Raiders

Origin

After the war there were two kinds of people. Those who thought it was every man for himself, the future raiders, and those who thought people need to work together. Most of the former group had no regard for other people and just took what they wantd often even going over corpses. Over time these groups gathered most of the available technology and weapons for themselves leaving the rest of the people helpless at their merci. That's when the Raiders came to an agreement with the people trying to build new villages. They wouldn't attack them anymore and in return the settlers handed over what the raiders wanted. The settlers weren't happy with this arrangement of course, but they had no chances against the Raiders anymore. At that point many of the settlers tried to escape and make it as Nomads, but they were soon hunted down by the Raiders, who saw them as a threat. Over the years many settlers tried to change the agreement, but at this point they were weakened enough that they had no chance to improve their conditions and most attempts at uprisings were bloodily stopped. So after the years the settlers stopped fighting and accepted their fates. Over the next 200 years the Raiders changed a lot. Many groups came together to bigger ones with control over multiple villages and headquarters where they gathered their belongings. While in the first years the Raiders would only kill villagers if they disobeyed him over the years the dynamic shifted. The raiders started to view the settlers as lesser humans than themselves, so in their view any violence was justified, some even going as far as to claim that the settlers would all die if not for the protection by the Raiders.

Society

Nowadays Raiders live in groups of a few dozend, but mostly not more than around 70, in fortresses they built themselves(or made some settlers build for them) over the years. From there they control the nearby villages and gather their tributes. A group of Raiders is controlled by a single warlord, who isn't chosen but stays warlord until someone kills him and takes over his place. He chooses smaller groups to assign to each village and some additional ones for other tasks. Those groups have total control over the village and only have to answer to the warlord himself. The groups not responsible for a village are mostly there to hunt down any Nomads in their area as the Raiders see the Nomads as a threat to their system. They know the settlers hope for the Nomads to save them from the Raiders and even though the Raiders don't believe the Nomads could come close to hurting them they hunt them down and execute them in the villages, so the settlers stay obedient. The Raiders believe if there is no hope for them they will not start any more uprisings, and most of the time that works as not many uprisings happen anymore. The Nomads also sometimes find Raiders alone and kill them, which makes the Raiders look for them even harder When the Raiders aren't hunting down Nomads or terrorizing villages they mostly hang out around their fortresses in which they have much from the remains of the old world they deemed worthy. Since the first Raiders were criminals and Brutes, their world views shaped the Raider culture in the future a lot. They barely have any books and most of them can't even read. Whenever they find some that's a welcome way to start a fire. Some of them have recovered some electric generators, so in Raider fortresses there still is some electricity left, which they mostly use to power old musical devices, like MP3 players or guitars. Very few Raiders even have electric motorcycles or cars, which they rarely use, since their power is very limited and those take a lot of it. Those that don't have this luxury either go around by foot or horses. Their clothes range from simple rags to expensive leather jackets, depending on the status of the person among the Raiders. Raiders mostly respect other Raiders if they are stronger and more ruthless, so their whole society is very brutal and bloody. Most conflicts are handled with violence and most Raiders use their downtime to drink alcohol and make music. Over the years very few weapons have been preserved so any Raider with access to a firearm will rarely if ever use it. Instead Raiders use chains, hammers, axes and clubs with nails in them as their main weapons with only few having actual weapons like swords. They raise their own kids as new Raiders and sometimes take some of the Settlers and train them as helpers, although those are never considered actual Raiders, but working slaves.