Although crime and Gang rule may be the way of life in the Underhive, a more respectable way of handling such matters exists in the levels above it. In the Main Hive, those with a talent and knack for small-minded violence and thuggery are employed by the spire nobles as Sanctionaries. Some work as foremen or shift heads in particularly gruelling conditions. Others join “work brotherhoods” such as the Sworn Collectors of the Tithe Immutable—a gang legitimatised by the sponsorship of higher authorities.
The Sworn Collectors are tasked with increasing the incomes of the Highborn who sponsor them. In theory, this would be a futile effort, as the workers they shake down barely have enough to interest the near-criminals of a work brotherhood. The truth is more complicated, as nobles primarily use the Collectors to target those working in the plants of rival families. Efficiency at these plants often plummets as workers grow hungry, bruised, and agitated. As harming the efficiency of manufacturing is a serious crime, the Sanctionaries have forcibly disbanded the Sworn Collectors several times, only for it to be reconstituted with new members at the behest of their sponsors.