Voodoo Boys

The Voodoo Boys are one of the many gangs in Night City in the universe.

2000s
In the 2000s, the Voodoo Boys started as a terrorist gang of drug dealers. They were engaged in weird magic rituals, and deal non-synthetic drugs to students near Night City University. Sadistic and pitiless, they would kill, torture, and rape for any or no reason at all. Victims would sometimes be warned with chicken blood and feathers on their doorstep. Their motives and practices were inconstant. Mutilating and maiming victims was common, as was dissecting their body parts for rituals or to inspire terror.

Their nihilism and drug use was attractive to some university students. These students were sometimes let into the gang, but they were never considered real members. The gang exploited them as cannon fodder for low-level crimes, or milked them for funds from their families.

No outsider ever successfully infiltrated the gang. They had no fixed headquarters or crash pads. The location and time for the next meeting was chosen at the end of each meeting. At least two high-profile Medias died while trying to cover the gang for a news story. They were considered a priority, violent and dangerous, for the NCPD. The terror they inspired was successful in keeping local merchants quiet and uncooperative with the police.

They were most often found at Hababas, an ex-biker bar. This was where most of their drugs were dealt. Despite the biosculpting, tattoos, feather implants, and bones through their noses and ears, most members of the gang started as average White boys. Most were male, though female members existed as well. The females were often much worse, as they had twice as much to prove as the males.

2040s - 2060s
While the Voodoo Boys started as a terrorist gang with ritual magic overtones, feeding their bizarre tastes by dealing primarily non-synthetic drugs, over the decades the gang saw major changes, especially as refugees from Haiti and the decimated Dominican Republic started to move into Night City. These Caribbean refugees took offense with the Voodoo Boys' fakery, and started maiming victims and dissecting the dead with machetes, leaving body parts as warnings to others who challenged them. Gradually, the Voodoo Boys reorganized as a gang, as actual voodoo priests and priestesses, the prominent caste in the Creole culture of the Haitian diaspora, began to lead and recruit their own.

In 2062, climate change wiped Haiti off the face of the earth, and a new chapter of the Voodoo Boys' history started. The gang became the self-appointed guardians of Haitian refugees' interests and safety in the Pacifica Combat Zone. They also became more focused on netrunning, and began probing the Blackwall in hope of making contact with rogue intelligent systems beyond the barrier.

Although known by outsiders as the Voodoo Boys, the real name they use for the gang is unknown.

2077
By 2077, the Voodoo Boys had become an enigmatic gang from Pacifica, made up of Netrunners devoted to uncovering the secrets of the Old Net and what was behind the Blackwall. They were also Edgerunners: breaking every rule there was to break, and programming viruses that could freeze neural networks.

The Voodoo Boys appeared to outsiders as an exclusively Haitian gang, heavily involved with the larger Haitian community in Pacifica, which had continued to grow since the arrival of refugees fleeing the natural disasters that destroyed their country in the 2060s. The gang was led by Brigitte and her second-in-command, Placide, and had formed a rivalry with a Boostergang known as the Animals.

Depending on the actions chosen during I Walk the Line and Transmission, the Voodoo Boys can either be wiped out, or would have traveled beyond the Blackwall with the aid of Alt Cunningham, disappearing from public view.

Overview
A mysterious gang from Pacifica with a dark reputation for their netrunning skills and their mystical voodoo flavor. Presumed to be entirely consist of members with Haitian blood, the Voodoo Boys are are exclusive, secretive, and distrustful of outsiders. The gang was originally comprised of voodoo priests and priestesses, the prominent caste in the Creole culture of the Haitian diaspora. In 2062, climate change wiped Haiti off the face of the earth and initiated a new chapter of the Voodoo Boys' history. The gang became the self-appointed guardians of Haitian refugees' interests and safety in the Pacifica combat zone.

Most Voodoo Boys are Netrunners, so cooling suits and neural implants are common elements of a member's outfit complemented with "voodoo-flavored" elements like dreadlocks, tattoos, and the bones and skulls of small birds and rodents worn as charms. Cyberware used by the gang include cyberdecks and neural links.

Philosophy and Structure
Due to the homogenous nature of the Creole diaspora in the Pacifica, coupled with the lack of police forces in the district, it is difficult to determine the Voodoo Boys' numbers, structure, or even goals. It is widely known that the gang is determined to uncover the secrets of the Old Net, and it's commonly believed that they probe the Blackwall in hope of making contact the rogue intelligent systems beyond the barrier. These attempts have drawn the attention and enmity of NetWatch, who are interested tracking and dispatching rogue netrunners and self aware ISs.

It is unknown to what extent, if any, the Voodoo Boys are connected with actual voodoo religious practices in the Haitian diaspora of Pacifica.

Source of Income
The gang's primary source of income involves hacking databanks and accounts within various corporations in search of restricted and top-secret data. They persistently violate NetWatch laws and regulations, especially in regard to contact with ISs. The Voodoo Boys also hire themselves out as mercenary netrunners for private contractors who are interested in hit-and-run netrunning operations or exploring any ruined parts of the Old Net.

Other sources of income are hard to verify, but theft of virtual currency and information brokering are probably among them.