The Mob
Thanks to the pervasive nature of fandom, the nature of criminal organizations in Fenspace is... different from their mundane counterparts.
White-hat Mobs
“ | THE MAFIA: You've got a friend in The Family! (Paid for by the Our Thing Foundation) | ” |
—Snow Crash |
White-hat mobs (which most people tend to refer to as "The Mob") are composed of people not unlike the Space Pirates; fans who've internalized a romantic view of the noble gangster, the thug-with-a-heart-of-gold, etc. and try to make their ideas real. The Mob works similar to the Pirates, but with a greater sense of community attached to their operations. While Mobsters do deal in illegal activities (or at least things considered illegal "in the old country") they bring a high level of professionalism and ethics into their work, acting almost more like a savings and loan or multinational corporation than a criminal organization.
Most Mobsters are American, with a few outliers coming from China, Japan and Western Europe. The acknowledged "Don of Dons" in the Mobster hierarchy is Don Anthony Esposito.
Black-hat Mobs
Black-hat mobs are, well, pretty much the real Mafia, Yakuza, Triads, Vory, Provos, Bloods, Crips, etc. These are the groups who helped fund Boskone, run large-scale criminal organizations on Earth, and generally are considered Bad News by everybody. Vicious, backstabbing and not above killing lots of people to make a point if it won't be bad for business.
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