Seven Nations

In America 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 the Snake Nation, while the smallest is a nomad-owned corporation: MetaCorp. Found between these two extremes are the Blood Nation, the Folk Nation, the Jodes, the Thelas Nation, and the Aldecaldos.

The Seven Nations were formed by a series of unofficial treaties and conferences across America, 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 that late fall period.

Nomad Vs Gang Culture
There are many parallels between gang culture in 2020 and nomad culture (having 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 Tribes are descendant of pre-Collapse. gang structures) the nomads avoid angering the gangs. During jobs the nomad tribes even employ some gangs in tertiary capacities (sometimes even straight payoffs of goods or services).

Cyberpunk 2077
The Aldecaldos and the Raffen Shiv are the only two nomad nations confirmed for Cyberpunk 2077

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.

The Snake Nation was created in response to the formation of the other six nations. As these larger groups began to influence and affect both nomad and static communities, the smaller nomad groups realized that to advocate their (ofttimes differing) views, they had to solidify as well. The Snake is the most loosely organized of the Seven Nations; their philosophy is clearly shown by their Revolutionary-era-inspired flag. On a field of red is the white likeness of a sectioned snake. When apart these sections are seemingly benign, but joined together, they can strike their enemies. The Snake Nation motto is simple, "Don't Tread On Me:'

The Snake Nation's ranks are the most diverse of all the nations, and they have no set base of expertise upon which they base their economy. Unlike the Bloods with their circuses and the Metas with their marine construction, the Snake Nation is an aggregation of families involved in all areas of the nomad economy. In the last two years, the Snakes have invested a great deal of effort towards acquiring larger and more lucrative construction and salvage jobs. There were Snake Nation packs involved in the construction of the TransCon Maglev, Balsam City, and the ConAg projects in Kansas, thereby building for themselves a solid base of experience, as well. It has become a policy among those of the Snake Nation that they must improve their marketability versus the well-rounded crews sent by other nations to these types of projects. The Snakes are not happy about how this competition has shaken out in the past. The nation's current leader is Freddie Douglas. Freddie came from a Mormon family out of the Utah desert He is not amused by the power games that other groups play, and he would much prefer a world where he did not have to deal with other nations and could instead return to the simple life of an independent nomad. As a leader, Mr. Douglas is relatively inexperienced-he's only been a nomad for about a decade- but he was chosen for this post because of his stability and willingness to work with outsiders. His counsel has been good, and many value his opinion and respect his achievements even if they don't like him personally.

The 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.

Life was harsh during this period for the people who would become the Jodes. They wanted nothing more than to rest a while, gather some food, and spend the coming autumn in relative peace. There was enough food to be gathered (if one knew where to look), and the families had to prepare for the crossing of the Rocky Mountains. The locals, however, were not pleased with the influx of hungry strangers. One evening, a few hundred locals mounted a raid to scatter these new refugees.

The farmers and townies that made up the travelers were no different from the farmers and townies who were coming to kill them. They were private people who kept to themselves and wanted no trouble, but they were also prepared if trouble came. Most of these families had basic hunting or protective arms of some sort, and since each understood that other people in America were in as bad a shape as they were, most groups of families had posted sentries. When the attackers struck in the night, they did not have the easy victory they had hoped for; the poorly planned raid fell apart rapidly, and the evening degenerated into a series of disjointed fire fights across the Colorado countryside. Nevertheless, surprise and concentration of firepower worked to the advantage of the raiders, and they withdrew without many casualties.

This unwarranted attack enraged the travelers, for over four hundred of their people were killed during the night The next day, Malachi, a man of God (or so it is told), came up with the idea that each family should send a representative to council. The representative should not be the most capable member of the family, whom he said should stay on watch in case the attackers returned, but someone trusted by all. That morning, one hundred and twenty refugees sat in council. Malachi, by virtue of having had the idea, chaired the meeting. All of them were tired, he said. They still had a long way to go to get to California, and yet what would they do once they arrived? He had heard of people who had lost their homes and livelihoods, as they had, forming a coalition to do jobs for the government-salvage work, irrigation projects, things many of them had done at home. He talked about defending themselves, protecting their children, and the hard winter to come. Malachi asked the representative to speak their minds on the issues at hand. Each, being men and women of few words, spoke succinctly. After about four hours it was clear that everyone present was in accord.

All wanted protection for their families, revenge on their attackers, and the freedom to leave this potential coalition when they felt the time was right Malachi replied that all their fears and wants were well-founded, and that they could meet these adversities together by signing a partnership. Great ideas should always be put to paper, he said; the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution were written down for all to see. No one is sure who wrote the original version of the Compact; its origin is fast becoming a matter of folklore and legend. The wording is generally attributed to Malachi Jode, but he denies it But the agreement they signed the next day was simple, and was the basis and inspiration for the current Nomad Code town to repay the locals for their malicious attack, despite Malachi's objections to revenge. They did not plot an overt slaughter, as had been attempted on them. Rather, they planned to steal from the town their livelihood, leaving them without the resources to live through the winter. It did not go that way.
 * Protect your family first, then protect the Clan.
 * Steal nothing from the others in the Clan.
 * Hoard nothing that could benefit others in the Clan.

The town was a farming community of about two thousand. During the night, the nomads crept in and ransacked all the farms, stores, and homes they could reach. Several of the nomads got out of hand and killed for spite or vengeance, some raped and burned, and some kidnapped young men or women as was their taste. Of course, alert townsfolk fired on the nomads. After a few hours, events degenerated into total chaos. By morning, the nomads had killed a third of the populace, kidnapped many others, and looted everything of value from the town.

Malachi was furious, as were many of the other nomads. They realized that whatever law still existed would be looking for them soon, perhaps with the remnants of the National Guard. They did all they could considering the circumstances: they ran.

A week later, the Earthquake of '98 stripped Los Angeles of its status as a land of milk and honey. Initially, this distressed the nomads, but the more level-headed among them realized there might be work for them there, so they camped in a remote area and sent emissaries to speak with the authorities. As it turned out, the Jodes beat out two more experienced groups for the Los Angeles rebuilding contract, at that time the most lucrative deal that nomads had landed. In order to maintain good relations, the Jodes took the lion's share of the work, but let the more experienced Aldecaldo clan supervise the project and recruit additional labor as needed.

The Jodes worked hard and prospered in LA. After that contract ended, they moved into the Northwest, tilling burnt-out forest into fields. Some stayed in California working other construction jobs, and some joined their nomad brethren on the TransCon Maglev. In every field of endeavor, the Jodes have continued to prosper.

Despite this, the clan was shunned for a time by the rest of the nomads. Their roots were very different from most early nomads, and their ready acceptance of strangers made them suspect Many of the other clans felt the Jodes would become another gang, and make life more difficult for the rest of them. All of these fears turned out to be unfounded, but it took years For the Jodes to prove it to the rest of the nomads.

The name Yode" was not something that was adopted by the clan themselves, it was a reference to the Okies in the Steinbeck classic, The Gropes Of Wrath. First used in a CNN news-blurb in early 1998, the term was a general reference to the dispossessed of the dust bowls of that year, but with the clan's high profile in the rebuilding of LA, the name soon became synonymous with that particular group of nomads. After a while, some members co-opted the name for signing legal documents. The first was Malachi, who signed the name "Jode" on the contract with the City of Los Angeles. There are still debates whether his doing so was a prescient move or a tongue-in-cheek social statement.

Unlike other nomad groups, the Jodes have worked actively to reject the culture of the statics, and are very uncomfortable in what they perceive as "static" situations. Jode encampments are never found within the limits of a city. Many former superstitions have gained religious importance with the clan: the ghosts of the cw, the spirits of the open road, the zeitgeist, fear of imprisonment, and many more beliefs now shape their world view.

The 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.

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 mish-mash of Caribbean, African-American, and Cuban/South American cultures -they were battle-hardened survivors and they had a faith.

The Bloods today are so far removed from their gang- land 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, Barnum & Bailey Circus has long been known as "The Greatest Show On Earth." Once head- quartered 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 travelling entertainments of the new millenni- um. 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 travelling 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 counter- attack. 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/MGM 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 travelling 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 will make the coming decade much easier. As the Bloods' first male leader in a generation, Malcolm Kent- Smith has a lot to live up to. There is increasing pressure from both the government and the economy-pressure that could result in the destruction of the Bloods, Malcolm himself, and the entire nomad community. Even the clan shamans say that the way ahead is cloudy and fraught with disaster.

The Meta (AKA 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 Narn-but Jonathan Meta remembered.

Jonathan Meta was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1960. He had a relatively happy childhood until 1969, when the full weight of the anti-war movement came to his home town. In 1970, his uncle (also named Jonathan) died in Vet Nam. The funeral was a sorrowful thing, while outside, demonstrators waved banners calling Jon's uncle a baby-killer and worse. Jon was unable to understand how the protesters could hate his uncle and his family when they did not even know them. Above all, he could not understand how the people could be so cruel when his uncle had received the Congressional Medal Of Honor. He had been honorable and loyal and had saved dozens of people, yet the demonstrators threw tomatoes and rocks at the casket.

From that day, Jon vowed that he, too, would be a soldier. Being the nephew of a Medal of Honor winner opened a lot of doors, and at age fifteen he entered West Point The stigma of the Vet Nam War had not worn off, and it was not a good time to be in the Army, but Jonathan Meta persevered. He graduated well up in his class. Jon's career becomes sketchy around 1984, and what is known is part true and part conjecture. Jonathan Meta's military records, like so much else, were completely destroyed in the Collapse. Even the hard copies were lost in his case, and this has allowed him a great deal of latitude in later life. After serving as a platoon commander in an armored division and earning a masters' degree in Electrical Engineering at Texas AM, he disappeared into the bowels of the newly formed RDF (soon to be called Central Command) where his activities are completely unknown. He was seen in various surprising places, and even filmed at some public appearances carrying the "football" for the President. (This key position involves transporting the access codes and transmitter for launching America's nuclear missiles.) At the beginning of the first Central American conflicts, he disappeared again, this time apparently into the jungles of South America with the newly formed Eleventh Special Forces. He is also rumored to have been a member of the Rangers, Delta Force, the PITMAN Project, the Medellin Drug Cartel, Disney Corporation, and the Dallas Cowboys- most of which is probably untrue.

In 2008, when the civilians "redesigned the Federal Government, Jonathan Meta did not exist He was not aware of it until the Second SouthAm War ended in 2011. There was much to be done -equipment had to be moved, reassigned, given away- and then there were the people. There were a lot of Americans in the area, and many would not go home with the troops. Jonathan Meta, the one the military still had records of, had died in Vet Nam, so, like almost two million others, Jon was simply denied transportation to the United States. Under normal circumstances, he could have gotten it all straightened out in the end, he being a general and all. Unfortunately, he was the commanding officer of a unit that did not officially exist, in a Special Forces Group that did not officially exist, in a war that did not officially exist.

Some time in late 2011, an angry Meta left the American Command at San Jose, Costa Rica, and with the aid of several hundred men hijacked three C-5B Galaxy aircraft to the Port of Panama. There they met up with several thousand more Americans who had been cast adrift, and, with bluster and clever planning, grabbed anything that could float, including the remains of a carrier battlegroup and three offshore drilling plat- forms off the Panamanian Coast Later that year, they declared independence as a sovereign nation, and boasted the threat of nuclear weapons to make refusal to recognize them inadvisable. Now, these moves were not as spontaneous as they seem. All of the original board of directors for MetaCorp were angry men who had again fought in a war, only to be shunned by their fellow citizens. The conduct of their fellow officers who had been running America under martial law also sickened them. They refused to be a part of this society unless accepted on equal terms -separate from their corrupt brothers and sisters. However, declaring independence was not on the original gameplan. All they really wanted was a way home (which the ships finally provided) and to be left alone, but by then, the military wanted them all dead, so there was no way back. Counting on the billions in hardware they took with them, they instead founded MetaCorp as a security and mariime construction firm.

By the end of 2013, MetaCorp was involved in construction of Atlantis Phase II and New Galveston. They used the prof- its from their other jobs, including their growing security division, to construct MetaKey. The Key was completed early in 2020, and opened to the public with great success. MetaKey is a mobile island-city, freely owned by MetaCorp, and has no national laws to deal with. Everything except murder and slavery is legal, almost every major corporation has an office there, and security is fairly enforced. It is Hong Kong, Rio, and Zurich all in one, sitting in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the things that made MetaKey possible was Meta's development of the JackSuit Whether the original research was done under US Army funding or not, MetaCorp built the first working ACPA unit in the world, then sold the patents (with a ninety-nine year leaseback for corporate use) to Militech in 207. One of the reasons that there is so little police trouble on MetaKey is that the police are only allowed minimal cyberware. All of MetaKey's law enforcement is taken care of by lightly-augmented officers (who must pass rigorous psychological screenings) or by ACPA Tactical Units, working in triplets.

All this would lead many to see the Meta as anything but a nation, had it not been for The Troubles: Between 2012 and 2015 there were considerable stresses within the nomad community: an increase in competition and a resulting decrease of available work, the transition to a civilian government who wanted taxes from nomads, and the integration of survivors from the Long Walk The Meta supported those who made the Long Walk from the beginning. They air-dropped supplies and water when they could-after all, they had just been in the same bind-and they provided air cover against the bandit attacks which the Government said "never occurred." The Meta have actively sought to subcontract employment to other clans, including hiring outside help for MetaKey. In the seven years since their independence, the Meta have funneled over three billion dollars into the nomad economy, and this has forced others to accept them as a nation.

The 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 Ametica's inner cities. There was rampant drug dealing, prostitution, gang activity, theft, arson, and all species of violence. The only thing missing was hope.

Los Angeles was not just where they made movies, it was also what they made movies about The movies were about cops and gangs, the rich and famous, and the city that made the movies. They still have not made a film about Juan Aldecaldo and with everything that has happened, they never will. Juan's story begins before that, before the quake took so much of LA. into the sea.

Juan started life as a migrant He had a stable home life, and received a decent education in the California school system. He went to College, the first of his family to do so, and received a engineering degree. From there, he entered the defense industry and tried to raise his family as best he could. There never would have been a story had things not changed.

The defense industry took numerous hits in the two decades before the Collapse. A lack of war and a lack of budget forced much of the industry to down-size, putting Juan out of work Much of the extended Aldecaldo family depended on Juan, and he did what he could to help them; taking a job in a grocery to ward off collectors, selling his home to buy enough food. In spite of his efforts, the family spiraled downward into cheaper neighborhoods, again and again, until they were living in the city's worst slum. He implored his son and his daughter to remain in school and escape their bleak future. His daughter, Maria, was killed in a car accident the day before her seven-tenth birthday. His son Ramon, greatly distressed by his sister's death, eventually dropped out of school. He started seeing a Filipino girl who was a member of the Red Dogs gang, and eventually he became a member as well. Ramon was shot to death in a so-called robbery/homicide on his nineteenth birthday. His father was only a few blocks away when it happened. The police and of course the ever-present media were at the scene. No one knows what the newsmen said to Juan Aldecaldo, but his reply was replayed on television screens all across America.

"There is no place for you here! I want to see the surveillance camera tapes! Do you even have the sense to look? what are you people, jackals and vultures who make your living off of the poor victims of this country? My son was a good boy -you tell your audience that He was a good boy with a good family in hard times. If we had been able to send him to school he would have been a great man, not like you and your cameras, a good man. All he wanted was for his mother not to be threatened. For his family to have a nice house. Who of you has such lofty goals? you are as bad as the police. They come here and fill out their reports. They say they will do 'all they can' to find the killers of my son and they lie! In 2002, the Padre died of a heart attack in his sleep. Juan struggled on alone, leading the family as best he could, and the Aldecaldos continued to prosper and grow under his guidance. He began seeking a successor as he grew older, though none would be found for a long time. Elders argued for an election, but Juan wanted no part of politics; he knew any type of internal competition would eventually ruin the family. Just before the Mexico City re-development contract was signed, Juan Aldecaldo suffered a heart attack, and though it set him back personally, he pushed the family forward.

The years in Mexico City were good for the Clan. Juan's health improved, and the family had time to consolidate and re- equip themselves. Though grisly in the beginning, Mexico City proved to be very lucrative as well. When the walkers came across Mexico, they received help from the Aldecaldos, and assistance moving on to other nomad families if they wanted it The Government was not happy with the Aldecaldos' actions, and they tried to prevent the clan from coming back over the border. There were too many nomads, though, and not enough border guards.

When the Aldecaldo Clan returned to the US. in 2015, they brought a few extras with them. They brought the body of Juan Aldecaldo, to be buried near his wife and children in Los Angeles. They brought a new group of nomads, fresh from the Long Walk, and bitter about the way they had been treated. They also brought back America's favorite Rockerboy, Johnny Silverhand, who had been hiding with them for most of two years. Their most telling change, however, was a new leader: a man named Santiago. Born in Los Angeles, raised in the Clan, and tempered by dealings with the Long Walk, the charismatic Santiago was appointed leader at Juan's deathbed. For many years he was sim- ply Santiago -but now he was Santiago Aldecaldo.

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.

The pirates derived their culture from fishermen and the coastal inhabitants of the Caribbean and the southern seaboard. When they were being plagued by waterborne gangs (or worse, government forces), and the central authorities could not or would not protect them, many loaded their families into boats and took to life on the water. It seemed to make sense: boats were difficult to locate for government agents and gang members alike, and finding work was easier because you could bring your whole home to wherever it was. Other cultural influences included so-called "boat-people" of many different persuasions, who were refused emigration and had no choice but life on the sea; as well as the former drug smugglers who now had many high-quality boats and nothing to do with them.

The label of pirates was originally applied because some nomad captains refused to register their ships and boats to any home-port or nation. Under old international law, this makes such a vessel a pirate which can be stopped, boarded, and confiscated by any navy. At one time, the navies of the world were strong enough to prevent such unregistered shipping, now they are relatively powerless. America had one of the largest navies, and even a Coast Guard at one time, but they have never had the manpower or the resources to scan all the waterways in North America. Controlling even the Mississippi Delta region is practically impossible.

Thus, once these pirate nomads got started, the idea spread rapidly. More and more discontented people along navigable waters took to the nearest boats, hoping to hook up with other waterborne wanderers. Soon they numbered in the thousands; and were present all along the Mississippi, Missouri, Saint Lawrence, and Columbia rivers, as well as the Great Lakes and all the coastal areas of the North American continent Since the Collapse, many of these pirates have even co-opted a number of former drilling platforms and formed mobile marine cities, moving from place to place to build coastal projects like New Galveston and Tampa on the Gulf Of Mexico. Today, nobody knows just how many of these nomads there are. Theirs is the most mobile of major nomad lifestyles-the aerial nomads are perhaps more mobile, but they number a mere few hundred.

The typical sea nomad is a crewman on a small, versatile ship with both motor and sail. The crew of a nomad ship is very close-knit, coeducational and egalitarian. They have a captain, but he only takes unquestioned command in times of emergency. At other times, the quartermaster is the actual boss of the ship. Most other officers are either specialists (i.e., the navigator, the medtech, the engineering techies) or are "in reserve" in case the person they're understudying dies or leaves the ship. This, combined with the fact that many of these pirates are families, can make the command structure quite confusing to outsiders.

Sea nomads work at a variety of jobs both for hire or for personal gain. These pursuits range from marine farming and other aquaculture, to smuggling, legitimate cargo hauling, refugee transport, and broadcasting. Certainly broadcasting was not a field that pirates had sought but it became one of their most profitable sidelines. Some media concerns hire off-shore transmitters for legal, grey market or even illegal programming. Continuing this noble tradition, places like Del Rio, Texas (which is actually in north Mexico) have been broadcasting news and entertainment not subject to government or corporate control for years. Most of this broadcasting is from international waters, but pirate trans- missions can originate from almost anywhere in the nomad community. This is an effective way to break local and government monopolies on information; any retaliation falls on expendable dinghies, and further action by the targeted government usually involves it in disagreements with other governments and corps at least as strong as they are. The nomads themselves like this work; it requires minimal manpower and can often be done in tandem with other activities, and best of all, it appeals to their anti-authoritarian nature.

Some sea nomads do practice traditional piracy. Targeting vulnerable freighters, they learn what cargo the ship is carrying via shore-based connections, and mass to attack at a point where their target ship is forced to slow down. Disabling the ship's communications with a well-aimed anti-aircraft or anti-tank rocket they swarm and board before the opposing crewmen can stop them. When the ship is looted (at least of the particular cargo the nomads wanted), it is let go. Unless they meet unusually fierce resistance, nomads will not kill the crew of pirated ships, preferring to let them go to spread the word that non- resistance pays. The freighter crews themselves understand this, and do not usually wish to give their lives for a cargo they don't even own. The nomads then dispose of their loot ashore, often through the offices of the same corporation that set them on the scent of a rival's shipment.

Most of these "pirates'; however, are actually subsistence level fishermen who feel they have no choice but to steal anything that they can sell to help make ends meet For the most part (excepting the waterborne Raffen Shiv), they stay away from slave trading and kidnapping. Media portrayals to the contrary, a pirate action normally does not involve boarding actions and never includes swinging onto the decks from mysteriously~suspended ropes. Pirating involves stealing small cargoes, or parts of large cargoes, from poorly guarded ships in the night It also involves smuggling, blockade running, and other forms of tariff evasion.

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.

Originating in the Chicago area, the Folk Nation had a very strong sense of family and unity from the very beginning. Many of the people who became involved with them were cast out from their more traditional family structures. When referring to the Folk as a nascent "black" culture, we are speaking more of the sociological sense. The Folk adopted the common urban dialect of English that was favored in the black community at the time. They affected all elements of that urban culture including music, fashion, views on drug use and habits, child-rearing, and community.

It was disconcerting to people, at the time, to see people descended from other ethnic cultures casting off their native cultures in favor of this new way. To the members, it just seemed a good way to be. They had made a conscious decision, somewhere in their lives, to leave the cultures they felt had abandoned them, and try something different.

By the beginning of the Collapse, the Folk Nation con- trolled over fifty-thousand active members. There were easily another fifty-thousand affiliates and hangers-on. As the worst of the Collapse descended, the Folk wisely kept to themselves. They dug in and chose to fight only those baffles necessary for their survival. Although elements of the Folk had engaged in widespread criminal activity, as things got worse they simply made surviving martial law - and helping others survive it - their overriding concern. A large black-market distribution net- work was run from their headquarters in Chicago. The Folk evacuated their members out of dust-bowl areas like Oklahoma City, and took all the others they could transport as well.

In return, they asked only for favors and help - they under- stood that people had nothing to give them but promises. Through that network of favors owed they were able to survive fate's worst blow: the Chicago Bioplague of 2012. The Folk Nation was decapitated by that tragedy. Most of the upper leadership was in Chicago, and once the crisis began, the Army let no one out Out of the ashes of that disaster came Cool and the rebirth of the Folk Nation as a nomad group.

Cool was a leader in the Kansas City area. He had done some fairly large scale transportation and smuggling operations in the past, and saw in transport the ability to survive. In his opinion, remaining in one place was to tempt fate to strike the Folk Nation again with a different cataclysm. Urging other surviving leaders to get on the move, he sent emissaries to some of the other nomad groups to look for work, finding it in places like Balsam, NC, and Stateline, CA. Continuing to rebuild the country after the destruction of Chicago, Cool feels strongly about the nomad community as a whole and has accepted many of the Long Walk refugees, especially those originally from the Midwest This cemented his reputation among many nomads, and caused others to send work his way as thanks.

The Folk are primarily interested in transportation as a business. There is a large nautical element within the Folk, since they had previously done a good deal of business on the Great Lakes. They became a major nation because of their strong allegiance to the concept of family and responsibility. As a result, the illegal businesses that the Folk used to run are closed now. Still, some state governments are moving against their grey-market dealings as well, such as the sale of medical supplies.

From the beginning, the Folk have been strong supporters of any plans to rebuild Chicago. They feel the Chicago area would be an excellent base for a nationwide transportation net- work- Many of them are also tired of moving and want to settle somewhere; a second compelling reason for support of the Chicago project Not only can they base a legitimate business there, the nation can also appropriate housing and real estate for their families. This makes the Folk Nation the only nomad nation that would prefer to return to being statics.

The Raffen Shiv
The Raffen are the most hated nomads. Even among the normally permissive nomad society, these people are considered subhuman. The Raffen Shiv (the name is a derivation of several colloquial contractions and pejoratives) are scavengers and sociopaths who prey on the innocent and the weak in nomad tribes - they are generally found in places beyond the reach of the law - and the rest of American culture. They are outcasts, renegades, and betrayers. They steal from, kill, or enslave any whom they can trap.

It is inevitable that any society will have its outcasts, and the Raffen are that and more. Probably the largest of the Raffen groups are the Wraiths. This group travels mostly at night and preys on the sleeping and unwary. It is hard to believe that there are any unwary left in this age, but the Wraiths, and the other Raffen, show no signs of weakening. Many of the smaller Raffen groups have given up on the open road, opting instead to move into cities, terrorize them for a few weeks, and then move on.

Raffen are indistinguishable in appearance from any other booster. They affect chrome 'ware and are usually well armed and armored. Their vehicles appear more combat-oriented than the average nomad. Some are total cyberpsychotics; Dogkiller, the leader of the Wraiths, is rumored to wear clothing made of human skin.

The Raffen culture is oppressive. Stronger members are physically abusive to weaker ones, either for cause or sport Weaker members or hangers- on are called "bitch" and sometimes traded like cattle. The Raffen are thoroughly repulsive to all but the most hardened cyberpunks. Nomads dispatch dog-soldiers and war parties to eliminate them wherever they are encountered. At the same time, the Raffen are sometimes cultivated by the corporations. They will do any job, no matter how dirty or heinous, and usually for a lower price than any other mercenary group. Of course, arranging meetings for negotiation and payment is occasionally difficult.

Reference
WINN, R. Neo Tribes. 1st ed. Berkeley CA: R. Talsorian Games, 1994