Red Eyes

The Red Eyes are a raider society built around the cultivation, use, and almost worship of the IsoReaper pepper. They have set up a permanent encampment in the Lickmann's Sauce Company Bottling Plant. IsoReaper plants had grown out from Sherri Lickmann's personal lab, and were thriving in the surrounding fields when the Red Eyes first appeared, and over the decades built their society around the pepper. Due to the irritating sap the IsoReaper plants produce, Red Eyes almost always wear gas mask. The quality of the mask a Red Eye wears denotes their ranking in society.

With the abundance of IsoReapers available to them, the Red Eyes are one of the few raider societies to possess and operate FC powered weapons and armor. The highest ranking Red Eyes horde FCs like gold bricks, as the weak charge IsoReapers provide necessitate having multiple FCs available.

Unlike other raider groups, the Red Eyes refer to themselves as a "raider society". They aren't outright hostile and don't raid other settlements since they are self-sustaining. Younger members are sent out into the Charleston area to trade IsoReapers for other supplies, spread IsoReaper seeds, and recruit from smaller raider bands in the area.

They defend the Lickmann's Sauce Company Bottling Plant very fiercely, and are not friendly to outsiders getting close. Any outside looking to get close to the Red Eyes home will need to come with a Red Eye to vouch for them and a gas mask.

History

About four generations ago Bas Reaves led a group of raiders through the North Charleston area in search for a place they could scavenge, set up shop, and run raids off the Five-Two-Six. When scouts reported to him about a giant factory overgrowing with plants, Bas led a small team to go investigate, and found the Lickmann's Sauce Company Bottling Plant overgrows with plants growing bright - almost glowing - red peppers.

When the team got a stone's throw from the plants they could smell the sap growing off the plants and had to back off. After returning to camp and fashioning crude gas masks, Bas led a larger second team back to investigate further. They found a large complex completed overgrown with peppers. A water main was running into the building and through a purifier into a large vat that many of the plants were rooted. Bas knew he had found his family's new home, ordered half the team to start clearing the interior but to collect the peppers from the plants they cut down. The other half were ordered to go back to the camp and work on fashioning more gas masks.

After a few weeks of camping near the facility, clearing out the interior, and scrubbing down the walls Bas Reaves' band finally had a place to come home. They began cultivating the IsoReaper in the field outside, eventually found Lickmann's research, and found ways to use the IsoReaper outside of just a food source. It wasn't long before the culture of the band started to focus on the pepper, they renamed themselves the Red Eyes due to the irritating nature of the plants, and started treating the peppers as a symbol of worship.

The Red Eyes still have their rough edges, they run under a sort of monarchy and are led by whoever is the current "Bas". A new Bas is chosen through combat and leads until they are killed. The better a Bas, the more likely they are to live out their term naturally; otherwise, the Red Eyes are not afraid of violent revolution. New members can join by undergoing a ritual where they "find their eyes". In order to get the iconic red lenses for their gas mask, new recruits must take them from two Red Eyes who are waiting out in the IsoReaper fields.

Notable Members

The Red Eyes operate under a pseudo-monarchy and are led by whoever is the current "Bas" (pronounced Boss).

Bas Newman

Bas Newman is a real hard-ass and he doesn't like outsiders. This has led him to mostly focusing on internal affairs at the Lickmann's Sauce Company Bottling Plant. He leaves the outside business to the mostly younger members who are willing to go venture out. They have used this freedom to explore much further than previous Red Eyes ever have.