The Rats

Background

Sometimes, the thirst for power overrides even the lust for profit, and in the case of Alessa "Rat" de Rege, it holds incredibly true. Where she's from, what she used to do, who she was before taking over the small part of the slums she presently calls home is completely and utterly unknown (though it's possible unsavory individuals like Brindle Eye might have a little more information for the right price). What is known is that she's not exactly the most business savvy individual around, and she has a taste for violence and power at the expense of others. She likes knowing that there are others kowtowing to her, and pretends in like fashion to be some sort of slumlord complete with retinue and vassals whose sole purpose is to please her. Twisted? Yup. Sane? She's not telling.

Unlike some of the other groups who have claimed territory, Rat doesn't particularly care one way or another just how the people within her territory are doing. Crime is common, and might makes right is the rule of her urban jungle. So why do people stay?

Rat doesn't like poaching, and Rat doesn't bother with rackets. Shady businesses, criminal scum, and those too desperate to try to make their way elsewhere are her primary "subjects". But there is a saying that if you need something you can't find anywhere else, chances are you'll find it in the black markets operating under Rat's gaze.

Her people are wild, seedy, and unkind to trespassers infringing on their territory. Her alliances are fluid. Her capacity for cruelty is untapped.

However, because of her unwise business practices and comparatively low income (though, it should be noted, she never seems to be wanting for money), there is always a chance of someone more organized moving in on her beat. That's where Tooth and Claw, her pet lycanthropes, come in. They're a brother and sister pair who are quite good with violence. Word around the slums is that they're the only reason Rat can operate as independently as she does.

But things in the slums? They're always subject to change.

Membership

There is no real structure within the Rats. You have people at the top, and then you have the rest scrabbling for position. Those Rat and her closest favors tend to pull the best jobs and have the most power, and those she & her cohorts don't favor, well. . .don't often end up as well off as their betters.

Leadership

Leader: Alessa "Rat" de Rege

Description: ???, female, ???

A striking, though not beautiful, woman. Tall for a woman, at 6'1". Albino in coloring, with a nasty burn scar that has deformed her right ear and marred the right side of her face. Her nose has been partially reconstructed, giving it the upturned and pinched look of a rat or fermin's snout (and, as it so happens, her nickname and the name of her group). Even without the scars, she never would have been beautiful. However, there is a charm and magnetic quality about her that makes her quite charismatic, which she plays up with how she speaks, holds herself, and dresses. It's quite probable she considers herself some great, classy lady of an underground, seedy court. And this she encourages by allowing her followers their tatty decadence and wild behavior, making her appear all the more gentile.

Rat has a deep voice for a woman, and uses its velvet tones to her advantage. Though she never attempts seduction, she is nonetheless sensuous, very carefully pulling on body language and the vagaries of sound to manipulate as she sees fit.

It should be noted her actual first name is not well known.

Second: Jevan

Description: human, male, 24

With a permanent slouch and a habit of chewing, drinking, and losing his sensibilities for a few hours each night, it's a wonder Jevan can function at all in the capacity he does. Yet, it's exactly that quality that makes him precious to Rat: no matter the state of inebriation or how terrible the hangover, Jevan is ready to listen to Rat's whims and sloppy orders.

He's usually seen hanging around the whorehouse-turned-bar that most of Rat's "business" occurs in, and it's possible he's something that best equates to a manager for the property.

Members

Tooth

lycan, female, 26

Description: A lycan who shifts into a wolf.

Claw

lycan, male, 24

Description: A lycan who shifts into a puma.