Order amidst Chaos

Overview

     Non-governmental bands of individuals have gained size, importance, and power in the culture of the Endtimes. These organizations have a variety of origins and places in society.
     Youth gangs are often small, tightly knit groups of juveniles organized in tribal systems. With hazing rituals of membership and strict hierarchy, these teach strength, the rules of the pack, and create vital ties that the illegals will need later in life.

     Protectors form more elaborate, structured organizations that are vital to what they call free society, society outside of the government and 'legals'. Organized into protectorates, they are the closest thing to government that the illegals have.
     The other organizations vary in motives, size, and safety. Tight bands of freelancers accept jobs from protectors. Freelancers are used for actions that protectors cannot touch, whether politically or due to specialization of resources and skills.
     Protectorates are often racial, but form coalitions of forces with other groups. In the arcologies of the western hemisphere, the head of a protectorate is King, the chief beaurocrat is Governor, and the factional leaders are called Lords. In the eastern arcologies, the head is Governor, the chief beaurocrat is Prefect, and the factional leaders are also called Lords. The military arm of protectorates are generally called protectors if directly overseen by the protectorate, or enforcers if otherwise.
     Protectorates are focused in Arcologies, but extend franchises to regions outside.

     Clans are loose cultural groups that cross organizational lines. Various gangs may belong to different protectorates but share a clan allegiance. A protectorate will usually consist of more than one clan. There is sometimes a tension between clan and protectorate allegiance. There are gangs that rely exclusively on clan allegiance.

     Many gangs are influenced by the media. The most common gangs, the Nations, are actually references to a 2020s virtual reality game. Each Nation, in the game, consisted of a mutant race with special powers. The nations fought each other and the forces of Dark Lord Amber.
     The original game, Nuts and Bolts, took itself very seriously. The melodramatic nature of the game attracted a large, young audience that found the melodrama funny. Sequels, NB 2, NB III, NB Wank, and NB Gorefest, relied more on cheap gags, sex, and violence. Though increasingly incoherent, the series remained quite popular.
     By the late 2020s, gangs in the eastern americas had begun to adopt icons and concepts from the games. The gangs had acheived a codified existance by 2040. All over the world, each Nation maintained a loose common culture, and the Nations as a whole set themselves apart from other groups. The Nations were the most populous Clan structure.

The Nations
AlieNation
     One of the larger clan, members chose equipment with a smooth, glossy look. Dark chitin, morphing gear, and eclectic body alteration marked the Aliens. Their chosen attitude was one of calm, quiet watchfullness, and most preferred to work via remote.
     The Aliens were important to the Nations as a whole. Though delusional geeks, they had wide technological and scientific resources. In practice they acted as support for other groups, and traded valuable favors.

CarNation
     The Flowers were identifiable by the bright white flower in the lapel, slicked back dark hair, and big sly grins. Just like their hero, Kid Carnage (AKA KC), they were wise-cracking mechanics and daredevils. All Flowers were required to have a vehicle, whether in a club garage for repairs or ready for a deathride.
     Flowers were popular and relatively common, but lacked any significant power. They were usually deep in debt to other groups. The other Nations had little respect for the Flowers.

CoroNation
     The last of the Nuts and Bolts games, NB Gorefest, contained a number of references to the King in Yellow. Rumored to have been edited by government censors before it was allowed to be released, gamers spent years trying to fill the gaps in the storyline. One of the most notable parts of the storyline were the Sigil-chips. Players that collected Sigil-chips found the game shifted in very puzzling ways. One of the final chapters of the game involved the player turning out to be the King of the world. The puzzling aspect of this was that no matter what characters were chosen, the clues pointed to the player being the King. This happened to each character that gathered Sigil-chips. There was no obvious attempt to reconcile contradictory plotlines.
     The games, at this point, would generally turn into a disturbing montage of arguments, symbols, and fights between different factions, each pointing to various omens that their King was the true King. When the plotlines would finally start to resolve, the game inevitably crashed.
     Though met more with puzzled looks than adulation, NB Gorefest remained a canonical part of the Nation tradition. The Kings took their name from a restructured version of NB Gorefest. This version was created by fans, billed as what NB Gorefest 'should have been.' In the game a new nation is described, CoroNation, where every man was destined to be King.
     This clan, by the 2040s, had focused their group on politics and influence. More a social club for the well-to-do, they saw themselves as natural puppet-masters. The degree of their actual power was not obvious.

ConcateNation
     Brought in late in the series, Cats often received body modification to look feline. The women were like Lady Sheba, graceful, sly, and deadly assassins. The men emulated Prince Bastard, hefty foulmouthed warriors with a penchant for horribly torturing their enemies. Both had sex as often and loudly as possible, preferably in public.
     Cats had a violent disposition and ruled through terror. However, given their lack of focus or thought, most were relegated to small turfs and low level gang warfare.

ConsterNation
     A minor option in NB 2, Sterns were depicted as British gentlemen in derbies and black outfits. Originally intended to bring some political flavoring to the game, Sterns ended up as mages whose primary characteristic was dramatic backfires. A few gangs in the 2040s maintained the Stern look, focusing on magical talent.

DomiNation
     Dressed in leather and wielding either morphable whips or floating knives, the Doms were the most popular of the Nations. Heavily into sex, violence, and pushing the envelope, the Doms were also the clan with the heaviest attrition.
     Frequently connected with Cult activities, most of the Nations regarded the Doms warily. Drugs and slave trade were their primary resources, though magic and favors were traded as well. A small but important cadre of Doms had contacts in the Hypertech industry, and the Doms in general were surprisingly well-armed.

DTermiNation
     Originally depicted as highly stereotypical American Indians, the Ds eventually evolved to embrace a combination of ancient customs and high technology. Scarification and tattoos were important parts of D ritual and hierarchy, along with cyberware and Link skill.
     The Ds came the closest to forming viable political groups. Several families maintained D membership over several generations. With stable day jobs and a network of favors, Ds became one of the few serious cultural bodies among the Nations.

ElimiNation
     Featuring leather chaps and constantly eating, Shit Boy and his race of scatalogical mutants (featured in the highly forgettable NB Wank) ruled the sewer worlds. From this incoherent backstory, the Limits came about. The Limits trained to become mercenaries extrordinaire, with a nihilistic attitude inculcated in the membership. Limits had icons of death or mathematical equations describing limiting series tattooed on their faces.
     The group went through a number of phases of development. Lacking a focus, the clan found itself pressed to create a more powerful theme. Eventually, the worship of nothingness, the acknowledgement that the world is a sphere of shit, became predominant. Surprisingly, the Limits succeeded at acquiring and running a number of companies and were serious contenders in the world arms market. The Limits and Ds had a strange respect for one another.

GermiNation
     A combination of bad joke and 'k3wl powerzzz', the Germs faked German accents and were heavily into biological technology. A good number were Melted, and all Germs had cosmetic alterations to give their skin a variety of tiled patterns. This group was rather large, but lacked organization.
     The Germs were regarded as the safe Nation. Membership was very easy, and the clan didn't require much of its members. The other Nations generally regarded the Germs as convenient pawns or as a pool of potential recruits.

HiberNation
     The Bears were mutant pawns of Dark Lord Amber, until the daring adventurers of Nuts and Bolts freed them from the Dark Lord's mind-control codpieces. By the 2040s, the Bears were the toughs of the Nations. Heavily modified, often with cosmetic alteration to look more animalistic, the Bears spoke of honor and glory while they went around breaking things.

ImagiNation
     The Imagos were a group that cultivated being mysterious and enigmatic. While most came off like nitwits, Imagos were well versed in magic and the supernatural. This made them very very dangerous.
     The more intelligent of the Imagos ended up joining magical orders, to pursue more serious study. Other Nations would attempt to foster Imagos, for the magical power they could bring to bear, but treated them cautiously.

PoliNation
     Pollys were the whores of the Nations. Forming a variety of prostitution rings, Pollys were very protective of their turf. The biggest of the Polly-mommas kept enforcers well paid to help their interests. Several Polly gangs were exposed as Shub-niggurath cultists at various times, but Polly girls and boys remained a popular service.

TermiNation
     Modelled on old fashioned heavy metal satanists, the Loaders were from a magical dark land of music and blood demons. Another group of the Dark Lord's army, they were turned into allies in NB 2. The Loader gangs were interested in media, in sound, vision, and immersive dramas. Some were hard edged punks, but typically the Loaders were more style than substance.
     Loader games and shows were tremendously popular in the 2030s and 2040s, which made a number of them quite rich. This visibility and mainstream acceptibility pissed off most of the other Nations, and the Loaders soon found themselves broken up, as a clan, by other power groups. By the late 2040s, Loaders were mostly small social circles of artists.

XTermiNation
     Originally witch-hunters in Nuts and Bolts, the Cross character types were adapted later as supernatural martial artists. Absorbing just about every stereotype in the genre, the Crosses became very popular. The gang disdained major body modification, although many Cross gangs used boost drugs and minor cyberware. Trained in a variety of martial styles, Crosses sold their services as troops and enforcers to other groups.

UriNation
     Another incoherent idea from the forgettable NB Wank, the Spoons battle-cry of 'Piss off!' found popularity in a number of young gangs. Like the Germs, the Spoons were a somewhat unimportant but popular gang. Featuring decals of a variety of grinning figures pissing down on authority figures or well known Mythos entities, the Spoons were a rather vocal rebellion against an increasingly frightening world.

Conflicts:
     The Aliens and the Ds had a number of gang wars over operating system standardization. The IOS Standards Board, convened in 2029 to regulate the growth of self modifying operating systems, caused great chaos and violence between proponents of different systems. This erupted as turf battles between the Aliens and Ds, as well as protectorate battles and a series of assassinations between Majestic, Delta Green, and the USO technology board.
     Wars also frequently erupted between the Cats, Doms, and the Bears over various issues of style and personality. In one notable case, an offhand phrase in a virtual nightclub caused a three month bloody conflict between Cat and Doms in western Australia and the southeast of North America.
     Though expressing intense dislike for each other, the Imagos and Sterns had few overt conflicts. Both were frequently at odds with other lodges and magical organizations, so it may be assumed they elected to favor clan loyalty for pragmatic reasons.