In the area of Quiet Hollows we have a number of Non-Player Character Factions that Live in the area. These factions will interact with the Players Character’s story in both positive and negative ways. The Players Characters who interact positively with a faction may earn Favor Tokens from that faction that may lead to the following benefits.

Faction Influence Tokens

1. One Faction Influence Token can be earned for a specific faction that was impacted by a mod

2. Faction Influence Tokens can also be earned from exceptional story. This requires employee approval.

3. Faction Influence can only be spent for story benefits, not mechanical. Spending it requires employee approval.

One example of spending Faction Influence could be: An NPC Group needs X resources. You call in the Faction Influence to have those resources sent to the NPC group. These items will never touch player inventory, but will instead directly impact the story. This isn't the only way to spend Faction Influence. If you can reasonably justify using your faction influence in an uncanny way to one of the employees, it could very well be approved to impact the stories we are telling each weekend.

Below are short summaries of the established factions in the Arkansas setting of Quiet Hollows/The Riverlands. This isn’t all there is to know, but is intended to give you a good feel for each faction’s flavor and goals, as well as ways to visually identify them.

This also isn’t all the factions, although we’ll update the page occasionally to make sure the information listed here grows as our story does. :)

ASPHALT SAINTS

• The faction originated in the Sequoia Wastes, and came to the Riverlands in order to connect the settlements of the two regions through a single connected roadway. Their presence in the town has caused trade west to be far more feasible and safer, resulting in an increase in merchant traffic through the area.

• The faction’s primary goals are to maintain the roads between the settlements of the Riverlands and the ‘Mother Road’ of Route 66. These individuals see their duty to be helping those found along the road from danger or hardships, as well as keeping unsavory types such as bandits or thieves from harassing those who travel the roadways. As all members are Sainthood, they believe that their first goal is to help those who are in need and work hard in the process.

• Asphalt Saints are all Sainthood, with the majority being Engineers of Hope while there are a few Pathfinders among them as well. These individuals seek to do what the Saints from VG do and maintain the safety and sanctity of the roads that are under their jurisdiction.

CULT of the skybreakers

• The faction exists to promote, uphold, and execute law and order in the wastelands. Their purpose is to act as self-appointed arbiters of the laws in any place they find themselves. They will administer punishments to the fullest extent of the law without any qualms of the morality of the situation, for the law cannot afford to be moral in their eyes. Will unerringly pursue lawbreakers across the wasteland to exact justice. If the group was to be assigned an alignment, it would fall under Lawful Neutral for though they will execute a law to the fullest, they do not actively seek to do more than the law requires.

• The Skybreakers are spread throughout the wasteland, typically in small squads of 5-10 members at most in a given area. They originated from the North, and this can be seen through the thick material and full length sleeves they favor even in the warmer months of spring and summer. As they’ve grown in numbers and strength they have spread ever further throughout the wastelands, bringing justice in their wake.

• Any strain though there is a large amount of Townies and Nomads present. Each member carries a representation of a silver star in some form. Command is based on more than just who is the strongest, but rather on who is able to command the respect and loyalty of their followers. As a result the capability in the field does not correlate to the rankings within the hierarchy.

Foundation for a Better Tomorrow

• It is a closed off community within the Riverlands that will trade with outsiders but will vehemently oppose anyone entering the compound itself. Their primary focus is to take care of themselves without the help of outsiders, but the cataclysm of the rad fires and geysers caused them to have to open their doors and begin dealing with the outside world again in order to survive.

• The Foundation for a Better Tomorrow started from a group of doomsday preppers and cultists. When the fall happened they were prepared, post fall they became more cultist and isolated. They made goods to sell and trade, selecting only a few settlements to trade with and never twice in a month. Finding faith within the Fallow Hope they named themselves The Foundation for a Better Tomorrow, hoping to help others and to outlive the disasters until the Better Tomorrow came. Many generations later they abandoned faith as it hadn’t led them anywhere and chose instead to shut their gates for good. 

• The Foundation is a known authoritarian group that used cult practices in order to train the minds of their members to a specific method of thinking. This was accomplished by instituting four methods of control targeted at each member’s Behavior, Thoughts, Information, and Emotions.

Iron Tusks

• This tribe of Natural Ones seeks to reclaim the land surrounding Crystal Creek, as much as can be carved out from the radiation hazards, so that they can return to their previous way of life. 

• When the townsfolk first came to Crystal Creek the Iron Tusks were at war with The Fenrir. The Fenrir attacked the townsfolk in order to try to scare them away from allying with the Iron Tusks. After a few months of digging it was discovered that a group known as the Ghoul Gang were paid to destroy Hope Settlement, the Fenrir village that this war was about. It was also discovered that a rogue Widowmaker had paid them off in order to start the conflict. 

• The Natural Ones of the area follow the teachings of Tribe of Seasons, and more specifically, that of Father Night and Mother Luna.

  “We believe in the small, vicious cycles of the day succumbing to the night and our solace and comfort is under the cool quiet of darkness and Father Night’s embrace. The night is our holiest of times and all gifts to Father Night and Mother Luna must be presented at that time.”

Moonbeam Cavalcade

• Moon Beam Cavalcade plans to learn everything about the world and how it works. They are willing to do almost anything to learn more and improve the wasteland. They lead research teams into different aspects and avenues of science, each pushing the limits of their technology. They believe pretty heavily that the more faithful you are the less scientific you are. They are opposed to the destruction of science, technology, and any form of research.

• Moon Beam Cavalcade was originally known as Moon Beam City. Moon Beam City was an oddball city in the wastelands, its government is decided by those who know the most about technology and science. Each year its members created tests for citizens to take and as they increase their knowledge their status in the city goes up. 

• Digitarians, Unstable, Irons with a smattering of others. MoonBeam Cavalcade is an oddball group in the wastelands, its government is decided by those who know the most about technology and science.

The Discarded

• Their goals are to carve out an existence in life, and adapt to life off of the Iron Prison. They have survived and are now looking for their purpose in life.

• After the fall of Spire Island Dr. Meredith Faizer was captured by the Iron Pikes, swept up in mass arrests as folks trickled out of Rosewood. Taken to the Iron Prison, Faizer had to learn to earn her keep in the prison. Knowledgeable in science, she found herself able to make improvements in the reactors, keeping them more stable, and helping keep the pulse of the decaying ship running. In this she found herself among those others wouldn’t touch. The Discarded were last to eat and first to be beaten both by guards and by the other factions. Faizer used her spare time to create gadgets to make life a little easier in the floating prison. A device that opened locks was the key to legitimizing the Discarded as a faction. With it they were able to fight back against stronger groups with late night raids into their blocks. They wore the name with fierce pride. 

• The Discarded is made up of mutants, primarily Tainted and Remnants, though some retros exist amongst the crew. Very few are currently of any religion, the small following of Darwins having dispersed with the absence of Dr. Faizer. They share a strong bond from living and working in the Iron prison, so even though some have some minorly opposing views they will band together against anyone who so much as besmirches one of their own.

The Iron Pikes

• The faction goal is the continued thriving of society in this hell. They view all criminals as those who need to be captured, tortured, and reformed in order to create a “better” wasteland. Only through suffering, and atonement can the lost be saved. They are focused on social justice and keep themselves unattached from the other factions in order to maintain neutrality. They are opposed to any and every injustice, but most especially forced labor that a person did not agree to or earn via criminal activities.

• The Iron Pike were originally a group of freed slaves that went by the name of The Iron Guard. This group of liberated Irons protected the borders of Crystal Creek in order to earn a place of their own.

• The Iron Pike have become overwhelmingly Final Knight in their faith, more specifically Shepherds of the Lost. They believe that those that break the laws of hell (criminals) have become tainted and only torture can purify them so that they can become pure sheep once again. Any criminal that gets taken to the Iron Prison suffers many punishments during their time until being released.

Three Daggers

• The faction is broken up into three distinct groups, each defined by their own “pillar” who is the Boss of that group. The faction’s goals are to exist in the wasteland by each of the three factions within the overarching group supporting one another to prevent disaster courtesy of other wasteland groups. This mutual protection is what keeps them together and working as one loosely cohesive unit. The caveat to this is that each group has an iron clad rule that they uphold, otherwise any member breaking said rule becomes exempt from the mutual protection and non aggression agreement. 

• The Three Daggers generally do not have allies, as they will always be paranoid of betrayal. As a result, the only factions that they do not have a negative relationship with are the Stormcallers and Widowmakers whom they are neutral with and will occasionally be hired by to do various jobs, and the War Party, who is their one real ally. Chaos calls to chaos after all.

• Mostly Vegasians, Retrogrades, and Solestros, the Three Daggers have no omnipresent religion among their ranks. The faction is now divided into the following three groups:

  • The Bandits

  • The Artists

  • The Thugs

The Stormcallers - Player faction

• The Stormcallers exist as a Tribe of Seasons cult that is modeled loosely around Norse themes and Crow Eater mentality. While not explicitly Crow Eaters themselves, they adhere to the major themes of the subsect, primarily that of hunting down heretics and leaving them as crow food.

• They were primarily traders when they first settled in the mountains, and got along well with the major factions in the area, those factions being Widowmakers, Fenrir, and Iron Tusks. This lasted until the Tusks and Fenrir went to war, during which the Stormcallers sheltered a group of Fenrir who unbeknownst to them had recently raided a Tusk encampment, killing innocents. When the Tusks came for the raiding crew, the Stormcallers wouldn’t give them over. Beyond that they chose to support neither faction during the war, focusing on keeping their own alive.

• Stormcallers are a moderately sized tribe who live in the mountains to the northwest of Quiet Hollows. Their mountain home is known as Hrok’s Ledge. The tribe is made up of mostly Ascensorites and Natural Ones, with a few exceptions including remnant children as well as a handful of others who have come to the tribe by means other than birth. Those who join this way typically have proved themselves in unique ways as there is no set precedent for the tribe to accept members not born into them.

The Widowmakers

• The Widowmakers all work towards the survival of the group, putting it above individual goals and above following any other laws or moral codes. This is the driving goal for all Widowmakers, and many will sacrifice their lives to preserve the safety of their whole.

• We. Will. Survive. All Widowmaker Lascarians follow this as their first basic principle. It reigns over any town laws that might be in place or made. Should a Lascarian on the surface be caught breaking the law of the land, they are on their own to defend themselves. Widowmaker Leadership won’t go out of its way to cause a stir with the topsiders. Individuals will be sacrificed for the good of the many if they prove to be rock grease.

• Widowmakers are almost exclusively Lascarian, although some very very few outsiders have earned their way into the Tribe. They have a symbol but not all wear it or keep it visible at all times. It’s fairly safe to assume that if you see a Lascarian in Crystal Creek - it’s a Widowmaker.

War Party

• The War Party’s main objective is to hear their music in battle. They feel that the larger the battle, the bigger the orchestra. They openly encourage direct conflict for this reason, and oppose peacemaking people and those that bar freedom from others.

• All members of The War Party are followers of the Kings Court, the cult of Dissonance. Most members are Tainted, though there are many DJs, NOAs, and Remnants among them. They are led by a group of Dissonance priests who are showing them the way. All members wear a symbol (TBD) to mark their true path. All members look prepared for war wearing armor and weapons, despite their sometimes tattered clothing.

• They roam the wastelands looking to join in other’s conflict. They generally do not create their own conflict for its own sake as it would taint the music they are looking to make. Their music requires the conflict of conviction, not conflict for conflict’s sake.
  
  
  

Wardens of Reason

• The purpose of this faction is to be a town-cooperative mixed strain faction (though many are Unborn due to faction history during their time as The Seekers) with a special interest in Anomalous (Aberrant) activity, aberrant-related plot support in the form of information and potential aid, a way to seed blueprints relating to combating aberrant threats of all types (critter, strain, zed, raider, environmental, etc.), potential antagonist to major and world affecting irresponsible use of aberrant skills (if the world is not responding, don’t send the Wardens. But if someone uses Master Necro to send a metric crap ton of fractures and diseases into the Grave and things get hairy, yes, they would respond with a warning once, then action if it persists). TO NOTE: THIS IS NOT A FACTION OF WITCH HUNTERS!

• The Wardens of Reason started off as a small group of special ops mercenaries for Psions. As time went on, they branched out and accumulated more members, losing the more rigid militaristic structure in favor of strong willed individuals inclined towards free and flexible thinking. 

• The Wardens are a mixed strain, mixed religion faction with the biggest unifier being the specialization on stopping anomalous threats. The bottle cap button with their insignia which signifies rank is the easiest way to spot a Warden and they all wear them in a prominent place. They are not here to act as judge, jury, and executioner to Aberrants, but they do see it as part of their duty to initiate admonishing conversations with strain who are using their abilities in such a way as to cause additional significant harm to those around them if no one else steps up to that job. They will help with anomalous threats, but will default to letting local leadership handle their people if the need arises. If the problem is left to fester and develops into a larger issue, the Wardens will still give begrudging help, but it will definitely affect their analysis of the town’s capabilities and how much help they are willing to provide. They are not keen to risk their people for others who blatantly ignore problems or their warnings. 

  
  

Financial Institution/Factions for Crystal Creek

TWIN SUNS

• This faction is a group of pirates that live free and specialize in transporting cargo along the coast and along the waterways of the Riverlands. While the Twin Suns are sailors they still consider themselves Piratical Merchants of the Riverlands. 

• They have a consistent feud with The Iron Pikes and The Skybreakers as their lawful authority brings them into conflict often. They also have negative relations with Three Daggers and The Stormcallers due to previous interacts and general attitude.

• Started off as mostly Rovers but has quickly become a multistrain faction. Many of them are Cult of the Many-Eyed God. They all wear a tattoo of an orange sun overlapped by a black sun. Mostly pirate clothes or clothes that would do well out in the sea. Nothing super fancy with lots of points that snag on rope or the ship but practical clothes. They are almost always willing to do a job if someone pays the right amount. 

TARBUCKS TRADING CO.

• Their purpose is to survive and make money, whichever way they can. They walk the line between honest/dishonest business, providing a grey area. Currently Big Red leads the motley crew of Tarbucks Trading Co.

• Once an island port, the denizens of this seedy settlement immediately took to the boats when the rad-ash reached their shores. Living on boats wasn’t a very different lifestyle than they’d had before, but with no permanent port to call home, and their leader missing in action after The War, it wasn’t long before people turned on each other to make ends meet. After months of bared teeth and drawn weapons, treachery decayed into mild distrust, and eventually bred an ‘honor among thieves’ ideal.

• Saltwise, Baywalkers. No dominant faith presence. Denizens sometimes wear a short length of rope around their torso like a sash to identify their own, though this is going out style in favor of a red feather. Sometimes you can see a mixture of both as internal politics can get messy and alliances can shift with the current atmosphere.

THE Order of the GUIDING HAND

• They are a sub-sect of the Sainthood of the Ashes, created in order to teach the ever increasing number of new survivors (New players) how to survive the wasteland.

• They are allied with the Postal Workers and tend to get along well with the other groups except Final Knights, who they believe are misguided and need to be taught the correct ways to survive in the wasteland. They try to stay out of town politics but are willing to trade goods with many different groups as long as those groups work towards the greater good of the wastelands.

• They are mostly Rovers, and Nation of Accensor, but they do not turn away others that may wish to work towards a greater goal. They are all Sainthood, and commonly wear a patch identifying themselves and tend to have white and blue scarves regardless of strain. They are polite but firm to those they view as a threat. They have created the Blue Bird program for Crystal Creek in hopes of getting their presence known by the wastes. Since the great war The Guiding Hand has become a trading partner with large groups around the wastes. 

coleman trading caravan

• The Colemans exist to give the LCs a positive and friendly faction to engage with. A group that they can trust to be fair and reliable when they are called upon. They refuse to make a judgment about another person or group based on the rumors that they hear, instead preferring to make their own judgment based upon their personal experiences.

• The Colemans are an old mining family who travels the Riverlands in order to bring news and resources to those in need. They see a lot of different lifestyles and perspectives throughout their travels, and they use the connections they are able to establish through their travels to establish themselves as a neutral faction that thrives on the information economy and helping people. The Colemans became a prominent group in relation to Crystal Creek due to their strong stances against forced labor and belief that everyone deserves personal freedom.

• Rovers are the only official strain of the caravan, though there are no restrictions on what other strains may be present in their ranks as they do not discriminate against anyone who is in need. They hold the townspeople of Crystal Creek and Quiet Hollows in high regard due to their resilience in all that they have had to fight off and overcome in order to build a lasting settlement. They are easily identifiable with the pink and grey scarf.

THE Regal FAMILIES

• The Regal Families compile of a combination of Pure Blood Families in the Riverlands. For reasons of their own, they’ve united under the banner of The Regal Families.

• The Dillards, the only influential family surviving The War, gathered up the families of Crystal Creek and now, through the bonds of marriage, they travel as one big family empire. To show their unity they all wear a cool brooch. 

  • The McAdams family is an old-money family that is refined and used to a plush lifestyle and the advantages that come with it.

  • The Kirkpatrick are shrewd managers, moneylenders, and innovators. Focused on regaining what they had, they will seek every opportunity to rebuild their empire.

  • The Morgan family, while not brutes, definitely lack the genteel polish of the others. They are well-versed in the arts of negotiation and business but they always exude a slight undertone of physical menace.

  • The Hilton family are a recent addition to the faction, having failed to go it alone. They are known for being very community oriented and focusing on trade with ‘good’ people. Of the Regal Families, they are the best at negotiation when necessary. As a family they are all of the faith Nuclear Family, specifically Valued Host, and consider all employees as members of their family.

  • The Dillards are the leaders of the group and will often refer to ‘adopting’ the others after The War. They are also old-money and refined, but also keen and opportunistic for ways to improve their standing and situation.

Wanton Waverider Entertainment

• The faction doesn’t have any set goals other than survive, make money, and have fun doing it!

• All common strains are represented, and the sex workers come in all genders, (innuendo intentional.) There is a significant Hedon presence among the crew, and TV and Kings Court also have a decent representation. Members typically have a crew tattoo.

• They are allies with anyone who will do business, and especially like working with farmers, because they’re always in need of herbs.