Voodoo Boys

The Voodoo Boys are one of the many gangs in Night City in the universe. They are unrelated to the 2020s gang of the same name.

2060s - 2070s
What in the 2070s was known as the Voodoo Boys originate from Haiti.

In 2062, climate change wiped Haiti off the face of the earth. Many refugees moved to Night City to work in the construction project of turning Pacifica into a resort city. A project that eventually collapsed. The Haitians remained there and were labeled as Voodoo Boys by the locals, who thought the Haitians had some resemblance to the defunct gang. The new Voodoo Boys became the self-appointed guardians of Haitian refugees' interests and safety in the Pacifica. They also began probing the Blackwall in hope of making contact with rogue AIs 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.

There was also a schism between Brigitte and Wilky LaGuerre, with the later moving into Dogtown with his people. This fragmentation was based on the fact that Brigitte wanted to pierce through the Blackwall, while Slider considered it a very dangerous thing to do.

Depending on the actions chosen during I Walk the Line and Transmission, the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica 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.

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.