Took another pass at the Hungry, this should work at least a little better. It's less focused on the organized crime nature of it, though that's still there, and more focused on the mercantile nature. It's more of a "We'll sell you anything you want. ...and anything we want you to want... ...and protection of your business that sells things people want..." organization that a gang with delusions of grandeur.
Could probably use another pass for refinement or two, but should at least function better as a faction now.
The Hungry
"This whole town's a pussy, just waiting to be fucked."
He said/she said: "Greed is the natural order of every creature. We simply fill that order."
The Hungry were originally a set of four rival gangs. A few centuries ago, however, Atonya Agathion, half-pit fiend leader of the Castle Precinct Pits, approached the leaders of the Little Nishrek Eyez, The Buzzerds (of District 4), and Merry Men (District 18), asking for a meeting in Finality's most contested, and most valuable, neighbourhood- Portal Pentagon. There, Atonya made the case that while they certainly could continue fighting off other gangs, each other, the law, and whatever gloryseekers took on a gig to bust up one of their operations... or they could merge, and move from being petty ethnic gangs and into a more legitimate front that happened to take advantage of less than legal methods. The four generals called out their lieutenants (Atonya had told them to come alone, but all four knew none of them were stupid enough to actually do that), and moved from the momentarily empty warehouse into a nearby tavern to discuss the matter.
In the backroom of the Anvil, a cheap tavern that mostly catered to natives and visiting craftsmen, they drew up a new organization, giving each former gang control of a different part of the new business- Procurement. The members formerly known as the Eyez would run arms, those who came from the Pit, formerly the Merry Men, would handle all manners of intoxicants, those who had operated under the name of the Buzzerds would reintegrate into their low stations of birth in the Hive and handle counterfeiting, and Atonya's gang, the Castle Precinct Pits, used that greatest gift of devils and said they would handle "Procurement." The other gangs took this to mean that they would handle brothels, pimping and other sex-related matters, but in the weeks that followed, they learned that what Atonya had really meant was "our business of acquiring and supplying goods as a whole," as more and more Pits members were placed in administrative roles that ultimately gave Atonya and his lieutenants control over the Hungry. They tried to back out, but Atonya merely gestured to the framed contract, witnessed by an Infernal Broker and backed by magic, which signified they had all consented to Atonya and all Pits members handling Procurement. That the word had an official definition that differed from it's common use by criminals and law enforcement was not Atonya's fault. As Eyez, Buzzerds and Merry Men passed through their natural lifespans (albeit, typically shortened due to violence) and Atonya's fiendish and fiend-blooded lieutenants lived on with immortality or near immortality and the comparatively safer job of running numbers, grudges also died off. Various orcs, insectoid races and fungi found that such long-lived administrators gave the organization a certain perspective and stability. What began as a grudging obeisance to contract became envious thanks.
With new might of arms, a combined coffer, and mingled debts called in, the Hungry established their headquarters in Portal Pentagon, the neighbourhood where they began, and the most profitable neighbourhood for a business centered on supplying all needs. The large warehouse facing the actual city square was not cheap, but the Inspector General, as is the way of powerful men with much money, had his appetites. He could pay for anything he wanted, but the new Hungry were far more interested in favors than gold or souls. In exchange for providing him with whores (and keeping quiet about those more harmful to reputation), drugs (including a steady stream of Royal Blood Jelly) and keeping him abreast of any of the more collectible items which came their way, the Hungry were able to set up shop in prime real estate. As a bit of insurance in their investment, however, The Hungry also gave him a cursed Thinuan ring, as a gift, which will trap his soul and teleport back to Atonya in the event of the Inspector General's death. The general's lifespan would have ended long ago if not for his Royal Blood Jelly habit, and so he is easily controlled.
The upper offices (mostly a handful of extra dimensional spaces) of their Portal Pentagon offices serve as the Hungry's main chapter house, though they also maintain several brothels, inns and coffee houses throughout the district. The Hungry Chapter House also serves as their primary warehouse, mainly using a magic similar to that employed in Handy Haversacks and Bags of Holding but on a grander scale, turning already cavernous warehouses into truly immense spaces each capable of holding fifty times what spaces not so enchanted could.
A member of the Hungry has access to any world they might care to go, to any good or service they might have need of, either through their own faction, or through providing others with their needs. Being a member of the Hungry can be rather like taking on a convoluted fetch chain from a Zelda game, where in order to get what you really need or want, you have to provide half a dozen or more people with things
they want first.
The Hungry oppose all attempts to outlaw goods or services of any sort, and constantly advocate for the legalization of more and more things. There is an interior debate over this, as some members who have not yet entirely left behind their criminal origins argue that the illicit is more profitable. It often is, but it also incurs more business expenses as one must plan for security of covertly procuring and providing the illicit, and the legal consequences of inevitably being caught. While the legal may not command the same prices as the illegal, the illegal requires bribes and lawyers in addition to tariffs. However, just because the Hungry want all goods and services to be legal does not mean they want all things to be equally approved of. Just because prostitution may be legal, that doesn't mean that high society will not scoff at the purchase of a woman's services. And so the Hungry quietly works to arrange for certain things to be shameful, that they may charge for their silence in addition to their procuring. The Hungry also advocate the lowering of taxes, as is the way of so many business men. Whenever it appears taxes will be raised no matter what they say, they will advocate social programs, supposedly out of concern for the people of the city, but truly so that more people have more money for more vices.
The faction grew out of a loose amalgam of fiends, fiend-blooded, goblinoids (particularly orcs), creatures of darkness (particularly myconids), and dissatisfied Hive dwellers. The most powerful members often are from one of these origins, and creatures which hail from more than one, mostly fiend-blooded myconids, orcs and Hive dwellers, are also common. Aside from these, the faction recruits heavily from those who are dissatisfied with their birth stations and willing to defy the law to improve it. Many members started as street urchins who were given the task of bringing customers to the Hungry or delivering goods to same, bought with a meal and a bit of coin and the promise of more.
Apart from their more innocuous activities of introducing buyer to good, criminal to weapon, john to prostitute and addict to drug, the Hungry also aggressively push for control of all sales of goods and services in Finality--as well as elsewhere in the multiverse--through a barely obfuscated protection racket they refer to as insurance. As there are always bigger fish, a member of the faction of any level of power might be sent to acquire such control, even the powerful Atonya occasionally makes such "pitches" against powerful archmages who create magic items and efreet merchants.