Victory Banner

The Victory Banner is a secretive, distant organization within the Eau Claire area; unlike the tribes of the area, The Banner is a fairly advanced civilization that has maintained and even improved upon pre-war technologies. Despite their relative advancement, the Victory Banner's progression is dependent upon a carefully orchestrated relationship between citizens, noblemen and peasantry; with the noblemen offering protection to the peasantry, whilst the citizens enact law and order upon them. In return for their safety, the peasants must work the land, raise their livestock and keep both citizens and nobles fed.

The Banner's primary holding is the mighty Victory Island, upon which the five baronies of the Banner each rule an individual building-fiefdom. Though the Banner is known to quarrel amongst themselves, it isn't rare for the barons to band together to fend off an outside threat.

## History

The Victory Banner traces its origins far into the past, before the bombs had fallen and the world turned to ash. The Victoria Society was a small, exclusive club of corporate allies and socialites; akin to a military alliance, but in the corporate world of old America. These executives, lawyers and scientists came together on the eponymous Victory Island, where each of them established their respective homes, five buildings from which they would run production, shipping, research and other processes by which each of them would line their pockets. Each member of the Victoria Society brought a different asset to the table and each was respected in his own right... What's more, the collective think-thank of the Society would come to the conclusion that America's escalation in the war against China would lead, solely, to nuclear holocaust.

It was their preemptive knowledge of the fate of the world that allowed the Victoria Society to live far into nuclear future of the world. In a combined effort, Strong Industries, Liberty Labs, Conquest Technologies and the Victoria Corporation formed a strategy by which they would avoid the holocaust; aside from making their respective buildings radiation-proof and capable of withstanding massive impacts and earthquakes, they planned an infallible method through which they intended to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles...

The Victoria Corporation's contribution came in the form of a shell company in Hong Kong, where VC drained information from the government through shrewd espionage; they gained inside knowledge of where the nukes pointed towards them were aimed at, specifically, then managed to uncover their launch points. With this information, Liberty Labs formed a trajectory, as well as carried out extensive calculations where they managed to pinpoint the exact point at which they could down the missile with a railgun designed by ConTech and assembled by Strong Industries. Unfortunately, however, both the Society and America had underestimated the sheer nuclear fury of China.

47.5% of the incoming nuclear death was destroyed by ConTech's railcannon; the remainder decimated the surrounding areas and left Eau Claire and the entire state of Wisconsin in total wasteland. The world had died and, though the Society had failed to save their small home, they would not drift away.

During the following years, the communities within each of the buildings was totally sealed off from one another; they communicated through cross-building intercoms and what few phone lines still worked... They intended on rebuilding the world around them. However, what once was is not so easily regained. Strife quickly hit them as the years continued, supplies dwindled, machinery became damaged; the guidance of the educated slowly gave way to the ignorance of the physically strong as the balance of power began to shift towards those that could commit to a violent way of life... Each of the corporations began to collapse in on themselves, succumbing to their basest instincts. Decades went by and the advanced buildings of the Victoria Society slowly became tribal warfields, where families slaughtered one another in the hopes of eating what few rations remained by the end of the first century.

Things seemed bleak for the Society; their intelligent way of life had been suppressed by the rotten savagery of their lessers and though the four families of the Society still persisted on the sealed-off and well-stocked upper levels of their respective buildings, it looked as though none of them would ever have the resources to tame the savages beneath them.

Then static broke the silence of an intercom meant to receive military messages and a voice came through; a voice belonging to a man named Leon Crass. This Crass spoke, calmly, to each of the corporate families that represented the pre-war organizations and, alongside him, they formulated a two-pronged assault that would not only free the four families, but break the backs of the dozen tribes that their former employees had formed. So it was. The House of Crass came from beyond the island and proved to all within that the outside was no longer poisonous; he laid siege to the savages and allowed each of the families to break free from their confines and, one by one, the buildings would fall beneath his control and each of the families was indebted to him.

After the families had been freed, each of them brought before Crass the banners of their respective corporations and swore fealty to him; thus was that Crass renamed the Victoria Society to the mighty military alliance known as the Victory Banner. With their facilities back in their hands, the families-- Each one with a Baron appointed by Crass, the Bannerlord-- began to rebuild their industries and though they would never be what they once were, they aided crass in arming and preparing his warriors for the future; the tribes would bend beneath the united banners and become the serfs and peasants of the Banner.

Years passed and the Victory Banner developed beyond what they were... Though they remain secretive, secluded and highly isolated, they occasionally sent heavily armed and well-trained Sentries into the wasteland, to acquire information, supplies, or otherwise. They established a system of citizenship, that would allow any of the serfs to rise above their circumstances and either join the military arm of the Banners or become a Bringer, a lawman who performed the duties of judge and executioner where he deemed fit. The executive families organized into several, smaller families: Banner Dukes, Counts and Barons. And now, they stand at the cusp of greatness and prepare to head into the wasteland, for better or worst.