Alberni Syndicate WIP

The Syndicate formed after Judgment Day on Vancouver Island, in the small city of Port Alberni. Originally, the group was a small but relatively prosperous salmon fishery that ran out of the city, and possessed considerable influence on the local economy. However, few people knew that it was also a front for a fairly lucrative drug smuggling ring, supplying much of Vancouver with cocaine and other hard drugs from the United States.

With Vancouver proper receiving a direct hit from a nuclear device and the destruction of city hall, provincial government authority on the island quickly evaporated, creating a vacuum that was filled by opportunistic organized crime groups, who found Port Alberni's relative lack of damage to be the perfect location to establish a new base of operations. While the Alberni Salmon Co. initially resisted their influence, the groups eventually unified to become known as the Alberni Syndicate. The Syndicate took control of the entire Vancouver region, and established a monopoly on Vancouver's food, fuel and weapons. Unable to effectively resist the entirety of Vancouver's meanest and baddest, police forces either fled, disbanded, or merged with the increasingly powerful Syndicate's forces. Lack of fuel for boats and a mass famine on the mainland forced the ragtag Canadian government to write off Vancouver until a later date, one which ultimately never came with the mass destruction of Canada's Civil Defence Centers by an unknown force. Without the government breathing down their necks and forcing them underground, the Syndicate was forced to have to create and rule their own society.

As of 2023, the Alberni Syndicate is the ultimate fantasy that Vancouver's bootleggers, mafias and tongs could never have imagined a century before. Port Alberni is bustling with shady types and opportunists and honest people alike, all trying to survive in the post-nuclear world. The Syndicate surprisingly treats its citizens fairly well, despite requiring a monthly collection of portions of their goods as protection, or requiring service in the "Auxiliary Force Patrol," the Syndicate's defense league.

Slavery is a semi-regulated institution, and attempts to combat it have long since fallen out of the public eye. Citizens of the Syndicate are not allowed to be taken as slaves, and there are rules in place for the proper treatment of indentured servants and slaves. However, some loopholes exist, and these are frequently abused by slaveowners to the detriment of their subordinates.

Despite the Syndicate's reputation, their economic power is outstanding, having expanded its revenue to include legitimate and benign commercial goods such as food and produce, mercenary work, and the arms trade, alongside its more shady ventures in prostitution, slave trading and drug trafficking.

Its total income puts it in frequent competition with the Guild of Free Merchants and the more distant Kalispell Coalition for new and exotic merchandise, traders and labor. This has also come to blows, with 2015 marking raids on Guild warehouses, conducting espionage and enslaving caravans in order to damage Guild interests, while the Guild is reported to have also returned the favor. While the two eventually formed a truce in 2020 to combat the unknown threat, tensions are still high, and members of the AFP may be accompanying bike raiders on caravan attacks.

Leadership: Currently the Syndicate is led by a mysterious figure known as "Big Bob," the proprietor of the Alberni Fishery and Saloon. Though he commands the respect of most of his subordinates, he is said to be frequently plagued by challenges to his authority from other notable figures on Vancouver Island. Big Bob and the Syndicate as a whole rules through intimidation.

Responsibilities and benefits of working with the Alberni Syndicate
While one might be tempted to turn up their nose at working with a wretched hive of scum and villainy, the Syndicate provides quite a large amount of legitimate work for those that choose to associate with it.