The Syndicate

The Syndicate are the main antagonists in the game Saints Row: The Third. They are an international organization of gangs with various legal and illegal operations all over the world. Their base of operations is Steelport where they rule with an iron fist.

Gangs of The Syndicate

The Syndicate is made up of three main gangs.

1. The Morning Star, led by Phillipe Loren with lieutenants Viola and Kiki DeWynter. The Morning Star are the head gang of The Syndicate and Loren is the leader of the entire Syndicate. They are the oldest and most respected gang in Steelport. Their markets are arms dealing, prostitution and human trafficking. Their base of operations is Syndicate Tower and their gang color is red.

2. The Luchadores, led by Eddie "Killbane" Pryor and previously Angel De La Muerte. The Luchadores are The Syndicate's main muscle and street soldiers. They are all masked wrestlers and body builders who have a taste for violence and a ruthless streak a mile long. Their markets are drug dealing and gambling. Their base of operations is the 3 Count Casio and their gang color is green.

3. The Deckers, led by Matt Miller. The Deckers are a gang composed entirely of British teenage hackers. They are The Syndicate's expert cyber crime division and in charge of money laundering all the illegal assets earned by all three gangs. Their other markets are identity theft and hacking banks and businesses. Their base of operations is The Burns Hill Reactor and their gang color is blue.

Biography

They Syndicate has been ruling Steelport for an indeterminate number of years before the beginning of Saints Row: The Third. Phillipe Loren has become the head of crime and looks to keep it that way. When The Boss, Shaundi and Johnny Gat rob a bank owned by The Syndicate for publicity, Loren has them arrested then abducts them out of jail onto his private airplane. Loren gives The Saints an ultimatum of joining The Syndicate in exchange for 66% of their profits, after taxes of course. Gat and The Boss flat out refuse, so Loren orders their deaths. The Saints fight back which leads to the plane being decompressed and starts to crash. Gat stays behind to try and control the plane while The Boss and Shaundi escape. Loren and The DeWynters also escape but not before Loren murders Johnny Gat over the loud speaker for Shaundi to hear.

After landing, Loren has Matt Miller hack into The Saint's back accounts and take everything, leaving The Saints absolutely penniless. This leads to The Saints moving to Steelport or fight The Syndicate head on. Loren directs all three gangs to fight the Saints at all points. The Deckers monitor their phone calls for Loren at all times. On the streets all three gangs attack The Saints in hopes of killing The Boss. Loren even sends his army of brutes, imperfect mindless clones of strongman Oleg Kirrlov, to kill any Saints they see.

After a while The Saints start targeting several Syndicate operations, both legal and illegal before taking the fight directly to Loren at Syndicate Tower. They drive a giant bomb into the parking garage of the tower and The Boss, with Shaundi and Pierce, make their way to the penthouse to confront Loren. Loren merely laughs and walks away as the Saints try to kill him. The Boss, in a rage, jumps on a giant decorative ball and rides it 50 floors down to the parking garage where it lands on Loren, killing him instantly.

After the death of Loren, Killbane takes leadership of The Syndicate and tries to kill The Boss at the funeral for Johnny Gat by blowing up The Stilwater bridge with a hundred rockets. The Boss, along with Shaundi, Oleg and Pierce luckily survive. Killbane then tells Miller and the DeWynters that he is the new leader and they will report to him or else. The DeWynters point out that as Loren's lieutenants and protegees they should be in charge. However Killbane, being much larger and much more violent, threatens his way into the role of Syndicate leader. Miller immediately falls in line, and the DeWynters go along with it less out of fear and more out of apathy. The Deckers move to set back the Saints in their war against the Syndicate by kidnapping their lead hacker consult Kinzie Kensington, while the DeWynters keep Steelport's former number one pimp Zimos locked in the basement of their S&M club, Safeword. The Boss rescues both Kensington and Zimos and uses their knowledge and talents to fight The Syndicate. During this time Killbane shows his ineptness for leading The Syndicate, coming up with no idea and just bullying Miller and the DeWynters into strategizing their war against The Saints. This lead to the DeWynters telling Killbane that The Morning Star are leaving The Syndicate and will no longer work for him. Kiki calls Killbane by his real name Eddie during their farewell speech and sends Killbane into a blind rage. Killbane snaps her neck with one hand and forces Viola to stay with the Syndicate or suffer a similar fate.

Matt Miller steps up his attack on The Saints which leads to Kinize setting a plan to hack into their personal usenet and take out the gang for good. Kinzie uploads The Boss's consciousness directly into their servers and takes down the entire network, forcing Miller to upload his consciousness as well. The two have an epic cyberspace fight as cyber dragons with swords, before The Boss beats Miller. The Boss spares Miller instead of killing him, after Millers hacks a few businesses for The Saints giving them preferential accounts at either an arms dealer or a vehicle customization business. Miller resigns The Syndicate in disgrace, and surprisingly Killbane allows him to leave without murdering him. Killbane references Miller falling in line well when Killbane first took power, and even tells Miller he can list him as a reference in the future. Viola DeWynter also leaves the Syndicate, but in a much different way, by betraying The Syndicate and joining The Saints and giving them massive amounts of intel on the Syndicate.

With The Deckers dissolved, The Morning Star basically crippled and leaderless, Killbane has really only his Luchadores at his disposal. However Killbane takes his sights off The Saints to focus on MurderBrawl XXXI where he will defend his heavyweight championship. Angel De La Muerte, now a member of The Saints, and The Boss infiltrate MurderBrawl and fight Killbane in the middle of the ring. The Boss finally defeats Killbane and either unmasks him, shaming him, or spares Killbane. Either way this sends Killbane into hiding and ruins his career. Killbane tries to flee the city while his Luchadores wage an all out war on the entire city in retaliation. The Boss can choose to let Killbane live or kill him. Either way this action destroys The Luchdores, bringing down the last gang of The Syndicate and ending their reign of terror on Steelport.