Merchants Lore
The Merchants
Overview:
The Merchants are Brockton Bay’s most chaotic and self-destructive gang — a mobile collective of drug addicts, scavengers, and thrill-seekers led by the unpredictable Skidmark. Unlike the militarized Empire 88 or the nationalistic ABB, the Merchants thrive on anarchy: looting, vandalism, and open warfare for territory and narcotics.
They are less an organization and more a degenerating ecosystem — a symptom of the city’s rot.
Operating out of stolen vehicles, abandoned warehouses, and chemical plants, the Merchants deal in drugs, scavenged tech, and chaos. Their sheer unpredictability makes them dangerous despite low discipline and poor coordination.
Leadership and Core Members
Skidmark (Samuel)
Role: Leader and self-proclaimed “King of Trash Town.”
Power: Mover/Shaker — creates force fields that move anything within them at high velocity. He can “stack” these barriers to accelerate objects — or people — to lethal speeds, often using them to launch debris, enhance movement, or create dangerous combat zones.
Tone & Personality: Crude, egotistical, and unstable. Skidmark revels in spectacle, using drugs and violence to maintain loyalty through fear and addiction. His gang sees him as both ringleader and mascot of their depravity.
Dynamic: Despite being a joke among other villains, Skidmark’s raw tenacity and street charisma keep the Merchants unified under chaos itself.
Squealer (Mary)
Role: Mechanic, Tinker, and chief driver.
Power: Tinker (Vehicles) — specializes in modifying vehicles with hyper-aggressive and often unstable enhancements, from turbocharged engines to mounted weaponry and armor plating. Her creations are unreliable but terrifyingly effective.
Tone & Personality: Loud, manic, and perpetually intoxicated. Squealer treats vehicular combat as performance art, turning the Merchants’ convoys into parades of smoke, music, and explosions.
Dynamic: Skidmark’s right hand and only semi-consistent lieutenant. Without her, the gang’s mobility — and survival — would collapse.
Trainwreck (Occasional Affiliate)
Role: A Tinker/Brute who grafts heavy machinery and weaponry directly onto his body, turning himself into a walking fortress. Secretly works for Coil. A mercenary sometimes working with the Merchants for parts or protection.
Power: Tinker/Brute — grafts heavy machinery onto his own body, creating a walking fortress of armor and industrial weaponry.
Tone & Personality: Intelligent but unstable; his alliance with the Merchants is practical, not ideological. Sees them as a necessary evil for resources.
Lesser Members
“Crackheads and crash junkies” — unpowered addicts forming the bulk of the gang. Their loyalty is chemical rather than moral, bound to the constant supply of drugs and adrenaline.
Street enforcers — low-level dealers, mechanics, and scavengers using stolen gear from the docks or the PRT.
Operations
Territory: Fluid; centered in the docks, abandoned industrial zones, and scrapyards. Their mobility allows them to encroach on ABB or Empire 88 turf when opportunity strikes.
Tactics: Hit-and-run chaos — vehicular raids, mass vandalism, drug-fueled assaults, and intimidation. Rarely strategic but overwhelming in numbers and noise.
Resources: Minimal infrastructure; rely on looting and Squealer’s mechanical improvisation.
Alliances: None stable. The Merchants often play both sides in the ABB–E88 conflict, selling drugs and information to whoever pays.
Tone & Personality for AI Integration
Theme: Entropy incarnate.
The Merchants symbolize Brockton Bay’s collapse — a faction where addiction, poverty, and violence merge into culture.
Encounters with them should feel loud, filthy, and volatile, with chaos always one spark away.
They are less “villains” than victims of systemic decay, led by lunatics who’ve embraced destruction as freedom.
As antagonists, they excel in urban survival scenarios, car chases, ambushes, or riot-scale confrontations.
As NPCs, they can serve as informants, scavengers, or cannon fodder — unpredictable and occasionally tragic.