Is a “ward boss” more a underworld/illegal role or is it an official/legal thing?
I see examples of both like
“Roric, the ward boss who ran the criminal operations in Crow’s Foot, has been
killed.”
or
“Political: Magistrate or Ward Boss”
Is this something like the the garristas or capa from Locke Lamora or this a official politcal function of the city?
Thanks for making me undestand this a little better.
Underworld/illegal role. The ward boss “runs these streets.” A Magistrate would be a legal authority figure, while a Ward Boss would be an illegal authority figure, which is probably why they’re both grouped under Political.
Alfred Rudzki thanks!
I’ve always played it strictly underworld but now I wonder. Crime is so pervasive in much of the city, surely ward-bosses most have some de-facto legitimate power. I have to imagine that any member of the council trying to do anything in crows foot would have run it past Roric back when Crow’s Foot was stable, for example.
A lot of the gangs emerge from or are still involved in legitimate sources of status and power – schools, labour, merchants, rarefied societies, etc. – after all.
Tammany Hall in 19thC New York had various links to organised crime while being deeply enmeshed in the Democratic party. They even had people who were called Ward Bosses. It also makes me think of the leaders of those burial societies in Rome that came to be locuses for both criminal activity and ‘official’ political violence.
The more I think about it, the more it seems that the division between underworld and legitimate power might be more of a modern phenomenon. Surely in Duskvol their would be a huge overlap?