DeadlandsFactions
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Factions in Gomorra What's a poker game without a few players? |
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Every town has folks who fancy themselves in charge. Gomorra's no different - the only difference is, there's a lot more of 'em than some other places. Most of these folk don't get along, and some are apt to solve their problems with bullets, and others prefer a lawsuit.and the tinkle of fundament in a feller's pocket.
BLACKJACK'S RAIDERS"Black Jack," the founder of BlackJack's Raiders, got his start as a humble miner - with a shady past. Still, like so many in Gomorra he was attempting a clean start when he made a strike that promised gold and ghostrock. Soon after he'd registered his strike, he was paid a visit by goons hired by the Sweetrock Mining Company. He killed three in a hail of bullets, and let the rest run for their lives. Since then, Jackson P. Jackson has adopted the name 'Black Jack,' and leads a merry band of outlaws, thieves, and brigands. Black Jack's crew focuses largely on raiding Sweetrock mines and making life for them genuinely as unpleasant as possible. Blackjack's Raiders may not rob from the rich and give to the poor, but the independent miners give them a begrudging respect; Sweetrock's a little more cautious about its claimjumping than it once was. Black Jack himself has no personal grudge against the Law Dogs - but he knows the hand that feeds the Dogs also holds their leash. He has enough respect for them that he tries to avoid killing them unless backed into a corner - but he hasn't found a corner he can't fight his way out of, yet. As Sweetrock's greed escalated, so too did Black Jack's popularity. His gang, mostly career outlaw, don't share his ideals. But they're happy to play by his rules, and the living they've made off Sweetrock robberies has convinced them to heed Black Jack's leadership.
COLLEGIUMA year after the founding of Gomorra, members of the "Distinguished Collegium of Interspatial Physics" began to arrive, trickling in pairs or on their own. They naturally began to collaborate and pool resources, knowledge, and funding from their patents. They built a grand building in the style of an East Coast University, and within a month had completely burned it down. The town authorities convened a meeting, and elected to kick the Collegium out of Gomorra. The Collegium acceded to their request - somewhat. Instead of packing up and leaving, they moved to an adjacent mesa, connecting it by suspension bridges and rebuilding their grand university. Two months later, an explosion destroyed the building and took of the upper level of the adjacent mesa. Doggedly undefeated, the Collegium ignored the dictates of common sense and rebuilt the mesa completely. This final effort considerably taxed the resources of the Collegium, not to mention the loss of contributing members in the destruction. The rebuilt mesa is a 'triumph of modernist architecture - ' making it look like a tangled junkyard from the City of Gloom. Thankfully, the Collegium has imposed new safety standards, and there have been no further incidents of destruction. In order to finance themselves, as well as provide a supply of ghostrock to study, the Collegium owns several mines.
LAW DOGSLed by venerable geezer JP Coleman, Gomorra's chief law dog came as something of a surprise to the people of Gomorra. A former foreman for Sweetrock, the town's sheriff had a reputation for fastidiously towing the company line. After he was 'voted in' by Sweetrock, he quickly changed his tune. He fired the company men Sweetrock had installed as deputies in Gomorra, bringing in relative unknowns with former experience on both sides of the law. He also brought in a bonefide judge from San Francisco, who tried criminals on the basis of evidence, law, and testimony. (Something completely unheard of inside the Maze.) Judge Warwick made something of a splash himself - the first miner he sentenced to hang for claimjumping drew a pistol, killing his deputy before Warwick gunned him down with a double-barreled shotgun. The skull of the deputy now sits on Warwick's bench, as a reminder to remain vigilant. Coleman turned the town around - and many in Gomorra view him as a hero. One of his first arrests in Gomorra was of Max Baine, on a drunk and disorderly charge, and the newly appointed sheriff held the Vice President in custody for the maximum thirty days. Since he's taken office, Gomorra has gotten a reputation that passes for law-abiding, at least in the Great Maze. The continual thorns in JP Coleman's side have been the Maze Rats and Blackjack's Raiders. His inability to apprehend the leaders of either gang has made the last two elections considerably closer than previous years, but Coleman continues to hold the reins.
MAZE RATSCollectively, there are more Maze Rats than their are citizens of Gomorra - the Maze Rats are a pirate force to be reckoned with, but their numbers are spread throughout the Maze. Red Petal Su commands the Maze Rats, and in kind owes her loyalty to the Rail baron, Kang. Kang's bread and butter is exporting ghostrock from the Maze, and normally when he wants something, he shows up with an army large enough to take it. For reasons unknown, he's left Gomorra mostly unmolested. Red Petal Su has dispatched a single ship to the waters around Gomorra, the Typhoon, but it doesn't appear intent upon a direct assault upon Gomorra. Instead, the Maze Rats strike regularly at mines scattered through the Maze around Gomorra, intimidating miners and killing those who refuse to flee. For those familiar with Kang's typical business dealings - which bear names like 'The Massacre of Perdition,' this strategy has puzzled and worried the leaders of Gomorra. Gomorra might have enough irate firepower to make it a headache to take, but the fact stands that Kang has the resources and manpower to take Gomorra by force if he wished to - but apparently he doesn't care to have the ghost-rock rich town feathering his cap. The Maze Rats continue to be a plague on the town, and certainly have access to information and gossip from the town itself. JP Coleman has attempted to conduct several witchhunts for those selling information to the Maze Rats, but thus far hasn't found any leads. The Chinese community in Gomorra has long kept to itself, and closed ranks whenever intrusive investigations begin.
SIOUX UNIONSix months ago, a group of some hundred Sioux, Lakota, Crow, Apache and other tribesmen appeared outside of Gomorra, along the banks of the mainland to the East of Gomorra. They setup teepees and began to live within view of the town. Prior to their arrival, the periodic 'red-skin' had been an uncommon sight in Gomorra - an occasional scout or trader would try their hand at mining or making a life in the town, but a well-armed camp was unheard of. They were well armed, and politely rebuffed offers to 'move along,' and the issue was never pushed. Occasionally, the 'Sioux Union' hails all the way from Deadwood, but their purpose in Gomorra is unknown. They occasionally send members of the tribe in to trade for various goods, providing food and furs in return. Some of the townsfolk in Gomorra have even been able to establish semi-regular trade with them, although it takes a careful hand and a good deal more humility than most are willing to shows the 'reds.' Their Chief, Joseph Eyes-Like-Rain, has occasionally met with outsiders. He's described as an elderly man in his seventies, soft spoken and kindly. He has not been seen outside his teepee.
SWEETROCK MINING COMPANYSweetrock Mining Company is often decried as the greatest evil in Gomorra - in its early years, it had a reputation for claim jumping lucrative strikes from independent miners. Even Sweetrocks' entry into Gomorra was under the table. In a closed auction, a Sweetork representative bid on eight of the most prosperous mines in the area, winning them all and soon moving in men and executives to work and oversee the mines. Black Jack's story of claimjumping is widely held as gospel truth by independent miners, but most of the non-transient population of Gomorra speaks well of them. Sweetorck has built a school, an orphanage, constructed paved roads across Main streeet, established funds for the reation of the Sheriff's department, and 'civilized' the town far beyond the likes of most settlements in the Maze. There are now general stores, attorney's offices, and dress shops - Howard Findley, the head of Sweetrock Mining Company in Gomorra, is a can-do man with a rugged and ruthless reputation. He sits at the head of the Gomorra Business Council, and Sweetrock mines have produced fifty percent more output under his watchful eyes. Conditions in Sweetrock mines, previously bad, have become positively brutal under his administration. Sweetrock employs a number of businessmen, lawyers, and enforcers, and Howard Findley never travels anywhere without a small coterie of bodyguards. Today, Sweetrock own approximately half the mines close to Gomorra. hey also have an exclusive deal with the Greater Maze Rock Miner's Association to be allowed autonomy in the area. Any sale of fundament- not on the small scale of local businesses - either passes through Sweetrock, or the mine-owner in question must transport their fundament by water or overland to find a buyer registered with the Greate Maze Rocker Miner's Association.
THE WHATELEY FAMILYThe Whateley family can trace its roots back hundreds of years, to Welsh nobility. The Whateleys moved from their family estate to Oxford, from Oxford to Georgia, and set down roots in the South long before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They remained there, scions of the antebellum South, until thirteen years ago, when the entire Whateley clan picked up, left their plantation home, and moved to Gomorra. The Whateleys used their wealth to purchase land from Humphrey Walters, long before the auction which divied up much of Gomorra. They built a large mansion near the estate of Mr. Walters, apparently content with their move to California. After the Great Quake hit, the Whateley mansion was separated from the main mesa of Gomorra itself. Now the estate sits on a lonely mesa, all to itself, Most of the Whateley family remains at the mansion, but a few members of the family are well known in the city. Their matriarch, Wilhelmina Whateley, survived the journey from Georgia without so much as a cough. There are a number of other Whateleys recognized in the town, and a few other folk who've been 'married in' to the Whateley clan. The Whateleys purchased several mines in the secret auction that made Sweetrock wealthy, and contracts independent miners from time to time to work those mines.
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