Benevolent Organization

The Benevolent Organization is the behind-the-scenes power that rules Asai'ka. Originating as a band of underworld actors looking to regularize their territories, the Organization has grown into the shadow leadership of the nation. All criminal, and much of the legitimate business passes through the hands of Organization members. They also provide the police force and lend money to priest-bureaucrats, nobles, and merchants alike. This money lending is the main way they maintain power. The Organization, despite being a loose alliance of nefarious types, is held together by the oversight of the Board.

The Board

The Board is composed of a representative from each of the major power bases in the nation, and their word is absolute. The identities of the Board Members are not officially public, but are a widely-known secret. The Members are

• Phra Phel Solkan. An older half-elf, he married Lady Kagome Ssa'ka, Phraya Ichiban's older sister. When she and their daughter died of suspected poison in the chaos surrounding her father's death, he became the power behind Phraya Ichiban. He's been on the Board since 220 AC. In most cases, he takes the leadership role.
• Lai So Lender. A hard-faced woman in her 70s, So is the owner of the largest chain of banking houses throughout the Jungle of Fangs. Immensely rich, she sees everything in mercantile terms, in terms of profit and loss. Even lives are but counters in a ledger. She represents the lai caste. The senior member of the Board, she's been there since the Liberation (206 AC).
• Senior Scrivener Jashan. Officially, he's merely a mid-ranking scribe with the priest-bureaucracy. In truth, he's the leader of the dominant faction, the Scales of the Goddess. Although he is devoted to increasing the power and prestige of the Temple to the point of austerity publicly, he isn't averse to living a sybaritic life in private. It's said that he prefers men for partners...or rather boys, the younger the better. Other, hastily suppressed whispers talk of darker desires and appetites. At 35, he's the youngest member of the Board. His ascension to the Board in 247 came with some scandal.
• Mugen the Knife. A retired assassin, he represents the criminal element. Little is known about this man due to his intense obsession with privacy. What is known is that he heads up the enforcement arm. Of all of the Board Members, he's reputed to be the most concerned with the common good and the least corrupt.

Structure and Influence

The Organization mainly concerns itself with the capital, although they have branches in all the other urban areas and even influence in the rest of the Jungle of Fangs. Each city is divided into territories. Boss-rank members purchase the rights to oversee and "protect" an area from the Board and then subdivide it and sublet it to sub-bosses who handle the administration of the protection rackets, money-lending and other such activities. Their forces are what passes for the police; the nobles and lai are either in debt to the Organization or are paying protection money lest "something happen" to their estates. In return, the Organization does a pretty good job of keeping theft, riots, and other issues at a minimum. Those who pay their dues are protected and unlicensed criminal activity is harshly punished.

Ranks

• Board member : The four people who oversee the whole organization
• Territory Boss : Each of these men and women own a sector of the city and collect rents and protection money from the sub-bosses that actually handle the work. They also mediate in territory disputes and bring force to bear against those that get uppity.
• Sub-boss : The men and women who actually run the territories.
• Specialist : Assassins, priests, mages, poisoners, investigators, and other skilled but working-level goons.
• Member : The run of the mill goon.