Hunting and Sporting Goods is home to multiple areas of interest, and has a handful of different clans and sects. Much of their culture is based around misconstrued concepts and symbolism warped throughout the ages. The major beliefs and traditions revolve around the enthusiasts for Sports, Hunting, or Survivalism. There are very few truly civilized, settled areas due to the difficulty of travel within the department's domain, and the dangers that hinders everyday life. The largest of these is home to Sport, who settle in stadiums and arenas, safe behind the thick walls and secure doors. The hunters and survivalists are more nomadic, constantly roaming and shifting camps, never staying in on area too long and ever mindful of the dangers that lurk around every corner.
Sport is a meritocracy, where a person is only as prestigious as they are skillful and a person's prestige is observed through the trophies they've claimed from defeated opponents. The warriors of this society, known as Players, push themselves to athletic extremes to be the strongest, fastest, and most skillful through the use of drugs and dietary supplements. The most notable drugs they inject regularly are; "Bulk-Up", to enhance strength and muscle growth; and "Boost", to increase stamina and endurance. The side-effects often cause the users to be quite temperamental and angry, which more often than not induces a sort of homicidal rage. Pissing of a Player may result in them killing you, or at the very least smashing a bunch of stuff. They can also enter this frenzied state of adrenaline and anger through their daily rituals of "Getting Amped".
Linemen are the male warrior of the society who dress in reinforced layers of sporting gear, helmets, and pads. They have a berserker style of combat, where they rush towards foes in a blind frenzy becoming a locomotive of rage and muscle that is incredibly hard to stop. Fortunately, if you're not the target and you're not in their path you should come out relatively alright. The wield hockey sticks retrofitted with a combination of blades and spikes, or baseballs bats modified with spikes or with small, circular weights attached to bludgeon their enemies to death with. Some carry backboard kite shields. Their weakest point is their legs, which typically have little more than layers of thin, plastic shinguards encircling them. It is incredibility difficult to get through their upper armor and helmets which can easily shrug off blunt force attacks.
Point-Guards are the female equivalent, and are almost always found behind the protective meat-wall of their linemen, covering and supporting their linemen and ensuring they are guarded from rear attacks. They have a range of weapons to attack from a distance and support the linemen. They lob overfilled balls which explode on impact, easily disorienting and knocking down their target. Point-Guards can also hinder foes by ensnaring them in nets, where they will drag them away from their allies and later sell them as slaves, or perhaps just beat them to death—It depends how mad they are really. Point-Guards primarily use bows or in scarce cases, modified pellet guns that shoot plastic, or metal pellets. These guns are much less deadly than actual guns, but can still puncture crucial areas, they are especially deadly in large numbers. The deadliest piece of their equipment is the amped-up ball launcher, which bombards enemies with deadly, green balls packed with powdered chalk which turns them into small cannonballs. Unfortunately this piece of equipment is heavy, and the process of moving it is slow and takes multiple hands to do.
Team Captains are the head of a squadron of Linemen and Point-Guards, and the Manager is the sport equivalent of a military general, who oversees operations and directs the forces. The Manager is second only to the Announcer.
Within Sport exists the subculture of the "Xfit", a people devoted to maintaining the temple that is their body and toning it to perfect. They abhor the use of drugs, seeing it only as unnecessary pollution to the body. However, they do have a regimen of health supplements, vitamins, and other essentials that they believed are required by the body. Some of these beliefs border on the weird and extreme. The Xfitters primarily act as the suppliers for sport. They're fast, agile, and have a high stamina which makes them ideal for raiding a territory quickly while the warriors of Sport deal with any threats. Xfitters also double as messengers and as a small parcel delivery service due to their ability to move through the course with ease. Following one through the Hunting and Sporting Goods department is near impossible. Whereas the Linemen and Point-Guards travel through ever changing safe routes mapped by the Trainers; Xfitters can maneuver through the obstacles and traps fluidly with speed and precision should they choose to.
The final sect within Sport are the "Lopers". Most in Sport have mixed feelings about lopers, somewhere between disdain and pity, though they exhibit a tenuous acceptance as a whole. Lopers come from the hunting section of the department, though few sane individuals live there due to the higher concentration of Sekuritee bots. Because Lopers are not bulky like their sporty cousins, the often due work for the Owl Men employed as their eyes, ears, and hands. Lopers are nimble, ranged tacticians specializing in speed and cunning rather than brute force. Point-Guards often train with senior Lopers in the use of the bow.
Lopers do the jobs deemed unfit for the simpler minds of their cousins, especially when it comes to removing somebody from their own society. Due to their secretiveness, and generally odd appearance of dark fatigues and masks, Lopers come off as a mistrustful bunch with hidden agendas. Despite technically being of the Player social class, Sport does not consider them as such. Rarely has a Loper taken part in Super Owl Sunday, and even skirmishes with them are seen as nothing more than a playful joke, even if a Loper wins.
The Sports culture centers around a once-year, gladiatorial event known as Super Owl Sunday, the ultimate sporting event of the year. This event is overseen by the Owl refs, the holy men of their society who impart their wisdom of the rules and guidelines of Sport. Owlmen fill the roles of teacher, priest, and elder to help guide their people into Sport Valhalla, to forever skirmish with the God Fifa in the afterlife. The grand priest, and the final authority on Sport religion, and the herald who marks the opening of Super Owl Sunday is known as the Announcer, who is the equivalent to the king in their culture. It takes years to become a priest and learn all of the rules, but is regarded as one of the most respectable and honorable endeavors.
Sport embodies the belief of Mad-Den; A cultural philosophy that honorable warriors who devote their lives to the sport of battle will forever live eternally within Sport Valhalla. They often skirmish with each other, and often times this results in bloodshed but they do not try to actively kill each other unless one side has declared a Rivalry. The two largest clans are the Mad-Men and Enefel, who have an uneasy relationship scarred with multiple rivalries and bloodshed in the past. They're also the two biggest competing teams.
Hooter is the Saint of Sport, and Hooter's teachings revolve around relaxation, celebration, and teaches young, non-competitive women the ethics to continue the bloodline. Disciples of Hooters, or a "Hoot", "Hooty", or "Hooter", manage the various Sports Bars frequented by the warriors. Something of a mix between an actually bar, a raging party, and a brothel where Hoots can be sampled, or selected for breeding. Marriage doesn't play a large role in the society, rather Sport follows the principle of "The Broship". And always remember their golden rule, "Bros before Hoes". Hoe is a derogatory term for anybody who isn't good enough, whether it be lack of physical prowess or being ugly. If you ever call a Lineman or a Point-Guard a hoe, expect a rage induced fight.
Establishing a Broship with another entails something akin to marriage, but without ceremony or rule over one another. The epitome of friendliness with the primary purpose of creating children. The Alpha in the relationship is the warrior, and the Beta is whomever the Alpha selects. It's an honorable tradition, to love, care for, and support your Bro, but with much less nagging. It should also be noted that a person is never confined to a single Broship, and may have many Bros.
Those who are not Players do the menial labor. Slaves work the sweaty laundry fields, tasked with forever washing items from the stinking, rancid piles of discarded laundry. Though players respect all those but the slaves, Trainers hold a special place within their society. Trainers fill two roles: They mentor the young aspirants who want to become a player; and they are the department's caretakers. They fill the dangerous role of setting and maintaining the obstacle course labyrinth and have their own set of maintenance routes to use when hauling equipment out into the course.
Trainers fight a never ending war against the stocker bots, who see the course as "walking hazards", which is absolutely correct. Stocker bots are constantly dismantling the course and hauling the items away into back stock areas, only to restock them onto the shelves at a later date. If a traveler is lucky, they'll find a path that has been cleared by the bots before a trainer has rebuilt the course.
The Greenthumbs despise Sport, because they have greenspace from the fields and stadiums. However, Gnomes hold a begrudging respect for the care and maintenance Sport puts into their fields. Sport also trades frequently with Grocery to supply their beloved meats and junk food. Especially for their Sunday Tailgate, which is a weekly gathering of players that party and skirmish with each other. They also incur the services of Auto & Tires, Electronics, and Hardware to maintain their obstacle course and equipment. Hunting and Sporting Goods are often subject to wails from the Nevergrow, who hold a fervent fascination for many of their items. The Nevergrow are also surprisingly apt at navigating the course.
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