The Nine Dragons of Vale

"Form fits function." The Nine Dragons of Vale are a group of nine powerful mafia bosses in the Kingdom of Vale. They are the keystone heads in the criminal network of The Zanipher Philosophy and were the primary antagonists of the now-discontinued Monster's Den.

Overview
The Nine Dragons of Vale oversee a large amount of the intricate organized crime system of Vale. They can be described as the keystone of the system: alone they are powerful, and together they are almost unstoppable. As a group, they seek alliances with potential rival groups in order to gain more power, and have thus built an extremely intricate base to prevent defeat. This, combined with the cloud of rumors and mystery surrounding their actual identities and skills, has made them major contenders for control of Vale's underground organized crime society.

The Nine Dragons often pursue their own interests, but have a general alliance that might be more accurately counted as a nonaggression pact. When necessary, they will support each other, and they will team up if required to deal with what they consider to be a significant threat. They do maintain constant communication with each other, but to date have not yet made any major plans with each other. Their individualistic areas of specialty have so far prevented any major conflicts between the members, although they sometimes have to negotiate over advances on similar projects. Despite being allied with one another and being relatively transparent during communications about their goals, the Dragons are not a single faction but rather a coalition of powerful organizations with bases in Vale who wish to expand their semi-legitimate crime businesses without coming into actual physical conflict.

Interestingly, the Nine Dragons act as sort of high level sellswords, providing their services to anyone who has enough money (an astronomical amount) to pay for such an advanced job. Some attribute the success of the Dragons to the government's inability to spread their Huntsmen and Huntresses accurately, and also to the oft-unseen darkness that still dwells throughout Remnant, without actually realizing that the darkness lies in the heart of every individual.

The Dragons underwent a change in leadership a few years ago, shifting the alliance's activities away from traditional violent mob boss dealings and into the white-collar crime sector. This also put an end to their practice of recruiting desperate teenagers as mooks and lackeys, although each Head still operates off a different recruiting basis. They operate on ShadowNet with the handle "DragIX" to send out bounties and communicate with prospective employees.

''Note: Although the idea of a criminal governing body seemed inherently contradictory at first, turns out it's actually a thing that's existed in real life! Who knew?''

The Zanipher Philosophy
In the alternate universe fan series The Zanipher Philosophy, the Nine Dragons as a whole control the majority of Vale's underground organized crime, and possess immense sway in society through their indirect methods of influence. They cause many of the incidents which occur throughout the series, unintentionally setting leads for the protagonists to follow but remaining whimsically out of reach. Only when the Beacon group approaches the members of this organization as potential subordinates do they succeed in getting close to discovering the truth behind this shady group, and learn much more about the reality of their world than they had bargained for.

Many characters in the story become connected to the Dragons' alliance. Some, like the members of Team RASB, receive indirect missions from the Dragons ranging from the thrilling to the mundane. FenHong Se Suzhen accepts the underworld's existence and uses her relationship to boost her own profits, while Platinum Roads finds her just nature clashes dramatically with the existence of the Dragons, and is determined to stamp out as much of their crime as possible even if it compromises her relationship with her best friend.

Despite appearing in all intents as the main antagonists to the main characters for the first two and a half years of the series, after the war breaks out, the Dragons become more overt in their operations as they decide to defend Vale from continuous Grimm assaults and attempts at infiltration by Atlas spies. However, their self-serving goals remain the same.

Arcelia de Voire
The most powerful of the Dragons, a mysterious individual who is as versatile as she is deceitful. After her predecessor departed on a private journey, she stepped in to organize the Dragons into a true force to be reckoned with.

Specialty: Strategies/Mastermind

Arkos Cannon
Second strongest of the Dragons, Arkos is the most generous and forgiving of the Dragons, and is known to be quite compassionate to his followers. He hates any perceived challenge to his authority, and will react extremely badly to it.

Specialty: Smuggling

Tony Syson
Third strongest of the Dragons, Tony is by far the most charismatic of them, and perhaps the smartest. After being bullied as a child due to being far smarter than the other students, he used his talents to manipulate students and even teachers into doing what he wanted. His method of fighting is an underground form of boxing that makes use of several powerful illegal strikes, enhanced by his lightning dust gauntlets.

Specialty: Pulling Strings

Danilus "Dani" Morse
Fourth strongest of the Dragons, Dani is easily the most polite of them all. Dressing in fine suits, this immaculate walrus Faunus takes care to mind his manners.

Specialty: Counter-intelligence

Gala
Fifth strongest of the Dragons, Gala is a seemingly carefree individual whose jovial attitude hides his twisted sense of entertainment, as his hobbies include forcing other beings to perform demeaning or even suicidal tasks for the pleasure of himself or his clients. He wears a wizard hat that he dubs his "Certified Mafia Boss Wizard Hat".

Specialty: Torture

Ethereal Kaiser
Sixth strongest of the Dragons, Ethereal is the CEO of the Kaiser Conglomerate and specializes in white-collar crimes. She hides a ruthless, cunning mind behind an everpresent motherly smile. Provides the Dragons with weapons, launders their money, and provides them with assets for their smuggling.

Specialty: Money Laundering

James 'Hook' Everest
Seventh strongest of the Dragons, "Master" joined the Dragons by offering them his organization's impressive mercenary abilities. Interestingly he specializes in hunting criminals, but also works alongside some of the highest ranking ones in the criminal underworld. Some of his men even act as fixers for the other Dragons, using their skills to put the blame of their crimes on other criminal groups unassociated with the Dragons, making the police eliminate their competition.

Specialty: Assassinations, advanced tech supply

Neil Huong
Eighth strongest of the Dragons, Neil appears as an arrogant deceiver who never hesitates to flaunt himself for dramatic purposes. In reality he is almost unparalleled in his thieving ability, and is more multi-faceted than his initial appearance suggests.

Specialty: Larceny

Zanipher "Daybreak" Hei'An
Ninth strongest of the Dragons, Zanipher is cold and an excellent liar, preferring to manipulate the emotions and perceptions of those around her while retaining a mask of nonchalance. She was raised in a high class family and trained for success. She is one of the greatest sword-wielders in the underworld, also the most unpredictable of the Dragons, which is how she likes it.

Specialty: Gathering Intelligence

Associates

 * Captain Daniel Lowell: the former leader of the Nine Dragons, who embarked on a mysterious mission to a distant region and has not been seen since, although he instated Arcelia as his heir before departing. An ex-soldier whose combat ability possible exceeds that of all other characters in The Zanipher Philosophy.


 * Donovan Barnes: A club owner from the distant region of Atlas, one of the Dragons' first allies in a goal to extend their network beyond Vale's boundaries.
 * FenHong Se Suzhen: A teenage heiress at Beacon whose parents have collaborated with the Dragons in the past in order to boost the profits from their entrepreneuring company. Once she takes over the family's company, she will maintain the same relationship with the Dragon Heads along with her official duties. Currently provides information about any unusual activity within Beacon Academy to Zanipher.
 * Team RASB (Zaniphilos only): a Beacon team which is swayed into occasional grudging assistance with the Dragons in exchange for massively improved resource availability. They track down low-level threats and suspicious behavior which helps maintain the secrecy of the Dragons.
 * Mask: a massive soldier who takes on assignments from the Dragons.
 * Hector Mettal: "The Merc King", leader of the Mettal Legion, who works alongside the Dragons to provide information on and eliminate threats or targets outside of Vale. Zanipher frequently recruits Hector and his men to protect her investigators when their assignments take them outside of their main kingdom.
 * Spectral Kaiser: Ethereal Kaiser's daughter, who is currently being groomed to be her successor.

Employees

 * Obsidios "Sid" Bowler: An oft-hired young spy who refuses to kill but works for the Dragons anyway.
 * Rosso Fiammata: the son of two wealthy lawyers who briefly worked as a low-level lackey for the Dragons before being violently murdered in a gang battle, or so it is believed.
 * The Stranger: A spymaster/information broker in the employment of the Nine Dragons.  His true identity is not known even to them, but he works for all of the Dragons.
 * Billy Taupe: A mysterious man working under Arkos Cannon as a mercenary, who uses an urban legend as a guise for his criminal activities.
 * Pallas and Altan: Nightshade mercenaries who are both members of the Onyx Trio.
 * Kurai Jack Jade: A skilled young soldier who leads the stealth and city based Destral team of Master's Realm.
 * Gylfie Wolfbane: Works as an informant within Beacon who reports directly to Master.
 * Akari Auburn: leader of the Jabberwockys street gang, a girl who really knows how to pack a punch. Convinced into working for the Dragons after a brief altercation.

Allied Factions

 * Nightshade: a private military corporation which caters to wealthy individuals like the Dragons, and excel at performing silent assassinations and infiltration.
 * Master's Realm: an underground vigilante organization which eliminates the "unorganized crime" which could threaten the peace in Remnant and provides technology to the Dragons.
 * Daybreak Syndicate: an extended triad family which operates as a legitimate corporation that specializes in information retrieval and high-level private investigations.
 * Narreau Technologies: A self-sustained research division of the Atlas Military which provides an arms supply, advanced robots, and other technology to the Dragons. In exchange, the Dragons provide insider intelligence on dangerous individuals, business rivals, and unorganized crime who are not allied with them.
 * The Kaiser Conglomerate: A pair of two large companies: Kaiser Armaments, which specializes in the development and distribution of weaponry, and Kaiser Industries, which manufactures a wide array of cutting-edge technology for public use.
 * Astraea: a former alternative combat school turned mercenary organization that is armed in part by the Kaiser Conglomerate.
 * The Spectrum: A particularly skilled mercenary organization with a great variety of specialties in covert operations. In exchange for their services in Mistral, the Dragons give them broad range of operation in Vale and access to their resources.

Non-Aggression Agreements

 * Bluthardt Family: An old, powerful, and extremely wealthy family of elites protected by Black Order Battalion. Despite hosting an ANGEL in Vale, they and the Dragons have agreed on suspension of hostilities, as both sides have no conflict with the other.
 * ANGELs: a small but highly skilled faction of vigilantes spread across Remnant whom the Dragons maintain a tenuous non-aggression agreement with. They currently pursue open communication over each other's demands to avoid entering physical conflict, and the Dragons try to redirect the ANGELs towards their criminal competition.
 * LUCIFER: An organization dedicated to wiping out ANGELs, with more low-key operation and alliances like that of the Dragons. The Dragons have formed a pact with both LUCIFER and the ANGELs, so that if one of these factions turns on them, the other will assist them in fending off the threat and possibly wiping out the offending group. Normally they just make sure to keep representatives of these two organizations far away from each other, and the Dragons will be observing the developments between these two.
 * Tempest Knight: A secret organization aiming to achieve world peace through less moral methods, the best the Dragons can do is assist in maintaining relative stability by assuring that neither group will turn on each other.

Other Relationships

 * Team DAMN: a team at Beacon which aims to disrupt the activities of the Dragons. Three of the members have had a prior antagonistic relationship to the Dragons before starting the current school year.
 * Laelia Furfuracea: A young Huntress who defected from Master's Realm and its affiliated criminal activity and now works for Astraea.
 * Platinum Roads: a young prospective detective who finds herself torn by her personal devotion to justice and her friends' indifference to the activities of the criminal underworld.
 * The Patched: a large gang of mostly thieves based in Mistral, which currently escapes the attention of the Dragons, but which almost undoubtedly will spark a massive gang war if their existence threatens that of the Nine's network. Allied with Master's Realm in the form of offering manpower, but without revealing the depth of their establishment.
 * Everglades Fuller and Vayne Fuller: a duo of serial killers who worked as hired killers for the Dragons before breaking off and conducting their own murders and eventually vanishing from the public eye. Presently they have reemerged and are staging signatures at their crime scenes in an attempt to implicate the Dragons for their killings. Executed in secret by the Daybreak Syndicate.

Role-Plays
Below lists roleplays which one or more of the Dragons or their associates have participated in or are directly mentioned in.
 * Observe and Collect
 * Amusing Date


 * A Monster's Den
 * Underworld
 * A God vs A Dragon
 * Interrupted Everyday Routine
 * Directionless Undercurrents
 * The Beacon Job
 * For a Fallen Friend
 * A Certain Civil Interaction
 * Fun and Games
 * Rip Current: Faction War
 * A "Perfect" Team
 * Going Up Against the Establishment
 * The Reluctant Dragon
 * Renegades and White Snakes

Associated Media

 * Monster's Den:The Manga (Manga)


 * The Zanipher Philosophy (AU)
 * Dragons Report (Fanfic)