Downtowners Organization and Daily Life
The Downtowners are a loosely affiliated collective with an unclear population somewhere between 150 and 300 individuals. Downtowners maintain a number of settlements with at least two of notable size, and some small warehouses and ruins that are difficult to find. Downtowners are often skillful with regards to pathfinding and occultation, and the only group apart from certain Wayfarers who are known to ambush and raid. Downtowners are often skilled in the use of Scrap, Umbral, and Tempestuous essences, and most comfortable in Urban environments.
History
Downtowner history is not well recorded, and details are only traded orally among older members. An individual gang is likelier to keep track of it’s history rather than the group as a whole keeping to any records.
Downtowners were originally Wayfarer privateers who turned against the trade prince that hired them. This splintering occurred less than twenty years ago. The founders proved talented and charismatic, and their lax attitudes contributed to strong recruitment among the dispossessed and disaffected.
Locations
Alleyway Junction - A conjunction of ruins and scrap heaps with a myriad of entrances and exits. The main causeway is host to a chorus of hawking dealers, and side-streets are lined with doors that whisper as you walk by - “what’s the password?”
Stitcher’s Palace - The sarcastically named home of a prominent doctor of ill-repute. Said to be an ex-member of Transcendence Inc. who “defected” near the start of the age of discovery. A gang known as “the medicine men” operates here. Each member wears a mask, and all refer to one another as “nurse”. It’s said you can get a big loan if you offer yourself up as a guinea pig for one of Doc Stitcher’s experimental surgeries.
The Dead Letters Office - Find out in game, I’ll add a writeup once you’ve been there.
Organization
Downtowners couch their identity as a singular group by virtue of shared space and attitude, but little in the way of leadership and rules. The larger collective exists as an affiliation of gangs that agree to mutual non-aggression. A gang within the downtowners may have rules of its own, especially regarding recruitment.
The rule that does unite Downtowners is “family first”. Members are expected to side with and support other Downtowners more often than not, prioritizing the community over individual jobs or other loyalties.
Downtowners are not conflict averse, but take care not to let hostilities last. Disagreements are typically settled with games or challenges such as footraces or dance-offs. The most commonly accepted method of settling a disagreement is a one-on-one knife fight between unarmored combatants. Even this is kept nonlethal and impermanent - the community looks poorly on those who seek lethal resolution, or those who refuse to honor the outcomes of fair competition.
Diet/Lifestyle
Downtowners acquire most of their foodstuffs and materials through scavenging, trade, and banditry. They mostly subsist on dried meats, root vegetables, and ancient canned goods. There is an old brand of sugary confection said to be capable of surviving any manner of apocalypse, and Downtowners sometimes trade in these individually wrapped preserved snacks.
Downtowner garb is similarly taken from a myriad of old ruined storefronts, and can appear similar to the popular wear of eras past. It isn’t clear how this stuff is reliably found; many would consider these garments to be lost age relics, but Downtowners seem to handle the whole thing with nonchalance.