Black Bands

The black bands are a political party featured in the videogame Dry Drowning and arguably the most important one within the political landscape of Nova Polemos. Their headquarters are located near Talon Square, in the first district.

## Overview (spoilers):

The party was founded in 2030 after the burst of the economic bubble and the consequential crisis. It sought to return the city to its original splendor by using the iron fist against anyone deemed socially useless. Their main target were the immigrants (both incoming and resident): the party's program advocated for closing the city's borders and forcefully expelling any "socially invalid" individual. These extremist and nostalgic ideals resonated strongly in a population strangled by a crumbling economy, resulting in people voting the party en masse in the upcoming elections in order to vent their frustration.

The result were the three most violent years the city's history ever witnessed, during which the police violently expelled more than 230.000 individuals deemed socially invalid and proceeded to slaughter anyone who tried to cross the borders once they were closed as planned in 2036. The biggest culprits of this massacre were eventually be put under arrest, forcing the party to take a much more moderate stance in the following decades. Moderation remains however a very relative term when discussing the Black Bands, given even at present times they would go as far as spreading misinformation for their own benefits (according to their sources for example, Nova Polemos can boast the lowest worldwide rate of suicides and mental breakdowns).

The party was also responsible for the introduction of the infamous Patterson test (somewhere between 2036 and 2046), whose alleged purpose is to determine the exact social worth of each individual.

Many members of the black bands would deport immigrants if they were allowed to and also take a liking in showing off their privileges in the attempt to boast their status and supposedly recall a golden age that never really existed. Support for the Black Bands appears to be widely spread throughout Nova Polemos: many minor characters (including police officers) take pride in showing it off and would even go as far as using two tier standards depending on whether or not their behavior would ultimately favor the party (this is for example why Mordred was able to access the crime scene so easily in Chapter 1). The vote that takes place at the end of the same Chapter gives a pretty clear idea of the magnitude of such support: although the ultimate outcome is directly determined by one of the player's choices, the party will manage to single handedly win either 48% or 75% of votes (in worst and best case scenario respectively), with oppositions finding themselves forced to coalize in a single block in order to even compete. In case of defeat riots will also break out in the city asking for a second vote (though it's very likely they were fomented by the Black Bands themselves).

The party adopts a rhetoric that continously references concepts such as family, unity, honor and respect while also using dark shades for their flyers in order to deceptively spread feelings of fear among the public. In light of these traits and strategies the party can easily be labeled as an ultraconservative one, though multiple thought schools exist within it (a trait that is also shared with many real political parties, expecially when they reach a considerable size). The party leader and most popular figure, Richard Baker, is considered an exponent of the moderate wing, while Loveless (the leader that replaces him in DeadBaker routes) is a radical extremist. It should be noted in this sense that by Baker's own admission his "moderate" stance stems merely from his refusal to use things like gender, religion or race as means of discrimination, implicitly implying that a quite significant portion of the Black Bands is openly racist in the most traditional sense of the term.

Political plots also seem to be a natural habit within the Black Bands: in Chapter 1 Anne Sherman assumes the reason Baker was arrested was due to his own colleagues trying to frame him in order to steal his place (she specifically mentions a certain Pierce and Finley, though these characters are later never mentioned again). Ironically enough, while Anne's allegations were a mere consequence of her own paranoia her suspicions were actually not completely unjustified, as the plan later set in motion by Julie Ward (together with David Casey) is more diabolic than even her worst fears.