Blades

The Blades are a group of survivalists led by a woman named Razor, living in a pre-War nightclub in the Boneyard north of Adytum.
==Background==
The Blades are one of three groups that formed when the Los Angeles Vault opened, taking their name from a derelict nightclub they took over and the Blades-brand razors advertised on its walls.PRO SCEN.MSG (Fallout): "{89301}{}{An advertisement for Blades-brand razor blades.}" They share common roots with both Adytum and the Regulators of all things.Lorraine: "{156}{}{Lots of people lived here. From what I hear, the survivors hid in a big place called a Vault, and came out years later. Some of them started the Regulators and then founded Adytum, while the }{157}{}{others formed the Blades. The Gun Runners aren't from here originally.}"(LORRIAN.MSG) The Blades clashed with the Rippers gang early in their history, and used to be as violent as them, but the years-long war with the RippersLoxley: "{260}{LOX_85}{They're the scrapheads down in the Boneyard. They've been fighting for years, and they don't even know what for anymore. Bloody stupid it is.}"(LOXLEY.MSG)Note: Tested this appears in the game. and the Regulators that established their control over Adytum left them weak and disorganized.Loxley: "{259}{LOX_84}{Need to be a bit careful there. The Rippers and the Blades like to carve you up just for fun. While the town there, Adytum, just tries to stay alive. If you find yourself traipsing around there and happen on the Blades, make sure to say cheers to Razor for me. Thinking of her brings back memories, it does.}"(LOXLEY.MSG)Note: Tested this appears in the game. In recent years, Razor, a former member of the Circle of Thieves of the Hub, settled in the Boneyard and asumed leadership over the Blades.Loxley: "{261}{LOX_86}{Oh, what a woman! She used to be a thief here, until she decided to move down south to the Boneyard. Last I heard she joined up with the Blades. Ah, well, brains weren't her strongest part.}"(LOXLEY.MSG)Note: Tested this appears in the game.
She arrived in the middle of 2161, and did her best to bring order to chaos, but her efforts were hampered by Adytum and especially its Regulators. Their regular raids prevented the Blades from rallying, and provided Adytum with a steady supply of what basically amounted to slave laborers.Razor: "{105}{}{Razor's the name. I'm the closest thing we have to a leader.}"Vault Dweller: "{106}{}{So you are the leader of this gang?}"Razor: "{110}{}{Gang? We're hardly a gang. But I am the leader here.}"{111}{}{If you're not a gang, then what are you?}"Razor: "{122}{}{We are just people tryin' to survive. Adytum put us in this position. They keep us down and use our friends and families like animals. We don't even have a way to defend ourselves.}" Regulator raids were a monthly occurrence, and they typically dragged off adult males to put them to work.MacRae: "{122}{}{I was thinkin the Deathclaws were the spawn of an unnatural act, but 'em Regulators are evil. Come once a month or so and they shows their ugly faces and drag a father away from is wee ones.}" Any resistance was punished with summary execution - and sometimes the Regulators would kill a couple Blades, so that they could bring their corpses to Jon Zimmerman as proof that the Blades tried to raid the town. In fact, the Regulators didn't even spare Jason Zimmerman, the mayor's son: Josh lived with the Blades and was aware what was going on, but was caught when he tried to sneak back into Adytum to inform his father.Razor: "{137}{}{The Regulators . They are the ones that really run Adytum. Not Zimmerman. They come here and drag our people back to Adytum as slaves. They kill us when we try to fight them off. Sometimes they just come and kill a couple of us to bring to Zimmerman , so they can say we tried to break into their town, or some other ridiculous story. Those sons of bitches even killed Zimmerman's son!}"Vault Dweller: "{138}{}{Zimmerman's son? Why would the they want to kill him?}"Razor: "{143}{}{Josh lived here with me... a... I...I mean us. He knew the truth behind what was going on. The Regulators told him if he ever tried to contact his father or return to Adytum that they would kill him.}"
Vault Dweller: "{144}{}{They killed him? What did he do?}"Razor: "{146}{}{Late one night he tried to sneak into town to tell his father what was really going on. I was monitoring the Regulators radio transmissions the night that .. they.. he got ...caught. [She looks down and shakes her head slowly.] Here, it's all on this holodisk.}"Vault Dweller: "{147}{}{Why haven't you given this to Josh's Father?}"Razor: "{148}{}{It's not like any of us can even get close to Adytum. We'd be shot dead before we even reached the gates.}"{167}{}{Zimmerman sent me.}"Razor: "{170}{}{(Looking a little nervous) What? Did he...}"Vault Dweller: "{172}{}{To pay you back for killing his son.}"Razor: "{173}{}{WHAT!!! THOSE FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT BASTARDS! I"LL KILL THEM, I"LL SEND THEM ALL TO HELL!!}"Vault Dweller: "{175}{}{Uh...who are you going to send to hell?}"Razor: "{176}{}{... the Regulators. They were the ones that killed Josh! I never would do any thing to hurt Josh. It's the Regulators who are running Adytum, not Zimmerman.}" Caleb, the leader of the Regulators, ordered his underlings to kill Jason in a particularly grisly fashion, and pinned the crime on the Blades.Regulator transmission 
The event traumatized the mayor, and led him to fully believe that the Blades were, in fact, ruthless and bloodthirsty.Jon Zimmerman: "{113}{}{Good, then you know how ruthless and bloodthirsty they can be. The Blades are the worst of them all, I'm afraid. We're a humble, god fearing town that is only trying to survive, and these . . . these . . . monsters . . . prey on us . . . [He whispers under his breath] and our children . . .}"(JON.MSG) The biggest obstacle in the way of dealing with the Regulators was the fact that the Blades couldn't defend themselves.Vault Dweller: "{112}{}{Well, you look like a gang to me.}"Razor: "{127}{}{I wish we were a gang. At least then we'd have decent weapons to defend our selves with.}" The only non-Adytum source of weapons in the Boneyard were the Gun Runners, separated by the so-called Deathclaw Playground from the Blades. The Regulators deliberately did not clear the lizards out, to keep the Blades in check.Razor: "{134}{}{We need better weapons. The Gun Runners, a little ways from here, have weapons, but we can't get to them.}"Vault Dweller: "{135}{}{Why can't you?}"Razor: "{140}{}{There's a Death Claw nest between us and them. We have never even spoken with any of the Gun Runners. The Regulators have the fire power to clear out the Death Claws, but they don't for some reason.}"
The Blades were resigned to living at the whim of the Regulators,Razor: "{227}{}{The name is Razor, I am the leader of the people you see here. We live here at the whim of the Regulators of Adytum.}" hoping to one day gain the means of defending themselves.Razor: "{184}{}{I'm not so sure it would help without the threat of violence to back it up. What we really need are some weapons from the Gun Runners.}" The rest of the Boneyard was largely unaware of the situation, believing that the Blades were a sorry sight, and could simply agree to what the Regulators were offering.Sammael: "{123}{}{The Blades.}"(...){129}{}{The Blades are a pretty sorry sight for a group of people. They get by though, and some of them end up here in Adytum if they agree to what the Regulators offer them to do.}"(SAMMAEL.MSG)Katja: "{1159}{}{They're a group of cast-offs who live outside of Adytum.}"(KATJA.MSG)
==Organization==
The Blades are largely anarchic, with Razor helping them with self-organization and keeping track of things in the meantime.Christine (Blades): "{109}{}{Razor keeps track of most things with the Blades, and helps us organize ourselves.}"(BYCHRIS.MSG) She is a recent arrival, and MacRae, a pugilist of Scottish extraction that started teaching the Blades how to fend against the Regulators and deathclaws, is an even more recent arrival.Michael (Blades): "{109}{}{I'm Michael. My wife, Christine, and I live here as Blades and help with what we can.}"{110}{}{It is not as bad as it seems. The Regulators and the Deathclaws can cause problems, but our leader, Razor, has helped us a great deal over the past months. And more recently, MacRae has been showing us how to protect ourselves better.}"(BYMIKE.MSG) Together, they've attempted to teach the fundamentally good people of the Blades how to get by and survive in the vicious environment of the Boneyard.MacRae: "{127}{}{A good group of people is what the Blades are. Stuck ere between the damn Regulators and the Deathclaws ain't meant the happiest life for em, but they survive.}"
==Relations with the outside==
Apart from Razor and MacRae, the Blades are generally at the bottom of the Angels' Boneyard food chain. The Regulators despise them and treat them as little more than slave stock,Caleb: "{118}{}{Yah, I guess. You got the Blades up north, a pretty pathetic herd of people, and the Gun Runners a little north and a ways to the east through the DeathClaw Playground.}"(CALEB.MSG) while the rest of Adytum is hostile to them, believing that they actually killed Jason and are just waiting for an opportunity to raid and raze the city to the ground. 
==Interactions==
The player can resolve the Blades-Adytum conflict in several ways:
* Get weapons for the Blades: This approach requires wiping out the deathclaws separating the Blades from the Gun Runners. In return, the Vault Dweller can request that the Runners supply Blades with the weapons necessary to attack Adytum and overthrow the Regulators. This segues into Free Adytum from the Regulators, which is a large-scale battle for the town.
** The player can also attack the Regulators on their own, and wiping them out will count as freeing Adytum. 
* If confronted about killing Jason, Razor will give the player the Regulator transmission holodisk, which can be delivered to Zimmerman. Having the mayor listen to the proof in the presence of Regulators predictably causes the Regulators to turn hostile and attack, killing the mayor in the process.
* Kill Razor: Alternatively, the player can receive the task to kill Razor and decapitate the only chance the Blades have at survival, from either Jon Zimmerman or Caleb.
==Technology==
The Blades are largely reliant on primitive melee weapons and whatever they can scrounge up in the derelict Boneyard to survive. However, if they receive weapons from the Gun Runners, the Blades suddenly gain access to polymer combat armor and high-end weapons, such as the plasma rifle, making them the most well-armed force in the Boneyard area. Coupled with control over Adytum, they are poised for taking control of the Boneyard - if the Vault Dweller sides with them.Get weapons for the BladesFree Adytum from the Regulators
==Appearances==
The Blades appear only in the original Fallout, though a sign similar to the one from their hideout appears in Fallout 2 on a building in Klamath.
==Behind the scenes==
* The Blades were much different in the original design for the Boneyard. Rather than a passive group of survivors preyed on by the Regulators, the Blades were one of the five gangs of the city (Blades, Rippers, Followers, Gun Runners, Children of the Cathedral, with the paranoid Adytum in the middle). The story arc for the Boneyard would have included ending the gang wars and bringing peace to the area, by slaughtering the Rippers and securing a ceasefire between the Blades and Adytum. There would also be miscellaneous quests associated with the Blades, such as a Fallout version of Romeo and Juliet, except with a happy ending.Deliver Locket for Romero
** In this iteration, the Blades were a martial gang with 27 membersVault13.gam engaged in a bitter battle with the Rippers for control over downtown Boneyard, turning much of the ruined city into a battlefield.Nicole: "{226}{Nic_42}{Well, the Boneyard is pretty scarce as you can see. Adytum is to the west. The Children of the Cathedral are to the north. I wouldn't advise going too far south into the city, though, the Rippers and the Blades have made it into a battlefield.}" While more reasonable than the Rippers, they were known to kill people just for fun. Their leader, Razor, was a Hubbian and a former associate of Loxley.Loxley: "{259}{LOX_84}{Need to be a bit careful there. The Rippers and the Blades like to carve you up just for fun. While the town there, Adytum, just tries to stay alive. If you find yourself traipsing around there and happen on the Blades, make sure to say cheers to Razor for me. Thinking of her brings back memories, it does.}" She turned the Blades into a fierce family, and a "singularly dangerous group" renowned for their stealth skills, organization, and smarts.Tell-Me-Abouts: "# FOLLOWERS OF THE APOCALYPSE
(...)# Info level 3 [People who know more than something but less than everything](...){18804}{}{The Blades}(...){18904}{}{A singularly dangerous group living to the east, who fight with vibro-knives. Their leader, Razor, came from the Hub and molded them into a fierce family.}" 
** The signature weapon of the Blades was the vibro-knife, and they were manufacturing these weapons themselves (much to the jealousy of the Gun Runners), supplementing their arsenal with firearms.Tell-Me-Abouts: "# GUN RUNNERS#Info Level 1 [People who know nothing](...){28604}{}{The Blades}(...){28704}{}{Sneaky gang to the east.}(...)# Info Level 2 [People who know something](...){28804}{}{The Blades}(...){28904}{}{They always use those weird vibro-knives that they make. I'd like to get my hands on one. But at least they buy some guns, too.}(...){29004}{}{The Blades}(...){29104}{}{They've converted several small buildings to the southeast into their home. They are pretty well organized and smarter than the Rippers. They sometimes let outsiders join, too. Their leader, Razor, is one tough woman.}"
** Finally, the Blades had many more characters. Razor was their leader, but they also included:
*** Fire, the second in command, mainly keeping Razor going straight.FIRE.MSG The player would be able to secure peace between the Blades and Adytum by slaughtering the Rippers for the Blades.SCRIPTS.LST (Fallout): "Razor.int ; Razor, leader of the Blades # local_vars=8
Blade.int ; Generic Blades from the Boneyard # local_vars=10
Fire.int ; Fire, second in command of the Blades # local_vars=8
Beca.int ; Beca and Jade. Quartermistress of the Blades # local_vars=8
Dolgan.int ; Dolgan, the weaponmaster from the Blades # local_vars=8
Michelle.int ; Michelle, leader of the scouts for the Blades # local_vars=8
Dragon.int ; Dragon, Night watchman for the Blades # local_vars=8"
*** Beca and Jade, quartermistresses looking after the sleeping quarters of the Blades. Once the player joined, they'd be able to rest there.BECA.MSG
*** Dolgan, the weaponmaster, who could teach the Vault Dweller some melee weapon skills.
*** Michelle, leader of the scouts. She would primarily redirect the player to Razor and strongly suggest the player become a Blade.MICHELLE.MSG
*** Dragon, the night watchman.DRAGON.MSG
*** Named rank-and-file members were Books, Scars, Gunner, and Twitch. They would be difficult to tell apart.DOLGAN.MSG: "{106}{}{You think that might be Books.}{107}{}{You think that might be Scars.}{108}{}{You think that might be Gunner.}{109}{}{You think that might be Twitch.}{110}{}{You think that might be Hammer.}"''
* The headquarters of the Blades is adorned with statues which appear to represent the mythical Atlas.Statues seen on Blades HQ in the Angel's Boneyard
==References==
Category:Fallout factions
Category:Boneyard
de:Blades
es:Navajas
pl:Ostrza
pt:Blades
ru:Клинки (банда)
Category:New California factions