From: | "Fisher, Victor" <Victor-Fisher@******.COM> |
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Subject: | Underworld errata [or they got just a FEW things wrong...] |
Date: | Mon, 7 Apr 1997 16:01:31 -0400 |
Tamanous, the globe-spanning illegal organlegging business, so I figured
I'd do a little research on them. The first, about Tamanous, si actually
a little background I dug up, to save any GM out there using them a
little time, or give him a place to start. The second, on the Russian
Mafia, is a clarification/correction over something they printed in the
book.
Underworld states that Tamanous is a creature that encourages
others to eat the flesh of humans, then consumes those people. Actually,
the term comes from Black Tamanous, which was a tribe of Kwakiutl
Indians, on Vancouver Island, in Canada. Every year, during their winter
ceremonial season, initiates and members were required to eat human
flesh, as part of their rites [no, I'm not making this up]. They were
spurred to this act by a creature [ if it has an actual name, I wasn't
able to dig it up], a cannibal spirit. This spirit was supposedly one of
the monsters the Transformer failed to kill, when he was ridding the
earth of evil beings [The Transformer is an Amerind diety who went
across the world, changing all life, into the forms they inhabit today].
Underworld also calls the Russian Mafia the Vory v Zakone. This is
incorrect. They're actually referred to as the Organizatsiya [or,as a
friend of mine in Austria told me, the Rodina].
Theterm Vory v Zakone is the traditional code of conduct that organized
crime in Russia follows. [I think it translates as 'thieves in law'.]
All of them are pretty harsh; especially with dealings with each other.
Outside ties [besides other crime brethern] are forsaken. Duty to
organization, and responsiblity for other brethern is important,
especially in an infraction of the rules. They are brutal, viscious,
resourceful [these guys are selling everything up to and including
nukes, in the midst of all the fighting going on in parts of Europe].
The Serbian Mafia [a distant spawn of the Russian] was voted a year or
so ago by a business magazine, the most organized business in Western
Europe ! [I fell oer laughing when I read that one!].
Well, that's all I've got for now. If anybody has anything else to
add, fell free to correct any mistake i might have made. Overall, I
still think the sourcebook came out pretty okay.