CRIME IN THE CITY

There are many professions that claim to be the oldest. Thieves say that they are the oldest profession, prostitutes that they are, cutpurses that they are, and smugglers that they are. There is no evidence to support any of these claims. However, all of the claimants belong to what the City Watch prefers to call ‘the criminal underworld’. It is perhaps this ‘underworld’ as a whole that is the oldest profession – whenever the City is spoken of, a mention of crime is sure to follow. It is irrevocably entwined with the history of the City.

The inception and early history of the City is unknown, and mostly conjecture. However, by following known trends and attitudes at later points in the City’s history it is possible to form a structure of conjecture that is logical deduction from known information. And this structure indicates that crime was a major influence in the City from its very start.

The City is built over the entombed remains on Karath-Din, the legendary Lost City that was buried by unknown factors many centuries ago. Its destruction shattered the economies of the surrounding cities, for they were dependent upon Karath-Din and in many cases its vassals, and plunged the region into a dark age from which it has not yet emerged. Most of the Precursors seem to have fled before the final catastrophe occurred, and radiated out into a countryside shattered by events. There, their knowledge was lost in the dark ages that followed its fall.

What remained behind them was an entire city of gold and gems. The Precursors were famed for their fine metalwork and jewellery, which outlived both them and their civilization. The site of Karath-Din became farmland and an area for grazing the livestock of the few peasant farmers that lived there. Changes in climate and topography caused the river flowing through the site to increase in size and discharge, and it cut down through layers of topsoil.

In the alluvium deposited by the river, these peasant farmers found riches. Fine jewellery and golden utensils began to be found occasionally, as well as the ruins of ancient buildings. Tales of the treasures to be found there spread throughout the land, and drew in the dregs of society. To these sites of fabled antiquities came drifters, looters, treasure – seekers, and beggars, each hoping for the find that would make them rich. Some found fortune, but most camped down in the small settlement of huts and tents, and continued to search. There was no authority, no leadership, and no means to enforce law and order. The strongest survived, the weakest were crushed, and the men who could gather the largest band around them became the first figures of authority the fledgling settlement ever knew.

Occasional finds brought more people in, including criminals eager to capitalise on the wealth emerging from the soil. Clans of people, drawn together with the desire for mutual protection, began to coalesce, and the evolution of power in the settlement split along two different and mutually antagonistic paths. One group began to exert authority over the most valuable digging sites, hiring muscle to protect them and their workers from others. Gradually they began to accumulate land that was definably ‘theirs’, splitting it off into separate estates that were loyal to the strongest member of the group – a position that was to become known as the Baron. The nobility had emerged.

The some other groups took different approaches to survival. Instead of attempting to gain wealth through the financing and supporting of excavations, they aimed to become rich by stealing the products of others’ labours. Groups of criminals mounted attacks on people both inside and outside the growing town, endeavouring to gain possession of their riches. Eventually the different groups became reasonably permanently based in a single area of the settlement of its agricultural hinterland. From this area they extracted ‘protection money’. The choice they offered to its inhabitants was stark and clear-cut. Either they paid and were protected from the predations of the other groups, or they risked loss of possessions, limbs or life. Because of the apparent seriousness with which the criminals offered these options, their leaders became known as “Wardens”, and the area they ‘protected’ “Wards”. The first City Wardens had emerged.

On the whole, the power of the City Wardens – as this elite group of master-criminals became known – was fairly limited within the City. The Baron’s own army patrolled the main streets, arresting on sight those engaged in criminal activities and chasing the City Wardens. Civic cases were judged by the lords of the districts, but criminal cases were tried before the Baron alone. Most Barons took an uncompromising stance towards crime, and punishments were harsh, in order that they act as a deterrent. Nevertheless, the Warden’s organisations contained thieves, brigands, toughboys and cutpurses, who plied their trade on the growing population of the City.

Outside its boundaries, however, terror reigned. The Wardens exerted control over great swathes of the countryside, and the nobles there retained their private armies to guard their own manor houses and castles. Criminals controlled the rest of the land, terrorising the peasantry with their predations upon them. Trade caravans had to be heavily protected with outriders and guards, or else sent by sea. The state of crime was such that almost all the money taken from crossing tolls and rudimentary taxes went towards the construction of a city wall, which encompassed the perimeter of the contemporary city and proved effective at keeping back the majority of the criminals outside it. Entrance was through several gates in the massive walls.

With the added security of the wall, the City grew in size and importance as trade with neighbouring cities increased. Docks emerged, and the City Wardens were not slow to realise the importance of these latest additions. Cargoes began to be smuggled in to avoid the tariffs that diverted money to the Baron’s purse, and the merchant shipping traffic soon began to be preyed upon by pirates sponsored by the Wardens. Criminal activity was also aided by the development of a reasonably rich bourgeoisie, whose houses contained rich pickings but were inadequately guarded. Thievery increased, and guilds became to form around the most successful of the business. As coinage increased in use, so did coinfaking and its associated areas of activity.

Criminal activity continued in this vein for many years, surviving the upheaval of the revolt of the middle classes against the Baron, and the subsequent destruction of the revolt. Wily and shrewd, the City Wardens chose to maintain a low profile, living out their rich and well-appointed lives while competing amongst each other in bitter feuds to gain control over each other’s Wards. As well as directly controlling criminal activity in the City, they also exerted influence over many semi-independent or vassal guilds of specialised criminals. Formerly independent organisations such as the Downwind Thieves’ Guild gradually became incorporated into the loose federation of directly controlled businesses, vassal guilds and solo contractors that formed the criminal empires of the City Wardens.

The Baron’s adoption of the Order of the Hammer and appointment to the position of High Priest was a major blow to the security of the City Wardens and their organisations. The days of easy pickings was brought to a close by the decision of the Order to send out patrols to guard the City streets. These patrols were better armed, more competent and far less drunk than those of the former police force, and many criminals were forced out of their profession as the Hammerites cracked down on street crime and the unsavoury elements of the City. The increased severity of the City courts meant that more criminals were found guilty and punished with worse punishments, and the Wardens were forced onto their collective back feet as the Hammerites began to eat into their profits.

However, this situation did not last for a damaging length of time. The death of the Baron, and the ensuing civil war between his son and brother caused the Order of the Hammer’s supremacy to collapse totally as they were caught in the middle of the conflict. Their outposts of temples were desecrated and destroyed, and they were forced back into their Cathedral, which remained the sole focus of their power for many years to come. Those Hammers surviving became introspective and isolationist, rejecting external concerns to aid internal or spiritual purification. They no longer sent out night watchmen to protect the population. Free of the constraints of Hammerite oppression, the criminal element of the City grew in force and power as the City Wardens reunited denuded organisations and plotted their revenge upon the Order.

Later events did not bring this revenge, but did benefit the criminal fraternity in other ways. The establishment of a Census Bureau was of substantial benefit to the Wardens, allowing them access – through corrupted clerks – to the financial records of most of the upper crust of the City. This provided potent opportunities for blackmail, robbery and other such nefarious activities. Later responsibilities of the Bureau, such its task of collecting plans of most buildings of substantial size, was of incalculable benefit to criminals such as thieves, and a ready trade sprung up in stolen and copied blueprints.

However, there was one event that did not benefit the Wardens and their organisations in any sense. The Baron had laxed the strict Hammerite laws in order to compensate for increased taxes, and the Order almost rose in outright rebellion against this. Desperate to avoid civil war and public disorder, the Baron chose to compromise; the laws would be laxed on the condition that the Hammerites could run their on gaol, and throw whosoever they chose into it – subject to the approval of the City Council of course.

Now that the Hammerites had obtained the right to incarcerate criminals, they required a place in which to do so. As a result, Cragscleft Prison came into being. Work began soon after the agreement, in a disused and worked-out quarry in the Esse range of mountains outside of the City. Former dormitories, offices and storage rooms were renovated or rebuilt into blocks of cells. Remotely operated gates were fitted, together with a power system to allow their operation. The first prisoners were used to renovate the old mines below the gaol, and begin the construction of a new series of levels. Construction was delayed, and then halted, by strange occurrences that eventually led to the disappearance of several criminals, their subsequent reappearance as undead creatures, and the resulting abandonment of the project.

The policies of the Baron and his successors ensured that the growth of the City continued for many years, and that new houses and industry sprung up in the districts of Undermarket, Newmarket, and Shalebridge. These all presented profitable opportunities for the criminals in the City, and the Wardens and guilds soon began to grow fat off the profits from ventures in these new areas. New breeds of criminals such as pirates began to appear, while old ones such as highwaymen were resurrected. Combined with the appearance of low-income slums at Wayside, crime levels soared. Those who could hire guards did so – those who couldn’t relied upon infrequent patrols by the Baron’s personal police or more frequent Hammerite patrols to protect them.

However, this situation was to change for the worse after only a few generations. Fearful of rising Hammerite power, the Baron decided to regain control of the streets from them, and established a police force for the City, known as the City Guard. Elements of the Baron’s private army were the core of this new force, but other nobles’ guard contingents were incorporated into it through a legal technicality relating to feudal obligations. Control of the new Department was vested in the Baron, a Commissioner chosen from amongst the nobles organised the Guard, and elected Sheriffs directed the effort in individual districts. However, the large numbers of districts – both large and very small - meant that the efforts of the new City Guard were fragmented and ineffectual, while the Sheriffs proved amenable to bribery and corruption. Indeed, the whole Department was; from the lowliest Guard Officer to the aristocratic Commissioner, most were in the pay of one or even more Wardens. The City Guard soon proved ineffective at stopping crime, and the Wardens continued much as they had before.

The real downturn occurred after the successful conclusion of the Baron’s wars with Blackbrook. Safe in the adulation of the crowds, and possessing an experienced and veteran army, the Baron decided to implement a major crackdown on crime, perhaps only paralleled by Truart’s initiative. The City Guard was thoroughly purged, and the information wrung from the corrupt elements assisted an assault upon the Wardens themselves. Most of them escaped unharmed, but in their absence most of the organisations disintegrated as the City Army instituted a curfew and conducted raids on most of the centres of criminal activity. The targets were not the low-level criminals or their bookkeepers and fences, but the heads of the guilds, ‘stables’ and gangs.

With many of them out of the equation, organised crime collapsed and dropped the nothing more than a nuisance level. While petty crimes such as mugging, pick pocketing and burglary were impossible to stamp out entirely, serious crimes no longer occurred, and the City rejoiced as it entered a golden age of peace and prosperity.

As is always the case, the golden age had to end eventually. The disastrous events at the Hammerite Cathedral dealt a mortal blow to the City that sent it into a downward spiral. Falling trade and industry profits led to a recession, and an increase in unemployment and civil discontent. Wardens who had overseen pared-down organisations over the ‘golden age’ now built them up again as the effectiveness of the City Guard began to wane and as more people turned to crime to put bread on their table. Guilds were resurrected or formed anew, and the crime levels rose until once again it was no longer safe to walk the streets at night without guards.

The Order of the Hammer sent out more patrols to counteract this, but they were ineffective at staying the tide and had little effect on the inevitable. The Order began to adopt harsher measures, often arresting and incarcerating those acquitted by the increasingly corrupt City Courts. Cragscleft was regularly filled to overflowing, until Hammerite numbers fell so low that there were too few guards to support operating the gaol at its full capacity. These draconian measures caused great public resentment, and in poorer, crime-ridden districts Hammerites were stoned and jeered as they attempted to carry out their patrols.

The situation has remained at this level up to the present time, at the finale of the Trickster’s Dark Project. Organised crime is controlled by a small, elite group of criminal masterminds known as the City Wardens. Each has control over a criminal organisation whose ‘ward’ roughly corresponds to several Greater Districts of the City. Ramirez, Webster and Raputo are all powerful Wardens who control swathes of territory in the City. Together the three control almost all of the City, with minor Wardens having sway over small slivers of territory and estates outside of the City.

Wardens structure their organisations differently, but there is a general pattern, especially in the higher tiers. Ramirez has a vizier called Vrinde, will others favour a committee on the basis that factional infighting will reduce the threat to their own position. Together, the executive elements administer a complicated web of subsidiaries, vassal organisations, semi-independent guilds and contract criminals. Upon the death of the Warden, either his heir apparent within the organisation is appointed, or various factions within the committee engage in violent civil wars over their favoured candidates. Hereditary wardenships were tried briefly, but abandoned upon the discovery that the son was never as proficient as the father. Indeed, most Wardens are not married, preferring the gleam of coin to the security risk of matrimony.

Most Wardens maintain a small permanent organisation that is the core of their business, extracting protection money and guarding their Wards from the intrusions of others. Webster, Warden of Docks, Eastport and Dayport, runs a permanent organisation specialising in rooftop-breaking, protection and anti-protection services, smuggling and coinfaking. Raputo, Warden of North Quarter, Shalebridge, Newmarket and New Quarter specialises in bloodsports, moneylending and spywatching. These organisations provide a steady, reliable source of income, as well as providing a source of trusted “toughboys” and other criminals who can be used for alternative intentions. These criminal activities are usually concealed behind the façade of reputable companies that can provide an excuse for employing such unlikely characters. In some cases the companies are so old and well established that they have begun to attract both legitimate and criminal business. There is a charming irony in the fact that the City Guard does some of its business with the ‘Dayport Trader’s Bank’ in Dayport – the same well-established business that deals with smugglers such as Don Valencia and acts as a front for Raputo’s moneylending.

In addition to these core businesses, the Wardens control, or have a controlling interest in, a cartel of illegal or semi-legitimate businesses that are administered by someone independent to the Warden’s organisation, but who effectively acts as an extension of it. Some Wardens such as Ramirez favour this because it creates an extra layer of administrative distance between the Warden and his criminal enterprises, preventing exposure in the event of a raid. The drawback is that the Warden is more reliant upon the operator of the business and cannot exert so much direct control over its doings. The same applies to the owner of the business – it is common practice to appoint a comptroller who will oversee the financing and running of the business, allowing its owner to take a cut of the profits and send the rest on to the Warden.

The businesses controlled by these ‘franchisees’ vary widely in terms of scope and service. Some run highly illegal enterprises, while others run semi-illegal businesses that are permitted by law but which exceed the restrictions that the law places on legitimate businesses. Brothels and bear-pits are popular businesses due to their low profile and the fact that most of the City Guards are too busy making use of them to want to enquire too deeply into their ownership. More risky businesses include cash pits and liquor nets, which have higher takes but which also attract the attention of the Hammerites. The nature of the businesses also leaves them open to grafting by the comptroller, due to the difficulty of adequately accounting for all of the income and costs.