Control Something
A water source, a salvage cache, a defensible position, a skilled population.
FACTION BRIEF
The Waste Lords
Power Brokers of the Ungoverned Wastes
Type Loose Confederation Number 12-15 at any time Territories All major Waste regions Status Active Average Reign 7 years Succession Violent or negotiated, never hereditary
In the ungoverned territories between Sprawl cores, certain individuals have accumulated enough power to matter. The corporations call them "regional stakeholders." The Wastelanders call them lords. They're not a faction—they don't coordinate, don't share ideology, often hate each other—but they share one trait: the megacorporations have to talk to them.
The Waste Lords control what corporations need: salvage routes, water aquifers, refugee populations, rare materials, or simply the ability to make corporate extraction operations very expensive. They're not legitimate. They're not pretending to be. But when Ironclad needs to ship materials through the Rustbelt or Nexus wants to quietly dispose of something in the Deadlands, someone has to grant passage.
Their influence extends deep into the Sprawl itself. In the Dregs, Waste-origin goods appear in markets without provenance documentation, priced by scarcity rather than corporate valuation. The Substrate Purifiers maintain safe harbor in Waste Lord territory. The Opening Teams—joint operations to unseal pre-Cascade bunkers—operate deep in the Wastes under pragmatic cooperation between Lord control and corporate expertise. The lords emerged during the Scavenger Years of 2148–2155, and by the 2160s their relationships with the megacorps had calcified into something approaching permanence.
How Lords Rise
No one starts as a lord. They become one through accumulation:
1
2
Survive Long Enough
Most who try die. The Wastes are unforgiving.
3
Attract Followers
Success breeds loyalty (and opportunism).
4
Negotiate with Corporations
The moment a corp sends an envoy instead of Enforcers, you've arrived.
5
Hold What You Have
Other would-be lords never stop trying.
The Current Lords
This roster shifts constantly. Three of these may be dead by next year.
Duchess Steel
Territory: 200km of dead industry between Old Detroit and the Atlantic core
Resource: Salvage — the best pre-Cascade industrial equipment in North America
Reputation: "Treats her people fair. Cross her, she doesn't kill you—she puts you to work."
Duchess Steel runs the Rustbelt's salvage operations. Her crews strip factories dormant since the Cascade, cataloging components, grading materials, preparing shipments. She sells to all three megacorps equally—higher prices for exclusivity, volume discounts for repeat customers.
Ironclad is her primary buyer. They send representatives quarterly. She's invited them to dinner. They declined.
The Contradiction
She's building something. Schools for Waste children. Medical clinics. Infrastructure that looks almost like a state. The corporations find this charming as long as she keeps shipping salvage. When she stops...
Papa Ash
Territory: Toxic coastal zones from Old Florida to the Gulf remnants
Resource: Disposal — anything that needs to disappear, permanently
Reputation: "Don't drink the water. Don't breathe the air. And don't ask what's in the drums."
Papa Ash controls the Bleach, and the Bleach is poison. Industrial contamination, sea level salts, Cascade residue—it's a dead zone that kills most visitors in weeks. Papa Ash has lived there for 40 years. Nobody knows how.
All three corps use his services. They pretend they don't. He pretends not to notice what he buries.
The Contradiction
He's dying. The Bleach is finally killing him, slowly. He's looking for someone to inherit his territory—not his power, just his responsibility. He knows what's buried there. Someone has to guard it.
The Shepherd
Territory: Former agricultural megafarms across central Eurasia
Resource: Food — actual growing things, mutated but nutritious
Reputation: "She feeds you. Then she owns you."
The Shepherd figured out how to farm the Green Sea. The crops are different—modified, adapted, strange—but they grow. In a world where most food is corporate-controlled synthetic protein, she has something irreplaceable: plants that reproduce, animals that breed, sustainability that doesn't require supply chains.
She doesn't sell food. She trades it for loyalty. Settlements that join her network get fed. Settlements that don't get watched until they're desperate enough to ask.
Helix Biotech is intensely interested in her modified crops. She's refused three acquisition offers. The fourth involved Enforcers. The Enforcers didn't return.
The Contradiction
She has thousands of dependents and no heirs. When she dies, the Green Sea reverts to chaos. She knows this. She can't stop acquiring more dependents anyway. "Someone has to feed them," she says. She's right. She's also wrong.
King Circuit
Territory: Data centers and communication relays in the Eastern Seaboard ruins
Resource: Information — intact pre-Cascade databases, working communications
Reputation: "Everything has a price. Information has two."
King Circuit doesn't control physical goods. He controls what's left of the old information infrastructure—server farms that somehow survived, fiber optic lines that still carry data, archives that haven't been cracked. He sells access, not ownership. Every megacorp has deals with him. None trust him.
Nexus wants his data. Desperately. They've offered citizenship, resources, anything. He keeps refusing. "Information wants to be free," he says. "I'm just negotiating the price."
The Contradiction
He knows too much. His archives contain secrets about all three megacorps—Cascade-era records, early corporate crimes, things that were supposed to be erased. He's never used this leverage. He claims it's insurance. Others suspect he's waiting for something.
Mother Mercy
Territory: The Haven alliance in Australia's interior
Resource: People — a functional society of 3 million
Reputation: "She's not a lord. She's a mayor. A governor. Something civilized."
Mother Mercy leads the closest thing to a nation in the Wastes. The Cradle isn't a territory—it's a network of cooperating Havens with shared defense, trade agreements, and something approaching law. They have schools. Courts. Elections. The corporations find this disturbing.
Her diplomatic relationship with the Sprawl's Dregs sectors gives her influence that reaches further than any other individual lord's. Officially, no corporate relationships. Unofficially, all three have standing offers if she ever wants to incorporate. She doesn't.
The Contradiction
She's proof that the Wastes could be civilized. That people could organize without corporate oversight. The megacorps tolerate her because she's useful—The Collective uses the Cradle as sanctuary, Ironclad buys rare minerals, everyone trades—but what she's built can't be allowed to spread.
Territory and Tribute
Waste Lords don't control borders on maps. They control chokepoints, resources, and fear. Territory in the Wastes is defined by gradients, not lines:
Core Territory
Lord's personal presence common. Loyal lieutenants permanently stationed. Population dependent on lord's protection. Corporations must negotiate directly. Trespass is punished swiftly.
Influence Zone
Patrols pass through regularly. Tribute collected from settlements. Independent operators need permission. Corporations can operate with "arrangements."
Contested Margins
Lord claims but doesn't enforce daily. Other lords also claim. Travelers pass at own risk. Violence erupts when interests collide.
Tribute Systems
Lords extract value from those in their territory. Methods vary:
| Lord | Tribute Rate | Collected From |
|---|---|---|
| Duchess Steel | 30% salvage value | All Rustbelt scavengers |
| The Shepherd | 20% harvest yield | Non-allied settlements in the Green Sea |
| King Circuit | Access fees per query | Anyone using his data relays |
| Papa Ash | Flat rate per "package" | Corporations disposing in the Bleach |
| Mother Mercy | 10% trade value | Caravans passing through the Cradle |
For corporations operating in lord territory, the rates are different: transit fees of 5–15% cargo value per passage, signing bonuses per worker recruited, flat disposal rates, per-query data subscriptions. The numbers are negotiated in person, always in person, because nothing in the Wastes gets written down if anyone can help it.
What Happens When You Don't Pay
Non-paying settlements face escalation. Warning visit from an armed lieutenant. "Tax collection" at triple the normal rate. Infrastructure destruction. Enslavement. Absorption by a neighboring lord. The steps are predictable. The timeline is not.
The Shepherd's version is quieter. She calls it "adoption." Starving refugees given food on credit. Debt repaid through agricultural labor. Generations can inherit debt. "Freedom" requires full repayment plus interest. Nobody starves. Nobody leaves, either.
Dispute Resolution
When lords disagree—over borders, tribute, insults—resolution follows patterns worn smooth by repetition:
1
Proxy Conflict — Lieutenants clash at the contested border
2
Message Exchange — Lords communicate displeasure through intermediaries
3
Negotiation Meeting — Representatives meet in neutral territory
4
Resolution or Escalation — Agreement, or declared war
Most disputes resolve at step two or three. Open war is expensive.
Neutral Ground
- The Crossroads (North American Wastes) — Ancient highway interchange, visible for kilometers. Multiple lords maintain truce here. Breaking truce at the Crossroads means all lords unite against you.
- The Market at Zhengzhou (Eurasian Wastes) — Permanent trading post, no lord claims it. Armed neutrality enforced by the Market Guild.
- The Cradle (Australian Wastes) — Mother Mercy mediates disputes for other lords. Her neutrality is respected. Mostly.
When Disputes Become Wars
Wars between lords are short, brutal, decisive, and watched. Neither side can sustain long campaigns. There are no rules of engagement. Someone dies or flees. And the corporations note every weakness, every distraction, every moment a lord's attention turns away from the business of extraction.
Post-war, the victor absorbs the loser's core territory. Influence zones fragment. Lieutenants declare independence or pledge to the winner. Corporations renegotiate all deals—always at better terms for themselves.
Power Structure
The Right Hand
Second in command. Manages daily operations. One per lord.
War Chiefs
Military commanders for different regions. Three to seven, depending on territory size.
The Treasurer
Tracks tribute, manages resources. Knows where everything is buried—figuratively and literally.
Envoys
Negotiates with corps and other lords. Two to five. The ones who come back are valuable.
Executioners
Handles problems that require violence. One to three. Nobody asks their real names.
Succession
Lords die. What follows matters more than how:
Planned (Rare)
Lord designates heir. Heir proven through tests. Transition is gradual. Papa Ash is attempting this now—looking for someone to inherit not power, but responsibility.
Violent (Common)
Lord killed or incapacitated. Lieutenants fight for control. Winner takes core territory. Margins lost to rivals. How most Rustbelt lords have fallen.
Fragmentation (Frequent)
Lord dies without clear successor. Territory splits among lieutenants. Former domain becomes multiple smaller domains. Corporations pick favorites and accelerate the process.
Corporate Installation (Increasing)
Corp backs specific successor. Provides resources, weapons, intelligence. New lord owes debt, grants favorable terms. Nexus has done this twice in the Asian Wastes.
Inter-Lord Alliances
Lords communicate through trusted intermediaries, annual gatherings at The Crossroads, corporate envoys who carry information between negotiations, and Collective agents who move freely through the margins.
| Alliance | Purpose | Current Members |
|---|---|---|
| The Salvage Compact | Price coordination on salvage sales | Duchess Steel, King Circuit, 2 minor lords |
| The Haven Network | Mutual defense against corp expansion | Mother Mercy, The Shepherd, 4 minor lords |
| The Bleach Protocol | Non-aggression around disposal routes | Papa Ash, 3 coastal lords |
Diplomatic Posture
The lords don't have foreign policy. They have ongoing arrangements that get renegotiated whenever power shifts. What corporations want from the Wastes never changes. How much they pay does.
What Corporations Want
- Safe passage for convoys through dangerous territory
- Labor from populations outside corporate citizen rolls
- Disposal sites for materials that can't be traced
- Salvage rights without claiming the territory
- Deniability for operations that never happened
What Lords Provide
- Guides who know the terrain and threats
- Guarantees that convoys won't be raided (by their people, anyway)
- Silence about what they see
- Workers who won't ask questions or file complaints
- Access to things the Sprawl has forgotten
Nexus Dynamics
"Regional stakeholders serve as interim governance structures in pre-development territories."
Translation: They're useful until we don't need them anymore.
Ironclad Industries
"We deal with whoever controls the ground. Results matter. Politics don't."
Translation: Business is business. We'll work with anyone who delivers.
Helix Biotech
"The autonomous communities represent fascinating case studies in adaptation."
Translation: They're research subjects who don't know they're being studied.
The Collective
"Some lords are allies. Some are problems. Most are just obstacles or shortcuts."
Translation: Pragmatism isn't just for corporations.
▲ Unverified Intelligence
SIGINT-4491
King Circuit's archives reportedly contain complete records of pre-Cascade corporate mergers that formed the current megacorp triarchy—including evidence of coordinated market manipulation that would invalidate the Corporate Compact's founding claims. He's never leveraged this. Multiple analysts believe he's waiting for a specific trigger event, though no one can agree on what it is.
HUMINT-2207
Three separate sources report that Nexus has successfully installed puppet lords in the Asian Wastes twice in the last decade. The installed lords lasted an average of 14 months before being discovered and killed. A third attempt is believed to be active. No confirmation on identity.
GEOINT-0883
Satellite analysis of the Bleach disposal zones suggests Papa Ash has been burying materials from all three megacorps in overlapping grids—creating a situation where excavating one corporation's secrets necessarily exposes the others'. Whether this is deliberate insurance or coincidence is debated. Ash isn't talking.
RUMINT-6612
Persistent reports from Waste traders describe a "sixteenth lord" operating in the deep interior of the Eurasian Wastes—someone who controls no resources, holds no territory, but whom the other lords consult before making major decisions. No name. No description. No confirmation this person exists. The lords themselves deny it, which is unusual. They usually deny nothing.
FININT-3340
Mother Mercy's Cradle has been observed trading with Zephyria through intermediaries operating in the ungoverned buffer territories between them. The nature of the exchange is unclear—the Cradle exports agricultural surplus and the Free City exports something the manifests don't name. Both parties deny formal relations while their representatives are seen sharing drinks at the Market at Zhengzhou.