| “ | One of the bigger collections of racists above the bible belt. Quite possibly the biggest congregation of racist supervillains. The day Empire Eighty-Eight had gotten its name hadn’t been a good day for our city. |
” |
The Empire Eighty-Eight is a gang of white supremacists based in Brockton Bay.
Modus operandi[]
White supremacists who stand by those ideals. Unified in their hatred. To advance in the group, you need to grievously assault a non -white.[4]
Structure[]
The Empire is primarily a hierarchy, with people like Allfather then Kaiser at the top with various lieutenants beneath them. Without the unifying influence of leaders like Kaiser, they were able to be separated with sufficient pressure.[5]
While other groups may have recruited from the same city, Kaiser recruited from other states or people came to him. Most didn't stay too long, but it made him the Brockton Bay resident with the most raw parahuman muscle.[6]
PRT Response[]
When their identities were unveiled to the public, the justice system and by extension the PRT started going after the organization's assets and members civilian identities. This included things like seizing children from their unfit mothers.
History[]
Background[]
First formed with Allfather at its head, the Empire is a powerful organization that connects to several racist and white supremacist organizations around North America. It served as a rallying point for those around the country who felt disaffected by the country's multiculturalism.[7]
In 2007,[*] a kid looking to bolster his reputation and earn membership into the Empire killed a heroine in her civilian identity.[8][9] However, he was not tried as an adult and got out in short order: the Empire welcomed him with open arms.[10]
Story Start[]
After Lung's capture, the Empire started to extend into the Docks.[11]
Following Bakuda's bombing spree, the Empire made a truce with the Merchants, the Undersiders, Faultline’s Crew and Coil to deal with her.[12] As part of this arrangement, the Empire split up for coordinated attacks with the other groups.[13]
After the dissolution of the Azn Bad Boys, Coil made his move on the Empire, releasing the civilian identities of every single cape in the Empire to the public. This would set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the Empire's collapse.
Post-Leviathan[]
Following the death of Kaiser in the battle against Leviathan, the Empire shattered. The remains of Empire Eighty-Eight split into two groups: Fenrir's Chosen and The Pure.[5]
Members[]
The Empire 88 has roughly twenty capes[14] in its roster. This inexact number may stem from the fact they can tap other cape organizations when needed.[1]
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Allfather | The founder of Empire Eighty-Eight. He carved out a place in the underworld. |
| Kaiser | Took over after his father, presumably after his death. He was more "civilized" than his father. Died to Leviathan. |
| Iron Rain | A potential successor to Allfather who was killed by an unknown person before she got her chance. Had a reputation as a savage. |
| Krieg | Disappeared from Brockton Bay following the dissolution of the E88. |
| Hookwolf | Has a reputation for being a killer. Founded Fenrir's Chosen. He later left the group and joined the Slaughterhouse Nine. |
| Purity | Had left several years before. Came back fairly recently. Looped by Gray Boy. |
| Fenja | Bodyguard and arm candy. Died to Leviathan. |
| Menja | Bodyguard and arm candy. Was wounded by Lung, survived against Leviathan. Led Fenrir's Chosen after the departure of Hookwolf. |
| Crusader | One man flying medieval squad. Subordinate in The Pure. Looped by Gray Boy. |
| Night | Wife of Fog. Looped by Gray Boy. |
| Fog | Husband of Night. Looped by Gray Boy. |
| Alabaster | Subordinate. Stasis. |
| Stormtiger | Subordinate. Alive. Joined Fenrir's Chosen. |
| Cricket | Subordinate. Alive. Joined Fenrir's Chosen. |
| Victor | Subordinate. Husband of Othala. Joined Fenrir's Chosen. |
| Othala | Subordinate. Wife of Viktor. Joined Fenrir's Chosen. |
| Rune | The youngest member and a powerhouse on her own. Joined Fenrir's Chosen. |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 So what unfolds is that E88 probably taps the clans - the organization of families and groups that Othala and Victor were drawn from. They tap Gesellschaft, and borrow a few top-of-the-line capes, and they put up a good fight. It makes for a tough nut to crack, but the sheer resources at their disposal (the sheer number of bodies with a given cape potentially providing an answer to a given problem), the fact that this move out to the east coast is an initiative that Elite teams all across the western coast are contributing to, and the fact that they can't touch the Elite at home (it means they're fighting the PRT aboveground and the Elite belowground) while the Elite can most definitely hit them at home? It's a battle they eventually have to concede - likely with E88 backing off, ceding Brockton Bay & going elsewhere to regroup. - Speculation by Wildbow on this What if, cont.
- ↑ “Empire Eighty-Eight? They sound familiar.”
“They had a presence for a while. A few years back they broke up into two other groups. The Pure and Fenrir’s Chosen.”
“Ah. I know the Chosen. They were linked to the Clans, I think?”
“Yes. The Clans spread out across multiple cities, and would funnel anyone who got powers over to the Empire Eighty-Eight core group, back before Leviathan broke the group’s back. They were a background element in my childhood and cape career.” - Flare 2.2 - ↑ I was surprised he was able to relax like that. It seemed to me that kicking back like that in any urban area, even a nicer neighborhood downtown, was begging for trouble. Okay, so maybe there weren’t muggings or homeless people hassling bystanders down here, but Empire Eighty-Eight did base their main operations somewhere in this general area, and Brian was black. - Tangle 6.2
- ↑ “I know what you mean,” Defiant said. “I remember worrying every day if that would be the day innocents were caught in a crossfire between Coil and Kaiser, or the day a member of Empire Eighty-Eight was initiated into the group, with the requisite assault of an ‘acceptable target’.” - Excerpt from Drone 23.1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 “Captains, with me. Empire Eighty-Eight is divided, and I’m going to direct you on a series of strikes to ensure we deal as much damage as possible before the two factions can merge once more.” - Excerpt from Interlude 8.z
- ↑ That wasn’t even Kaiser’s entire team. Aside from the rare exception like Lung reaching out to Bakuda when she’d been at Cornell, it seemed that most groups recruited new members from within their own city. Kaiser was different. He was one of the better known American villains with a white supremacist agenda, and people sharing his ideals were either recruited from other states or they came to him. Most didn’t stay with him for too long, for whatever reason, but it still made him the Brockton Bay resident with the most raw parahuman muscle at his beck and call. - Excerpt from Hive 5.4
- ↑ It's worth stating that one of the underling ideas driving the formation of groups and ideological factions in the Wormverse is the notion that some people get a voice where they otherwise wouldn't. Give an immense amount of power to a (relatively) random section of the population and you'll see certain shifts in the overlying sentiments.
All the more so when you think that a parahuman with aspirations might latch on to an idea, concept, or group to get reputation, resources, and contacts. - Comment by Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity - ↑ I could barely remember Auntie Jess. The memory was occluded by the very clear distinction of a sniveling kid in a courtyard- someone who’d been looking to earn his stripes as a member of our local racist troupe. He’d cried, begged, and asked for his dad to save him when the pronouncement had come from the court. I could remember seeing him and being disgustedly disappointed in him. That someone as awesome as my aunt had been killed by someone as far from awesome as him.
No- no. That hadn’t been my opinion. It had been something my mom had said that had struck so close to home that it felt like my own idea. - Beacon 8.9 - ↑ Back in Brockton Bay, New Wave had tried to start something, capes without masks. It had been disastrous. The message had been lost in the ensuing celebrity, and that had only intensified after one of the core members of the group was found and killed in her civilian identity. - Interlude 26a
- ↑ My opinion had been a quiet certainty that his craven behavior in court would at least ensure that he didn’t get what he wanted. He wouldn’t get his initiation into the gang if he acted like that. And I’d been wrong. He was young, he hadn’t been tried as an adult, and he’d gotten out in short order. He’d gone straight to Empire Eighty-Eight and been welcomed with open arms. - Beacon 8.9
- ↑ Interlude 2
- ↑ Hive 5.1
- ↑ Hive 5.4
- ↑ “Look at it this way,” I interrupted, “Kaiser and every single one of his twenty-ish superpowered flunkies are going to be pissed enough to want to kill someone, after Coil went and turned their lives upside down. - Excerpt from Buzz 7.4
[]
| Leader | Allfather † • Kaiser † |
|---|---|
| Leiutenants | Hookwolf ‡ • Krieg ‡ • Purity ‡ |
| Members | Alabaster † • Cricket ‡ • Crusader ‡ • Fenja † • Fog ‡ • Heith Anders † • Iron Rain † • Menja ‡ • Night ‡ • Othala ‡ • Rune ‡ • Stormtiger ‡ • Victor ‡ |
| Associates | Aster Anders † • Theo Anders ‡ |