Raiders
Origins and Nature of the Raiders
The Raiders of New Vance did not begin as a single group. They came from people the city pushed away or left behind during the Collapse and the early years that followed. Some were criminals and small-time warlords who lost their old power when governments fell. Others were workers, refugees, and deserters who were refused entry when the walls went up and the Perimeter Fires were lit.
When the major factions began to form, many survivors tried to join them. Some made it into the Citadel Council’s order. Others drifted to the Solar Guardians, the Hydro Hegemony, or the Gear Rats. The ones who did not fit anywhere, or who refused to follow strict rules, turned to raiding. They robbed convoys, hit weak settlements, and looted abandoned zones. Over time, people started using one word for them all: Raiders.
Raiders are unaligned by nature. They do not swear lasting oaths to the big factions. They do not care about long-term plans, civic rebuilding, or shared rules. Most think only about the next score, the next rush, and the next chance to show they still have power over someone weaker than them. The description in the core lore is accurate: they are too wild for the factions and too broken to care.
They travel in scavenged trucks, rusted war-bikes, and crude armored vans. Vehicles are their lifeline. Many raiders can drive, repair, and strip a rig faster than they can read a map. When fuel runs low, their first thought is theft, not trade. When food runs short, they plan a raid, not a harvest.
There is no single leader of all Raiders. There is no council, charter, or central camp that speaks for them. There are only dozens of gangs and packs that rise, clash, and vanish. A leader holds power only as long as they inspire fear and keep loot flowing. When they fail, someone else takes over or the pack breaks apart.
Raider Camp Zone and Territory
The closest thing the Raiders have to a homeland is the Raiders Camp Zone. This zone lies on the broken outer edge of New Vance, beyond the stronger lines of the Perimeter Watch. It is not one fixed camp. It is a long strip of highways, motels, service stops, and scrap fields where raider packs gather between attacks.
The old highway ring that once fed traffic into New Vance forms the spine of this area. The Collapse turned it into a maze of wrecks and broken concrete. Overpasses hang at sharp angles. Ramps drop into empty space. Tankers exploded here during earlier fighting, leaving craters and scorched patches. Raiders know which stretches are still passable and which sections are traps. They use this knowledge to ambush convoys that do not.
Camps are built from what is at hand. Some grow in motel courtyards where rooms become storage, dens, and makeshift armories. Others spread across rest stops where trucks form a circle and tents, tarps, and sheet-metal structures fill the gaps. Neon highway signs still hang over some of these places. In a few camps they still glow, powered by loud, unstable generators. In others they flicker or stay dead, hanging over the mud and scrap.
Several locations inside the zone are known across the wastes:
The Toxic Digs are old fuel yards and chemical dumps. Leaking drums, rough refineries, and jury-rigged pumps dominate this area. The air here burns the lungs. Raiders work here for fuel and trade, and many do not live long.
The Devil’s Den is a former roadside mall that has become a black market. Raiders, smugglers, and brokers buy and sell gear, drugs, captives, and stolen tech there.
The Scorch Pit is a burned-out stadium and parking stack used for tests, punishments, and spectacle. Explosives and fire are common here.
The Bone Yard is a massive scrapyard and vehicle grave. Wrecked cars, buses, and cargo haulers form walls, tunnels, and sniper nests.
Between these sites, the ground is cluttered with scrap, old bones, and traps. Mines, crude pressure plates, and tripwires guard chokepoints. Some traps are fresh, set last week. Others are old and forgotten. Even raiders sometimes trigger their own legacy hazards.
The Perimeter Watch rarely pushes deep into this band. Patrols that must enter move with heavy support, hit a target fast, and exit. For most citizens, the zone is a dark gap on city maps. For raiders, it is home, hunting ground, and graveyard all at once.
Raider Life, Gangs, and Culture
Raider life is narrow and unstable. There is no long-term security. There is only the next raid, the next night, and the next day you wake up alive. Most raiders grow used to this early. Many lost families and homes during the Collapse. Others were born in camps and have never seen a stable district.
Food comes from looted shipments, stolen farm stock, and scavenged stores. Water comes from hijacked Hydro Hegemony lines, stolen containers, or cheap and often unsafe black-market sources. Fuel is more important than almost anything else. Packs store it in drums and tanks, guard it closely, and kill over it quickly. Without fuel, a raider gang is stuck on foot and becomes easy prey for Gear Rats, Perimeter Watch units, or rival packs.
Gangs form around a vehicle pool, a strong leader, or a profitable camp. Some are family-based, with parents, siblings, and cousins who hardened together. Others are built from loose groups of drifters who joined after a successful raid. Names like Wreckjaw, Mule, or Razor Tams are common for leaders. These names spread faster than their real ones.
There is no written law here, but some customs repeat:
Raiders expect a share of loot if they took part in a job.
A leader who hoards too much without reward risks a knife from their own people.
Clear betrayal during a raid often means death, exile beyond the outer camp line, or sale into slavery.
Packs are expected to focus raids on the city, its factions, or outside enclaves first. Those who prey too often on other raiders invite retaliation.
Drug use and chemical abuse are common. Many raiders stay high or numb to push past fear and stress. This makes them loud, erratic, and hard to predict in battle. Some charge without thinking. Others panic at the wrong moment. It also shortens their lives and keeps the cycle of violence in motion.
Infection is a constant threat. The Shambler Virus does not care about gang colors or camp loyalty. Many packs keep pits or cages at the edge of their camps to hold infected captives or to weaponize them. Others choose to put infected members down as soon as symptoms show, rather than risk a camp-wide outbreak. No group in the zone has the resources to manage controlled treatment.
Despite all this, not every raider is a mindless killer. Some are burned-out ex-soldiers who feel they have no place in any faction. Some are angry or desperate people who fell in with a pack after losing everything. A few try to avoid attacks on children or unarmed refugees, but these views are not common and rarely last. The culture of raiding wears down most early ideals.
Warlords and Power Centers
Most raider leaders rule for a short time and vanish. A convoy ambush goes wrong. A shambler swarm hits their camp. An angry gang member puts a bullet in their back. Only a few survive long enough to tie their names to a place or region.
The Raiders Camp Zone notes several of these warlords:
Furnace Faraday rules much of the Toxic Digs. He was an engineer before the Collapse and survived a major refinery blast. Now he runs rough refineries and flame teams. His people strike fuel convoys, burn rival camps, and sell refined product to any group that pays. His crews carry firebombs and improvised flamers and are feared on open roads.
Glitch controls the Devil’s Den. She once lived inside New Vance and lost her place there. She later turned her skills to data theft and black-market trade. The Den is her domain. Raiders, smugglers, and Shadow Syndicate agents all pass through her stalls and back rooms. Glitch’s strength comes from information and from knowing who owes what.
Inferno Iris commands the Scorch Pit. She worked with explosives before everything fell apart. Now she uses them to tear open convoys, walls, and fortified positions. Her crew favors sudden, loud strikes and then falls back into the maze around the stadium. She keeps control through fear and through regular tests and displays that remind everyone she can kill at any time.
Ironclad Krell leads a more disciplined band near the stronger city barricades. He began as a scavenger. A fight cost him an eye, which he replaced with a crude cybernetic unit. Krell drills his gang in basic formations and timed attacks. They focus on Perimeter Watch posts, weak convoys, and supply lines that support the factions.
Skullbreaker Kael rules the Bone Yard. Years of fighting over scrap and vehicles hardened him. A shambler took his eye and left scars. His gang has turned the scrapyard into a fortified maze of stacked wrecks, sniper nests, and traps. They often clash with Gear Rat salvage crews that want the same metal and engines.
Leaders like Wreckjaw and Mule command smaller, more mobile packs. They do not hold major landmarks but still cause serious damage along secondary roads and in rural outskirts. Their gangs favor quick strikes at smaller targets and avoid heavy fights with the larger warlord-controlled camps.
None of these leaders can speak for all Raiders. Their alliances shift often. Today Faraday might sell fuel to the Gear Rats and ignore a nearby camp. Next month he might burn that same camp to deny it to a rival. The only constant is that power is temporary, and violence is the main tool to gain or hold it.
Raiders and the Rest of New Vance
Raiders are both a threat and a pressure valve. They are the wild force that hits convoys, probes weak walls, and causes chaos along the roads. They also keep some threats focused on the outer ring instead of on the core districts. This creates strange patterns of response. Raiders are the raw chaos of New Vance. They are not builders. They are the people who break things.