The Serpents, known more precisely internally as Sonia's Serpents, are a criminal organization in Offetstine founded by the vampire and mafioso Sonia "Venom" Versace c. 1941, when she emigrated from the United States citing persecution for her criminal activities and took it upon herself to found a new criminal empire in England. Since following the disbandment of the Coalition, many of their old members were recruited by the Serpents, they are considered by some as a "Neo-Coalition", a term more traditionally used to refer to the Ringleaders and other organizations that spawned at the time and recruited old members of the organization; however, this classification is rebuked by some as the Serpents were over 50 years old at the time the Coalition disbanded.
After the Ringleaders, the Serpents are the second-largest criminal organization by territory in Offetstine, with about three-fifths the territory in terms of area. Before the disbandment of the Coalition, they only controlled a small region in the city center. Their territory is chiefly contested by the Bishops, a criminal organization which arose from a vampire hunting guild chiefly in response to the Serpents being headed by a vampire; as such, the Bishops positions itself as an organization against organized crime, and frequently intrudes on Serpent territory. In addition, the Serpents are rivaled to the Ringleaders, and formerly the Coalition.
Ostensibly, both publicly and to lower-ranking members of the organization, the Serpents are headed by a group of managers of equal status, who have earned their title from longstanding contribution to the organization; however, they ultimately defer to Versace for official matters. Though Versace is not actively involved in the field any longer, she does occasionally present herself to members of her organization as another such manager.
History
Born into the Prohibition era in New York City, Versace has been involved in the criminal underworld for the majority of her life. She was turned into a vampire at 25 years old and joined the organization of her sire, though it eventually dissolved, and by 1941, she determined she needed to emigrate from the United States citing her criminal past and violent practices. She forged a new identity in Offetstine, England and eventually began to recruit members to build out a new criminal organization.
During the period, Versace also established the Versace Heritage Butchery, a front for her operations and a purported family business, which she identified herself as the matrilineal heir of when the assumed identity of her mother became too old for her immortal body. Over the next five decades, she slowly expanded the scope of her nascent criminal organization, and was mostly uncontested in the mundane human space, with most potential competitors being quickly edged out. The primary contest to the Serpents came from the Coalition, which, despite its small membership of only about 60 members,[amend] proved formidable due to its demi-human exclusivity, as its members were typically proportionally more powerful.
When the Coalition eventually disbanded, some analysts hypothesized that the Serpents were involved, orchestrating the assassination of its vampiric leader Raja, or other such. These hypotheses have been contested by later committee analyses, noting that despite the enigmatic nature of the Coalition's leadership, the primary muscle of the Serpents was human, and the organization was poorly equipped to contest the vampire. Nere Szwedko, the only member of the Coalition who was directly familiar with its founder and leader at the time and who did not disappear after its disbandment, refused comment on the affair, noting she wanted to put all affairs of the Offetstine underground behind her.
Despite this, after the disbandment of the Coalition in 1997, the Serpents specifically campaigned to recruit as many as possible of the organization's former members, making such promises as a quick path to the upper echelons of the Serpents, and a meritocratic attitude which the Coalition was reputed to sorely lack. They successfully enlisted about one-third of the former members, though precise numbers are not public. While the total sum of the recruitment effort, about 20 people, was seemingly diminutive, their demi-human identities and strong magical powers were identified as significant assets for the Serpents, enabling them to rapidly expand and seriously contest the nascent Ringleaders.
To date, while the Serpents are embroiled in conflict with the Bishops and Ringleaders, they have not made any significant moves. While members regularly engage in racketeering and other criminal activities, the broad scope of the Offetstine criminal underworld has remained largely the same.