I'm looking for ideas on any kind of organisation or group that is associated with one or more Vile Vortex. This could be scholars who study them, cultists who are trying to open up gates to other realities in them, guardians who defend humanity from what comes out of them, or just any kind of grouping of people aware of the occult who come from one of the areas of the Vile Vortices.
I'll probably need the most detail on groups that have something to do with the Bermuda 'Triangle' Vile Vortex, as that's where the PCs are, but it would be fun and flesh the world out if the PCs could be aware of (or learn about in play) organisations that are concerned with other Vile Vortices.
Let's take an example of a supernatural organisation. I've already mentioned in play that vampires exist. Or, at least, that Dr. Lapointe, the librarian aboard the
Penemue, files any number of monsters or supernatural beings under 'Vampire', basically any creature that seems to draw sustenance from supernaturally draining blood, life or other essential parts from living beings. That means that traditional blood-sucking vampires would go under there, but so would magic-users who practice psychic vampirism, and such monsters as the
chupacabra or
pishtaco, for that matter.
There is an organisation of vampires on the East Coast of the United States, being most powerful around New York and New Jersey as well as a number of New England urban areas, particularly Boston, but they also have a presence in Philly, Detroit, Chicago and a number of other urban areas. It seems that the origin of these vampires is in Eastern Europe, as the organisation also has a presence in Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine, Moldova and neighboring countries.
As it happens, these vampires seem to have very worldly concerns. They operate what amounts to a classic criminal organisation, with only their considerable interests in blood banks being out of line from the areas of concerns that any criminal organisation might have. In addition, while they are considerably more brutal and blatant in Eastern Europe, in the United States, they rarely commit obvious homicides and tend to prey mostly on rival criminals.
These vampires exist only as background and the PCs' Patron actually more or less ignores them.
What I'm looking for here are organisations, criminal or not*, that explicitly exist because of some influence from the Vile Vortices or because they believe in the theory about these areas and are in some way investigating or interacting with them.
I'm talking about apocalyptic cults worshiping beings connected with a Vile Vortex, revolutionary factions in Mali, Zimbabwe or other African countries within the two Vile Vortices there that are led by supernatural beings or powerful magicians, cabals of magicians claiming Places of Power within a certain Vile Vortex or criminal gangs from Caribbean islands where the higher mana in the Vile Vortex means that their leadership is nearly exclusively composed of magic-workers or otherworldly beings.
Something like the
Kók-batay Nwa Nou or
Kók Nwa ('We Black Fighting Cocks' or just 'Black Cocks'), a Haitian/New Orleans criminal organisation, with roots on Haiti, but a powerful presence in New Orleans since the 2000s and a growing presence in the 2010s anywhere there is a strong Haitian immigrant community in the US.
Or one of their rivals, as yet unnamed, some of whom are exclusive to Haiti or maybe even just a neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince, but others that stretch their tentacles throughout the Caribbean and to Florida, New York and other US states.
For Dominicans, I can use real gangs and DTOs, with occult-aware people having more influence the more it becomes apparent that their magic can really work. Some Dominican DTOs are, no doubt, controlled by something otherworldly by now, within the Vile Vortex. Should this translate into splinter factions and new organisations and gangs, with more esoteric names and traditions? Maybe so, if someone has ideas.
I'll also need Jamaican gangs of occult-aware criminals, not to mention such organisations from most every Caribbean country and some Latin American ones that are concerned with the area that falls under the Vile Vortex.
Does anyone have ideas on how the supernatural might have affected Mexican, Colombian and other Latin American drug cartels? I've proposed that some Ordinary Decent Criminals, who for all that they might be ruthless murderers, greedy drug dealers and hypocritical Catholics, still oppose what they perceive to be Evil, in the form of supernatural influences that can be construed as the work of the Adversary.
Of course, that
doesn't mean that there aren't also cartels that are by now led by the most powerful and ruthless magicians, or, at the very least, someone who was willing to make a pact with something awful and extremely vicious. There are, in setting, stories of cartels where the enforcers kill for pleasure, not business, and where entire villages vanish in remote areas.
Of particular interest to the PCs are probably criminals who operate mostly around the Andes region of Bolivia and Peru, but who seem to have various occult goals, in addition to being involved in drugs, arms trade and illegal mining and the smuggling of gold. Discovering the exact nature of the relationship between them and Brazil's
Comando Vermelho (Red Command or Red Commando) is somewhat of a priority, especially considering that a Vile Vortex sits just outside of Rio de Janeiro.
I'll also need some organisations, or at least networks of acquaintances, from Caribbean countries and other nations connected to the Vile Vortex composed of occult-aware people who
don't use magic for selfish and immoral ends, but try to help others, either on their own, or by making an allegiance with the PCs and their organisation.
*Though as the supernatural officially doesn't exist, anyone concerned with it will tend to be a part of an occult underground, at least potentially criminal.