The Malakov Mafiya
The Malakov Mafiya is a Russian criminal bratva (“brotherhood”) run by Gregor Malakov, an ex-KGB agent who started the organization in Emerald City. Gregor was also involved in some Soviet-era psychic experimentation, which gave him low-level psionic powers he uses to expand and control his criminal empire. Malakov’s public identity is a secret; to law enforcement and lower-ranking members of his gang, he is known only as “Koschei the Deathless”—named for a mythical Russian wizard. He wields an emerald (actually green viridian stone) that enhances his psionic powers and has helped him to unnaturally extend his life.
Structure
The Malakov Mafiya is one of the most organized “traditional” criminal syndicates in Emerald City. In that regard they are closely rivaled by the Golden Dragon Society, but the Society is strongest in the Eastern District, whereas the Malakovs operates throughout Emerald City. The Mafiya’s ties to Russia and Eastern Europe have been highly profitable in the years since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, allowing contraband, money, and people to find their way into Emerald City. Some of Malakov’s former KGB contacts have found work with his organization as enforcers, agents, and thugs.
Like its ancestral criminal and espionage organizations in Russia, the Malakov Mafiya is built on a “cell” structure.
Each cell has contact with one other above and below it in the hierarchy, but otherwise knows little or nothing of the larger organization. Most members of the Mafiya have never even seen Koschei, much less know what he looks like or his whereabouts. Only the inner circle of the syndicate has any idea that “humble importer” Gregory Malinski is their boss. In fact, Koschei has occasionally arranged for Mafiya operations against his own legitimate business interests to further maintain his cover.
In spite of his dispersed structure, the Malakov Mafiya is a tremendously efficient organization, thanks in part to its leader’s mental powers. Koschei is aware of far more than his underlings imagine, and has vast influence over the organization. A few psychic strings pulled here and there ensure everything runs smoothly and many problems never have the opportunity to arise. In spite of their best efforts, the authorities have never been able to get an undercover agent into the Mafiya; they always end up dead with no apparent cause.
Public Agenda
The Malakov Mafiya has a stake in many criminal operations in Emerald City and beyond. Indeed, most members of the organization have only the slightest idea how vast its interests are, focusing on their own particular bailiwick.
The Mafiya has a share of much of the vice trafficking in the city, from illegal drugs to prostitution, apart from the street-level “freelancers” (many of whom pay “tribute” to the Malakovs), and Madame Joy, who has an “understanding” with Koschei given her role as an information broker. The Golden Dragon Society provides considerable competition for vices, particularly with the heroin trade from the Golden Triangle region of Asia and the flesh-trade from the same area. Still, their influence remains strongest in the Eastern District and amongst the city’s Asian population.
The Malakovs deal in a variety of contraband, from illegal weapons and technologies to knock-off name brand goods and electronics. The Mafiya does fairly little direct smuggling, instead acting as a buyer and distributor of illegal goods brought into Emerald City by others.
They have worked with various small-time smugglers and others like Steelhead and his allies in the Trident organization. This arrangement allows the Mafiya to play smugglers off each other to bargain for the best prices, as well as cutting loose any potentially compromised sources. The authorities often manage to collar the smugglers, or the buyers, but rarely the Malakov middlemen.
Organized gambling is illegal in Emerald City and virtually all of it is under the Malakov Mafiya’s control. They run numbers for various bookies for everything from sporting events to betting on how long the newest stormer or escapee from Deep Six will manage to stay on the loose.
Malakov-run gambling operations routinely ruin those who become hooked on them, running up massive debts until the Mafiya’s leg-breakers show up to collect, one way or another.
Related to the combination of gambling and leg-breaking, the Malakov Mafiya struck up a partnership with August Roman’s Circuit-Maximus to establish the Stormfront underground fighting ring. The Mafiya rakes in money by taking bets on the fights between stormers and other superhuman fighters at top-secret locations. The fights also allow Koschei to scout for new “talent” for his organization and to exercise his mental influence over the competitors and attendees alike.
On the periphery of the Mafiya’s operations are things like protection rackets, where local businesses and individuals pay “tribute” to the Malakovs to avoid unfortunate “accidents” ranging from arson and insurance fraud to outright beatings and worse. Murder was quite rare in the past, due to the limitations observed by the Chamber, but has become more likely in Emerald City’s current criminal climate.
Extortion and influence peddling is Koschei’s primary personal area of influence. His powers have allowed him to build up a potent web of connections over the years, and the shadowy crime lord knows where all of the bodies (both literal and figurative) are buried in and around Emerald City. In those rare cases where Koschei encounters someone without embarrassing secrets, he is more than willing to manufacture some. Enemies of the Malakov Mafiya receive untraceable emails, calls, or packages making it abundantly clear that their dark secrets will become public knowledge unless they keep quiet and do exactly as they are told. Of course, the more they comply with Koschei’s demands, they deeper in they get and the stronger his hold over them grows.
History
Gregor Malakov was born in pre-WWII Soviet Russia following the October Revolution and the rise of Communism. He was a young soldier during the Second World War and experienced many of the terrors of war firsthand.
Those experiences hardened Malakov and also showed him the power of holding life and death in his hands. He became an agent of the KGB in the 1950s and was a coldly effective operative and assassin. His loyalty and efficiency, coupled with high scores on a series of ESP tests, earned Malakov a posting to Science City Eberesko, a top-secret Soviet center for experimentation in human enhancement and advanced weaponry, in particular their psychic research experiments.
The experiments were long and often painful, but also successful, so successful that Malakov picked up thoughts revealing how he was not expected to survive the procedures, but chosen because he had made enemies within the KGB and the Kremlin. After he wiped the minds of the scientists and escaped, Gregor paid those same enemies a visit and disposed of all of them.
So it was that in the 1960s, Gregor Malakov first appeared in Emerald City, offering his skills and services to the nascent criminal underworld. By fate or fortune, one of his early jobs involved the theft of a rare “emerald” unearthed in the Atlas Mountains. The stone turned out to be a piece of viridian stone with unique properties even for that unusual material. The moment Malakov picked it up, it seemed to connect to his mind, opening up pathways and powers he didn’t know he had. From that point onward, Malakov was no longer, instead, “Koschei the Deathless” became a power to be feared.
Although occasionally thwarted by a costumed do-gooder, the mysterious Koschei was never caught or brought to justice. In fact, he seemed to halt all criminal activity entirely, until he was no more than an urban legend in Emerald City: the shadowy man with the green gem and burning eyes. Some said they saw him in dreams or visions, but not in person. Meanwhile, the Malakov Mafiya consolidated its power in the city. Other criminal gangs were absorbed into it, if they were wise, or wiped out, if they were not. In both cases, the Malakovs earned a reputation for knowing their rivals’ every plan and weakness, and ruthlessly exploiting them both.
By the time Emerald City became known as a haven for super-powered criminals, the Malakov Mafiya was already a power to be reckoned with. It was no surprise when the nascent Chamber approached Koschei with an offer of membership and a lucrative opportunity to head-off a potential gang-war. Koschei agreed to the accord, wishing to learn more about his would-be “allies” and planning to learn more about the resources they controlled.
The Malakov Mafiya benefited from the Chamber’s arrangement for decades, taking its place as the top syndicate in Emerald City, with control of much of its streetlevel crime. Years of largely unopposed operation have allowed the Malakovs to sink their claws deep into the city and consolidate their influence, but have also made the organization overconfident and careless. The death of the head of @the Golden Dragon Society held the promise of Malakov taking over all organized crime in the city, but when the Silver Storm fractured the Chamber, and @Maximillian Mars’ “defection” broke it for good, Koschei was forced to deal with his former allies as rivals once again.
Since the Storm, Koschei has focused on doing what he does best: manipulating events behind the scenes. While former allies like F.O.E. and the Grandmaster duke it out with Emerald City’s new super-powered protectors, and stormers earn headlines and jail-time for their rampages, the Malakov Mafiya quietly continues its operations.
When heroes or the police force take down a would-be crime lord, Koschei arranges to acquire his assets. Indeed, the head of the Malakovs has sometimes taken it upon himself to tip-off the authorities in order to expedite the process.
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