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The NCR-Raiders War is an ongoing conflict between the military forces of the New California Republic from New California and the wasteland's various raider tribes, focused around the West Coast of the former United States of America.
Background[]
Shady Sands[]
Since the founding of the original town of Shady Sands by refugees from Vault 15 in 2098, its people had to face constant threats from not only the wild fauna inhabiting the wasteland like radscorpions but also threats from other groups, these being the tribes of raiders infesting the outer reaches of the surrounding landscape. At the time, the three greatest tribes were the Khans, the Vipers, and the Jackals.
Jackals[]
Descended from the refugees who left Vault 15 in 2097, the Jackals had no greater ambition than one thing: survival. Despite their reliance on group tactics to overwhelm their enemies, they never picked on bigger targets unless they believed they could achieve victory. By the 2160s, however, the tribe had been forced to flee to the fringes after their neighboring rivals, the Khans fought against them and won around three decades prior.[Non-game 1][1]
By 2281, the tribe was functionally eradicated, reduced to disparate, insubstantial groups of petty bandits and highwaymen scattered around the southern reaches of the Mojave Wasteland.[2]
Vipers[]
Similarly descended from the refugees who left Vault 15 in 2097, the 200-strong group separated from the others, led by Jonathan Faust, the tribe's founder, and traveled the desert until they came to an oasis surrounding a large pit. After Faust accidentally fell into the pit, which was full of pit vipers, the group fragmented further, some wandering off into the wasteland while others hunkered down near the pit, confused on whether to stay, try to join with the other groups from the Vault, or even return there.[Non-game 2] Faust eventually resurfaced, steeped in dark beliefs of the "True Way" that required sacrificing the "unworthy" to the pit's denizens, and started with those among his group that disagreed with him in following the Winding Way of the Great Snake.[Non-game 3]
The Vipers continued to prey on unwary wastelanders around New California for years until 2125, when they attempted a large-scale raid on the Hub, still in its formative years. Though it was a young settlement, the inhabitants led by Angus successfully repelled the Vipers' attack and forced the tribe to retreat further away to the north and east where they roamed the wastes for many more years, occasionally attacking caravans and smaller settlements when the opportunity arose.
The Vipers' crucial mistake came years later when, now led by High Priest Asp after Jonathan grew too old to lead, their aggressive slave raids and banditry garnered the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel, then led by Maxson II, father of John Maxson. Believing them to be mere savage fodder instead of a zealous desert cult, Maxson took a squad of trainees in power armor to put them down, only to end up being nicked by a poisoned arrow fired by the Vipers when he dropped his guard and removed his helmet. The death of their leader infuriated the Brotherhood, who retaliated in force on the order of Head Paladin Rhombus and decimated the Vipers, driving the few survivors into the mountains with most fleeing California entirely by 2162.[Non-game 4]
Although the Vipers ferociously clung to existence, they never again rose to the prominence they once had. Any warbands that tried to return west were driven off, often serving as target practice for talented Army officers.[1] By 2281, routinely brutalized by the NCR, they returned to being opportunistic, petty raiders who forgot their heritage, skulking in the mountains of the Mojave and ambushing merchant caravans to replenish their supplies.[2]
Khans[]
Another of the four groups to emerge from Vault 15 in 2098, the Khans were the only ones to maintain any substantial presence in New California, lasting longer than their rivals and former Vault neighbors, the Vipers and Jackals. The Khans specifically adopted the warrior lifestyle, taking to raiding settlements for loot and enslaving the survivors. Only four years after leaving the Vault, the Khans went up against the Jackals and soundly defeated them, pushing the group almost entirely out of California and crippling their strength for years to come. [Non-game 1]
Originally founded by a man known only as the Death-Hand, at some point before 2161, he was murdered and usurped by his son Garl Death-Hand who ruled the Khans with an iron fist.[3] Garl held lofty ambitions of the Khans ruling the wastelands all around, but they signed their own death warrant when, sometime around 2161, they made the mistake of kidnapping Tandi, daughter of Shady Sands' then-leader Aradesh. Fearing for his daughter's life, Aradesh asked for the help of the Vault Dweller. The man from Vault 13 later entered the Khans' settlement and slaughtered the tribe to rescue Tandi, with the peace resulting afterwards contributing to their eventual founding of the New California Republic itself[4] However, the extermination was not complete. Darion, son of Garl Death-Hand, escaped the Vault Dweller's wrath. The lone survivor would go on to slowly reform the Khans, suffering from survivor's guilt and planning his revenge against Tandi, leading to the rise of the New Khans.[Non-game 5]
New California Republic[]
New Khans[]
Great Khans[]
Fiends[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Courier: "Colonel Moore's "way"?"
Hanlon: "The colonel is an effective commander - one of the best - but she sharpened her claws on the Vipers and the old Jackals. Did four tours against the Brotherhood, too. She used to be ranger until an injury took her out of action. Happens to a lot of us, unfortunately. She's better at making graves than making friends. Bring in Moore and the earth will be razed. Fields will be salted."
(Hanlon's dialogue) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fallout: New Vegas loading screens: "Brutalized by the NCR, the once-legendary Vipers and Jackals gangs have become little more than opportunistic, petty raiders."
- ↑ The Vault Dweller: "{118}{}{I should have killed you when you were a child.}"
Garl Death-Hand: "{119}{}{You should have. Now it's too late. I am Garl Death-Hand. I rule the Khans. You should be dead in your grave, and you will be again!}"
(Garl Death-Hand's dialogue) - ↑ Fallout ending: "In Shady Sands, Tandi helps her father Aradesh bring a new community and new life out of the broken remains of the world. They are responsible for the New California Republic, whose ideals spread across the land."
Non-game
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fallout Bible 6 - Raiders in general: "The Jackals: The first clan, the Jackals, is your typical group of crazies. They have no morals except one: survival. They use group tactics to overmatch their enemies. They are craven cowards, though, and will not attack unless they know they can win. They band together in their hideaway and fight over the spoils."
[...]
"All of these raider groups officially exist in the Fallout universe, though only the Khans are in southern California at the start of Fallout 1. The handful of Vipers that survived Rhombus' campaign of extermination in 2155 fled North and East, following the same path the Jackals took after they had their asses handed to them by the Khans thirty years before." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6 - The Vipers: "64 years ago, a man named Jonathan Faust led his group of about 200 people from the overcrowded Vault into the wastes of the outside. It was there that his small band came to a small oasis in the middle of the desert. In the middle of this oasis was a large pit, almost like a crater. While resting and setting up camp, Faust decided to look into the pit. Darkness greeted him.
When a member of the band called out to him, Faust turned, startled, and slipped into the Pit. He slid down twenty feet and then fell another 20 and broke his leg in the process. As he lay there dazed, a half dozen gigantic Pit Vipers slithered toward him. Not knowing what these things were, Faust was terrified. The group above heard one loud scream and then nothing. Three others went to look for him, but never came out.
The small band, leaderless and stuck in the desert with no food and water, decided to stay at the oasis, at least for a little while. They covered the pit with a tarp and nailed spikes around it to keep whatever horror lived there encased there. They then set up their camp as far from the Pit as possible. Whatever was down in the Pit never bothered them. Days passed. The more influential of the group argued about what they were to do. There was talk of joining up with others from the Vault. There was talk about going back to the Vault." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6: "During these four days, almost ¼ of the group was either dying or already dead. Those who survived the radiation poisoning were too weak to travel, while those who survived either left or stayed and helped defend the little settlement against the desert creatures.
Finally, after a week, the remaining members of the group decided to move on. They started to pack their belongings when an almost spectral figure emerged from the shadows. It was Faust, except this was not the strong leader they remembered. He was wan, pale, and emaciated, and there was a feverish gleam in his eyes. He told them that when he was down in the pit, a god visited him and told him the True Way. They would make sacrifices to the Gods of the Pit, and wealth and happiness would be theirs.
Of course, everyone was skeptical. Some were even violently rebellious, saying that Faust was crazy. After Faust patiently listened to them, he then whistled, and from behind him, came two very large Pit Vipers. Without warning, they struck. They attacked everyone in the group, including Faust, but he just laughed as they bit his flesh.
As the sun rose the next day, the two snakes lay dead by Faust's hands. Half of his people were dead, the other half were on the brink of death as the Pit Venom started to sink into their systems. By that afternoon most would be dead, but the forty or so survivors of the venom were half crazy with the aftereffects of the venom. Faust, himself immune to the venom, helped the remaining few through this time, which has come to be known as the Great Awakening. He whispered things to them, told them how the Great Snake has spared their lives, so that they would fight for His mighty cause.
And thus the Viper clan was born. They decided to make the Pit their Shrine, and to go out into the wastes and take what they needed from those blasphemers that did not follow the Winding Way of the Great Snake." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6, The Vipers: [...] "The Vipers left Southern California after two incidents:
1. Defeat at the Hub in 2125: Their failed attempt to raid the Hub during the Hub's formative years, stopped almost solely by Angus, the founder of the Hub. Angus' defense caused the Vipers to retreat north, and they roamed the wastes for many, many years, occasionally attacking caravans and small settlements. Around the early 2150s, however, the Vipers had grown to their former strength from captured slaves and caravan drivers and had begun to establish a power base in the badlands to the North of the Hub (and south of the Lost Hills Bunker). Driven by a religious frenzy (and the need to provide for their much larger numbers of soldiers and disciples), they began raiding more frequently than before, attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood sent out a few squads of scouts to track the raiders down - it was more of a training exercise conducted by John Maxson's father, as the Brotherhood was convinced that small detachment of troops in Power Armor would be sufficient to deal with a group of raiders, no matter how large.
2. Near Extermination by the Brotherhood of Steel in 2155: One Brotherhood squad found the Vipers, and during the firefight, John Maxson's father (who was leading the squad) was killed with a poisoned arrow. The response from the Brotherhood was immediate. The Paladins, now led by Rhombus, began a full scale campaign against the Vipers, tracking them down and wiping out almost all of their members within the span of a month. A handful of Vipers were able to flee north and east into the mountain range, but they were never heard from again. During the campaign, the Brotherhood sent a few scouts and emissaries to the Hub to track down Vipers members, and from these beginnings, the Hub and the Brotherhood began full trade relations (caravans had delivered to the Brotherhood before, but not long after the destruction of the Vipers, caravan trains ran directly from the Hub to the Brotherhood on a regular basis). So some good did come out of the Vipers' presence in the wastes, for what it's worth. [...]" - ↑ Fallout 2 Official Strategies & Secrets p.201-202: "10. Doc Jones. The good doctor here in the medical bay (see Figure 10.9) is a prisoner of the gang. From him, you can find out that this gang of Raiders is none other than the descendants of the Khans, the Raiders who kidnapped Tandi in Fallout 1. Darion, the leader of the reborn Khans, is the son of Garl and would like to destroy Tandi for the havoc she, and your ancestor the Vault Dweller, visited upon his father's band of Raiders. After you learn of that from the doc, he'll heal you if you need it, as long as you haven't hurt any of the squatters (#1)."