Silfedis Mafia

**Trigger Warning: Discussion of prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs**

**Trigger Warning for the Video Link: blood, violence**

### Aliases

Silfedis Mob, Silfedis Family, Amrali Mob, Ameralian Mob

## General Information

### Number of Members

Approximately 2,500 direct members across Amrali slums, 42,550 across Orelisle

### Location(s)

Amerale, Amrali Republic, Marujai, United Sanctuaries of Orelisle

## Specifics

### Known for

Crime, drugs, sex work, black market operations, heists, information brokering, extortion

### Affiliations

Amerale, Amrali Republic, United Sanctuaries of Orelisle

## Common Knowledge

Under the rule of Aquano Silfedis, acting head of the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, the Amrali Silfedis Mafia has undergone significant changes. The reign of the dreaded Tom Silfedis, mastermind behind nearly all humanoid trafficking and drug exports in northwest Orelisle, has come to an end. The mafia has been restructured in recent years to suit the current mob-boss’s taste, and the mob has been moving from illegal activities to legal yet questionable practices. Many members of the Silfedis Mob received full exoneration for their service in the Fel War of 10,018.

## Practices

This document outlines the Silfedis Mafia following its restructuring by Aquano Silfedis. This document notably does not describe the practices of the Mafia under his father, Tom Silfedis, but given his reputation it’s safe to assume those practices were nasty.

### Sex Work

Mafia bordellos contain a variety of sex workers, each tiered according to their classiness. High-class workers will not engage in any sexual activity on the first date, intentionally playing hard to get before “giving in” to high paying clients. This is done to provide a more memorable, enjoyable, pleasurable, and lucrative experience for all parties.

All sex workers employed by the Mafia are entitled to health care services paid for by the Mafia and provided by the House of Healers, including general sexually-transmitted disease checkups, abortions, blood tests, general preventative medicine, and any self-care products required or desired.

Bouncers stationed at Mafia bordellos are explicitly trained in rapid disturbance response, and have stricter requirements than even Amrali Guards to protect personnel over property.

### Black Market

The Silfedis Mafia treats black market business as a private venture for the discerning client. The Mafia holds frequent underground auctions, selling noble possessions, rare gemstones, boosted items of power, national paintings of unknown origin, and various other goods. Clients pay the Mafia a fee to enter these auctions, after which point nearly all commerce is left to the client and the various sellers. There are notable exceptions to what can be bought and sold at these auctions. Rare animal skins and empowered objects of natural origin in particular are both banned from all Silfedis Mafia auctions.

Many items of questionable origin sold at these auctions are legally obtained by the royal family of the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, then sold to the Silfedis Mafia. Most of the funds from these auctions go towards financing the Mafia and reconstruction of Amerale following Darkfell.

### Drugs

Street chemists, or ‘Bakers’, employed by the Silfedis Mafia work to reduce the negative effects of their drugs as possible, such as raising heart health, restoring stamina, and increasing libido. For example, the most popular and frequently-sold drug, called “Blow”, is typically refined to become a powerful aphrodisiac which can be sold in many innocuous products such as incense, candles, sugar pellets, and lubricant. The sale of this modified Blow is nearly always combined with the sale of condoms, for safety purposes.

### Information Brokering

Information brokers employed by the Silfedis Mafia use a network of merchant informants throughout Amerale itself, on trade routes to the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, and scattered across western Orelisle itself. Such informants sell trade secrets, embarrassing blackmail materials, and general secret knowledge for exorbitant prices. False-flag operational deception techniques are often common amongst these brokers.

The Mafia’s primary goal is to establish various information centers across the continent, each coordinating from underground chambers filled with knowledgeable scholars, marketing teams, and grunts looking for secrets.

### Extortion

The Silfedis Mafia protection racket has been feared and hyperbolized by Amrali merchants, though it is still very common in the city. Collectors visit stores regularly to collect payment for the businesses’ “safety-passes”, which guarantee the business free operation without Mafia influence. Business owners have grown so accustomed to this payment that many simply refer to it as a “second-tax”. This protection payment also protects businesses from independent crime, with Mafia members often dealing with thieves and attackers before the guards arrive to record damages.

The Mafia also applies its protection racket to convoy escorting, though it takes on a much more legitimate tone. Merchants travelling between Amerale and the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle appear to be ruthlessly shaken down, but this is a ruse to instill fear into other merchants to accept such escorts. Ironically, the roads between Amerale and the U.S.O. are normally peaceful, save the sections passing into Dahaan Havazh.

### Recruitment and Involvement

The Silfedis Mafia intentionally offers more to lower classes, acting as a source of opportunity and a serious source of fear for such people. Civilians entering the Mafia are divided between ‘book smart’ and ‘street smart’ individuals. Book smart inductees discreetly assist higher level jobs but they will intentionally be left in the dark as to the nature of such jobs, as to give them plausible deniability. Street smart inductees are eventually added to the Familia.

Experienced, favored, and loyal store owners who pay their protection money will often be used in money laundering, in exchange for a cut of the profits and the waiving of their protection fee.

The Mafia also uses its influence to sway Amrali politics, albeit in small ways. Local public works projects often gain momentum and attention at the behest of suddenly-appearing “free unions”. Politically important individuals and members of the Queen’s parliament, who under the employ of the Mafia by purchase or blackmail, ensure that the Mafia always has some influence on the movement of the city’s resources, but take care not to arouse the suspicion of the Queen herself. In fact, the Grandfather Oak and those below him intentionally spread pro-Queen propaganda to the city to increase the degree to which she can influence Amerale.

## History

Before the Silfedis Familia, there was disorganized crime in Amerale. This pandemonium was the symptom of a struggling populace trying to find avenues of economic success to survive in the bustling and often harsh life of the Capital. One Tom Silfedis, then a town fool, drunkard, and local vagrant, entered the Fallen Oak tavern with a bunch of his scholarly dropouts and drank to their woes. Amidst the drunken party, a few ruffians came by and slit one of his friends throats and robbed the entirety of the tavern blind in a robbery that would be the talk of the town for months to come.

A destitute man of poor moral fiber due to his environment, Tom vowed to get revenge instead of turning the other cheek and keeping their heads down like the other patrons. Using thievery skills honed from mass burglaries, petty pickpockets, and one heist in the Almighty Library (which failed and granted him six months in the cellblock, but was released in two for ‘good behavior’), he amassed a small fortune that he used to personally run down the small time thugs that ran through his friends with swords and cutlasses. By the end of the adventure he was beaten and bruised and on death’s door, but the one who opened it was his future wife and confidant: the House of Healers’ very own Kaitlyn Silfedis. His actions earned him both notoriety and infamy amongst the city guard, but to the common populace he was their very own hero. It wasn’t long before others of his social situation and caste began to talk to him about ‘work’ that needed to be done, and through these first connections the Silfedis Family Mob was born.

In the Spring of 10,018, Aquano Silfedis used methods traditional to the Silfedis Mafia to supersede both his father, the infamous Tom Silfedis who had just returned from a small operation in Marujai, and his sister to become Grandfather of the Silfedis Mob. The following day, he ordered all those currently acting as part of the Silfedis Mob to travel to K’Vesten and join the Fel War against the Hierophant Xaoc. The survivors were exonerated for their crimes against the Amrali Provinces. Aquano would go on to pull back on the Mob’s illegal activities.

## Structure

The Silfedis Mob is based on a “Family” structured unit, with additional nature themes. At the top lies the Head Boss or “Grandfather Oak”. The Head Grandfather Oak is the current leader, Aquano Silfedis. Other roles are as follows:

* Willow - Ghost or Assassin
* Oak - Enforcers, Leaders. There are numerous Oaks that run different sections of the city under the administration of their superiors, but generally are the ones to ‘run the streets’.
* Yew - Archers or Scouts or Get Away
* Maple - Muscle or Grunts. They survive the harsh struggles of economic realities of the slums. Many are only in because this is the only path left available to them.
* Lychee - Sex Worker, Attractive Other
* Evergreen/Sapling - New, inexperienced members, or otherwise incompetent members
* Alder - Food Cooks or Street Chemists
* Bonsai - Friendly or Mob-owned store owner, or an art-centered person. While rough and inexperienced with criminality, they will do more than what can be done at the top levels of Amrali governance.
* Ash - Heavy Enforcers
* Apple - House of Healer personnel
* Mahogany - Designated Butt of Jokes, Overall Deadweight. There can only be one mahogany at a time, and it is an unwelcome title.

The Consigliere or Head Advisor is Narseo, they get the role Father or Mother Oak and they generally keep things smooth among those still loyal to Tom Silfedis. If not, they are kicked out of the Mob.

The Underboss rank is held by a Maple, one Valerie ‘Freedom’ who was lifted to the position by Aquano for her ability to lead the Underground through both intimidation and gravitas.