Bandits

Bandits are not always criminally insane. Sometimes bandits are merely desperate people that have turned to horrific methods of making coin, providing for their families or trying to otherwise make a living. They are not always human or mutants either. At times, robots turn to banditry in an attempt to secure parts for themselves. Yet still there are those bandits who rob, pillage and rape simply for the sake of doing so. The criminally insane do not typically last long in the world as they are often too insane without enough sense of self-preservation. However there are times where they have just enough insanity and just enough self-preservation to become a truly dangerous threat.

The distinction between a Bandit and a Raider is extremely important to the denizens of the post-apocalyptic world as are the terms Smuggler and Desperado. While before the war these terms were almost entirely interchangeable they have become more and more descriptive of a particular set of reasons and a particular method of banditry.

Desperado is a term used to describe bandits whom became bandits for good reasons. These typically include escaped slaves from Demshrin who have no home to return to nor allies to assist them in becoming free people, the poor from the various city states who chose to fight rather than starve and various others. Desperados are typically not well fed, physically frail and are often not keen on fighting if they can avoid it. Usually they are reasonable people who have simply fallen on hard times.

Bandit, however, is a far more dangerous term. A bandit assumes criminal insanity or generalized blood lust. These individuals turned to banditry simply because of boredom or perhaps an instinctual need to kill. This term also describes highwaymen who are inexperienced or poorly equipped unlike the term Raider which assumes an individual is an exceptionally dangerous one typically armed with modern weaponry and with a decent skill to use said weaponry.

By contrast a Smuggler is no longer a term used to denote criminal activity but instead has become something more akin to a freedom fighter. Smugglers are typically traders though not always. They will smuggle food past highly restricted quarantine zones or besieged cities, run gauntlets through bandit controlled territories or otherwise make themselves useful and assist the downtrodden. There are smugglers whom are in it for the money as well as the fame but by large and far since smuggling is punishable by death and there are few areas where goods are normally prohibited most have good intentions.

The term Reaver however is whispered in hushed tones and brings visible fright to those who utter the word. Reavers are mostly mythos and legend in the city states but have been used to describe men who are so savage as to no longer be human. Reavers are also discussed by lawmen and bounty hunters whom have been to the far eastern wastelands and seen bandits that would not fall to merely a handful of bullets shot from a gun. These creatures are viewed as not only a problem like bandits are but a threat so great to society that they are hunted down and exterminated. Reavers wear no armor because they graft metal into their flesh in order to be stronger. Reavers carry few weapons because they instead prefer to get in close and carve their opponents apart with cleavers, spears, knives and their own bare hands. It is even rumored that Reavers will file their own teeth into points in order to make themselves more devastating in their bite. Unlike bandits, Reavers are always mutated to some degree and never appear truly human.