Faction Name: The Stormraiders
Faction Type: Collection of semi-nomadic tribes.
Capital: The Hive.
Holdings:The Hive, Hotwaters, Ashenfield, Grey Forest, the Lonely lands, Iceriver, Hidden Mountain, the Three Peaks, Last Mountain, Southernlands, the Forgotten One.
Flag/Banner: Flag of the current reigning clan.
Leader(s): Rotary Tribal Council.
Persons of Importance: The hundred and eighty two chiefs of the clans.
Racial Demographics and Population: Uniform racially, almost all of them human, even though most have some kind of alteration thanks to biotech modifications to their ancestors from before the catastrophe. Their numbers reach around 150.000
Culture and Religion: To understand the Stormriders it is necessary to understand the environment in which they live most of their lives, this being the harsh wastes of the great desert. Contrary to popular belief, the Stormriders don't spend most of their time in cities or oasis but travelling between them. Harsh doesn't even begin to describe the lifestyle most of the population has. Therefore, it is no surprise that they had to develop a very specialized lifestyle which includes leaving behind most of those who can't take care of themselves for basic things.
The Stormraiders live either on the move, or, unknown to the rest of the wastelands, hidden in underground caves. Of all of the Holdings of importance they posses, the most important ones aren't mobile, but almost nobody but them knows it. While they are a minority, eleven to be exact, these are the centres of culture and where most of the important events that concern the whole culture are held. We will be back to this point soon.
To be a Stormraider is to be almost completely self-sufficient and know how to survive in the wastelands. While it is extremely rare that a single tribe member is found travelling alone, every person in the caravans is expected and educated all of his or her life to survive in the most hostile of the environments for an indefinite period of time should the need arise. However, this doesn't mean that either the quality of life of the Stormraiders is low nor than that they haven't developed other methods of dealing with their daily struggle which have made for a comfortable existence.
(Copyright Rodrigo de la Vega)
The Schiift, literally "hounds", are a race of blind, gregarious canines that live symbiotically with the Stormraiders. They have the best known sense of smell and can dwell in almost all environments. Added to this is the fact that they are apex predators capable of reaching almost 250km/hr in flat terrain in short bursts, maintain around 100km/hr for days on end and are excellent diggers. All of this has made them the perfect partner for the tribes. From time immemorial since the great disaster it has been this way.
Their capacity to reach and maintain such high speeds with little energetic cost has allowed them to travel at the same speed as the motorized caravans of the Stormraiders and their digging ability has been widely used in the construction and maintenance of the great underground shelters. They are also extremely well suited to the hunting methods of the tribe members. The Shiift are so engrained in the culture of the nomads that the pups are often feed human milk and vice-versa.
The aforementioned methods of hunting consist mainly of bows and crossbows, with powder weapons being granted only to the very best shooters of each tribe and therefore being considered among the highest honours. That isn't to say that one should underestimate a normal Stormraider; on the contrary, they are extremely lethal with ranged weapons and slightly less so with close quarter ones.
Even though they are traders, the Stormraiders don't accept fiat money, due to its uselessness in the deserts and other hostile environments in which they spend most of their time.
The immobile holdings of the tribes are dug underground by the Schiift and reinforced with the technology they tribe members scavenge. They are also sanctuaries for technology and have a much higher quality of life for the elders which live on them, their only permanent population. That doesn't mean they aren't completely devoid of people save for the elders, just that those that inhabit them don't stay beyond what takes the next group to arrive.
These holding also serve as place for the rituals and councils of the whole people, with The Hive being the most important.
History: Stormraider society hasn't changed much in general terms even though they possess a rich history of tribes' and clans' disputes and internal conflicts which is very detailed in their records.
Military: Every person in the tribes that can walk can fight, and, while slow to anger and always on guard, a Stormraider is a lethal combatant.
Other: The usual basic equipment for a Stormraider consist in:
- Between 3 and 7 bows and crossbows and their corresponding arrows.
- Several Blowpipes and their corresponding darts.
- Usually two halberds.
- Three or more spears.
- A multipurpose axe.
- A multipurpose sword or machete.
- Several knives.
- Poison to coat most of the aforementioned.
- All-terrain boots.
- A gas mask.
- Travelling cloaks.
- A motorcycle or equivalent.