Since the Port Authority does little to keep order in the Docks away from the main roads and the shore, other forms of leadership arise to fill the vacuum in the inner parts of the neighborhood. The exact nature of that leadership frequently changes; various groups and alliances have risen to power only to fall a few years or decades later to some rival, and these parts of the Docks have never had any sort of stable local government.

Until a couple of years ago, these parts of the Docks were under the thumb of a bunch of squabbling gangs, each laying claim to a few square blocks and having disputes with neighboring gangs that often turned violent. Recently, however, those gangs were displaced by an urippu crime family who left the Fringe to seize control elsewhere. By some accounts, their departure from the Fringe was motivated by their having angered other, more powerful crime families that they were fleeing, but if so they have been more successful in the Docks, and have a firm grip on the parts of the neighborhood outside the Port Authority's ægis.

At least, for now. But the remnants of the old gangs are restless, and there are other forces hoping for their own turn at the helm, so the leadership of the Shudu family is not uncontested. Worse, the family leader, Shudu Ikidi, is perhaps overambitious, and has made moves toward getting a foothold in some of the areas near the harbors as well... and the Port Authority has started to take notice. It seems entirely possible that soon the Shudu family will be fighting battles on two fronts, against both enemies in the inner parts of the Docks and the Port Authority in the outer... and that soon after the inner parts of the Docks will have yet another group in charge.

Shudu Ikidi, boss of the Shudu crime family, is a large urippu with knobby legs and red striping. Their eyes constantly seem to be squinting, and their mouth is almost perfectly round. When Shudu Ikidi speaks, it is in a deep, echoing voice with exaggerated sibilantts. They typically wear charcoal gray lontus with gold chains around their eyeflaps.