Triads

Chinese secret societies turned criminal syndicates, tracing back over eight centuries to resistance networks against the Mongol and then Manchu conquests of China. They are the oldest organized crime in the world by a wide margin, and today the largest: millions of members globally, spread across more countries than either the Yakuza or the Mafia, running lodges wherever there's a Chinatown and a smuggling route that needs running.

They hold something close to a monopoly on organized crime inside China itself, and lead the field across Southeast Asia and the wider Pacific Rim. For decades they've been taking ground from the other two syndicates almost everywhere the three compete.

What the crew knows#

• They're the most willing of the three transnational syndicates to deal with metahumans, magicians and technomancers on equal terms, and among the Awakened some lodges double as magical initiation societies rather than just muscle.
• Reach outruns reputation. The Triads do less to court Western attention than the Mafia or Yakuza, and are bigger than both of them combined anyway.
• They deal in nearly everything: smuggling, counterfeit goods, drugs (organic, Awakened and synthetic alike), and people.

Standing with the crew#

Neutral. Nobody has done business with the Triads yet, on either side of the law.