Barbarians at the Gates

In a time where even the poorest of the poor can get a TAP, you’ve got to make a pretty conscious choice to reject the net completely. The Barbarians at the Gate are a singularly savage bunch who dress in leathers and furs — often stripped from unfortunate hybrids or neko — and wield rustic weapons they’ve forged with their own hands. They choose leaders by the diplomatic technique of “who collected the most scalps this month?” and that current distinction goes to a set of twins: Ulrik and Reshan. Other clan leaders include Behadja, who always has a pack of starving mutts ready to attack on her command, and a lunatic called Gullet, who has made cannibalism into a fine art. Somehow, their backwards brains have decided proximity equals property, so if they’re squatting by the ports that control Chicagoland access, then they must be in control of the whole city, neh?

Each clan within the group holds different practices, and they typically adopt their clan leader's name as their surname. Much of the wastes are under the control of the Barbarians, and many attempts have been made by the Chicago Defense Force to clear them out, but they always come back. In addition to their primitive weapons, they will typically scavenge what they can from other groups and utilize them. They use quad vehicles and motorbikes to navigate the wastes quickly, and they generally strap the heaviest weapons they can to these vehicles for maximum blastification.