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[Halete]

The Caldari Somnaishii

So named for their adoption of the slang term coined by the Megacorporate security forces, referring their vivid defacement of State property featuring prominent triangular imagery, the Somnaishii [Triangle Guerrillas], or Somnai, are a criminal faction that are based on New Caldari.

Since it’s inception, the Somnai have plagued the underbelly of New Caldari. The criminal conglomerate are heavily rooted in the State’s Grey Market, it’s dissident membership ripe candidates for delegation from the Megacorporations when they don’t want to dirty their own hands.

The Somnaishii rose from several gangs of malcontents dissatisfied with the CEOs and their perceived inability to curtail the economic hardships in the State. Despite the efforts of the corporate security forces, the gangs were able to firmly entrench themselves in abandoned infrastructure and developments across New Caldari that had run out of funding.

By adopting a hierarchy styled off of their very own home Megacorporations, along with careful delegation and a system based off of merit - well before the rise of Tibus Heth would see the coming of his  ‘New Meritocracy’ - these individual gangs enjoyed success very quickly in the current climate.

Due in no small part to the communications network established by phreak ‘SSavage’, who would later go on to co-found the DarkNet ‘The Underdepths’, these gangs would come together in YC100. Overnight, the gang-heads hashed out an inner-circle that was effectively to be a Board of Directors, and the Somnai were born.

Interestingly, whilst the Somnai are publicly regarded as an ethnic Civire gang, Deteis hold many of the directing positions in the conglomerate. This isn’t apparent to the lowly, usually racially charged grunt, thanks to the web of scapegoats and delegates that orders are carried down.

More recently the gangs have come across hard times. The reign of Tibus Heth has been a curse for the Somnaishii The bolstered economy of the State has lead to the gangs being flushed out of previous abodes to make way for new factories. Member gangs have been under increased pressure from the Home Guard. Heth’s rise erased many of the concerns that the masses that made up the gangs’ front lines had with the State, causing defections and conflicts of interest. Many of the managers who used to have dealings with the Somnai from the Megacorporations have been replaced as part of Heth’s aggressive initiative to create his New Meritocracy.

Lastly, the Haadoken Summit, usually a time of great wealth and revelry for the gangs whom are involved in illegal gambling that is symbiotic with the event, marked another painful memory for the cartel in YC112, when Jan-Erik Jehkinen, a middle-aged Deteis man who had been on board the directorship since his youth, managed to steal the entire amount of revenue made that year by the group from gambling outlets.

In YC115, even as more and more of their emblems (depicting a Caldari crest that has been molten and bent into the shape of a triangle) are being removed from State property, the Somnai continue to operate. There is a faint rumour on the winds of the inner circle ushering for their member base to pursue placement in the Capsuleer program by any means necessary.

“We have been too slow to adapt. However, unlike the Nepotic dogs that Heth has been putting down in the State, we will not lay down and accept justice. The Capsuleer race are amassing great fortunes all around us whilst we toil to get by hand-and-mouth. For far too long have we let this opportunity pass by our ranks. It is time that we too had a taste of that power.” - Keisuke Nagatanien, Somnaishii Lieutenant

[Halete]

Hi there. Not sure if this is the right board. I've never done world building for EVE before. I intend to start. I'm up to scrutiny and feedback especially as my own knowledge of the lore is patchy at best. My hope is to create resources that I or other people can use for their RP whilst being inoffensive enough to the lore that most people are happy. Therefore I will take any discussion and work with it.

[ArtOfLight]

I actually really like this, a lot.

Couple of questions: Do the Triads have some sort of tattoo hidden on them somewhere to show their membership to other Triads (or something similar)? I imagine such a group goes to great lengths to keep their membership hidden from the outside, but how would they identify themselves to one another?

[Halete]

I was thinking something akin to a small programmable nanite tattoo.

Something that looked innocuous at first-glance but when scanned would produce a small script, that when run through a certain cipher would reveal a haiku. The ciphers and haiku used would change on a routine basis.

I'm fond of this idea because it's believable and elegant, with lovely imagery. It would also be a lot of fun for a player to create 'previous haikus' as kinds of Triad mnemonics.

Edit: Nanite tattoos give the wearer the option of deciding when they're visible or not, so there's that.

[Arnulf Ogunkoya]

It's interesting. But I get the impression that Heth just replaced one sort of nepotism with another. So I'm not sure about "the rise of Tibus Heth saw to it that nepotism was purged from their mother State."

[BloodBird]

Technically it wasn't removed at all, merely mitigated to some degree. The Nepotism is now just centered in himself and his group as opposed to the individual mega's. The good thing about this is that there is considerable room for the mega's to finish the half-way merit-based system Heth supposedly introduced once the whole 'loyalty to State = loyalty to Heth' period is over. They can even use it as a rallying cry, remove him, then publicly and transparently finish the meritocracy conversion he started in 110 complete with their own 'merit' elected top officers.

It's still the top who decides who has merit in the State.

[Halete]

Oh I completely 100% agree with what you're both saying. I share the same opinion. It's fairly obvious (to me) that Heth is just hand-picking officers based on their political alignment with himself.

I'll alter the wording, but I don't think that it overall affects the object of the article. But it'll give a little more clarity in regards to Heth's actions in the State.

[Halete]

The line 'well before the rise of Tibus Heth saw to it that nepotism was purged from their mother State' has been changed to 'well before the rise of Tibus Heth would see the coming of his  ‘New Meritocracy’' for tone.

[Mithfindel]

A few points of criticism, though minor things about used terms. I understand that a "triad" is typically a Chinese criminal organization. Much of the description fits the Guristas, though - though of course, the capital-G Guristas are their own organization. I don't see why there could not be lesser gangs of guri. ("guristas" translates to "naughty people", IIRC)

Then, as a cracker term, a script kiddie is a person of no technical skill whatsoever, limited to using tools made by others, for example an unexperienced ("kid") person running a DDoS program ("script"). There are some glossaries, such as the Jargon File http://catb.org/jargon/html/go01.html that list real-world jargon used. Personally, I'd be partial to using just "hacker" - or, if you want to dig into older terms, a more suitable for someone misusing a router network to establish his own might be "phreaker" - in this case, a fluid router phreaker.

If we scavenge a few terms from the demo scene, I could suggest "crew", probably stylized as "cru" or "kru" as the alternative for "Triad".

[Halete]

Cheers!

First off, the term 'Triad' originated as a nickname adopted due the real life Triads' use of triangular imagery. So I don't think that it's too otherworldly to imagine that the name could have come around similarly in our setting.

SSavage generally steals other peoples' work, hence my choice of the term script kiddie. You make a good point with the term 'phreaker' though. Phreaking didn't come to mind when I was writing, but I think it's a  better term. I've updated the OP to reflect this.

I was hoping that it wouldn't appear that I'm stepping on the toes of the Guristas (upper case G) too much. It only makes sense to me that there would be many minor gangs in the EVE Universe. I was hoping that the purpose, tone and status of the Triads as a planetary gang, along with their corporate structure as opposed to Guristas 'biker gang' stylings would make them a distinct enough entity. Ah well.

[Makkal]

Why triads and not yakuza or obtshak?

[Halete]

Why triads and not yakuza or obtshak?

I had a response prepared for this and then I thought 'Hey, wait a minute. This is information I should probably have included to begin with!'

And so I've added this paragraph to preface the article;

'So named for their adoption of the slang term coined by the Megacorporate security forces, referring their vivid defacement of State property featuring prominent triangular imagery, the Triads are a criminal faction that are based on New Caldari.'

As an aside; what are peoples' thoughts overall? Should I make more of this?

Is the name iffy? Should I just change it? In truth I just like how it sounds.

[Arnulf Ogunkoya]

Apart from that one quibble I like it. I particularly like that, as with a lot of criminal organisations, they can claim to have started as a resistance movement, or still be one.

Do your triads have the reputation for insane violence that the Chinese ones do though?

[Halete]

I'd think that these Triads would go out of their way to avoid egregious violence. Whilst their feeding at the feet of the State, they're kept on a leash in the sense that inciting too much violence would likely provoke horrific backlash.

So I imagine that the Triads concern themselves more in the areas of trafficking, laundering and non-violent crimes. This isn't to say that they're completely non-violent though; certainly there'd be a lot of in-fighting when it comes to territory, and skirmishing with the police forces, not to mention enforcers collecting on debts owed by State members and extortion.

I also picture that the Megacorporations would seek guris for contracts involving sabotage and assassination.

So the way I see it, the Triads definitely have the capability of violence and a footman would be thoroughly trained in the art of applying it, but use it as a tool in the trade. This differentiates them from the Guristas in my eyes, who seem to have no issues devastating entire colonies to turn a buck.

[Adreena Madeveda]

Considering how tied citizenship and employment are in the State, it's very likely a group like the Triads would not only delve into shady business but go through great length to provide a sense of "belonging and greater purpose" to their members -maybe to the point where Caldari outcasts consider the Triads as a necessary evil, or even respect them : neighbourhoods the Megas don't give a crap for, where the gangs provide security, various kinds of care, etc.

Tattoos are one thing, but depending on the Triads age, they probably developed a whole set of traditions to enforce a strong sense of belonging -something like their idiosyncratic version of Heiian, a version they could consider as more true than the corporations' one.