Factions of boomtown
The world’s a harsh place, but no one survives alone—not for long. In BoomTown and the surrounding wastes, history runs deep, and the past has a way of shaping the present. The factions here have endured, evolved, and carved out their own piece of the future. Whether by blood, trade, or ideology, these groups have stood the test of time.
These aren’t just banners to fight under—they’re roots that run deep, shaping who you are, what you believe in, and who stands at your back when the dust settles. Your character’s past might already be entwined with one of these factions, providing allies, enemies, and reasons to dig your heels in when the world pushes back. You are encouraged to start play with ties to one of these factions. Unlike Union membership, you are free to add faction ties to your character sheet with no additional oversight.
Choose carefully. These are the names that still matter.
The Jays
The Trumans
The Tel’Veracians
Iron Rail Collective
The Jays: Guardians of land and tradition
The Jays are a quiet but steadfast presence in the vast plains beyond Iron City, a community of farmers, hunters, and rural survivors who have forged their own path in a world that no longer favors those who simply endure. Rooted in the traditions of self-sufficiency and mutual loyalty, they hold no interest in scavenging the remnants of the old world. Instead, they cultivate the land, live by its rhythms, and protect their way of life with an unyielding devotion.
Their history traces back to the earliest days after the Fall when scattered families and lost souls roamed the plains, searching for refuge from the chaos consuming the cities. Through whispers on the wind and shared bloodlines, they found each other and formed a collective bound by an unspoken code of trust, earning the name "Jays," a term for team players in the region’s old tongue. To this day, their bond is their strength, and their belief is simple: the land provides, but only if respected. Waste, greed, and carelessness have no place among them.
The Jays are not a rigid hierarchy but a loosely connected network of families, each maintaining its own land and customs while upholding the shared traditions that keep them strong. Their elders, the Gray Jays, are not rulers but guides, valued for their wisdom and deep understanding of the land’s needs. Leadership is earned through action, not claim, and trust must always be proven.
Among them, Gideon Jay stands as a pillar of tradition, a master farmer and healer whose quiet resilience has made him a near-mythic figure among his people. Sharah "Dogsharah" Wren, a wild and fiercely competitive leader, uses the sport of Dogshead as both a battlefield and a means to keep the ever-encroaching Trumans at bay, her hatred for their rival family fueled by a tragedy she rarely speaks of. Meanwhile, Naomi Jay fights her battles in words rather than fields, negotiating with the unions of Iron City to keep the Jays' land protected from industrial exploitation.
To the Jays, survival isn’t about power or conquest. It’s about balance—between the land and its people, between tradition and necessity. They don’t seek to rule, only to endure. But in a world that rarely respects those who refuse to bow or break, that may be the greatest challenge of all.
THE TRUMANS: LORDS OF IRON AND SALT
Where the Jays nurture the land, the Trumans claim it. A dynasty forged in steel and salt, the Trumans are less a family than a ruling power, built on generations of ruthless ambition and unwavering control. In the brutal days after the Fall, while others scattered or sought shelter, the Trumans saw opportunity in the untamed plains. They carved out their domain in the harshest landscapes—salt mines, iron pits, and abandoned industrial ruins—turning forsaken wastelands into wealth and ensuring that survival meant submission to their rule.
Unlike the Jays, who believe in mutual respect and balance, the Trumans see power as the only currency that matters. They do not trade in kindness or compromise; they take, break, and reshape the world as they see fit. To them, the land is not a legacy to protect but a resource to exploit, and those too weak to claim what they want deserve to be ruled by those who can. Their belief in dominion is absolute, their philosophy brutal: the strong take, the weak endure.
Within their strict hierarchy, power is absolute, and disobedience is met with swift retribution. At the top stands Silas Truman, the Iron Lord, a man as unyielding as the metal his family controls. His rule is defined by cold pragmatism, every action a calculated move to expand the family's dominance. Beneath him, the Overseers act as his enforcers, running the mines, workshops, and salt flats with an iron grip, ensuring that quotas are met and rebellion is crushed before it can fester. Guarding their holdings are the Saltguard, a relentless militia trained to protect Truman assets and maintain order through fear.
To outsiders, the Trumans are feared as cutthroats, but within the family, loyalty is rewarded, and betrayal is punished with ruthless efficiency. They do not trust easily, nor do they form alliances unless necessity demands it. Even then, every deal is weighed, every transaction exacted, and mercy is a debt they do not owe. Their wealth and influence stretch far beyond their holdings, as they control the very resources that keep Iron City running.
Where the Jays sow, the Trumans reap. And in a world where survival belongs to those willing to take it, the Trumans intend to hold their grip on the future—one fist of iron, the other of salt.
THE TEL’VERACIANS: KEEPER OF THE BROADCAST
In the depths of Iron City, where myths fade and memories crumble, the Tel’Veracians remain—half scavenger, half prophet, a cult of static-chasers and relic-keepers devoted to a forgotten frequency only they seem to hear. Cloaked in ragged robes and murmuring cryptic transmissions, they are more than mere scavengers of the old world’s remains. To them, the past is not dead—it lingers, whispering through the salt-stained corridors of the Strataca caves, where ancient broadcasts still echo in the crystalline walls.
Their origins trace back to those who survived in the darkness after the Fall, wanderers drawn to the ghostly voices lingering in the static. They found solace in the relics buried deep within the salt mines, among rusted movie props, decaying film reels, and the flickering remnants of a world long lost. Over time, these remnants became scripture, the echoes of old broadcasts reshaped into prophecy. The Tel’Veracians believe in the Telling Vision, a doctrine that merges myth and technology, interpreting distorted transmissions as messages from beyond—glimpses of the past, warnings of the future, and truths that others dismiss as madness.
Their rituals are as strange as their beliefs. In the caverns below Iron City, old film reels play endlessly on broken projectors, their warped images casting eerie shadows across the stone. Every laugh track, every grainy clip, every flicker of static is a message to be deciphered, a lesson encoded in the ghosts of the past. They believe the Broadcast is alive, shifting like a signal in the wind, leading them to new truths buried beneath the wasteland.
Despite their mysticism, the Tel’Veracians are not without structure. The Relic Keepers preserve and decode the artifacts they recover, treating each fragment of film or scrap of a television screen as a sacred text. The Signal Seekers roam the wastes, tuning into lost transmissions, searching for signs of the True Signal hidden in the crackling airwaves. In their dimly lit archives, the Scribes of Static transcribe every whisper of the Broadcast, filling endless pages with theories and prophecies, searching for the thread that ties the past to the present.
At the heart of it all is Halcyon Jones, the Keeper of Signals, a man who claims to have heard the True Signal as a child, its voice calling him into the depths of the salt caverns. His charisma draws followers to the cause, each believing that within the static, within the endless loop of forgotten transmissions, lies the key to understanding the world that was—and shaping the world that remains. By his side, Sable “Static” Monroe meticulously records every fragmented message, guarding the Tel’Veracians’ vast archive of knowledge like scripture.
To the outside world, they are lunatics, scavengers obsessed with meaningless noise. But to those who listen—to those who hear what others ignore—the Tel’Veracians are something else entirely: the keepers of a forgotten truth, waiting for the day when the Broadcast reveals its final message.
tHE IRON RAIL COLLECTIVE: GUARDIANS OF THE TRACK
Before Iron City had a name, before the highways faded into ruin, the trains still ran. Out of the twilight of the old world, the Iron Rail Collective emerged—not just as engineers or conductors, but as mystic guardians of steel, inheriting a world where the tracks stretched endlessly into the unknown.
As civilization collapsed, stories of ghost trains and haunted railways spread, whispers of engines that kept moving long after the schedules ceased to matter. While others scavenged or fought for survival, the first of the Collective saw the tracks as more than rusted relics—they were lifelines, conduits of purpose and movement in a world that had lost both. From the remnants of warbands, radio cryptographers, and the salvaged wrecks of old Diesel Jock caravans, the Iron Rail Collective took shape, forging themselves into the keepers of the rails.
To board one of their trains is to enter a world of discipline and ritual. Travelers must obey strict codes—silence near transmission sites, precise cargo limits, and absolute respect for the sanctity of the tracks. The trains bring safety, but only as far as the next stop. The Collective does not offer salvation, only passage. Once the rails end, survival is once again in the hands of those who step off the train.
More than mere mechanics, the Rail Keepers follow The Path of Steel, a doctrine of neutrality, precision, and unyielding reverence for the railway’s continuity. The Collective offers transport to traders, fugitives, and scroungers alike, but only under strict terms—no unauthorized weapons, no interference with relay stations, and no disruptions to the network. Violations are met with swift exile, or worse.
Their structure is as precise as the rails they protect. Engine Masters command each train, their knowledge of hidden routes and track conditions making them both navigators and defenders. Relay Monitors, stationed in outposts and concealed bunkers, secure communications, encoding transmissions and ensuring the railway remains a moving fortress rather than a vulnerable target. Freight Wardens walk the rails themselves, maintaining tracks, clearing obstructions, and fending off raiders and Zed that threaten the lifeline they’ve sworn to uphold.
At the heart of the Collective stands Cassius “Tracks” Hale, the Pathmaker, whose unmatched understanding of the railway makes her both leader and legend. She sees the rails as the last true link between what was and what remains, and she moves her people with the certainty of someone who knows that without the trains, the wasteland collapses into chaos. Beside her, Jolene “Wires” Avila controls the radio network, a woman who speaks in frequencies more fluently than in words, rumored to pick up signals that no one else can hear.
The Iron Rail Collective does not claim dominion, nor do they concern themselves with the power struggles of Iron City’s factions. Their purpose is singular, their focus unshaken. The trains must run. The rails must hold. The network must endure. In a world crumbling into dust, they remain—steel-bound, moving ever forward, as the last heartbeat of the old world echoes in their wake.