Swampers
Freedom Grows Wild
The Swampers are less a nation than an uneasy coalition of outlaws, smugglers, and outcasts bound together by the “Swamper Accord” of 149 A.E. The Accord was a blood pact between five gangs to never war openly with one another, ensuring survival against the Holy Nation, the United Cities, and each other’s ambition. Since then, the Swamp has become a haven for those fleeing law, servitude, or debt, where the weak drown and the strong carve out a place.
Technological Level
The Swampers are an oddity when it comes to technology, equal parts crude and cunning. On the surface, their world looks like rotting planks, rusted shacks, and dingy lantern light. Yet beneath the muck, the gangs of the Swamp have developed skills that rival, and in some cases surpass, the polished academies of the United Cities.
Agriculture is where their ingenuity shines most openly. Against all odds, the Swampers have mastered the cultivation of hemp in waterlogged soil, a feat most outsiders assumed impossible. Whether through sheer trial and error, selective breeding, or whispered bargains with swamp gods, the Hounds and their growers found ways to produce resilient strains that thrive in the mire. Makeshift irrigation ditches, floating gardens lashed together with reeds, and even the use of swamp creatures’ dung as fertilizer show their creativity. They lack the polish of UC plantations, but their yields rival or exceed them, feeding not just their own but fueling a lucrative trade in hashish that bankrolls their power.
Surgery is the darker frontier. Nowhere else in the world does one find such intimate knowledge of the body. The Twinblades, especially, have elevated crude butchery into a terrifying science. They traffic organs, yes, but they also transplant, repair, and experiment in ways no "civilized" surgeon dares. Many Ashlander doctors in their ranks came from families that knew only pain and scarcity, now they wield blades with eerie precision. Some whisper they can replace whole limbs with cobbled-together Skeleton parts, or stitch a man back together after wounds that should have killed him. Their methods are barbaric, their operating rooms are little more than bloodstained tables in candlelit shacks, but their survival rates and results often astonish.
Culture
The Swampers are a knot of outcasts who’ve clawed a life from the muck, a people shaped by betrayal, hunger, and the reeking mire that swallows all but the cunning. Survival is their creed: trust is rare, alliances brittle, and every deal comes with a hidden hook. Yet they cling together through necessity and vice, casinos, drug dens, and ramshackle bars double as both refuge and marketplace, where debts are carved into the backbone of society. For all their treachery, a man who fails to pay what he owes won’t last long in Shark.
Their culture is a tangle of superstition, excess, and defiance. Some whisper prayers to Narko, others claim the Swamp itself is alive, demanding offerings of broth or silence in the reeds. Wealth, when it comes, burns fast; spent in drink, dice, and reckless celebrations. But that’s the Swamper way, a gathering of deserters, escaped slaves, failed mercenaries, and misfits who take pride in thriving where no one else dares. They aren’t noble, they aren’t pure, but they endure, and in the Swamp, that is triumph enough.
The Five Gangs
Hounds
The Largest of the Swamper gangs, The Hounds operate out of their stronghold in the city of Shark. They are ruled by Big Grim who many, but not all, consider to be the leader of all Swampers. While The Hounds do operate the largest military within The Swamp their primary function is the production and exportation of Hashish.
"The Hounds are the top dogs, they run the show around here.
They done a good job of getting' hemp to grow in the swamps... whether they've been makin' sacrifices to Narko or they just got green goddamn thumbs, who the hell knows. Either way it's got em' a pretty big standing in the smuggling trade, they're the most powerful of the clans. Their leader, Grim, he's about as smart as he is crazy..."
Stone Rats
The Stone Rats run on a simple and ancient code... "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers". They are led by the violent hiver, Big Al operating out of Stone Rat Village. When not robbing travellers they're extorting the people of the Southern United Cities and even their own within the Swamp.
"Between you and me... the Stone Rats are nothing more than a bunch of thugs. I goddamn hate them myself, saunterin' around town like they own the place. They run a protection racket so they like to beat Cats out of the honest business owners like me..."
Grayflayers
Operating out of their headquarters in Ganhad and led by the greenlander Big Gray, the Grayflayers find most their success in the smuggling of hashish into the United Cities and Holy Nation. They have good relations with The Hounds and Traders Guild maintaining an important middle man position within the black market. Aside from smuggling The Grayflayers often participate in high profile heists and assassinations, claiming to only target the corrupt.
"The Grayflayers tend to keep to themselves.
They mainly do raids, heists, and covert missions for big payin' customers. Apparently they only steal from the 'bad', so I hear, but no one knows too much about their activities."
Blackshifters
Made entirely of ronin Hivers, the Blackshifters are one of the wealthiest gangs of The Swamp. They run the casinos found in Mud Town and Shark, and can often be found extorting money out of people that owe them. They are lead by their boss, Big Darkbrow from their casino, The Muddy Gamble in the city of Shark.
"Made up of hive ronins.
Though, they may be ronins, but they sure haven't lost that greedy goddamn hiver mindset.
They handle the town's money... loansharking, gambling, that sorta thing... they run the casinos 'round here. As long as you don't owe 'em money, they got no reason to hurt you."
Twinblades
The most savage of the five gangs, Twinblades are entirely made up of Ashlanders and are led by the infamous Big Fang with most calling Mudtown home. They don't hide the fact that they trade in organs and while claiming to never steal they will always collect whats due one way or another. Some of the worlds most talented doctors and surgeons are members of the Twinblades Gang.
"Those guys, they're about as crazy as they come, they gimme the goddamn creeps.
They traffic organs, do kidnappin's and ransoms too. Okran knows where they get their...stock...from.
You know what, I don't want to know. I ain't pissin' em off any time soon though, that's for sure."
The "6th" Gang
In the year 149 A.E. the "Swamper Accord" was signed by five of the six prominent gangs of the region. The Water Tribe, led by Big Red, claimed the other bosses to be no different than the rotten kings and lords they had all sacrificed so much to escape. Big Red was struck down in front off all the bosses by the leader of the Hounds, Big Grim. Today, the Water Tribe goes by the name,
Red Sabres, honoring their former leader and swearing revenge for his murder.
Red Sabres, honoring their former leader and swearing revenge for his murder.
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