Journal of a Stranger - Priest

[Mrtasker]

This is a little story I drafted up for my character for Fallout RP, any suggetsions on improvements would be welcome.

Journal of a Stranger


                                "Good and evil... order and chaos... life and death.
All of these concepts fit perfectly with the human mind, which is why they have been so embedded in our society. These are the concepts which allow us to live, which guide us and influence our decisions so heavily. They are the lynchpins of life, the parameters of our actions. In a world such as ours, there becomes a fine line between these words because they are as such... words, words that represent states of mind, and because of this fact they can be changed to suit whomever uses them. Who can dare claim authority over the citizens of our desolate wasteland? Only those who are able to live apart from these concepts, to not see the world in a shade of white and black, but in a shade of grey... balance and neutrality. The only way we will be able to claw back our civilisation is to produce a balanced society, to achieve balance we must take nothing to the extreme.

There are a chosen few among the denizens of the wasteland who are able to achieve balance within their own mind, and who can project this balance onto others... via the medium of violence or simple persuasion and words. We are justice, we are the Judges."

-An extract from a speech to the people of the wasteland from the founder of the Judge movement, Priest.

I am what I am, and I am a Judge. I have sworn to a life of balance, a life of justice and order. It was not always this way however, I was once a simple know nothing do nothing wastelander travelling from place to place just trying to survive and not get killed.

I grew up in a fairly large destitute town called old haven, it was filled with an all manner of thugs, criminals and general bastards. I, along with my mother and father lived in constant fear of joining the deceased. We lived in a small makeshift shack that my parents had built, in which the local gangland kingpin claimed ownership over and demanded rent, we had no desire or opportunity to refuse him, if we had our lives would have been forfeit. My mother and father often thought of leaving the township to find a new home, but leaving for a journey across the wasteland with a small child was not a risk they were prepared to make. So we had to simply live from day to day, staying out of the gang's way.

The town of New Haven was rich in an all manner of resources; the town had a resident uranium mine in which the gang used slave labour of the citizens to operate it. The town was also situated right in the path of a popular trade caravan route, which brought a multitude of new arrivals into the town every month. The gang ruled every aspect of the town, and the citizen's lives with an iron fist, anyone not doing their job were punished in the most brutal of ways. Existing in this settlement was a savage life, the threat of death was around almost every corner.

After I turned 16 I was informed by my parents that the gang would be coming for me, as they take all children at this age to become one of them, and to bolster their numbers and gain more leverage against the respective child's family. They put us in groups of about 10 or less, and leaded by senior gang members whose job it is to make sure we obey, and to show us the ropes. I unwillingly had to participate in horrific acts, murder, rape, torture... and more. There is little choice in the matter, for if you do not obey your family will be killed, perfect control over the new gang members. I formed some very strong bonds with my fellow gangers; it comes naturally when likeminded individuals are forced to do a task that they whole heartily despise. Years passed, my status within the gang was rising with every given day... unfortunately I began to rather enjoy my work... do the same thing for so long and you grow accustom to it. At this time my parents were getting on in the years, their health was deteriorating at an alarming speed, which I grant is rather common in the wasteland. When I turned 25, my parents finally passed on into the world beyond.

I had grown apart from my family over the years, which is due to the fact that doing the work that gangs often have to do somewhat disconnects you from your deeper emotions, such as love. So I did not dig deeper into the cause and situation of their death, I just accepted the fact that they were gone and I would never see them again. I carried on with performing the day to day business of the gang, shaking down residents for cash otherwise known as collecting rent, fighting other gangs over turf and I could go on. All of this began to become mundane for me, I had ambition. It was this ambition which lead me to find out the true circumstances of my parents death, it was not simply the result of old age I had previously known, the gang I have belonged to for so many years, had murdered my parents. Was it something I had done, I thought, but that could not have been the case for I was a loyal and trustworthy member? The rage started to build inside me, rage I had not felt since I was taken from my parents, I found evidence that my parents were getting behind on their payments of rent, I had always done what I could to make sure the gang goes easy on my parents, but evidently I had failed them. I began gathering allies, my old friends and people who I could trust, it was my objective to slaughter the whole lot of the murderous bastards, and I understand that phrase is a hypocritical of me, but I only took life when I was given no other option, I never simply murdered defenceless peasants. I began drawing my plans against them with the aid of my allies, while appearing to remain a loyal member and due to my silver tongue I was rather successful in this area.

My plan was to destroy the leadership, without strong leaders the gang rabble would disperse, but this tactic would bring more problems in its wake. The one good thing the kingpin did was keep everyone in line, without leaders they would turn into bands of raiders which is not good, for anyone. So I had to think ahead, destroy the body while destroying the head. I and my allies began to covertly spread among the towns people, telling them to rise up against their oppressors which they could have very well done at any point, due to their sheer numbers but sadly they never had the motivation. I gave them that motivation that they so craved, they gained inspiration and began to gather weapons for their uprising. We had planned our attack in great detail; nothing could be left up to chance if we were to succeed in our endeavours. My rage turned to cunning, and my cunning turned to action and my actions set us all free. The days were counting down, every day I was gathering more and more support, I could hardly believe how fast things were moving.

The day was upon me... their air was calm, and the skies clear. It almost felt as though the afterlife was making extra space for some new arrivals. I could feel my troops anticipation, and fear. They were armed and prepared as best as they were able, the only thing I could do was impart some inspiration.

"My friends, our plans are finally coming to an end... an end that will change our lives forever. Remember this when you are fighting for your life, you are not just fighting for yourself, you are fighting for everyone. My friends, it is very likely that many of us will fall this day but would you rather go out fighting and making history? Or simply die of lung rot. Fighting? I thought as much. My friends let us give these bastards what they deserve, let us lavish them with our gifts of gunfire. Let them know it is the end for them, and a new life is beginning for us. My friends, let us end this."

-The speech given to Priest's rebels on the eve of the uprising against the gangs of New Haven.

The battle was over fairly quickly, due to our amount of planning and our sheer numbers. It was also bloody, and bodies littered the streets, bullet casings were everywhere. My plan was simple, yet effective. I would have the citizens of New Haven attack the rank and file gangers en mass, leave no option of counter attack, while I moved in secret with my most skilled allies to the gang headquarters which was an old fairly intact school. We cut the wire fence and gained entry, silencing the sentries before they can sound the alarm, no one could stand in our way. I left many bodies in my wake that day, and I am proud to say all of them deserved it one way or another. We made it inside the compound with minimal losses on my side, we caught the inside guards by surprise and dispatched them with ease. Things were going too well, I did not notice this until it was too late; they were waiting in ambush for us, I hid behind cover while the majority of my team mates were gunned down in a hail of gunfire. I will never forget that moment, as I saw my friend's bodies hit the ground... thud. Then, silence for a while as the gangers were trying to ascertain if there were any survivors. I took my grenade from my belt, pulled the pin and signalled my surviving team mates of my plan. I threw the grenade at the centre of the gangers; they did not react until it was too late. We rose up from our cover and killed any who survived the grenade blast. No one can stop us now, we are invincible. We made our way down the hallway to the end office, where the kingpin sat in wait for our arrival; I will never forget his name, Samuel Blake. I blew open his door with one blast of my shotgun, where he was sitting behind his desk, with an arrogant smile on his face that he would take to his death. My team mates covered the door, while I had a chat. I asked him while he saw fit to kill my parents, after all that I had done for him. He replied with words that are burned into my memory, "To prove that you are worthy." He handed me a notebook, and my rage combined with confusion lead to both barrels of my shotgun to be unloaded into his body. He was dead, the man that had taken my family away from me.

I took the notebook with me, I was so intrigued to what it might contain I read it right there and then. It explained to me a group called "The Judges" who claimed to be an authority on justice, and who claimed to be the keeps of balance, and the protectors of civilisation. I learned that... Samuel Blake was in fact a Judge... the last of the Judges. He created this scenario to find a successor, all of this... my family dead, the gang... everything. It was just a test to see if I had it within my soul to do something about it, to change things for the better. This brought on a new trail of thought into my mind, how could a man who claims to be just, and good do all of this evil. Then I learned of the ideology of the Judges, balance and neutrality. They do not believe in good and evil, they simply believe in existence.

I had two choices; I could either carry on my work in New Haven of making life better for people, or I could take up the Judges work and start clearing up the world. I chose the latter, many of my allies joined me, and we formed the new order of The Judges.

We set out at first dawn, no particular place in mind.

But with one mission.

Justice.

For we are Justice, we are the Judges.



- Priest

[Zombiehunta]

I'm a mighty mighty man, young and in my prime. Oooooooooooooh I'm a real young man, a brand new 25. Anyways, Borderlands towns don't look good in Fallout, but besides that, looks good.

[Mrtasker]

What do you mean by borderlands town, i've never even played borderlands lol.

[Zombiehunta]

Old Haven and New Haven are both Borderlands towns.