Factions

"What better way is there? We only got where we were before the Fall by working together, and it's the only way we'll get back there. Yeah, sure, some of my neighbors are assholes, and I have to tithe nine-tenths of my production to the leaders, but it's a small sacrifice... I think."

While the apocalypse was an immensely destructive event, humanity did survive, and human nature is to band together in groups and try to survive as a community. It also has been a significant period of time, and real communities have sprung up all over Sokal and other more distant parts of the world. While these communities do attract the more peacefully minded, they have become favorite targets of roving Bandit groups.

When they meet in the Wastes only one of two things can happen. The Bandits will extract what they can from the community until it's bled dry and dies out — a fate that has happened all over Sokal — or the community can put up enough of a fight that the Bandits will decide it isn't worth it. Any community that has lasted more than a decade in Sokal has thus become sufficiently militarized or come up with some other means of defending themselves from the Bandit threat.

Every community, however, fears the sweeping threat of Raiders more than anything. While Bandits can be deterred or negotiated with in most cases, Raiders simply seek to destroy all in their path. They will wipe out entire communities for no reason other than the sheer joy of destruction.

The Bako Commonwealth

"I love the Commonwealth. It's nice, peaceful, safe, and everyone knows their place. Some people say I'm naive, but I've never known anything else."

Bako itself may be a haunted mess, but on the outskirts of it lives the largest community of Settlers in all of Sokal. Fenced off from Bako's dangers and with enough infrastructure of its own, the Commonwealth has flourished into one of Sokal's few proper civilizations.

Keepers

"What's old is new again...Hehe, get it?"

Keepers are those, often settlers, who work on finding, restoring, and keeping the old world working. They might focus on books, machines, items, or just random facts. They are essentially historians and antiquarians in the wastes, working to preserve and maybe someday resurrect the world before.

The Ojai Grahla

"Well, we ain't all free love and good vibes. Sometimes we gotta get our hands dirty. But if you wanna trade, welcome friend."

One of the few stable communities in the area. Ojai Grahla (called the OG by most) sits where a major crossroads between the major cities of old met. Before the Fall the land was remarkably fertile and verdant compared to it's surroundings, a condition that persists to this day, making it a viable center for agriculture and trade.

"Those people... They live in some sort of cave or something, wear animals skins, shoot at you with bows and arrows if you get too close. I don't know what's wrong with them either; they don't speak Merican."

While most world cultures and civilization are long gone, tribal groups are even further removed from the world before and in many cases have reverted to a near primitive way of life. Banding together in groups and relying on lifestyles and survival techniques that are thousands of years old, they often resemble Native American and, in some cases, Mesoamerican tribes. They have rich and unique cultures all of their own created over the last two hundred years. Some of them are animistic spiritualists, while others have somehow appropriated bits and pieces of culture from the world before and created bizarre religions around them.

California Youth Scouts

"Honor, Integrity, Perseverance, Kinship."

No one knows the origins of the mysterious California Youth Scouts, but they have a long history in Sokal and have managed to survive longer and better than just about any other tribal group. By anyone's standards, the California Youth Scouts are very young — no one has ever reported seeing a Scout older than fourteen. There are a few theories of what happens to older Scouts, but nothing has been proven or become common knowledge.

Scouts are always dressed in their uniforms: khaki shorts and a light collared shirt, and adorned with various badges and patches from "before". Many carry around a book called "The Scout's Handbook of Merit Badges" which is taken quite seriously. While they hold no land of their own, they are welcomed in many communities in exchange for odd jobs and chores.

Sewer People

"You think you see them, you don't. Half the time they ain't even there. But trust me, if they got a hold of you, you'd know... until you didn't."

While not everyone can stand life above, many have fled beneath. The underworld of collapsed subways, infrastructure, and ancient ruins is home to tribes of people who have spent so long underground that sunlight burns their skin. Sewer People travel through vast networks of sewers and underground structures beneath Bako and the surrounding regions. They are not fond of outsiders and will rarely allow anyone to pass through their tunnels alive.

"Were they around before the Fall? That's kind of a good question. I mean, one that totally doesn't actually matter and we'll never know, but it makes you think..."

Theurgists are a diverse group united in one thing only: all of them believe in something greater than themselves and worship it as such. Whether it is a concept, idol, or deity of some sort doesn't seem to matter — their belief is actually a real, powerful thing to them and grants them abilities above and beyond most people. Some theurgists worship more generalized ideas and concepts rather than more specifics things like individuals, while others latch onto things from the the time before the Fall, obviously important things like popular figures or literature, and create their belief system around them.

Like the concepts they worship, Theurgists come from diverse backgrounds and faiths. Some form communes where they can be around others who believe. Others are nomadic, travelling as a sort of religious pilgrimage, searching for meaning in the trackless Wastes, or becoming wandering missionaries to spread the word.

The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory

"I don't know how they do it these days. I mean, sometimes I think I'd kill my own sister for a can of cat food, but those guys... they're just so... Nice."

In these tough times, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to show mercy. The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory still manages, and goes above and beyond. Followers of Saint Gregory are completely pacifistic. They refuse to harm another living creature in any circumstance. This includes plants, but some practicality of existence allows them to make exceptions for things like bread.

C.U.C.K.s

"They literally think that the Fall was all part of some sort of grand plan and if they find enough canned food that Jesus is going to come back. Honestly, we just take their stuff, they don't even fight back."

C.U.C.K.s (Covenant of the Unerring Children of the Kindred) are a cult that have found a common ancestor of all the world's religions and worship it. They believe that the Fall was a sort of test of faith from God, and if they prepare and wait, they will be rewarded with the second coming.

Followers of M

"Why do I follow M? Shit man, M has the best chems in the wastes. Let's just say I've "expanded my horizons" a little."

Followers of M are seekers of enlightenment. Their way to achieve it is through hallucinogenic experiences; therefore, they use whatever chemicals they can find, grow, or manufacture. While members of the group that choose not to partake are not unheard of, most members prefer to be off their gourd as much as possible. Followers of M worship an unknown entity they call "M." Little is known about who or what "M" actually is, but it seems to have created some sort of covenant with the group that allows them to see into other realms and manufacture more powerful chems.

"Those bastards. The first time they came they stole all my cattle. The second, all my giant salamanders. The third, they killed my husband because we didn't have any more cattle.... I really do miss the cattle."

Those who live by the code of "what's yours is mine, or I'll break your kneecaps" are called Bandits. Bandits steal, coerce, and, in extreme cases, murder to get what they need to survive. Bandits naturally form into large roving groups to increase their effectiveness and range, and are known to have certain routes or territory that they cover. They operate not unlike a protection racket on the hapless denizens of their territory.

The bigger the territory, the more Bandits, and consequently the more resources they need and violence they will enact to get it. Bandits typically do not kill, however; it is far preferable to them that someone remain alive, so they can be cowed with intimidation and extorted later. Nevertheless, murder and violence are a part of the Bandit's arsenal; they hesitate at nothing to sow fear in the residents of their realm. When you get right down to it, though, Bandits are just people — desperate, bad people, but still people.

Atom Bombz

"Those bastards are sadistic assholes and not to be trusted. If they show up in your neck of the woods you'd be best off getting out of town."

A roving group of Bandits known for aggressive violence, destruction, and Raider-like fervor. Where most Bandits are content to extort and occasionally rough people up, the Atom Bombz go much further. Known for their fondness for fire, explosives, and torture, their cruelty is infamous. Most Bandits stop when you give them what they want. Not the Atom Bombz.

Jade Cartel

"Yeah, they move goods through the wastes if you have the price. I wouldn't mess with them either; their methods are just as brutal as any bandit group."

A sophisticated criminal organization that controls much of the trade routes from Tijuana and the Mexican No Man's Land into Sokal and beyond. They are suppliers of many specialty goods, most of which are illegal in more sophisticated parts of the world.

"I don't know who or what they were, they came in the night and just.... I don't even want to talk about it... I think they left me alive to tell you about it, or they just didn't see me hiding under the train cab. I almost wish they had found me though, seeing what they did I haven't slept for a month... I keep thinking they'll come back to finish the job."

While Bandits are hated and feared, they pale in comparison to the terror invoked by Raiders. No one (no sane person, at least) really understands what takes a normal man and turns him into a bloodthirsty Raider. Maybe the wastes cause people to snap after so much hardship, maybe it's some lingering effect of the Fall, maybe it's a disease; no one knows. When it happens, a completely normal person can begin frothing at the mouth, spewing profanity, and attacking anything that moves.

Most terrifying however is that Raiders will form into groups. Being close to other Raiders seems to have a stabilizing effect on them, although they're by no means sane, and they will begin to sweep the wastes like locusts, destroying and consuming all that they come into contact with. In these groups dominant personalities will emerge, characterizing those that follow them and creating terrifying unity in people normally too insane to speak coherently. Raiders kill and mutilate without a hint of compassion or second thought. They always fight to the death and are generally a scourge on the face of Sokal and all civilized people.

"I've been here and there, mostly there. I go where I like and leave when I'm no longer welcome. I don't like being in one place for too long."

Vagabonds, nomads, roamers — wasters are all of these. They travel the Wastes, surviving by never staying in one place too long and scavenging what they can. They all have different methods of staying alive and being useful; hired guns, merchants, wandering healers, and mystics can all take to wandering the long road. Wasters share no common background other than perhaps a certain dissatisfaction with wherever they were before they began wandering. People who have left their home communities and former bandits all take to the road.

Wasters rarely stay in one place for long. They are valued primarily as a conduit for news and trade, but feared because of their unpredictability. Groups of Wasters have formed around certain agreed-upon ideologies. These always involve taking advantage of the freedom provided by life on the move, either to do something as prosaic as ponder existence, or, more practically, to avoid the consequences of whatever trouble they have caused.

Burners

"We exist to figure out what it means to exist, man."

Wandering nomads always looking for the next great high, the Burners are an eclectic group who dress in bright clothes, wear their hair in long dreads, reject authority, cause trouble for fun, travel constantly, do lots of drugs, and get into trouble. They are known for their fondness of fire, not in a destructive way, but in an artistic one. They are artists and performers, and their campfires are legendary gatherings of music, dance, and altered states.

Marshals

"When there's trouble most people run away. You know, like smart people? Marshals? They run toward it. They're a different breed."

Where there's trouble there's usually someone trying to stop it. Marshals are traveling do-gooders who dispense their own brand of law and order wherever they happen to be. Most Marshals are former soldiers, lawmen, or people who just can't stand to see injustice. They travel the wastes looking for wrongs to right and people to help.