Triads (World of Darkness)

The Triads are a global criminal network in the supernatural horror setting of White Worlf's roleplaying game, the World of Darkness.

Background
The Triads emerged from the secret societies created to resist the Mongol conquerors in the 10th and 11th centuries. One of these groups, the White Lotus Society became the power behind the Ming dynasty and was pervasive throughout both the Chinese empire and it's society during the Ming dynasty. After the Manchus overthrew the Ming emperor in the 17th century, the White Lotus began a resistance movement which became known as the Triad Society. It's history can be argued is a 1000 years older, as the roots of the Triads can be traced back in the Guangdong province to the local social and trade guilds during the Han Dynasty over 2,000 years ago.

Eventually the resistance group evolved into an organized crime organization which became a power both in China and among the Chinese Diaspora. It ran a virtual parallel government in China during the Nationalist / warlord period in the 1920s-30s. After the Communists took power, they lost their empire in China but expanded the one in Southeast Asia. CIA patronage of the Triads helped them become involved in the growing international drug trade and the booming sex trade in Southeast Asia (Thailand) via the Vietnam War.

After Deng Xiaoping liberalized China's economy and society, the Triads returned to China and have reestablished their criminal empire on the mainland though it is not as vast or as powerful as it was in the early 20th century. Today, the Triads are the wealthiest, largest, and most powerful criminal organization in the Far East, though the Yakuza are a close second. The Triads are involved in a wide variety of criminal activities, including; the manufacture and trafficking of illegal drugs, people smuggling, arms trafficking, the manufacture and trafficking of counterfeit goods, loansharking, illegal gambling, the smuggling of luxury goods and stolen cars, fraud, and prostitution.

Kuei-jin Vampires
The involvement of the Kuei-jin (Chi vampires) with the Triads dates back as far as the White Lotus Society. They secretly control the Senior Lodges, letting the humans control the Lesser Lodges. Some elders have been involved with the Triads for a century or two.

When it comes to the Triads' criminal operations, it is the sex trade which is important to the Kuei-jin as it provides them with easy feeding grounds in the back rooms of strip joints and brothels. Their courts will usually assign to a senior mandarin the job of overseeing the sex trade. It is one of the few things that the Kuei-jin are willing to go to war over, to maintain their nearly total domination of the sex trade in the Far East. Sex workers also are a fertile ground when it comes to recruiting servants and slaves, as some are desperate enough to accept such bondage if it means they escape that life.

An increasing numbers of women who die in that business return as Kuei-jin who despise the sex trade and do all they can do undermine or end the business. They join the rural Kuei-jin courts which have little to no involvement in the trade and have become their spies and shock troops against the urban Kuei-jin courts which are neck deep in the racket.

Kuei-jin have no real interest in the drug trade, and many of the Elders in the Quincunx courts are against the drug trade (bitterly remembering the Opium Wars during their time as mortals), and oppose those drug lords who operate in their spheres of influence. Though many of them support the trafficking of those same drugs to the West, seeing it as a form of revenge.

They use the services of smugglers a lot to move around their possessions (e.g. magical artifacts and slaves). Kuei-jin courts have formed alliances with the Same-Bito weresharks, especially in Southern China and Thailand, where they give the Same-Bito pirate & smuggler operations protection on land in exchange for them transporting the Kuei-jin's human cargo for their sex trade.

Organization
The Triads vary widely in how well organized they are from those with a hierarchy of several layers to ones with only a boss and his soldiers. Likewise some of the Triads have a ruling council or board of directors that supervise all the branches and other Triads are really loose associations of independent lodges.

While some Triads are known for their members flaunting their membership by sporting certain haircuts or wearing identifying clothing), most Triads enforce silence among their members and maintain secrecy. In Hong Kong alone, there are 50 Triads with a membership as high as 100,000. The largest Triad of Hong Kong is the Sun Yee On Triad with over 40,000 members and the second largest is the 14K Triad with 33,000 members. Some of the Triads have been around for centuries, with the Co Hong Triad having been in the port city of Guangzhou since 1757.

The traditional structure of a Triad:


 * At the top of the Triad hierarchy is the Shan Chu (Lodge Master / Dragonhead - 489). He or she has very little contact, if any with the rank and file members of the Triad. Dragonheads are quasi-legitimate businessmen.


 * In the level below, are the "483"s. The top ranked 483 is the Fu Shan Chu (Deputy Lodge Master, the top ranked 483) who manages the day-to-day operations of the Triad. Below him are two 483s of equal rank; the Heung Chu (Incense Master) who is in charge of enforcing the traditions of the Triad, and the Sin Fung (Guardian) who is in charge of recruiting. Last is the Sheung Fa (Double Flower), whom are the ones who establish new branches of the Triad.


 * Below the 483's are the Triad's officers. The military commander in charge of the gangs is the Hung Kwan (Red Pole, 426). In charge of accounting is the Pak Tsz Sin (White Paper Fan, 415). The public face of the Triad who collects and pays the bribes and graft from the businesses and gangs is the Cho Hai (Grass Sandal, 425).


 * Last of all are the rank-n-file members, all of whom are Sze Kau (49). They are the soldiers of the Triad who provide security, act as muscle, run a business, supervise a safehouse, or work as hitmen for the Triad.

Hong Kong

 * Sun Yee On
 * Wo Shing Wo
 * 14K Society
 * Wo On Lok

Others

 * Shui Fong (Macao)
 * Co Hong (Guangzhou)
 * Green Triad (Shanghai)