Siberian Cossacks

The Siberian Cossacks are a group semi-nomadic people who inhabit the Siberian Wastes and northern China after the Great War. Cossack bandits are widely known in post-War Asia for attacking remnants of the People’s Republic of China and its allies.
==Background==
Long before the Great War, the Cossacks were groups of semi-nomadic people that primarily lived in eastern Ukraine and Russia. They lived under a variety of different governments, often exchanging military service for limited degrees of independence. After the rise of the Soviet Union in the early 1900s, the Cossack identity in communist countries was largely abolished under the brutal Stalinist regime.
Some Cossacks fled Russia to other countries to preserve their identity, and one notable group fled to Canada in the 1920s. Offered farming land by the Government of Canada, they sought to retain their culture in the Canadian prairies. Alongside farming and herding, these Canadian Cossacks formed the Albertan Free Cossacks, a troupe of performers that toured North America and Europe to both hold onto their traditions and advertise their cultural pride to the world. They were widely successful, with multiple world tours and became a major act in the Calgary Stampede.
===Return to Russia===
After the Annexation of Canada and preparation for the Yangtze Campaign, the American counterattack onto the Chinese mainland, militaristic and nationalistic Canadian Cossacks were approached by the United States to return to their homeland in exchange for causing havoc in northern China. Those who accepted formed the Siberian Cossack Host, based out of the anarchic land of southern Siberia and Mongolia that had largely slipped from the Soviet Union’s control as the communist nation stagnated in the 21st century. Officially unrecognized by the United States but funded and armed heavily by its military, the Cossacks launched surprise raids that kept Chinese forces occupied in the north and kept some pressure off of the American advance.
===The Great War===
After the Great War devastated most life throughout the globe, surviving members of the Siberian Cossack Host founded villages around Lake Baikal. They returned to their semi-nomadic way of life, eventually attracting native Buryats, Sakhas, Mongols, Red Army deserters, and other wanderers of the Siberian Wastes. Others later came to settle Lake Baikal for its supply of clean water, offering supplies to the Cossacks in exchange for their protection.General Administration of Press and Publication database
A few years after the Great War, the Siberian Cossacks led a surprise raid against Chinese military remnants in a conflict that would become known as the Battle of the Red Steppe. On the Chinese-Russian border in China’s territory of Mongolia, a detachment of the Chinese border guard had maintained allegiance to Chinese government remnants despite the apocalypse. Ordered to defend against any potential Cossack attack on Beijing, the under supplied garrison maintained a defensive line while their provisions and materiel were whittled away by bandit attacks. In truth the Cossacks originally had no plans to attack through Mongolia, but it was the weakness of the border garrison established to defend against them that inspired the Cossacks to attack in the first place. The Cossacks stormed from Lake Baikal across the border to Mongolia, encountering the Chinese garrison on the eastern Eurasian Steppe. No match for the Cossacks trained for warfare in these very environments, the border force was annihilated.Siberian trader: That, my good friend, is a genuine Type 114 sniper rifle... used in the very Battle of the Red Steppe! You see, before armageddon the Cossacks used lots of captured Chinese weapons, and they had little workshops to handcraft the ammunition for ‘em.”Abel: “Interesting, but I really need to…”Siberian trader: “Even after the apocalypse, the Cossacks launched another raid against those damn Chinese remnants. Now, those remnants were out of supplies and had lots of weapons, but little ammunition. So the Cossacks swooped in, slaughtered the ammunition-less lot, and took their weapons back home where they could make new bullets for ‘em! They even…”
 The name of the conflict and later name for the battlefield came from a legend told among the Cossacks that the steppes remain red to the present day from the blood slipped during the battle.Cossack scout: “I heard the Chinese have a different story than us for why they call it the ‘Red Steppe.’ Say it's where a group of their bravest Red Border Guard bravely fought against the 'Cossack hordes,' so they renamed the steppe in their honor. Funny joke, eh?”
==Society==
A nomadic society, some Siberian Cossacks can be found hunting and fishing around their settlements at Lake Baikal and the Angara River. Others set up temporary camps in Mongolia and northern China to raid remnants of the People's Republic and their allies. As the original Siberian Cossacks descended from those who lived in North America for over a century before returning to Russia, many know English and pepper their speech with North American slang. All Cossacks are expected to be experienced in horseback riding and the handling of weapons including firearms, with training often starting as early as 4 years old. Most are experts in hunting and fishing, while others participate in the raiding of anyone in Siberia and northern China they are not allied to, especially those still loyal to remnants of the People’s Republic of China.
Cossack society is democratic, they follow an elected leader called an ataman who dictates the general direction of the group and solves disputes within it. Every year the people of Lake Baikal and other allies of the Siberian Cossacks meet in Novykutsk for the Siberian Stampede, a festival of food, alcohol, and competitions. They compete against each other in events of horse riding, marksmanship, and other skills.
==Relations with the outside==
While the Cossacks fiercely maintain their independence, they work with the other factions of Lake Baikal for mutual defense. Local villages and communes often trade with them in exchange for their legendary fighting skills to supplement militias and as soldiers-for-hire. Other groups skirmish with them over territory and resources.
===Red Banner Bandits===
The Red Banners are a group of vaguely communist horse-riding marauders who have traded hunting, fishing, and agriculture for the raiding of anyone not protected by the Siberian Cossacks. Descended from deserters of a Red Army cavalry detachment, they tout Soviet symbology and phrases but have largely forgotten the ways of communism. In the past they fought with the Cossacks, but for now a relative peace has been made and they often attend the Siberian Stampede. They trade the spoils of their banditry with the people of Lake Baikal for anything they can’t acquire through raiding.
===Siberian Free Communes===
The Siberian Free Communes are a collection of loosely-aligned villages and settlements who follow different interpretations of anarchism. Their largest settlement of Novykutsk, built in the ruins of Irkutsk, is a major trading hub for the people of Siberia. They are extremely ethnically diverse although most can trace their heritage to native Buryats in some way.
===Tsarsynov’ya===
The Tsarsynov’ya, or the Tsar's Sons, are another group of raiders. They worship Tsar Nicholas II, the last reigning Emperor of Russia as the second coming of Christ and blame communists for both the decline of Russia as well as the Great War itself. They exclusively raid settlements and military forces that are still part of, allied to, or descendants of communist powers. They have frequent and often bloody clashes with the Red Banner Bandits, and compete in the Siberian Stampede to prove their superiority to the communist raiders.
===Sakha villages===
The most northern of Siberia's people, the Sakha villages are a northern people who occasionally come south to Lake Baikal for trading. Renowned for their skills of self-sufficiency and living off of the land, the Sakha are largely hunters, fishers, reindeer herders, and horse riders.
==Equipment and technology==
The technology of the Cossacks varies greatly, from pre-War equipment to that crafted after the apocalypse. Many still use surplus American military equipment alongside captured Chinese materiel, and a rare few still wield the plasma war glaives given to their ancestors by the United States to fight China. Most necessities that can't be scavenged by Cossacks are produced by them directly. As Cossacks are expected to supply their own uniforms, families make and maintain most clothing that they wear.
==Behind the scenes==
*The Siberian Cossacks are based on the faction of the same name that would have appeared in the cancelled game Fallout: Extreme.
*This article was made for the wiki's Fallout Fanfiction Writing Competition 8.
Category:Faction
Category:Post-War Factions
Category:Competitions
==References==
Category:China