Scavs
"Trust nobody and defend what's yours, that's the only way to make it out here."
Every region of post-apocalyptic America has its own name for the people who bravely (or foolishly) delve into the ruins of the old world in search of supplies, riches, or simple life-sustaining resources. In New California they're known as Prospectors, hearkening back to the old days of gold-driven miners seeking fortune in the uncharted hills. The people of New Jerusalem call them Trashmen and look down upon them for digging through ancient refuse. In a sense, the Scavs of Cascadia probably have the the most neutral nomenclature.
What makes a Scav is difficult to quantify in a region where nobody is above pilfering the wreckage of post-war cities for what little useful detritus remains. Everybody is a scavenger in one sense or another, but not everybody is a Scav. That is a vague designation given to the region's many drifters who specifically come from outside the Storm Wall.
Cascadia is an isolated place with a small population of hardy, devoted people clinging tenaciously onto survival through tried-and-true traditions and a healthy amount of superstition. As such, it's easy for them to recognize an outsider in a myriad of ways. While the Locals of Portland claim their heritage to be from the region's original pre-war residents, most Scav clans are made up of families and groups of individuals that wandered past the Storm Wall and found themselves trapped like so many others. Cascadia is not unique in the hardships it presents, so for most all it took was an adjustment to a new climate and lifestyle to feel right at home in the frozen wastes. Indeed many Scav clans come from nomadic tribes and wanderers from the Great Dustbowl of central America, so it was just a matter of trading one inhospitable wasteland for another.
For all their many differences culturally, Scavs have proven a resilient bunch in Cascadia. They blend effortlessly into communities of survivors and settlers wherever they are able to, creating a melting pot of various colorful backgrounds sharing one hellish existence out of determination and a strong sense of camaraderie. There is no formal organization among Scav groups, they do not elect leaders or follow the words of any one over another, but all the same there is an undeniable ease of access between friendly groups. It's commonly said by bitter Locals that angering one Scav will anger all of them, and that is in some part true. Word travels fast in Scav communities, as do grudges and good words in equal measure.
The bitterness between the Scavs and the Locals is an old one. When the first survivors of the Great War who would come to be the Locals started to leave their Vaults, they found that the city had already been claimed for some time by numerous Scav groups. Slabtown, Moda Garden, Darling Towers, and Lloyd Center to name a few had all been turned into bustling settlements decades before the first Vault opened. Tensions between the groups flared up almost immediately as co-habitation became a difficult thing to consider when both sides claimed rightful ownership of the land, and a great number of scuffles and skirmishes in those formative first years would set the tone for a mutual distrust between the Scavs and the Locals that persists to this day.
Many have tried to bridge the gap with varying degrees of success over the years, but with the mounting pressure of numerous threats to the region's survival growing every day, it seems unlikely that the beef will be squashed any time soon. Historically the Scavs have had a tenuous relationship with the Guardians. When General Horn first attempted to breach the walls of the Portland International Airport, it was an ambitious clan of Scavs who accompanied him and made the venture possible. The survivors of the heist would go on to join Horn as the first of the Guardians. Ever since then the promise of reliable food, housing, training, and most importantly weaponry has been an alluring prospect for Cascadia's downtrodden cast.
What makes a Scav is difficult to quantify in a region where nobody is above pilfering the wreckage of post-war cities for what little useful detritus remains. Everybody is a scavenger in one sense or another, but not everybody is a Scav. That is a vague designation given to the region's many drifters who specifically come from outside the Storm Wall.
Cascadia is an isolated place with a small population of hardy, devoted people clinging tenaciously onto survival through tried-and-true traditions and a healthy amount of superstition. As such, it's easy for them to recognize an outsider in a myriad of ways. While the Locals of Portland claim their heritage to be from the region's original pre-war residents, most Scav clans are made up of families and groups of individuals that wandered past the Storm Wall and found themselves trapped like so many others. Cascadia is not unique in the hardships it presents, so for most all it took was an adjustment to a new climate and lifestyle to feel right at home in the frozen wastes. Indeed many Scav clans come from nomadic tribes and wanderers from the Great Dustbowl of central America, so it was just a matter of trading one inhospitable wasteland for another.
For all their many differences culturally, Scavs have proven a resilient bunch in Cascadia. They blend effortlessly into communities of survivors and settlers wherever they are able to, creating a melting pot of various colorful backgrounds sharing one hellish existence out of determination and a strong sense of camaraderie. There is no formal organization among Scav groups, they do not elect leaders or follow the words of any one over another, but all the same there is an undeniable ease of access between friendly groups. It's commonly said by bitter Locals that angering one Scav will anger all of them, and that is in some part true. Word travels fast in Scav communities, as do grudges and good words in equal measure.
The bitterness between the Scavs and the Locals is an old one. When the first survivors of the Great War who would come to be the Locals started to leave their Vaults, they found that the city had already been claimed for some time by numerous Scav groups. Slabtown, Moda Garden, Darling Towers, and Lloyd Center to name a few had all been turned into bustling settlements decades before the first Vault opened. Tensions between the groups flared up almost immediately as co-habitation became a difficult thing to consider when both sides claimed rightful ownership of the land, and a great number of scuffles and skirmishes in those formative first years would set the tone for a mutual distrust between the Scavs and the Locals that persists to this day.
Many have tried to bridge the gap with varying degrees of success over the years, but with the mounting pressure of numerous threats to the region's survival growing every day, it seems unlikely that the beef will be squashed any time soon. Historically the Scavs have had a tenuous relationship with the Guardians. When General Horn first attempted to breach the walls of the Portland International Airport, it was an ambitious clan of Scavs who accompanied him and made the venture possible. The survivors of the heist would go on to join Horn as the first of the Guardians. Ever since then the promise of reliable food, housing, training, and most importantly weaponry has been an alluring prospect for Cascadia's downtrodden cast.
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