was left fled to Nagari...