New Oasis

Piracy, Protection, and the Mercenary's Creed

The vast wealth of New Oasis has created a market for pirates, mercenaries, and other outlaws looking to make a quick fortune. These ruthless operatives, often former members of the Iron Brigade or other mercenary organizations, have found themselves without work in a city where danger lurks at every corner. But rather than return to a life of lawlessness on the edges of the city, these hardened warriors have embedded themselves deep within the criminal guilds.

Using their military tactics, magical expertise, and experience with weapons, these ex-soldiers have helped create some of the most formidable gangs in the city. They now act as enforcers, charging protection money from local businesses, keeping the streets in a state of fear, and occasionally turning their guns on anyone who dares to oppose their rule.

These mercenary-backed syndicates are deeply embedded in the city’s darker corners. They prey on anyone who crosses their path: from the desperate citizens who need help, to the wealthy elite who wish to hide their illicit dealings. The protection money they extort is often the only thing standing between a struggling shopkeeper and complete destruction.

The Power Struggles

Some of these criminal guilds have grown so powerful and entrenched that they can now compete with the city’s corporate and political powers. They have gained footholds in every sector of the economy—from the factories that churn out goods to the streets where power brokers make deals. These organizations are as cutthroat as they come, and their influence reaches into the city’s most prominent institutions. Some even have links to corporate executives, government officials, and police officers, making them nearly untouchable.

While the Celestial Faith tries to maintain order, and the corporate elite hide behind their luxuries, the criminal underworld thrives, free from the shackles of laws and morality. Here, the only law is power—and those with the means to buy it can create their own version of justice.

The city's ruling factions may pretend the underworld doesn't exist, but the truth is that the criminals have become an undeniable force in the ongoing battle for control of New Oasis. Whether they’re dealing in drugs, stolen goods, or even people, the crime guilds have staked their claim. And, like the city itself, they’re here to stay.

The Red Roses

The Red Roses are a name spoken in hushed tones, often accompanied by a nervous glance over the shoulder. Once a mere criminal syndicate, they have since transformed into a dynasty of terror, their roots entwined in the very foundations of New Oasis. They are the most feared organization in the city, not only for their ruthless enforcement and bloody conflicts but for what lurks at their core—a dark secret hidden even from many of their own members.

The Roses are structured like a crime family, but they are more than mere mortals playing at power. At the top of each "Family" sits a Vampire Spawn, remnants of a terrible past tied to the fall of New Oasis into the depths of the Cryptokeep. Ikaia Ezzlar, once one of the most powerful vampires in the underworld, was slain during the city's descent, but her progeny—her thralls, bound in undeath—were freed when their master perished. What had once been mortals indebted to crime became monsters masquerading as men, their hunger driving them to seize power in the only way they knew how: through blood and control.

The Red Roses operate in separate but connected families, each with its own sphere of influence, its own method of maintaining control. Some run smuggling operations, moving illegal goods and weapons through the underbelly of the city. Others control the drug trade, selling substances potent enough to numb even the horrors of New Oasis life. Still others extort, bribe, and assassinate, ensuring that even the city's wealthiest figures bend to their influence.

Rumors abound that the Red Roses have struck deals with powerful arms manufacturers, trading wealth and influence for advanced weaponry capable of giving them an edge over their rivals. If this is true, it could explain how they have remained a dominant force despite the growing power of their enemies.

Now, they find themselves in a deadly war with the Faceless. The conflict is unlike any they have fought before—one where the enemy cannot be seen, cannot be hunted in the traditional way. Their frustration grows with every missing soldier, with every "accident" that wipes out one of their key enforcers. The Red Roses are used to waging war with bullets, blades, and fire, but this is a war fought in the shadows—and even monsters fear the dark.

The Shahvick Syndicate

Not all criminals were born in the slums of New Oasis. Some came from beyond the city, beyond even the Earth Realm, bringing with them a legacy of piracy and lawlessness. The Shahvick Syndicate was once nothing more than an Elsen corsair crew, a band of ruthless raiders who plundered trade routes between the Void and Earth Realms. Over time, they evolved from a scattered fleet of mercenaries into something more—an empire of vice dealing in pleasures beyond the earthly. 

New Oasis provided them with the perfect port—a city where law enforcement was fractured, where corporations were as corrupt as the criminals, and where desperation fueled an endless demand for Arcane Miasma, the most addictive and dangerous substance in the known realms. The Syndicate controls much of the Miasma trade, targeting struggling Elsen immigrants who came to the city seeking refuge, only to be ensnared by the very people who should have protected them.

Their leader, Baron Prince Karimix, is a name known in both Voidborn courts and criminal dens alike. A former pirate lord, Karimix has fashioned herself into something far more refined—a warlord who lives as her ancient people once did, draped in silk and blood, and as charming as she is ruthless. Her Tidemasters are equally formidable, comprised of Voidborn exiles, former warlocks, and hardened Elsen killers who would rather die in combat than suffer defeat.

The Shahvicks have made powerful enemies—not just in New Oasis, but across the realms. The Voidborn authorities have placed bounties on their heads, seeking to bring them to justice for their crimes against inter-realm trade. But inside the city, the Shahvick Syndicate continues to thrive, untouched by outside forces. Their influence spans across the black market, from weapons smuggling to human trafficking, and even deals with rebel factions in the Void, providing them with weapons and Miasma in exchange for loyalty and control.

The Iron Sledge Cartel

If the crime syndicates of New Oasis are defined by deception, secrecy, and intrigue, then the Iron Sledge Cartel stands apart for its brutal honesty—they are warlords in the truest sense, and they make no effort to hide it. Unlike the Red Roses, who thrive on subtlety, or the Faceless, who kill unseen, the Iron Sledge thrives in the open, operating like an occupying army within the city’s slums and industrial zones. Their philosophy is simple: might makes right, and those who resist are crushed under the weight of their steel boots.

Born from the embers of failed wars and abandoned causes, the Cartel was forged by disillusioned soldiers and discarded mercenaries—former Iron Brigade operatives, ex-military commanders, and hardened war veterans who refused to fade into obscurity. Instead, they turned their battlefield tactics inward, carving out their own empire of blood, extortion, and paramilitary dominance. Many of its members bear the scars of past conflicts—some wear augmentations from limbs lost in battle, others carry the dead-eyed look of soldiers who never truly left the war behind.

The Cartel functions less like a gang and more like a standing army, complete with command structures, discipline, and military hierarchy. Their enforcers do not brawl in the streets like common thugs; they march in formation, execute precision strikes, and neutralize threats with the efficiency of a trained special forces unit. They are meticulous in their violence—if they want someone dead, it is not a chaotic street killing. It is an execution.

Their business interests are vast, spanning protection rackets, illegal arms trades, drug distribution, and high-stakes underground gambling rings. But their true domain—their crown jewel of brutality—is the fighting pits.

The Pits: Where Flesh Meets the Arena

Beneath the industrial sprawl of New Oasis, hidden in repurposed factories and old wartime bunkers, lie the fighting pits, where men, mutants, and monsters are thrown into blood-soaked arenas for the entertainment of the wicked and the desperate. Some fighters enter voluntarily, lured by promises of wealth and fame. Most are forced—captured debtors, traitorous mercenaries, or those who simply had the misfortune of crossing the wrong people.

The rich and powerful wager fortunes on these bloodbaths, watching from shadowed balconies as augmented soldiers, mutated horrors, and spellbound killers tear each other apart. And at the top of it all, watching his empire expand like a spreading oil stain, is General Victor Torlan—the Iron General.

There was a time when Victor Torlan was a respected military strategist, a commander of men, a leader of armies. But war does not let go so easily. When his last campaign ended in a slaughter, his men left to die in a ruined city while the world moved on, Torlan refused to accept defeat. He rebuilt himself, fusing his shattered body with augmentation, shedding the last vestiges of humanity in favor of steel, circuitry, and unrelenting purpose.

Now known as the Iron General, he rules the Cartel with absolute authority, his soldiers treating his word as law. He sees corrupt politicians as weak-willed commanders, corporate leaders as incompetent warlords, and the other criminal guilds as enemy forces. He does not seek mere power—he seeks dominance, a New Oasis where order is imposed by force, where war is the law, and where only the strong survive.