abstract
| - Fagin's Riches was a massive criminal organization founded by the man who would become known as Lord Fagin, the Pirate King, on Tomin Kora in 2593. Fagin's Riches has often been compared to later criminal organizations such as the Boromov or Cabrerra crime syndicates. In truth, however, at its heights it was far larger, wealthier and more influential than either of those later crime organizations. Fagin's Riches dominated a region of space known as the Fringe, an area populated by independent worlds wedged between the old Stellar Consortium and the Parallax. Planets in the Fringe included Tomin Kora, Ungstir, Quaquan, Val Shohob, and Odari. With no organized military force patrolling the space between these worlds, criminal activity prospered. Among the most visible arms of Fagin's Riches were the two Guilds, the Smuggler's Guild and the Pirate's Guild. Together, these often ruthless organizations dominated all commerce in the Fringe. Each had a secret headquarters in Freewheeling on Tomin Kora. Fagin's Riches, however, was involved in a wide range of other pursuits as well. It employed a large number of highly trained assasins and hit men. It had a sizeable research-and-development division that was capable of producing new weapons, both of the technological and biological type, and which was responsible for the ultimate creation of the Legion Virus. But what Fagin's Riches was perhaps most closely identified with was the Elite Guard, Lord Fagin's highly deadly army of mercenaries. They enforced Fagin's dominance over the Fringe, and ensured that the local planetary governments acknowledged his lordship's sway over their space. Every planet in the Fringe had a tacit agreement that members of Fagin's organization would be protected in exchange for their societies being left in relative peace. Thus, the Fringe was a fantastic region for criminals to hide out in. Fagin's Riches survived until the Kretonian invasion in 2651 layed waste to Tomin Kora. By that time, however, it was already in a sharp decline, with many of Fagin's Elite Guards having been assasinated by unknown assailants who left behind red scarves as a calling card, and with Fagin's Tomin Kora palace and its successor on Odysseus, as well as his famed luxury liner the Galore, having been destroyed by a group of crusaders led by Orandius Jaxx.
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