Ashbourne: A city of contrasts — neon-lit streets, towering skyscrapers, and alleys where shadows seemed to breathe. The air was thick with whispers of power, greed, and fear.Neon lights reflected off rain-slicked streets, casting fractured shadows across the faces of its inhabitants. The skyline was a jagged silhouette of corporate towers, clandestine mansions, and fortified enclaves. Beneath the city's glittering veneer, a silent war raged — one that blended blood, power, and the untraceable force of those who operated beyond the law.
For centuries, mafia families had ruled Ashbourne's underbelly, their allegiances shifting like sand in a storm.* Ten dominant families* - collectively known as** The Council of Ten**- controlled the trade, the streets, and the whispers of fear. Each family had its legacy, its enforcers, and its secrets — but none wielded the influence of the Reynard family.
THE COUNCIL
The Council includes 10 mafia families who operates in the city in and out. The Council is an alliance of 10 different powerful families who have different opinions but make decisions together build their empire and the city:
1. The Vercetti Family:
One of the most prominent families of the Council. Led by Lucien Vercetti, he acts as the patriarch of the family. His calm yet dangerous mannerism makes him the most respected in the Council and his words hold absolute power.
2. Marconda Family:
Led by matriarch Isabelle Marconda, they hold the same position as the Vercetti family in the council. A cunning and calculative person, Isabelle has the same ideals of Lucien, which makes them allies.
3. D'Azzaro Family:
One of the most -if not, dangerous and evil family in the council. Led by Carlo D'Azzario,, a ruthless redhead. Directly opposes the ideals of Vercetti and Marconda family.
4. Ryuka Clan:
They are powerful but choose not to take sides in the petty squabbles or power plays between the other families, at least not openly. This makes them a potential kingmaker, or a severe threat if their neutrality is ever broken. Led by Shikuzuko Ryuka, a veteran samurai. They follow strict principles and ideals of their own, and they remain neutral.
These are the prominent families in the council of 10. Other families are:
5. The Solari Syndicate
Head: Valentina Solari – The "Network Weaver."
A cunning and ambitious matriarch, Valentina controls Ashbourne's vast information and communication networks. She's sleek, modern, and utterly ruthless in her pursuit of data and influence. Her family specializes in hacking, surveillance, and digital espionage, making them indispensable (and dangerous) in the digital age. She is often seen with dark, perfectly coiffed hair and a sharp, calculating gaze. Her family often provides intel to the other families, but always at a steep price, and she is known for withholding crucial data to manipulate situations to her advantage. She often clashes with more traditional families, seeing their methods as antiquated.
6. The Blackwood Cartel
Head: Silas Blackwood – The "Ghost Baron."
An older, enigmatic patriarch who operates largely in the shadows, even for a mafia boss. Silas is known for controlling Ashbourne's illicit trade in rare artifacts, exotic chemicals, and untraceable black market goods. He's rarely seen in public, preferring to pull strings from afar through a network of loyal, faceless lieutenants. His family's strength lies in its ability to acquire anything, no matter how rare or dangerous, and move it with absolute discretion. He is rumored to have a vast personal collection of dangerous items, and his influence extends into the deepest, most hidden corners of the city. He has a pale, almost ethereal look, with sharp features and unsettlingly calm eyes.
7. The Costello Crew
Head: "Big Mike" Costello – The "Bulwark."
A burly, intimidating patriarch who embodies the old-school muscle of Ashbourne. Mike controls the city's construction, shipping, and organized labor rackets. His family is known for its sheer brute force, vast network of enforcers, and unwavering loyalty to their own. He's less about subtle manipulation and more about overwhelming presence and direct action. While not the most cunning, his raw power and ability to mobilize large forces make him a formidable voice on the Council, particularly when physical intimidation or large-scale operations are required. He has a gruff demeanor, a powerful physique, and a no-nonsense attitude.
8. The Al-Ghul Syndicate
Head: Zahir Al-Ghul – The "Market Puppeteer."
A meticulously precise and financially astute patriarch, Zahir controls Ashbourne's extensive black market finance and high-stakes gambling operations. His family deals in untraceable currency, illicit investments, and subtle economic manipulation. Zahir himself is a master of numbers and human psychology, able to predict market shifts and exploit vulnerabilities with uncanny accuracy. He is soft-spoken but incredibly sharp, always dressed in impeccably tailored suits, with a calm, almost serene expression that belies a razor-sharp mind. His influence is felt in every major illicit transaction, making him a silent but omnipresent force on the Council.
9. The Vance Dynasty
Head: Evelyn Vance – The "Architect of Vice."
A meticulously organized and seemingly benevolent matriarch, Evelyn Vance controls Ashbourne's vast network of high-end illicit entertainment, exclusive clubs, underground fighting rings, and "discreet services." Her family deals in desires and secrets, creating luxurious fronts that mask darker operations. Evelyn herself is a master of charm and psychology, often appearing as a sophisticated socialite, but she has an iron will and a deep understanding of human weakness. She maintains a façade of respectability, making her family's corruption particularly insidious. She has a timeless elegance, with a perpetual calm smile that rarely reaches her calculating eyes.
10. The Petrov Conglomerate
Head: Victor Petrov – The "Logistics Lord."
A shrewd and pragmatic patriarch, Victor Petrov controls Ashbourne's most extensive illicit transportation and distribution networks. His family specializes in moving goods—legal or illegal, mundane or dangerous—across the city and beyond with unparalleled efficiency and stealth. Victor is a master of logistics, able to predict and circumvent law enforcement with elaborate routes and decoys. He is a man of few words, preferring decisive action and meticulous planning. Often seen with a stoic expression and a powerful build, he commands loyalty through his competence and his family's sheer operational capabilities, making them the silent backbone of many of Ashbourne's illicit trades. He's often the one that the other families rely on when they need something moved or disappear without a trace.
SUPERHUMAN FACTIONS
Even though there are mafia families dominating here, 3 factions of superhumans were formed in this city to support/oppose/maintain neutrality.
1. Wraith Class
Leader: Dizaze Mazzusa – The "Shadow Weaver."
Alignment: Directly supports the D'Azzario family, making them a tool for Ashbourne's "most evil" faction.
Core Function: Surveillance. Their operations are about seeing everything, hearing every whisper, and knowing every move.
Aesthetic & Operating Style: They would embrace shadows, stealth, and digital intrusion. Their gear might be sleek, dark, and minimalist, emphasizing invisibility and efficiency. Think advanced stealth suits, integrated AR displays, and silent drones. Their bases would be hidden, their movements unseen, and their presence only known through the data they collect. They operate less like a police force and more like a pervasive, unseen intelligence agency that reports to a criminal empire.
Powers of Wraith Class Members: Their powers would center around perception, stealth, and information gathering, often with a technological or psionic edge:
Infiltration & Camouflage:
Photonic Shifting: The ability to bend light around themselves, rendering them invisible or allowing them to perfectly mimic their surroundings. This isn't just stealth; it's active camouflage.
Phasing/Intangibility (Limited): The ability to briefly become intangible, allowing them to pass through solid objects like walls or security fields for short durations, ideal for bypassing physical defenses.
Sensory & Data Acquisition:
Hyper-Perception: Enhanced senses (sight, hearing, even smell) allowing them to pick up minute details from afar or through obstacles. Some might have "thermal vision" or "infra-red" capabilities naturally.
Techno-Empathy/Data Siphoning: The ability to mentally interface with electronic systems, hacking complex networks, siphoning data, and manipulating surveillance feeds with a thought. They can become living data processors.
Aural Mimicry: The ability to perfectly replicate voices and sounds, allowing them to bypass vocal authentication or sow confusion.
Subtle Manipulation:
Low-Level Telepathy/Psionic Echoes: The ability to "read" surface thoughts or create faint psionic echoes that subtly influence targets, making them forget being seen or leading them to specific locations. This isn't mind control, but psychological nudging.
2. Helix Foundation
Leader: Michael Helix – The "Unseen Shield."
Alignment: Hidden subordinates of the Reynard Family. This is a brilliant secret weapon for the KOS, explaining how they, as "normal humans," can contend with the city's myriad threats.
Core Function: Protection. But not just protection of the innocent; their primary directive (unknown to most) is the strategic protection of Reynard interests and the maintenance of the KOS's balance in Ashbourne.
Aesthetic & Operating Style: They would present themselves as a highly professional, rapid-response unit, often appearing out of nowhere to neutralize threats. Their gear might be robust, armored, and functional, perhaps with a sleek, futuristic look that doesn't draw undue attention but signifies their advanced capabilities. They operate with precision and efficiency, aiming to resolve situations quickly and disappear, leaving minimal trace. Their operations might involve protecting key assets, extracting individuals, or creating diversions.
Powers of Helix Foundation Members: Their powers would be defensive, physical, and tactical, allowing them to engage threats directly and protect targets:
Enhanced Durability & Force Fields:
Kinetic Absorption: The ability to absorb kinetic energy from impacts, making them incredibly resistant to physical harm. They can then often redirect this energy.
Personal Force Fields: The generation of localized energy barriers that can deflect projectiles, energy blasts, or physical attacks, perfect for shielding themselves or others.
Super Strength & Agility:
Augmented Physiology: Greatly enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, allowing them to overcome multiple armed opponents, move through dangerous environments rapidly, or react to superhuman threats.
Impact Generation: The ability to create localized shockwaves or concussive blasts through physical strikes, adding offensive power to their defensive roles.
Tactical Support:
Localized Teleportation (Short-Range): Brief, short-distance jumps that allow them to evade attacks, reposition instantly, or extract a target from immediate danger.
Environmental Hardening: The ability to rapidly reinforce structures or create temporary barriers from existing materials, turning cover into impenetrable fortresses.
3. Aegis Dawn
Leader: Susan Drogba – The "Truth Seeker."
Alignment: Maintains neutrality. This means they are not beholden to any mafia family or even a specific moral code beyond the pursuit and dissemination of information. Their neutrality will be a double-edged sword, making them unpredictable allies or dangerous obstacles to any faction.
Core Function: Intelligence and Information. They are the collectors, analysts, and sometimes the disseminators of crucial data about Ashbourne's underworld, superhuman activities, and political machinations. They aim to understand and map the entire complex system.
Aesthetic & Operating Style: They would likely be more academic or investigative in their presentation. Their headquarters might be a hidden, high-tech library or data hub rather than a combat ready base. Their agents might appear less like soldiers and more like highly trained analysts, detectives, or discreet field agents. Their gear would focus on sophisticated sensors, data processing, and communication tools. They gather information for its own sake, often believing that knowledge itself is the key to understanding (and perhaps eventually, fixing) Ashbourne.
Powers of Aegis Dawn Members: Their powers would revolve around enhanced cognition, data processing, and subtle influence, enabling them to gather and synthesize vast amounts of information:
Enhanced Cognition & Memory:
Hyper-Cognition/Eidetic Memory: The ability to process vast amounts of data at superhuman speeds, recall every detail, and identify complex patterns invisible to others. They are living supercomputers.
Probable Future Mapping: Not true precognition, but the ability to analyze probabilities and data points so accurately that they can predict likely future events and outcomes with high certainty.
Information Gathering (Subtle):
Empathic Resonance (Limited): The ability to sense strong emotional imprints on objects or in locations, allowing them to reconstruct events or understand motivations indirectly.
Pheromone/Micro-Expression Reading: An innate ability to read minute biological or behavioral cues, revealing lies, hidden intentions, or true emotional states. They are human lie detectors and profilers.
Information Dissemination/Disruption:
Psionic Communication (Limited): The ability to mentally communicate with their team members over short distances, allowing for seamless, silent coordination.
Sensory Overload (Non-Lethal): The ability to subtly overload an opponent's senses with minor psionic pulses, causing disorientation, confusion, or temporary incapacitation, allowing for extraction or information gathering.
THE REYNARD FAMILY.
The most dominant family that ruled Ashboune over centuries. One of the founding families of Ashbourne along with Vercetti, Marconda, and others. They are not part of the council- they are independent because they can do so. That just represents the power and authority of the family. They are the law and order of Ashbourne. Led by Sir John Reynard, the patriarch of the family. He holds an enigmatic aura around him which makes even the enemies respect him. He has 3 sons and 2 daughter, which will be revealed later. He also has grandchildren, which are the main characters of the story. The Reynards Bloodline have a distinguishable feature-their silver- coloured hair.
KILLERS OF THE SOUTHSIDE (K.O.S):
A sibling trio of the Reynard Family. Grandsons of John Reynard, they are deemed as the most powerful in the whole world. They are just normal humas- but they are more strong, powerful and deadly than any force in the world. Even enemies like D'Azzario will tremble in front of their presence.
Adrian Reynard: The protagonist-The Eldest of the KOS. Carefree, cool-headed, yet deadly. Known as Immortal Ghost of Ashbourne, he is the most powerful among KOS, making him the most deadliest human in the planet.
Evan Reynard: The blade in the dark, and master strategist. Reckless yet loyal, his power lies in raw speed and fury. When Evan moves, death follows before the echo fades.
Rowan Reynard: The youngest and the most unpredictable. His calm smile hides chaos — the quiet storm that no one sees coming until it's too late.
The 3 siblings always travel in a black '69 mustang, which makes the car Iconic.
In this powerful family, there was a noble soul:
DIANA REYNARD - The younger sister of Adrian, Evan and Rowan, and the Heart of Reynard. She is the favourite of the family due to her innocence and shy nature.
THE HAND
The unknown yet supreme entity controlling global underworld mafia. The entity consists of 5 great mafia families across the world-also known as *5 fingers of the Hand*. Trying to expand their territory to Ashbourne, they send the heirs of each families to Ashbourne to take control. Each heir carries a different vice: *Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, and Pride* — and together, they move the city from the shadows, pulling strings the world can't see.
ETHAN ROCKWELL
Ethan Rockwell is a teenager from Burnley. He is coming to Ashbourne for higher studies at Ashbourne University after completing his high school in his hometown. He is a curious person. He gets entangled in the labyrinth of darkness called Ashbourne and starts a remarkable journey.
This gives us a brief introduction about the world and characters of the story. Hope you enjoy!!