Selfmads

The Selfmads are one of no-return's most powerful faction. Having a total control on the economy, technology and communication, they compensate their physical weakness with an influence that is almost insulting.

Every powerful organization has debts to the Selfmads and they depend on them for electricity, cars and gas. The Selfmads keep for them a large number of high technologies like nanomachines, wireless secure communications, artificial intelligences, hypersonic fighter jets etc.

They are known for being extremely rich and intouchables, but they lack some physical abilities, since they're all infected by a large number of cancers very soon. It is very rare that a Selfmad exceeds the age of fourty.

This faction is known for having pissed off the caravans houses and the monarchy once too much, since both the factions allied and led war against the Selfmads at some point of the story. The events that followed are known as "the last war on earth". At the end of the events, Jeremiah II only had 700 soldiers left. For the Selfmads, well... You'll have to wait the TV series to know !

Since the majority of them are pakistanian descendants, they took the old pakistan national anthem as their.

HISTORY

The Selfmads are descendants of Pakistans and Sikh construction workers, who were building the largest waste disposal system the world had ever knew. Officially, it was meant to destroy radioactive wastes, but in reality, this facility was meant to burn the Leto down without dooming the world doing so.

Everything was in place, even the radioactive wastes on the bottom of the pitt. But the Leto was nowhere to be found ; also, the no-return occured. The construction workers had the luck to see it coming from quite far and all sealed themelves in the waste disposal, hermeticaly away from the world.

When they tried to get out, several of them died of gas poisoning within few hours and the survivors had no other choice than to go back with the radiations. They realized that none of them was immune to the Leto, now active within the earth atmosphere. They simply couldn't get out and breathe without having their immunity system getting destroyed, leaving them to freeze.

So the radioactive pitt became a real town. The few gas masks were given to some of the workers, whose task was to bring back all elements they could exchange with survivors in exchange of meds. But they underestimated the demand and were quicky forced to enlarge their range of action and hiring more and more people to assist them in the task.

Quicky, they became the one and only reseller of technologies necessary for the survival of the people.

Little by little, their influence grew (as did the cancers) until they realized that the caravan houses and the Dies Irae made a deal about the supplies that could put them on the sidetrack of the trades, leaving them to die. They understood that their influence had to get bigger ; they had to put entire factions on their knees for their own survival.

THE RISE TO POWER

Then, the raclures came and made the trade between Inuvik and Moderato-City impossible, leaving the two biggest cities on their own. The Selfmads came up with a solution :

With their technological knowledge, they would be able to create secure places on the trade road, allowing the caravans to get into business again, for that, you know, thousands of people don't die.

In exchange, the Selfmads asked the control of the prices of the goods exchanged and a commission from every caravan. If a caravan wouldn't pay the price, it wouldn't be allowed in the secure places of the road and would be left to the raclures to die. Also, if the Dies Irae wanted to have the technological ways to communicate about their ideas, they would need to establish an exclusive contract with the Selfmads. Everybody accepted and the Selfmads became extremely rich in less than a year, rich enough to raise an army.

And with this army, take control of all the sources of gas and electricity, asking entire lands to pay a heavy tribute if they wanted to have these "privileges".

The Selfmads quickly became the most powerful people in the wastes. Even today, a simple regular Selfmad has totally the right to say "go fuck yourself" to Jeremiah II if he's not polite enough... and not fearing for his life doing so.

THE BATTLE FOR FOOD

The Selmads have acquired all the caravan houses, financed all the governments (with scandaleous rates) and are the only reseller of any kind of energy or technology. They also act as regular bankers, giving or refusing credits to average citizen.

There's only one thing the Selfmads have no control on : food.

There is one last caravan house that refuses to be sold to the Selfmads, no matter how high they level the food price. The Steelstrong caravan, counting the Avarroes and Sixte as regular members.

Also, they have no authority on the cannibal markets (since officialy, a regular dude isn't "food", they have no influence on the price of a dude. An administrative hole that made Jeremiah the red laugh a lot.) and keep putting pressure on the monarchy to acquire them. Both of the kings have bravely resisted these pressing demands ; but it is commonly admitted that the two revolutions the kings had to face have both been financed by the Selfmads.

The food price gets finally too high for the people, which will lead the caravans houses to unite as one and join the monarchy in a great war against the Selfmads.

GOVERNMENT AND SELFMAD SYSTEM

The Selfmad's government is kind of particular. It is a military supported "kind of monarchy" with a decisionnal court and a popular assembly.

All the male Selfmads will one day go out of their capital to conclude trades with factions or lead construction works. It would be a great occasion if the families weren't kept in hostage during the mission, to make sure the husband comes back one day and doesn't reveal the capital's location.

The deal is simple : if the male isn't rentable enough during the mission, his family will suffer social punishments, like being transfered in shitty and dangerous places/jobs or having their medication cancelled for several months.

So, if a Selfmad may seem absolutly anthipathic in the wastes, always trying to ripp people off, we must remember that if he doesn't, his family will suffer. And it will be all his fault.

OBJECTIVES

The Selfmads are looking for a cure to their diseases, other than anything that has something to do with the Leto, they're not immune against. For doing so, they want to have enough influence to get in touch with Moonshine and establish a collaboration contract with them. Awaiting that, they keep the factions on their knees so that they keep giving them "something to trade with the people above us" and enough meds to survive until then.