Created by Niyahra Riohn on Monday September 14th, 2020 @ 8:11pm

The Orion Syndicate is a criminal organization created and largely maintained by the Orions. The Syndicate's activities included gambling, racketeering, loan sharking, extortion, blackmail, smuggling of goods and weapons, piracy, and slave trading. It also trades in secret information, manages net-girls, and employs professional thieves and assassins. The Syndicate is ruthless in its tactics, and its members are extremely loyal. They have a code of 'koledru venari, 'thieves' honor', and its members would rather die than break this code of silence. Any member would take their own life before testifying against the Syndicate. No one can leave the organization without permission, and they exact revenge on those who do betray them. However the loyalty is not borne of fear; the Syndicate took care of its own, including financially supporting any family member of a deceased associate.

The Orion Syndicate was originally a wholly Orion organization, and the average Orion was as likely to deny the Syndicate even existed as try to sell so-called "insider information" on the organization. Both responses were almost certainly false; members would not break the code of silence, and outsiders knew nothing of worth. The Syndicate had no problem with such falsehoods, and even encouraged them, enjoying a confused but threatening reputation. However, by the 24th century the Syndicate expanded its membership to include operatives from a variety of worlds, but unlike a traditional organized crime consortium, the Syndicate operates a fragmented cell-structure, making it more like a subversive or resistance organization, or a secret society. In each cell, a compromised member can only identify a few other immediate members. Nevertheless, the organization has established laws, ranks and even somewhat legitimate interests, such as the Yoshitoni Institute, a mercenary training school.

The Orion Syndicate will honor contracts but otherwise can be trusted only to operate in the best interests of the Syndicate. For instance, after the Maquis uprising in the late 2360s, the Syndicate-dominated world of Farius Prime became a key link in their supply lines, and the Syndicate aided their efforts. However, when the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion in 2373, the Syndicate betrayed the Farius Prime Maquis cells and surrendered them to Jem'Hadar soldiers. This action saved Farius Prime from a Jem'Hadar assault such as other Maquis bases had suffered, and kept that world neutral and independent. Seeing the writing on the wall, by 2374 the Syndicate had begun working with the Dominion in a conspiracy to destabilize the Klingon-Federation alliance, and they have continued to maintain good relations with the Dominion. Networks dealing in Kred and other drugs are profitable to the Syndicate and also provide the sort of 'escape' that helps the Dominion control populations and suppress rebellion. At the same time, they have learned not to cross, or even seriously annoy, the Tal Shiar and they have no love for the Dominion. Hence they will also aid rebels as an active Resistance is both an opportunity for profit and a way to keep the Dominion from turning their attention to cracking down on Syndicate operations, or taking them over.