Factions

The political and economic environment of New Boston is controlled by Factions, large and small. The surface and above-surface levels are dominated by MegaCorporations, Corporations, and MilSec organizations. Syndicates dominate criminal activity, while gangs and independents (collectively called Street Factions) try to survive at the edges of society.

MegaCorporations

Megacorporations are the largest Factions, created by conglomeration and merger of smaller Corporations over three hundred years. They are the charter members of the New Boston Zone, responsible for the construction and maintenance of the dome and its environments. The Charter from the United North American government grants them the right to own property within New Boston and access to its economy; other MegaCorporations are not allowed in the NBZ. Constantly engaged in cold war (and occasionally hot war) with each other, the MegaCorporations struggle to dominate the New Boston Zone and to avoid interference by the United North America government.

Jupiter Group

Jupiter is the result of the largest megacorporate merger in history, between Mars Corp and Vintago Energy, which was completed in 2229. Unfortunately, both sets of shareholders came to the union with schemes to grasp power, against their internal rivals and across the newly merged lines. For years, Jupiter's newly established board has been battling to stem the internal civil war that is preventing Jupiter from realizing and profiting from its ascendancy to the most powerful megacorporate force on the planet. As a new decade dawns, there are still many both inside and outside the corporation who wish to see the division, bloodshed, and backstabbing continue.

For Matrix Hosts, the Jupiter Group favors intrusion responses that instantly smash and cycle the entire network keyset, dumping any connected Hacker, and hard.

Matsumoto Global Technologies

Rising from the keiretsu corporate model, Matsumoto was one of the three still surviving mega-keiretsu born of mergers in the mid-21st century. Led by the Bank of Nagoya-Matsumoto, the megacorporation is still based in Nagoyo, Japan, but has aggressively secured charter positions within twenty-two economic blocks worldwide across United North America, Europe, Swiss Financial Enclave.

Matsumoto constantly seeks to maintain its technological competitive edge by encouraging a high-pressure corporate culture dedicated to pursuing ambitions and groundbreaking projects. Famously, Matsumoto is lavish in its rewards for the entire team and sometimes an entire division behind a winning project, leading to cutthroat infighting at all levels to become attached to and stick with rising star researchers.

Matsumoto, A.K.A. MATS, has very good Intrusion Countermeasures technology. For Matrix Hosts, they favor lots of IC spawns in response to intrusion.

Trivia: Matsumoto Corporation appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Yakamoto. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with a real-world Yakamoto corporation.

McKellen Heavy Industries

One of the founding MegaCorps behind New Boston, and one of the oldest companies in New Boston, McKellen Heavy Industries has a long history full of seminal achievements and notorious failures. An early leader in using nanotechnology in industrial and mining applications, McKellen's rise to power and prominence among early MegaCorporations was meteoric. A century later, McKellen was a leader in the last-ditch efforts to stem the rise of nano-radiation by dumping anti-nano nanites into the atmosphere, which was a failure and may have worsened the global situation.

McKellen was tasked with much of the immense job of designing and building the New Boston dome in a very short time and later built Wards 7 and 11. McKellen operates many of the utilities and physical services for the city and state - such as trash collection, profitable recycling, desalination and water supply as well as the aging power grid.

For Matrix Hosts, McKellen favors intrusion responses that boost Node stats, hardening the infrastructure around the hacker.

UltraTek

UltraTek is one of New Boston's founding MegaCorps which is split into sprawling divisions, each named after the market segment in which it competes, including UltraLife, UltraStyle, and UltraMed. Through its divisional structure, UltraTek is highly diversified, producing everything from diapers to rocket boosters to nerve dampening toxins. UltraTek works in close connection with the UNA, providing a vast array of privatized services to the city and the state, including their ever-present UltraMed health clinics.

Trivia: UltraTek Corporation appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as AzTek. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with a real-world AzTek corporation.

Warner-Braun Global

One of the major German conglomerates, Warner-Braun has taken a huge risk to join the New Boston charter with the Treaty of '31. The risk and possible reward calculus is almost unimaginable in sheer size, as Warner-Braun is sending their first thousands of corporate citizens to the newly claimed sovereign territory in the Downtown district of New Boston. The Warnerr-Braun footprint in New Boston is made up of a handpicked corporate and military leadership council of young, ambitious executives with families and a clear sense that they will succeed or die in New Boston.

With the slogan, 'Perfection lives in the details' - Warner-Braun fortunes rest upon industry leadership through highly modernized, highly efficient manufacturing and solutions production in weapons development, biomedical products, cybernetics, and life technologies.

Mars Corp

Defunct. Mars Corp merged with Vintago Energy in 2229 to form Jupiter Group. The merger has been plagued by infighting ever since.

Corporations

Smaller corporations fill the next layer in the power hierarchy. Corporations fill the gaps the MegaCorporations leave open. These Corporations find niches in the supply chain or specialize in a market area to provide quality or economy desired by either the MegaCorporations or the general population. Some Corporations are semi-independent subsidiaries of MegaCorporations. All Corporations work hard to avoid being wholly consumed by the MegaCorps.

Rook Technologies

Rook Technologies was a heavy weapons and cybernetic division within Mars Corp that had become a drag on the corporate earning per share in the late 2220s. Led by the charismatic and visionary Jamie Sixth Winters, the Mars Division was spending billions in research and development and was labeled as a failing division. As the merger with Vintago Energy took shape, Mars Corp spun out Rook Technologies into its own completely separate Corporation, reaping a major windfall in profits from the initial sale of shares. Now with Jamie 'Sixth' Winters still at the helm three years later, Rook keeps promising to bring some of its first weapons tech to security markets soon while shareholders grow more nervous daily.

Vintago Energy

Defunct. Vintago Energy merged with Mars Corp in 2229 to form Jupiter Group. The merger has been plagued by infighting ever since.

Military Security

MilSec organizations fall parallel to Corporations. They act as a kind of specialized Corporation, providing military and security services to New Boston. With military-grade armor and weaponry, they serve as privatized military or security forces. MilSec organizations may act on behalf of MegaCorporations or Corporations or even Syndicates and Gangs, overtly or through corrupt officers.

Brave Star

Premier MilSec organization in New Boston. Traces their origins to Boston PD.

Trivia: The name Brave Star was inspired by an 80s TV show, BraveStarr. Conceptually, Brave Star is modelled as a privatized version of the Boston Police Department.

Knight Horizon

Dismantled in TODO.

Syndicates

Organized crime in New Boston is run by Syndicates. Syndicates are the heirs of the crime families of North America, the triads of East Asia, the criminal networks of Europe. The difference between a street gang and a syndicate is money, size, political influence, and integration with the economy. Syndicate forces are better armed and trained. Their bases have better security. They have better connections to corporate and milsec operations. Syndicates are thoroughly integrated into the economy of New Boston through ownership, money laundering, and protection rackets. Syndicates often engage in legitimate business in addition to their criminal activity.

D-Street Cartel

The D-Street Cartel, aka D-Cartel, emerged in 2223 as a powerful conglomerate criminal Syndicate, uniting the most formidable syndicates of New Boston under a single, cohesive leadership known as the Chain. This unprecedented alliance was forged through brutal betrayals and strategic alliances formed by a mix of up-and-coming Syndicate bosses and established veteran leadership. The resulting D-Cartel is divided into specialized divisions and territories, governed by strict criminal law that maintains the delicate balance of power. As a unified force, they are far more powerful than the individual syndicates they had been, which had been long waning in influence.

In the years following the ascendancy of D-Cartel, the Syndicate systematically eradicated competitors, established a process for incorporating new Syndicates, and worked their tendrils of corruption deeper into megacorporate and milsec organizations. Now the most ruthless, powerful, and ubiquitous Syndicate in New Boston, the future has never looked so bright or so rich for the D-Cartel.

Que Milieu Syndicate

Que Milieu traces its origins back to the French mob, migrating to New Boston through its Quebec connection in the late 19th century. Likely the second oldest criminal organization still standing in the dome, Que Milieu is outlasted only by the Fenians. Operating with a strict hierarchy rooted in its French heritage, the Syndicate is led by the Caïd, or big boss, followed by five Parrain, or godfathers.

More than any other Syndicate, Que Milieu maintains a low criminal profile, bolstered by its independent economic strength through legitimate businesses. Their operations blend traditional criminal activities with sophisticated financial crimes, running complex extortion rings, counterfeiting schemes, and white-collar fraud, all seamlessly laundered and reinvested into their business empire.

While the Syndicate's operations are generally financially focused, every Parrian commands an army of specialists, ready to defend the Syndicate's interests or strike with precision against its enemies at a moment's notice. The Que Milieu walks quietly but is always prepared to fight savagely.

Ricksham Syndicate

A small crime Syndicate that lives on the railway systems between major urban zones in the UNA. With all the challenges to air and sea transport, rails are the most reliable and fastest way to get things around, stateside. The Ricksham don't get into moving big cargo and know to stay away from megacorporate freight unless there's something really worth it. They move a lot of drugs, people and guns, but they don't do local distribution.

Street Factions

Gangs and independents are collectively called Street factions. Gangs range from small-time thugs to organized extortion rings to terrorist groups. Independents (or Indies) just trying to survive are not part of organized groups but have much in common with gang members. Weaponry and gear is generally stolen or manufactured in makeshift facilities on the streets. Organization, strength, and connection with outside groups varies widely, even between branches of a gang. Street gangs are in a constant struggle against MilSec and Syndicates to try to expand or hold onto their marginalized edges of NBZ territory. They hold the wards, under street stretches, and old and abandoned sections of the dome. Only Fenians really have a strong hold on any decent territory in the dome.

Indie

Presumably short for "Independent", an actor not associated with any Gang, Syndicate, Corporation, MegaCorp, or Governmental Entity. Independents include many smugglers, dealers, and small business owners living outside the corporate life.

Free Streets Compact (FSC)

The FSC is the military arm of the Units, insular communities living below and on the edges of the New Boston dome.

Funded, populated and armed by the other 100 self-sufficient and self-policing Units, the FSC has declared war on the MegaCorps who have exploited, plundered, and destroyed New Boston.

While their stated goals are simple, the Free Streets Compact is involved in a wider set of activities, including smuggling, hijacking and kidnapping. At times these actions play to their anti-corporate goals but at other times their enemies have claimed that FSC leadership is simply lining their pockets off the ideals of the cause.

Regardless, the FSC is a force to be reckoned with, who have claimed responsibility for some of the largest domestic terrorist acts in New Boston, including the detonation of biological weapons, assassinations of high-ranking corporate officers and more.

Los Zagales Street Gang

Los Zagales rose up from the Leans and other meager wasteland habitations outside the dome. In 2214, their ranks had swollen with disenfranchised eager to enter the dome, and with shadowy allies feeding them weaponry, they forced their way into New Boston. They battled savagely against Brave Star and the Syndicates to claim districts beneath old Roxbury and Fenway. Six powerful gang bosses, including Left-Hand Gerrin and Clive Zep, staked out territory inside the dome and used their smuggling connections to jumpstart their operations.

Ten years later, after a bloodbatch raid on Barton Prison that saw Zep liberated, the tension between Los Zagales and Brave Star has never been hotter.

Trivia: The Los Zagales gang appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Los Valentinos. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with the Valentinos gang in Cyberpunk RED.

Fenian Street Gang

The Fenian street gang traces its origins back to the historic Irish mob with their deep roots in smuggling, gun running, drug production, and extorting businesses for protection and operational rights. Known for their open-door stance, the Fenians allow members to pledge fealty while maintaining normal lives, fostering a loyal and widespread network. The Fenians hold a formidable presence in New Boston's Grey Card and Blue Card labor sectors, particularly around the docks and shipping areas, and their multi-century connection to corruption within Brave Star military police ensures their operations run largely unchallenged.

Famously tough, hard-headed, and fiercely defensive of their ancestral turf inside the dome, the Fenians' adaptability has allowed them to thrive as a street gang while gaining powerful clout within many layers of New Boston's underworld and society.

Trivia: The Fenian gang appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Fennian, named after the Fens in the Back Bay area of Boston. The Fens is the remains of a saltwater marsh, or fenland, along the west side of the original peninsula where Boston was built. The Fens was later turned into a freshwater parkland and landfilled neighborhood, and home of Fenway Park.

Blue Ox Street Gang

The Blue Ox stubbornly refuses the designation of a street gang, preferring to be known as a paramilitary army ranging out from Charlestown, East Boston, and the Tobin Bridge slums. They are an anomaly among street gangs, holding tightly to small stretches of unwanted districts while offering their paramilitary units as security, support, and strike teams to other criminal elements across New Boston. The Blue Ox don't come cheap, but by reputation, they are worth it, as their units are well-trained and heavily equipped. Even Syndicates have called up Blue Ox forces to cover operations and security beyond what they can handle at certain times.

Within the organization, their military structure formalizes a chain of command from the top that creates extremely fierce competition between gang bosses who vie for premium recruits, the best gear, and the best contracts, as well as savagely maintaining the integrity of their turf.

Government Entities

United North America

Also called UNA.

Global Corporate Court

The Global Corporate Court (GCC) adjudicates between MegaCorporations and Corporations. The GCC has the authority to revoke a Corporation's mandate, placing them outside the protections of corporate law.