Interesting Takes on a Crime Syndicate Boss

For what I see as the overlooming antagonist to a short story, I have a leader of one of the major Quebecois crime rings. He handles his subordinates like pawns, preferring to remain low-key amidst the racketeering and extortion of these bling-bling chazzers. His name is Carnè. He does not hope to rule the world one day — oh those idiotic Übermenschen. He just wants the pleasure in his own little life.

Behind his calculating mind, his ego is a bit inflated, and as such he finds it especially fun to prove domination over others. He likes it when he flaunts his personal power. He likes the feeling of security being surrounded by his 'doggies'. Most of all, he likes inflicting pain on those dubbed less-than-human and getting away with it.

It is what I have in mind currently for Carne's personality. But I worry that he will turn out very similar to those well-known Mob bosses (e.g. Vito Corleone, Tony Soprano and the like). Or I worry he will come out too psychotic (and come off as utterly insane). That is no goodly.

Perchance, would any of you have ideas — such as character types/traits that you wish to see on a Syndicate boss? (I wish to add a certain Horror element to it all; like you look at his eyes, and you feel this unnerving hint that there lies an abyss in there, biding its time.)

edited 20th Jan '11 10:49:02 PM by QQQQQ

You don't say anything about the supernatural, apart from a mention of horror, but here's one idea.

He uses his men as pawns, you say. Like a chess player, Carne can manipulate his henchmen, or at least send his awareness along with them. That way, when Marco beats up Vinny the Snake, Vinny will swear he saw Carne looking at him. This way, Carne gets the personal satisfaction of hurting and killing people without the risk of capture or punishment, and he also gets the benefits of controlling so many people. It's like having his cake and eating it too. It also resolves the contradiction between his desires to "remain low-key" and to "prove domination."

^ Hmm, like Carne has telepathic powers? That might be interesting, and yet who's to say he can't do the same to any old schmuck on the street? What might be a good reason to restrict this power to his underlings?

Hmmm, because he wants to avoid unwanted attention? Unless his psychic powers are the kind that allow him to erase memories.

Maybe if he does have telepathic powers, then they are stronger the more he knows a person. Just a thought.

^ — I am thinking something like a Geass; when new underlings come, Carne personally greets them so he can imprint on them psychically. The underlings still have their free will — but when Carne decides to intervene, it is like subconscious suggestion in the mind.

How might Carne come across his power? Gypsy linage? Freak kissing accident? Magic potion?

edited 21st Jan '11 4:15:30 PM by QQQQQ

I think the Gypsy lineage might explain why he has the power without diving too deeply into fantasy.  ^*

Are there any ideas that you gravitate towards?

The underlings still have their free will — but when Carne decides to intervene, it is like subconscious suggestion in the mind.

I'm looking at Non-local Quantum effects for the psychic phenomena in Carne's story. If you are scratching your head over what I mean, consider the following:

All pre-quantum models of the universe, including Einstein's Relativity, have assumed that all correlations involve connections. In other words, they assume that whenever A goes ping!, B then goes pong!. The explanation must lie in some connection between A and B.

In a simple model, all pre-quantum physics assumed a kind of billiard-table universe. If a ball moves, the cause lies in mechanics (it got hit by another ball) or fields (a gravitational field pulled the balll) or geometry (the table the ball rests upon curves a certain way) but the ball does not move without cause.

Now consider a billiard table without players. Nobody hits any of the balls. No earthquake shakes the room. No magnet exists under the table.

Yet suddenly, Ball A at one end of the table turns clockwise and Ball B at the other end of the table turns counterclockwise.

Or imagine two men; one in Dublin, the other in Honolulu. Imagine you have observed them carefully for some time and have deduced some 'laws' of their behaviour. One law states that whenever the man in Dublin wears red socks, the man in Honolulu will wear green socks.

You experimentally meddle with the system — you 'cause' (or bring it about) the man in Dublin to take off his red socks and put on his green socks.

And you check the monitors in Honolulu. The man there has instantaneously taken off his green socks and donned red socks!

I imagine Carne's telepathy will work on such similar principles — and I've decided to leave his origin story as ambiguous. Mysterious happenings without a 'why?' to explain boggle the mind. I like boggling the mind.

edited 21st Jan '11 6:45:42 PM by QQQQQ