The Gatormen

### Current leader(s)

Lizard (Crash Afterthought) - Chieftain/Leader, Newt (Burn Afterthought) - Warmonger/Second-in-command

## Overview

The Gatormen are an old tribe in New Orleans, hailing to pre-war heritage. They are specialists with reptile husbandry and they know the ways of the land, the terrors of the swamps, and the minds of their beasts. The Gatormen are fierce, but loyal to one another, and savage to those who infringe on the borders of their territory, but kind to the beasts that they raise and protect.

## History

### Origins

The first Gatormen were twenty park rangers belonging to the Gator Hollow, a National park and Wildlife Preserve. They spent their days protecting the local wildlife from poachers, and helping tourists and visitors understand the need for natural conservation. When the bombs fell, many of the rangers had no homes outside of the park, and with the roads closed, a vast quantity of visitors and nearby civilians came to take shelter from the fallout in the well protected ranger stations that dotted the territory. For weeks, the skies were dark, and many thought the worst had come– the world had ended.

### Surviving after the war

For years, the people who had taken shelter with the rangers and their wards stayed within the high fences of the park, until a hardy group of early wasteland hunters came upon it and began to hunt the gators and other wildlife for food. The rangers and their new human wards held their duty to their chest and the poachers were shot and killed.

Supplies were running short, and with over one hundred souls living in the park, to feed and protect, a venerable old ranger knew what had to be done. He ordered the poachers butchered, and eaten. The situation was grimly accepted by most of the Gatormen, and the meat did not go to spoil. He then gathered a group of younger rangers, and they tracked back the path of the poachers, to a settlement on the edge of the Ward. The Rangers wore armor made of the rough hide of deceased gators, and used their rifles and spears to slaughter the settlement in the night, hauling back bodies and whatever food, weapons and supplies they could. With this first raid, the Gatormen took the first steps towards becoming the tribals they would eventually be known to be.

### The years that followed

As one hundred years passed, and the original Rangers all died off, their names became the names of paragons to the tribals who came after – idols, ancestral chieftains. A strong ideology of ancestor worship came about, as the tribal Gatormen rose in strength and savagery, all in the names of dead pre-war men and women. Rumors  came to spread about the wastes of Louisiana that a tribe of lizard-skin wearing savages was kidnapping women and children to expand their numbers, and by the time that it was confirmed, the Gator Hollow park had become a small village, fortified and well defended, from which raids would appear.

### Present day

Today, the Gatormen are feared by local settlements outside of the walls of the Ward, for their ferocity and their habits of dragging off people – be it for recruitment, slavery, or the stew pot. Even worse, stories tell of Gatorclaws emerging from the park, goaded to vile acts by Gatormen handlers, but who knows if these stories are true or not.

## Faction structure

The structure within the Gatormen group resembles that of a family or a tribe, more than a band of criminals. Many of the members are born into the tribe, and have a natural place within it. However, any outsiders who choose to join are treated as fully fledged members once they have proved themselves through trials. The Gatormen keep no ranks or levels of authority, save that the Chieftain and his Warmonger lead the group, and that captives being held answer to any tribe member. Tribe members instead have different roles within the group, all equally important to their survival. A sense of 'Respect Your Elders' is deeply ingrained in the tribe's customs.