Seven Nations



The Seven Nations are the largest Nomad groups in North America.

Overview
In the USA alone there are over 7 million nomads; more than half of them have given their allegiance to one of the seven Nomad Nations of North America. These groups are composed of clans, tribes and families which share common interests, enemies, or goals. The largest of the nations calls itself Snake Nation, while the smallest is a nomad-owned corporation called MetaCorp. Found between these two extremes are Blood Nation, Folk Nation, the Jodes, Thelas Nation, and the Aldecaldos.

They were formed by a series of unofficial treaties and conferences across the USA, and these meetings and gatherings continue today. The largest meetings between Nations come at the end of harvest time. The harvest is special to the nomads, since many are descendants of agricultural migrants. It represents a time of plenty: plenty of food, plenty of work, and therefore plenty of celebration. In times past, up to forty percent of the nomad population of North America has come together in various locations to discuss issues and celebrate during the late fall period.

There are many parallels between gang culture and nomad culture, having both sprouted from the same roots in the Collapse. The two groups have sometimes come to violence over territorial and economic issues. This is greatly mediated by economic factors. The employers of the nomad groups are not subtle. If a gang should disrupt the work of a nomad group then the employer usually has no qualms about eliminating the gang utterly. Feeling no ill against the gangs, especially since many of the groups are descendant of pre-Collapse gang structures, the nomads avoid angering them. During jobs the nomad tribes even employ some gangs in tertiary capacities (sometimes even straight payoffs of goods or services).

Aldecaldos
The Aldecaldo family was the first true nomad family to form, though at the time they were not nomads, but casualties of the city. Before the Collapse, Los Angeles was arguably one of the greatest cities in the world. It was also, in some areas, one of the worst In the 1980s and 1990s, parts of Los Angeles devolved into a war zone, as did so many of America's inner cities. There was rampant drug dealing, prostitution, gang activity, theft, arson, and all species of violence. The only thing missing was hope.

The Aldecaldos are one of the two nomad factions in Cyberpunk 2077. They live in the Badlands and are frequently in conflict with the Wraiths. They are more peaceful than their aggressive rivals so they are more open to helping V.

Blood Nation
As a side effect of the Collapse, the city of Miami completed its slide into a total war zone. Miami had been the center of the North American drug trade for almost twenty years, and in the years before the Collapse, it had also been subjected to massive immigration, both legal and illegal, from Cuba and Haiti. The flow of illegal refugees increased alarmingly as South and Central America heated up, and Miami swelled to bursting. A great many of these immigrants were connected with the various criminal organizations of their home countries before coming to America. Without those connections, most wouldn't have been able to leave the war zone.

Folk Nation
The Folk Nation is another late entry into the nomad society. A nascent black culture based on pre-Collapse gang structures, they have come a long way from their old Chicago roots. In the mid-'90s, the Folk Nation (as it has been called from the very beginning) was one of the most powerful gangs in the world. They had long superseded the Bloods and the Crips for dominance of middle America. Some say their structure was so dose because they formed as a response to the other violent gangs in the eighties and nineties. Some say they were just another gang. No one knows for sure, but they are still here now.

Jodes
The original Jode family came from Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. They were not driven out by economic crisis, but by ecological crisis: as the agricultural lands died, the people who worked them began to die as well. In 1998, the great sandstorms obviated the possibility of anyone farming for quite a while, and those that had the strength began heading west towards California for no other reason than it seemed easier than going east through the more densely- populated areas of Collapse America. This mass of farming peoples (not yet organized in any fashion) drifted into Colorado and there, finding a place where they could rest, settled for a few months.

MetaCorp
The Meta is the youngest and strangest of the Seven Nations: youngest as they were formed during the Long Walk, only nine years ago; and strangest because they are a corporation. Originally, those of the Meta Family were mostly ex-military and support services people in South America. Jonathan Meta was an Army Officer with years of service and an armload of decorations. The war was all but lost, yet the Government refused to stop. Most who fought in the SouthAm were not able to remember Viet Nam except Jonathan Meta.

Snake Nation
Officially the largest of the nomad groups, the Snake Nation is not a true nation in the eyes of many Americans, nomad and static alike. Nomads are generally a very libertarian and independent people, and the Snake Nation is a loose confederation of those who, though they wanted to preserve their autonomy, wanted a voice in nomad politics. Unofficially, they can be said to speak for the entire independent nomad population, and it is generally true that they faithfully represent the views of non-aligned nomads in North America.

Thelas Nation
Marine nomads, sea nomads, and water nomads are all names the government has ignored. Because such people are seen as lawless, they are lumped together by the government and called pirates. It is a term which, to some degree, they have come to enjoy.