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It has been six generations since the Great War.  The war that ruined the planet.  The world was speckled with craters from nuclear bombs, hydrogen bombs, and everything else under the sun.  It wasn’t just chemical warfare.  Humans could survive that.  But it was the biological warfare that was the undoing of society.  After the many diseases took over, there weren’t enough people to keep up the world, much less rebuild it.    

In the aftermath, the planet and its inhabitants became dangerous.  Many animals and plants mutated into horrific versions of themselves.  Exposure to radiation among the other biological weapons created living monsters.

Now humans have reverted to tribe like societies, fighting for the limited resources and territory.  Technology has mostly broken down with the lack of power.  What power there is comes from scavenged solar panels and it is diverted for the necessities only.  

~~~

The only livable areas are the country sides that escaped the destruction.  Places where few people lived before.  Our tribe took over an old high school.  Some of the buildings have been repaired by less than skilled craftsmen.  As a whole, their home and their territory is one of the better in the surrounding land.  Their fields are fenced in.  Their shelter is relatively sound.  Their leader, however…

Charlemagne, our leader, rather than fighting to defend the territory, tries to barter with other tribes to unify them.  He tries to model himself on his namesake, yet he is a terrible negotiator.  Much of the wealth of the tribe is rapidly being traded away without equal exchange.  The security of the tribe is becoming weak while neighboring tribes are growing.  He squanders valuable resources in order to keep his people fond of him.  Most members are unaware of his ineptitude as a leader.  

~~~

Everyone has a job in the tribe.  Because of the radiation, life spans have become shorter and thus children are considered adults by fifteen and put to work just like their elders.  Everyone fits into the hierarchy of the tribe.  The young, instead of learning history, they are taught a certain profession and they stick to it for the rest of their life until they are old enough to become teachers of the craft themselves.

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Tribal Hierarchy (Different for each tribe, but around the same):

Tribal leader (Singular individual, can be passed on hereditarily or voted by council or by the strongest)

Soldiers (Warriors, protectors)

Teachers (elderly, people of experience who can no longer go out, heads of households)

Craftsmen (People who build things, fix things, cook things, make things)

Scavengers ('outcasts', scouts, traders)

~~~

Bio Template
Name:
Age:
Profession:
Description:
History:
Other:

Name: Bendesha Dhar

Age: 26

Profession: wife of the leader

Description: Her family is of Indian decent, is quite apparent in her facial features. She has dark brown, almond shaped eyes with an oval shaped face. Her hair is dark, almost black, brown and very wavy. She keeps it in a long braid that reaches her waist. She is average height for a woman with a small frame. Her skin tone is bronze tan.

History: Her family was the head of a small tribe. She grew up learning the role of everyone in the tribe, not a specific job like they do in Charlemagne’s tribe. Because the tribe was smaller, everyone had to be able to step in in case there was a sudden death. So even though she was the leader’s daughter, she was not treated anything like a princess.

At eighteen she was would have been married but her tribe had begun to trade with Charlemagne’s. She caught his attention, and in return for supplies for their tribe, her father traded her to him when she was 20. It took two years for her tribe to get to such a state that the marriage was the only thing that would save it. She went willingly but not happily. A year after her marriage, her tribe was wiped out by another.


Name: Kieshan (key-shawn) Dhar

Age: 24

Profession: Warrior

Description: Like his older sister, he has well tanned skin and almond shaped chocolate eyes. He is a few inches taller than her with a lean build. He has black curly hair that he keeps a couple inches long.

History: After his sister was married off to Charlemagne, the tribe went through a brief period of prosperity which brought it to the attention of a neighboring tribe. After several skirmishes, which Kieshan fought in, the other tribe overtook them. He was able to get his younger sister and a few other people out to safety but their home was utterly destroyed and he didn’t have enough people to continue on as a leader himself. He took the few survivors to join Bendesha and Charlemagne.

Other: He is fiercely protective of his younger sister.


Name: Meera Dhar

Age: 20

Profession: doctor in training

Description: Unlike her brother and sister, Meera is lighter with a more olive tone complexion. Her eyes are a clear gray. Her face is heart-shaped with a pointed chin. She is a little smaller than her sister height-wise. Her hair is shoulder length with gentle wave and a few shades lighter than Bendesha’s

History: She was young when her brother took her to the new tribe so she was able to start as a doctor’s assistant immediately. Being the sister to the leader’s wife, she has certain privileges that others don’t. Primarily, she is given free time which she uses to study the old textbooks in the library.

Name: Mika Ashlin 

Age: 21

Profession: Warrior

Description: Mika is tall and wide. He doesn't look like he can be stealthy, but he can move like a ghost. Because of this, he is an excellent warrior and hunter. He carries around a bow and arrow and fashions his arrows out of sticks and rocks. They can be lethal. Mika has brown hair and light eyes.
 
History: Mika was the lone survivor of his tribe being taken over. He was a child at the time and managed to hide until the danger was gone. He spent a lot of time alone before stumbling upon his current tribe and his skills with his bow and arrow and his large muscular build attracted the group.

Name: Gidgit Gazmo

Age:  18

Profession:  Scavenger

Description:  At first glance, it's hard to tell just what gender Gazmo is.  In fact even their voice is soft spoken and androgynous.  But under the mishmash of rags and ragged clothing Gaz is definitely male.  Typically he tries to keep himself fully covered, from head to toe with only little parts of his skin exposed.  He does this not only for safety out in the ruined world but also because he looks so much different than most.  His skin is pale and thin, enough so that one could see his veins just under the surface if one chose to look close enough.  Due to spending enough time among pockets of radiation that still linger to this day he lacks both hair on his body, including his eyebrows (though he was born with dark hair).  He is thin, and slightly below average height, made up of more sticks and bones than any real meat.

History:  Gidgit Gazmo was not his birth name.  But no one alive knows what he is named.  Legends and rumors abound about the pale ghost of a person.  That he was born of the radiation, that he was raised by the monsters about the wilds.  But the truth is far less than all of that.  His mother passed away soon after he was able to walk.  She was an outcast from a larger tribe.  An affair between her and the tribal leader.  Cast off when it was apparent she was pregnant she did what she could to raise him and give him what ever skills he would need to survive out in the wastes.

After she passed it was a struggle to survive and perhaps more by luck than skill was he able to make it to his 18 years of age.  During his time he has wandered from tribe to tribe, never settling in one place.  He would be there for a couple months or even just a day.  He is both welcome and estranged in every place he has visited.  With so much skill and training out in the wastes he knows how to scavenge and always brings in good things.  But with no real formal teaching on how to talk to others or how to read he often times messes up simple phrases.  It was messing up the phrase Gadgets and Gizmos that he acquired his name.

Other:  He has numerous items on his person at all times.  A large backpack, pot, pan, bottles, even a radiation detector.  He is fully equipped to deal with whatever he runs into out in the world.

Meera:

I sat with Bendesha in the large dining room. Because I was her sister, I was one of the first in the line to get my dinner. I was nearly finished with my food by the time the people I generally associated were allowed in the line. My eyes were on one fully covered figure in the very back of the line.

This was the first time I had seen Gaz in nearly three weeks. That he had not made an appearance first in the medi-shack was a good sign, if a little hurtful. I picked my empty plate up and moved to set it in the bin for the dishwashers. Then I saw to figures shove Gazmo out of the line, pushing him into the corner of a table.

“Hey!” I rushed over from several tables away. “What is the matter with you?” I reproached his attackers. I put a hand on his shoulder looking to his eyes, the only thing fully visible on his face, to see if he was okay.

The two men who had shoved him said something about how he had cut in line. In response to my glare, they mocked me for coming to the freak’s aid. They told me that, as I woman, I should mind my own business.

“What’s going on?” I looked up to see my brother and his patrolling partner, Mika. I explained quickly what had happened. It was out of my hands. I had no power to discipline the two men for an act of aggression toward a tribe member. I had little power to do anything.

Mika:
I followed behind Kieshan on our way to grab dinner and almost bumped into his back when he stopped suddenly. "Whats going on?" I heard him ask. When I finally got out of my own thoughts and realized what what going on, I grabbed one of the two trouble makers who looked scared as soon as me and Kieshan showed up. "Well since you guys seem really interested in the line, I'm sure you wont mind getting to the back of it." I said. "Thats not how we behave here," I said.

Gidgit:

I'd never liked being around a lot of people. People made too much noise for me, and they never stopped moving. I liked it when things were still and quiet. Tribes could never be like that. Not unless they were dead. But they offered safety, tenuous safety but safety all the same. Most tribes were very similar. The same leadership, the same organization. But this tribe was special for me. This tribe had my only friend.

As I slipped through the gate I hummed to myself. Tuneless, nonsensical, and yet for me utterly fun. Mostly however I used it to be sure I still had a voice. Better not to talk out in the wastes. Safer that way. Still Meera would talk at me. And I had to talk back.

Following the scent of food, and the sound of people I entered into the eating area and quickly slid myself in line at the very end. The best food was served first, I never got that food. And sometimes by the time it came my turn they were out all together. But it never hurt to try. Or so I liked to believe.

This time I was wrong. Hands roughly pushed at me and the corner of a table was unforgiving at my side. Blinking, wide eyed, up at the man who shoved me I raised my own arms as he pushed again. I just took the shove, the harsh words and the glares. If I fought back it would be worse. Easier to be pushed around no matter how sad it made me. And the sadness only stemmed from the idea that I wouldn't be able to get food now.

"Hey!" Meera stepped in and as I brought my hands close to me, hunkering down slightly as she became the target of their ire. But their attention was off me, and they didn't notice me. Even as I reached out for them and quickly pulled my hands back once again. Not many noticed me when they didn't want too. And often no one wanted too.

Then more came. This was why I didn't like being in the tribes. Too many people. And so I did what I always tried to do when the attention shifted off of me. I tried to step out of it, put some distance before I was remembered. But I only got a few inches before I stopped myself. I'd done something bad and wondered if it would be better to get punished now and miss dinner or later and have extra trouble.

Kieshan:

I grabbed the other guy and moved him to the back of the line along with the one Mika grabbed.  “If you had done that in front of us there would be more of a punishment to pay.  Count yourself lucky with this,” I muttered in response to their grumbling.  It was very likely that they would get only scraps from the food line being at the very back now.  It was what they deserved for picking a fight.  

Out of all the peacekeepers, Mika and I were the strictest when it came to violence.  Many of the other warriors preferred to turn a blind eye when the strong picked on the weak.  

“I’m getting tired of this shit,” I said when we stepped out of the mess hall.  “Things aren’t going to get better for the tribe when there is strife within it.  No amount of foreign diplomacy is going to change that.”  The words were spoken under my breath and only for Mika’s ears.  It was easier for us to see the dysfunction of the tribe when we had been born outside of it.  

Meera:

When the circle dissipated, I tugged Gaz back into the line.  “Are you hurt?” I asked him, looking to his face.  I had seen them shove him into the table.  With enough force, that could have broken ribs.  

I received a few dirty looks for being next to him and touching him.  It was for that reason that our friendship was more of a private one, not because I cared what these people thought of me, but because he didn’t like the eyes on him.

Mika:
Kieshan was always fair. I had learned from the best. We didn't put up with violence in the tribe and it was especially angering when the victim was someone so feeble. I usually preferred punishments to be non violent and not anything harsher but I knew that wasn't always the best approach.  

"This tribe is getting larger and larger and with that, comes more disagreement," I added quietly. I spotted the two that had caught our attention to begin with. Meera was one I knew well. As Keishans sister, we had come into contact frequently. The other was easy to spot as he was so different, but still undeserving of such harsh treatment. "Should we check on your sister?" I asked.

Gidgit:

My eyes went wide again as I was tugged back into line. "Should not stay. Only make more problems. They come later after all is calm." Fidgeting for a moment my shoulders drooped. "Gazmo was also bad..." Opening my hands and bringing them away from the folds of my clothing I exposed a knife. "He stole from the ones who were mean."

Kieshan:

“I suppose we should.” I sighed. “I wish she wouldn’t draw so much attention to herself. She doesn’t act like the other women in this tribe.” It was understandable as she was nearly an adult when we came here, but it set her apart from the others. Her headstrong attitude got her into more trouble than I was comfortable with. Most of the women her age were married already, in this tribe and others.

Meera:

I gave a soft gasp. “Gaz,” I whispered close to him, “you know you’re not supposed to do that. You could get in big trouble.” I saw my brother and Mika heading our way again so I snatched the knife away from him. It would be more believable that it fell and I picked it up than it would be that Gaz had.

Mika:
I nodded. She was different. But she was a good different. She didn't care much for her social status, and was always looking after the less fortunate. "Are you two alright?" I asked as we got within earshot. It looked like Meera was holding something, but I couldn't make it out yet. "What have you got there?" I asked.

Gaz:

I hunched further than I usually did. Drumming my fingers in a rhythm-less pattern on my legs I looked anywhere but the approaching pair. "Gaz is innocent. They did nothing wrong." The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could ever think of stopping them. Cautiously I peeked at the two approaching men then away again. One looked like Mika. I knew him. The other too. But the other was not brother to Mika.