The Raider Alliance, also known as the Raider Armada, is the overarching title for the alliance of raider tribes that rule over much of The Pass. It is one of the six main joinable factions in Fallout: New California.
History[]
Forged out of former members of criminal gangs in the California Wasteland, as well as other felons and misfits pushed out of their original territories during NCR expansions and subsequent civilization and pacification of regions, the Raider Alliance is the last hope of survival for those on the "wrong side" of the NCR's efforts at post-apocalyptic law enforcement. Led by the ruthless warlord Juan Maxson-Elsdragon, their major base of operations is the old Athens-Tec Mine.
Before the Alliance was formed, the Athens-Tec Mine was just a backwater hole in the ground, high in the hills of the Cajon Pass off the beaten track of the I-15. Its original inhabitants, the Survivalists, were initially ignored by the NCR, thanks in part to the shady dealings of their politicians in The Hub using the mine as a convenient illicit trade center. However, after Elsdragon's father and previous leader of the Alliance, Boss Maxson, was killed at the hands of the Wasteland Scouts, the young Elsdragon took his penchant for reckless rebellion and charismatic dictatorship to the next level. Gathering every reject and convict from Northern California and inviting them to join him in Old Mexico, Elsdragon created a wild empire of lawless despots and wicked slave traders. Keeping them in line with a strict but simple series of oaths and codes, his feckless raiders gradually became a fearsome force, challenging even the NCR.
Elsdragon adopted the Skull and Hubcap emblem of the raiders he drafted from Southern California and used the familiar symbol as a rallying cry to all who would dare to resist the NCR. Unable to ignore this new threat, the NCR made efforts to invade the Pass and pacify the Alliance; but after the raiders made a tactical retreat from a booby-trapped Union City in 2240, the NCR saw nearly a hundred men and thirty-eight civilian prospectors killed by a burning field of explosive ethanol-producing corn. Though their retreat enabled the NCR to take control of Union City, it was too embarrassed by the incident that overshadowed its capture and was far too busy fighting the Enclave-NCR War to deal with Elsdragon. The NCR signed a hasty peace accord in 2253, at which point President Joanna Tibbett was impeached and the Raider Alliance was left alone to its vices.
Under Tibbett's successor Wendell Peterson, the Raider Alliance found another niche: shady off-book business with the New Reno Mob. As the Mob gained traction in Congress and the defeated Enclave fled California, Elsdragon used his influence to secure a massive increase in his ranks, swelling its numbers to thousands of raiders. A significant amount of these raiders would come from Tibbets Prison, from which Elsdragon staged a massive breakout, freeing hundreds if not thousands of raiders - among them the Nanjima Clan and the Black Vultures.
This success came at a cost, however: Elsdragon's new raiders weren't simply wretched and immoral but unhinged and psychotic, and the great majority of them were abusers of rare and dangerous drugs. Other new members of the Alliance followed uncontrollable wasteland death cults and practiced disturbing rituals and behaviors, or simply had many strange foreign customs. This made the xenophobic Old Guard Survivalists nervous, who perceived the recruits as displaying a severe loss of character in light of the codes and oaths that had ensured the Alliance's collaboration and survival for so long. As the former members of the Alliance began to fragment, Elsdragon took to enslaving the families of disloyal members to keep them in line, establishing a rule by fear. The most belligerent members of the Old Guard were sent into exile in the Pass, where they became Road Bandits, harassing caravans and disrupting trade with the Hub, as much of a menace to Elsdragon's raiders as they were to the NCR.
Dealings with the Enclave[]
Some time shortly before 2260, Enclave Squad Leonidas - the last active remnants of the Enclave's forces on the West Coast - arrived at the Athens-Tec Mine, making a deal with Elsdragon to house their Vertibirds and personnel there in exchange for sharing some of their advanced weaponry and technology. In 2260, shortly after a botched Enclave operation to capture Vault 18 and recruit its most physically capable residents to their cause, Elsdragon double-crossed the Enclave and took possession of their Vertibirds, using their defeat as proof that a war with the NCR was winnable. He then proceeded to break the Alliance's peace treaty with the NCR by attempting to capture the I-15, an event which marked the official beginning of the Raider War in the Pass.
Members[]
- Black Vultures, led by Hassan Al'Hashr
- Botniks
- Nanjima Clan, led by Kieva Nanjima
- Necro-Nation (formerly)
- Old Guard (Survivalists)
- Psychonauts, led by Tom Farley
- Vault Vikings, led by Hrafnkel Corvis
- Vipers, led by Sylvia Semi
- Voiceless, led by Mevil