In 1967, a small pack of hyenas -- only fifteen strong -- moved to Louisiana, travelling down for an apparently warmer clime. They called themselves The Screamers, and as most hyena clans did, busied themselves only with in-pack scrapping. They were mostly ignored by the other Louisiana packs, who felt general contempt for them, inhabiting a dive bar and never infringing on anybody else's turf.

Things started going downhill in 1989, when the hyena number fell to a low-time nine as everyone scraped and killed at each other. Building back the numbers was a long time coming -- they were back at twenty strong in 1993 when, once more, survival was overcome by alpha-female bitching. From 1994 to 1998, they had a record of six obas, and numbers were dwindling once again. It was at this point that Rosalin Gosford came into the city and immediately killed off the current alpha female, and all the bitching alpha females beneath her.

The pack swelled simply because -- unlike previous obas -- Rosalin, known as Sirjata, had a large amount of staying power, and the lifestyle for the hyenas became much more appealing. She renamed The Screamers to The Syndicate, which she dubbed "tres chic", and went about refurbishing the dive bar to something far more her liking. In fact, she moulded the pack into something much more her liking anyway -- a group of like-minded individuals who were interested in breaking out of the smelly hyena stereotype into looking good, being sophisticated, and having some kind of cachet not associated with being able to eat corpses whole.

Despite having not more of their fair share of queer weres, the group soon became associated with flamboyant gay-pride antics and spray-on latex, especially with their openly lesbian drag king oba. The Syndicate remained as unaggressive as The Screamers had -- on the outside -- except now they dressed better and were rather more amusing. Rosalin made far more of an effort to make contact with the other alphas of the city, who were rather more apt to take notice when the numbers swelled to thirty strong, and although she is still regarded as no threat in-pack politics would say differently. Sirjata rules her pack with an iron fist, executing those who are anything but absolutely loyal (or make a really good act of it, enough to be the near thing) to her and The Syndicate. She regularly weaved plots in-between pack members to keep them at each other's throats rather than at her own, and has taken great pains to keep herself mostly a joke to the other alphas rather than her own nature. Which is, in actuality, still a joke, but one with a much less funny punchline.

The ranking of the Syndicate is notable for the fact that it has very few ranking orders. Up at the top is Rosalin. The oba in this case is God; nobody else gives orders, oversees the pack, and personally keeps everybody in line. The baale are there only as a show of power for the Oba's benefit, as well as a pair of eyes in the back of her head, and are not responsible for anyone else in the entire pack. The alakeh can be seen as an extension of the Oba's hand, basically doing things she'd like to do herself only she's busy that evening. Generally, the alakeh and the oba go out and do things in concert. The oba leads by direct example.

Any other 'ranking' or dominance is who the oba favours at any given point in time -- the hyenas fight between themselves as to who is considered high-ranked or hip, knowing that no matter who scratches their way to the top that the oba is always queen and mother. There is not a great deal of ritual because the Syndicate hates sticking to anything they consider boring or oldschool; they are hip and ennui-filled and like doing things differently every time. Part of the fear within the Syndicate is expectation. Nothing is set in stone. There is no rule that anyone has to stick to, least of all the Oba, nothing they can do that will see them safely out of range of her ire.