Blood Nation

The Blood Nation are one of the largest Nomad groups in North America, and a member of the Seven Nations.

History
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.

Naturally, these organizations were dominated by the various drug cartels. After the bioplague destroyed the drug crops in 1992, their authority faded away to nothing. One by one, the drug-producing areas of South America were destroyed. With no commercial crop to provide cheap raw materials, and no end to the drought in sight, these criminal elements began to feed off each other in a desperate attempt to monopolize the synthetic drug industry. In the beginning, violence increased nation-wide as the drug cartels beat themselves to death. But while the shooting eventually stopped in most places, it only got worse in Miami, until eventually the city was in flames. Unable to stop the warfare, the government cordoned off the area and let the combatants exhaust themselves. It was not a question of refusing to save innocent lives; most of the honest (and moneyed) people had fled Miami at the beginning of the troubles. The city had already been destroyed, and the gangs had vowed never to give up their turf.

By early 1996, the war was over; Miami was as bad a city as Beirut, a wasteland of half-demolished buildings and bullet-riddled car wrecks. Above this splendid kingdom stood the Bloods-just in time for the worst of the Collapse.

The original Bloods were a criminal organization with chapters across the United States, though they probably originated in the wastelands of South Central Los Angeles. The Bloods who emerged from the ruins of Miami, however, were of a different mold. Haitian and other Caribbean immigrants to Miami had brought with them both Santeria and Voodoo. The Bloods were now a mishmash of Caribbean, African-American, and Cuban/South American cultures - they were battle-hardened survivors and they had a faith. The leadership of these new Bloods also became matriarchal, with Houngans who had become advisors to the different gang leaders, rebuilding them for the ground up, and separating the most violent members into dispersed groups. The Bloods would find their leaders in religious women like Nelly Sin, Mary Panacea, and Tina Blood-Johnson.

The Bloods today are so far removed from their gangland roots that they do not even resemble the pre-Collapse Bloods. When the Collapse hit Florida, it was just another in a string of disasters; the state had been rocked by civil unrest, hurricanes, and industrial accidents in the decade previous. What set the Collapse apart was that help never came, things never got better, and more people died, until there was almost nothing left except the Mouse, the Everglades, and the Circus.

The Mouse was the Walt Disney Corporation. Disney had spent years and billions investing in the Florida economy. They had built roads and infrastructure, most of the Orlando area economy relied on them, and they even had their own city, Buena Vista. As the Collapse descended on the Sunshine State, they prepared for the worst. Disney was a large and powerful corporation, controlling other large and powerful corporations, so they had contingency plans for almost every eventuality. As the situation worsened, The Mouse dug in and waited. It was the declaration of Martial Law in 1996 that finally forced the parks temporary closure, a closure that would last five years. During that time, The Mouse's reserves drained away. The Disney Corporation filed for re-organizational bankruptcy in 1998. Sometime in 1999, the Bloods moved from the ruins of Miami to a derelict Walt Disney World, and there they found their calling.



Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus has long been known as "The Greatest Show On Earth." Once headquartered south of Tampa Bay, the circus was sold to Disney just before the Crash of 1994. When the Collapse made it too expensive (and too dangerous) to continue touring, the Circus moved to safer, permanent facilities at Buena Vista. As the parks closed, many of the employees' and shareholders' families were allowed to move onto the grounds to keep them safe and loyal. When the Bloods took over in 1999, the families who remained were allowed, and in fact welcomed, to stay. The combination of the Disney employees, the Circus, and the Bloods created the greatest traveling entertainments of the new millennium. In the year 2000, the Bloods left on their first National Tour. At one time, over ten thousand people traveled with each of the four caravans, although now that number has been reduced to about five thousand per show. Smaller entertainments also struck out on their own, some relying on high-tech and low-tech "sensory experiences." The Bloods entertained not only statics, but other nomad groups as well; two of their longest and most profitable early stops were for those employed in the reconstructions of Los Angeles and Mexico City. They are also one of the few nomad groups to be allowed access to the Canadian market with its lucrative hard-currency corporate clientele. In the beginning, they relied as much as possible on the country's shattered rail system for travel. The circus had done so for many years, but it soon became evident that the rails no longer met their needs. Eventually they used the facilities at Disney World to construct huge trucks and air- ships to transport themselves across the Americas.

In 2008, as civilian control was reasserted in America, the Bloods were forced out of the Disney Complex. The Lazarus Group was hired to reclaim the Complex by interests owned in part by the Disney Corporation. As the troops massed on the western end of the area, the leaders of the Bloods hurriedly met to decide their action. The key point of the meeting was the brief speech by Malcolm Kent-Smith. He wept openly as he said, "There will be great death and suffering here if we choose to stay. Doubtless there will also be reprisals on our traveling elements, which are our best hope for survival. I believe we must take to the road, but should we choose to defend here, I wish to lead the first counterattack. My first loyalty will always be to the extended family of the Bloods, but I cannot bear to live if I must see us destroyed." These words sent the Bloods into a pure nomadic existence; they simply took whatever they felt was valuable, and left. (Lazarus' employers accused the mercenaries of avoiding a fight and letting the Bloods get away with the spoils. Lazarus spokesmen maintain that a protracted war through the massive underground systems integral to Disney World, EPCOT, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and the various resorts would have resulted in far more collateral damage than the losses incurred by Blood theft.)

The Bloods were not bitter or vindictive (with the exception of a few ex-Disney elements), because the Dixie region was not getting any better as a place to live. Services or infrastructure were failing without the support of the Disney Corporation, and they knew that even if they wanted to, they could not hold against a true military force.

The home-clan Bloods then returned to Miami, where they began construction of the Atlantis complex in cooperation with elements of the Aldecaldo Clan. They also sent large groups to travel abroad. They now control the largest traveling entertainments in the world, and have never looked back. Though they are the second youngest of the nomad groups - not becoming fully mobile until 2008 - they are doubtless better equipped than almost any other nation. After all, they had almost a decade of access to a sound base of operations and manufacture. Unfortunately, none of this would make the coming decade much easier. As the Bloods' first male leader in a generation, when Malcolm Kent-Smith succeeded Tina Blood-Johnson, he had a lot to live up to. There were increasing pressures from both the government and the economy that could result in the destruction of the Bloods, Malcolm himself, and the entire nomad community. Even the clan shamans said that the way ahead was cloudy and fraught with disaster.

Subgroups

 * Gargoyles