Bandits of The Setlaar

## **Summary**

Outlaws and marauders exist in every society, those who reject the rule of law and seek to carve out their own place in the world. Some do so honorably, escaping from the confines of civilization but not good principles, living in peace. The beastly men colloquially and generally titled Bandits in the lands of the Setlaar confederacy however, are far from honorable. Whatever their specific approach and eccentricities, their lifestyle is one revolving around theft and murder, preying on more innocent lives that seek a life outside the borders of the states, or even raiding into shallow lands inside the cities themselves.

Every Bandit mass is led by a Warlord of some stripe or another, with the pack of murderers at their command known as Hordes, which can number from a few dozen to hundreds of fighters. Often the best way of neutralizing a Horde, short of complete annihilation, is to take out their Warlord. These leaders tend to be smarter and stronger than their subordinates, able to keep them in line and heading in a general direction, but without their command a Horde is likely to fall to infighting and eventually scatter to be picked off by mercenaries and bounty hunters.

While every Bandit gang has its own way of operating, both civilians and peacekeeping authorities tend to categorize them into the following groups according to similar MOs and aesthetics.

## **Saws**

Named after the late, infamous Bandit leader Sawbelly, these savages could be argued as the quintessential Bandits. Filthy, vicious, and with barely an ounce of humanity among them. While captives of other types of Bandits are far from a comfortable fate, it's often better to save the last bullet for oneself when capture by Saw Bandits becomes inevitable; these sadistic creatures delight in torture and violation of the body and mind, drawing out each and every horrific moment. Saws tend to be created by psychopathic leaders with a savage sort of charisma, who seek to create their own little empires in the untamed spaces outside of the protection of cities known as the Wildlands, where they feel free to indulge in every vicious desire and live as bloody tyrants. Of course, few volunteer to join such rabbles, and Warlords of these kinds of Hordes often send raiding parties after settlements or even on short, violent jaunts into the cities to capture victims to be hauled back to their camps. Once arrived, these poor souls are subject to mindbreaking torture that tears them down to their animal instincts, which are then sharpened into savage bloodthirst and hedonism by cruel taskmasters. Such a regimen results in 'warriors' that are difficult to control, but terrifying to combat, fighting with utter disregard for their own lives and delighting in every pound of flesh they can carve from the Warlord's enemies.

The insanity of Saw Bandits makes it difficult for them to survive any length of time in any environment other than the open spaces of the Wildlands, and they tend to form marauding caravans that travel in 'patrols' within their territory, moving in huge circles and branching out occasionally to pick at nearby settlements and cities. Such convoys make use of somewhat ramshackle vehicles and equipment, the instability of their operators making it difficult to keep them properly maintained. Some smaller gangs with slightly more put-together 'membership' can be found in the sewers and slums of cities bordering the Wildlands, kidnapping citizens and converting them into recruits, with the Haris Patrol occasionally delving into their turf to cut a swath through their ranks to reach and take out their Warlord; such efforts are always bloody and sometimes unsuccessful.

Theme: Djinn by Celladoor: https://youtu.be/sx\_kxtsu1xE

## **Nagas**

Not all Bandits in the Wildlands seek to torture and kill without aim beyond sadistic pleasures. Some, like the Hordes named after the legendary Warlord Nobunaga from Silent City, seek instead to make their own sort of civilization outside of the Setlaar. Always headed by ambitious and even at-times idealistic leaders, the fault of Nagas comes in their interactions with those outside of their self-made kingdoms. The Alinibal Court of the Setlaar did not suffer rivals, and neither does the Ministry now, so those heading out with the specific goal in mind of creating their own powers in the Wildlands tend to be cut off from trade with the cities, pressured by the Ministry's influence. Rather than starting from scratch, Naga Warlords instead prefer to raid other settlements and cities near the border, stealing what they refuse to make themselves, and capturing strong, healthy men and women to be bred at their makeshift fiefdoms to create new generations of fighters. These Bandits often are more organized than others, utilizing proper tactics and even wide-scale strategies if they become sizeable enough. At the very least, Nagas tend to treat their captives with a primitive honor, only resorting to torture when captives refuse to comply, and even then prefer to not maim or otherwise prevent their prospective breeders from creating healthy children.

Of all Bandits, Nagas are the most sedentary, carving out miniature empires in the Wildlands and protecting their turf ferociously from any intruders. Those with ingenuity and access to mages can even create their own infrastructure, constructing magitek water pumps and power stations to keep their attempts at civilization alive. Staying in one place gives them time and room to create fortresses out in the wilds which the Setlaar Armed Forces have to occasionally knock over to stop raids or allow the expansion of Setlaar territory. But powered by idealism and ambition as they are, Nagas have a knack for dissolving and then reforming elsewhere, even under the same leader if they survive, and thus long-lived Naga Warlords are the biggest thorns in the Ministry's side in the Wildlands.

Theme: Hell March (C&C: Red Alert OST) by Frank Klepacki: https://youtu.be/e3YzmjmAGoI

## **Engineers**

If there's one thing the Setlaar are known for in all of Chronus, it is their advanced technology leaps and bounds beyond most other civilizations on the planet. Whether the conveniences of everyday life, medical care, the military, or media, tech has a place in all of it. Even their outlaws tend to be more advanced than Eteran or Siacron counterparts, most especially the ones known as Engineers. Taking the title from the old AI Bandit Warlord creatively known as The Engineer, these successors are entire Hordes of mad scientists and their cronies, using the isolation of the Wildlands to fulfill their scientific fantasies and the vulnerability of settlements to ensure a plentiful supply of test subjects and spare parts. The prospect of capture by Engineers is a complete crapshoot, with some even coming out better for the experience, in a way at least. It's up to random chance whether the scientists and mechanics of Engineer Hordes will use their captures to test some virulent new disease cooked up in a makeshift lab or as a subject to try out their newest super-serum cobbled together from native plantlife and junk that somehow proves effective through sheer luck and a surprising amount of ingenuity. Indeed, rumors are abound of some useful technologies having roots in the darkened laboratories of Engineers, the results of their experiments captured by agents of the old Alinibal Court or simply brought back to civilization with their creators when they tire of their work and return to the cities, blissfully ignorant of the prices on their heads.

Occupying a middleground between the insanity of Saws and the dedicated ambition of Nagas, Engineers are never entirely sound of mind, but the atrocities they commit are more born out of ignorance and scientific obsession than any real malice, especially their Warlords who tend to be scientists of genius proportions with a matching supply of delusion and just enough charisma and self-discipline to gather their cabal of peers and miscreant assistants into something workable. Engineer Hordes are often organized into a top-level of 'academics' served by henchmen and enforcers numbering from dozens to hundreds, who do most of the fighting and actual work of keeping their masters fed and supplied with a steady stream of test subjects, chemicals, and parts to aid in their inventing and experimenting. The academics don't take to the field often, but when they do they prove to be the most dangerous of Bandits, wielding powerful weapons and gear capable of wiping out squads of Haris Patrolmen or SAF troopers with ease.

Theme: Nuclear Mutation by Cheshyre: https://youtu.be/fwNgFQbXHTw

## **Notorius Bandit Hordes**

Some Bandit groups outshine others in the minds of the Setlaar, and elude destruction from the SAF or Operators for a variety of reasons. Below are a few of the more infamous collectives of outlaws and general scum.

### Lords of Salem

In the Wildlands of Dom reigns a trio of great power, more akin to cult leaders than simple Warlords. The Lords of Salem consist of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, masters of archery, melee combat, and wizardry respectively, who time and again refuse to lay down and die when the Setlaar Armed Forces or even Operator squads invade their hideouts and seemingly wipe them out to a man, only for the Lords to rise again years or even months later. For nearly a century the Lords of Salem have haunted Dom, behaving in the matter of Naga Hordes, establishing bases and surrounding outposts to lure in prospective recruits with promises of power, and kidnapping those that resist their call.

Rumors are abound regarding their origins and goals, but the most solid lead extracted from the rare LoS captives speaks of the trio attempting to ascend to godhood and slay the local pantheon of the Gods of Chronus in order to reign supreme and unchallenged throughout the world. Despite this lofty ambition, their habit of being struck down time and again, even if they somehow keep reviving, has protected them from any overly wrathful response from the gods, save bands of paladins joining military units in suppressing the cult.

Still, SAF tacticians will quietly admit that every time the hunt for the LoS comes, the cult proves harder and harder to uproot, with military losses growing greater with every conflict...

Theme: Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZiMm5YUy4

### Thunderdrinkers

An infamous and powerful pirate fleet that patrols the waters of the Anpil Peyi island chain, the Thunderdrinkers are the biggest Saw Bandit Horde still in existence, and perhaps even surpassing the Sawbelly Horde that inspired their category. SAF estimates put them at a fleet size of between 55 to 70 vessels, including raid boats, battleships, and even naval carriers, with personnel in the thousands. Unlike most Saw Hordes, the Thunderdrinkers are surprisingly organized and have been observed to actively maintain and upgrade their ships when they can. The only reason they haven't been categorized as Naga Bandits is from their savage behavior towards any they come across, killing most and looting their ships before press-ganging any survivors onto their 'recruitment ships' to be tortured and broken until they can be remolded into new Thunderdrinkers.

The Horde gets its name from the strange concoction they obsess over, which they fittingly dub 'Thunder'. The exact mix is unknown, but analysis of captured samples by even the most powerful tools fails to reveal what exactly it is about Thunder that gives its drinkers suicidal confidence and a bloodthirsty rage while allowing them to keep their wits about them, at least enough to operate their ships. The Thunderdrinker Warlord is a mysterious individual the 'drinkers call 'Captain Blood' or ' Old Red-Eye'. Little is known about Captain Blood, only that he eternally scours the waves of Anpil Peyi for a great sea-beast that apparently caused him great tragedy, and that the entire Thunderdrinker operation may be born of his desire to once and for all hunt down and destroy the monster.

Rumors once told of deals made between members of the Alinibal Court and Old Red-Eye, paying him or protecting him from being found by Operator teams in exchange for acting as a privateer against their rivals, attacking plantations and stealing or destroying their luxury crops. As part of High Ministers Bosu and Hekko's rise to power and tarring of the old Court, records confirming these rumors were released to great public outrage. With the Thunderdrinkers' source of protection cut, they may now be easier to quell, but it's possible the monster the Court created has now grown to the point of independence. Time will tell if the Ministry of Confederation can put down these savages, but so far they've had little luck in the endeavor.