Characters / TNO Southern Urals

Main Character Index Superpowers: Großgermanisches Reich (Heydrich's Germany) | The United States of America (1964-1968 American Presidents | 1972 American Presidents) | Dai-Nippon Teikoku Major Powers: Regno d'Italia | Iberian Union | Republic of Turkey | Ordensstaat Burgund Other Countries By Region: Africa: Northern & East Africa | West Africa | Southern Africa | Post-Colonial Central Africa Asia: Mainland China & Oceania (State of Guangdong | 1964-1972 Guangdong Chief Executives | Guangdong Flavor Characters) | Southeast Asia (Republic of Indonesia) | South Asia | Middle East | Central Asia Europe: Northern & Western Europe (British Isles | French State) | Southern Europe | Eastern Europe (Reichskommissariat Ukraine | Reichskommissariat Moskowien) Americas: North America | South America (United States of Brazil | Argentine Republic | Oriental Republic of Uruguay) The Russian Anarchy: West Russia (West Russian Revolutionary Front | Komi Republic | Communist Party of Komi | Passionariyy Organization | Taboritsky's Russia) | Southern Urals | Western Siberia | Central Siberia (Siberian Black Army) | The Far East (Harbin Three) | After Midnight Miscellaneous: Antarctica | Miscellaneous Content | Non-Canon Content

Warlords of the Urals

Ural League

Official Name: Ural League, Southern Ural United Defense League (regional unification)

Ruling Party: Deti Vorkuty^note Children of Vorkuta

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

The Ural League are the Children of Vorkuta. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Vorkuta Gulag nearly tore itself apart when the desperate prisoners rioted against the confused guards. Father Jānis Mendriks intervened and united the guards and the prisoners, and all now had the same goal: to survive. With Vorkuta being too harsh to live in, the people marched south to look for a better home. Many died during the long march, but the survivors' spirit and faith were kept together by the determination of Father Mendriks. The survivors finally settled in the Urals, where they founded the Ural League, a league of unwavering defenders built upon Father Mendriks' unwavering spirit.

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• Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: Not for the League itself. One of the endings for the Ural League is the soldiers dreading the news the Western Russian Revolutionary Front has reunited West Russia under the leadership of Georgy Zhukov. The bulk of the Ural League are former prisoners under the Soviet and WRRF regime and are certain they are next. However, they are willing to fight hard to prevent anyone from being imprisoned once again in the gulag prison camps. However, when the WRRF eventually makes their way to the Urals, it's not with an invading force, but an extended hand of respect and peace.
  "Comrade Mendriks," General Zhukov would say, "I've come to bargain."
• Elite Army: The Ural Guards, trained by Soviet veterans, are among the finest soldiers in the Urals. The unifier of West Russia or Western Siberia can peacefully annex the Ural League and integrate the Ural Guards as an elite unit.
• Former Regime Personnel: Many of the Ural League's founders are former Red Army veterans who found a new purpose in the Guard or even former Gulag guards who understood that cooperation with their former prisoners was the only way to survive.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Ural League presents the strongest resistance to the bandits in the region, but they are essentially a military junta with limited democratic tendencies, with everything that entails.
• The Gulag: Most of the Ural Guard is made up of former prisoners and guards of the Soviet Gulag of Vorkuta. They repurposed their former prisons into fortresses to defend against the bandits of Russia.
• Quantity Versus Quality: The Ural League can either continue building up and reinforcing the Ural Guards, focusing on a small but Elite Army, or expand the militia, relying on sheer numbers to overcome the bandit threat.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Ural League was formed by people of various backgrounds, be they Gulag prisoners, Gulag guards, Soviet veterans, or local villagers, who are united by their wills to survive and protect those who can't protect themselves.
• Settling the Frontier: The Ural League was founded by former prisoners of the Gulags, their guards, and Red Army remnants who went in search for a new home after the Soviet collapse. They eventually settled around the Ural Mountains, where they swore to protect the helpless of Southern Russia.
• Shout-Out: The Ural Guard is similar to the Spartan Rangers from Metro 2033, a faction of hardened veterans who help the local settlements to defend themselves from mutants and bandits. Their flag is even based on the logo of Sparta◊ from the same game.
• Training from Hell: The Ural Guards have a very strict and spartan training regime, which makes recruitment of new members harder and more time-consuming than regular militia. The harsh conditions of Ural Guardsmen training comes up in its nation's events.

Jānis Mendriks

Role: Head of State

Party: Deti Vorkuty^note Children of Vorkuta

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Jānis Mendriks was a Latvian priest, sent to the gulag in Vorkuta years ago by the Soviet Union because of his preaching. With the collapse of the USSR, riots began in the Vorkutlag, which would have likely ended in deadly bloodshed had it not been for the priest's intervention. Together, sympathetic guards and prisoners united. The result of this union being the nascent Ural League.

When the harshness of Vorkuta proved to be too much, Mendriks convinced his people that a march southwards would be their salvation. The Exodus took its toll, as hundreds of former prisoners and guards were lost along the way. Father Mendriks seemed to never lose faith and held a rallying speech before the march commenced each day. His words in those dark days were the only light many of them had. Faith was perhaps what carried them all in the end, before finally settling in the Southern Urals. In that isolated part of the world, the Old Priest called upon the oratory that had served him in Latvia. Though he was a Catholic leading a flock of mostly Orthodox followers, differences in sect seemed to matter little to them as his words rallied them to hold firm and to build a new life.

It was this charisma and resolve that has since steered the Ural League. His conciliatory approach to leadership has served him well as most all of the League's commanders look to him for guidance and comfort when needed. Seldom has his determination failed him, and he has managed to be a man of his word, even when times appeared to be bleakest. Jānis Mendriks is undoubtedly a man of God, but in these dire times he has proved to all to be a man of the common soldier, too.

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• Badass Preacher: Mendriks is a Latvian Catholic Priest who leads one of the strongest militaries in Southern Russia.
• Crisis of Faith: Subverted. His religious crisis of faith is in himself, not God (by all indications, he remains a believer); Mendriks sees himself as sinful and unworthy for living a life of violence as a military commander. Even if he has a genuinely noble and selfless cause, he believes war is incompatible with the peaceful ideals of his faith.
• The Heart: Mendriks prevented a fight between Gulag prisoners and guards after the war, convincing them to cooperate in the new, unforgiving reality of the post-collapse Soviet Union. He still serves as a moral conscience and spiritual guide for all members of the Ural League.
• Warrior Poet: In one event, Mendriks, already noted for his poetic voice and vivid speeches, publishes his poetry book titled Redemption. An excerpt from the book:
  Yet as we stand here stranded
  Surrounded by those entrenched in sin
  The call of Russia triumphs what they did
  Our faith only strengthens within

Ilya Starinov

Role: Security Minister (Mendriks cabinet)

Party: Deti Vorkuty^note Children of Vorkuta

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

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• Allohistorical Allusion: Ilya Starinov is the creator of the Spetsnaz concept, and is known as the "grandfather of the Russian Spetsnaz". In TNO, he leads the creation of the Ural Guard.
• Old Soldier: Starinov is an old Soviet veteran who settled in the Ural League to oversee the training of younger recruits into the Ural Guard.

Orenburg

^{Flag of the Republic of Orenburg}

Official Name: Orenburg Communes, United Communes of Orenburg and the Southern Urals (regional unification), Republic of Orenburg (under Burba)

Ruling Party: Predstavitely Obshchin^note Community Representatives

Ideology: Anarcho-Communism^note Socialism

The Worker's Council is a loose confederation of self-sufficient villages in the Southern Urals, centered around the city of Orenburg. On its surface, the Worker's Council is a perfect Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune. But beneath the surface, Orenburg is a failing system destroying itself through inaction and disunity. Standing in a collapsed Russian society with even direr times to come, changes will need to happen in Orenburg for it to survive.

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• Anarchy Is Chaos: Downplayed. While the anarchic communes around Orenburg can maintain organization on the village level, they have a hard time communicating with each other and the city and resist any attempts of centralization, which makes them vulnerable to external threats, such as Dirlewanger's bandits and Lysenko's minions.
• Arcadia: Subverted. The countryside that the Commune of Orenburg rules over fits this description, being one of the least devastated and most agriculturally fertile regions of the former USSR not under the Nazi jackboot, and ruled over by free people. However, the core city of Orenburg is much larger than this trope would indicate. More notably, the "government" consists of competitive (if peaceful) arguing over the minutae, the bucolic fields and innocent people are burned by Dirlewanger's pillagers or captured in droves by Lysenko's NKVD death squads. Even an ending where Orenburg outlasts both threats and remains free shows that its people can expect to fight many more raiders before it is all over.
• Bolivian Army Ending: One of Orenburg's possible ending sides focuses on the return of the Germans to Russia. With German panzer divisions crossing into Russia, resistance begins building, and diplomats call the various warlords to arms to defend Russia.
• Chummy Commies: Despite all of its flaws, Orenburg is still one of the most democratic, free, and prosperous states in the war-torn lands of the former Soviet Union.
• Commune: Orenburg starts as a dysfunctional alliance of various autonomous village communes and the central city.
• Disaster Democracy: The libertarian Communism Orenburg practices is this to an extreme. Under Burba or a successfully reformed Council, Orenburg can change into a functioning democracy, a rare phenomenon in post-Soviet collapse Russia.
• Divided We Fall: If the Worker's Council gets too divided and Orenburg fails to build up its defenses, the Dirlewanger Brigade and Magnitogorsk can easily crush Orenburg beneath their feet.
• Foil: Kansk, far to the east in Central Siberia, is also anarcho-communist. Its governing body, the Siberian Soviet, also faces a fundamental threat to its anarchistic nature from inside (in Orenburg, Burba and Malenkov, and in Kansk, the Siberian Black Army). Unlike the Worker's Council, however, the Siberian Soviet actually functions as a governmental entity, and its preservation is preferable to the alternative.
• Home Guard: Essentially Orenburg's only defense, a group of ad hoc militia units tasked with defending their people.
• Here We Go Again!: One of Orenburg's ending slides reveals that, after defeating Dirlewanger's band of marauders and pillagers, they are invaded by another band of marauders and pillagers, this time led by a victorious Abu Khan from Kazakhstan.
• Medieval Stasis: Villages around the city are stuck at a medieval level of organization, refusing contact with the outside world altogether.
• Suddenly Significant City: Orenburg found itself one of the most prosperous cities of Russia after the Soviet defeat in World War II because of the mountains that protect it from raiders and the post-war reconstruction led by Aleksander Burba. It's even called the "Venice of Russia" for its wealth and prestige.

Worker's Council of Orenburg

Role: Head of State

Party: Predstavitely Obshchin^note Community Representatives

Ideology: Anarcho-Communism^note Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} The Worker's Council of Orenburg is both the glue that holds the entity together and the magnets pulling it apart. Born out of the fire and blood of the collapse of Russia, self-sufficient villages organized together in a loose confederation, called the Worker's Council. The Soviet Union, an authoritarian socialist state, gave way to the Anarcho-Syndicalist teachings of Orenburg. The city of Orenburg itself has served as the economic, political, and cultural center of the proto-state, and it is where the council meets.

From a first glance, the Council is a utopian socialist ideal, the culmination of hundreds of years of theory cultivated by socialists throughout history. But upon any inspection, the rotting foundation of the Worker's Council is exposed.

Crippled by uncertainty, and the near-unanimous votes required for anything to be passed, Orenburg's Worker Council seldom gets anything done. Even worse, the council is rife with corruption and separatist tendencies that threaten to destroy what little unity the region has. Even with tentative reforms being pushed through, the lack of a cohesive executive power dictating Orenburg has sentenced it to the slow death of indecision.

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• Democracy Is Flawed: The anarchic democracy in Orenburg is extremely inefficient. The trivial needs of every single member has to be accounted for and debated to reach a unanimous conclusion, which makes doing any meaningful work basically impossible. Burba and Malenkov will both centralize the Council to an extent in order to prevent collapse and defend Orenburg from outside threats.
• Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Worker's Council of Orenburg constantly argues among themselves during their Congresses, leading to nothing productive being done. Most Congresses degenerate into fistfights and everyone accusing each other of being Fascists.
• Take a Third Option: If the Council is not divided on any issue, it can reform itself rather than have Burba or Malenkov centralize the government, allowing a Socialist Orenburg to take power in the Urals.

Aleksander Burba

Role: Head of State (Worker's Council dissolved)

Party: Fraktsiya Burby^note Burba Fraction

Ideology: Oligarchy^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Ever since the founding of the Communes of Orenburg, the city has seemed to have two natures at war with itself. On one hand, its people are free. They live their own lives, and run their own little governments, free from the damaging influence of either the invisible hand of the market, or the iron hand of the state. But on the other hand, Orenburg is a state of chaos, and has been since its foundation. The Communes are filled with discord, petty squabbles and even violence. They are far richer than the surrounding lands, but seemingly far poorer than they should be. The men and women of the Communes are tough and resourceful, but the militia shrinks from even the most meager of challenges. Orenburg is great, yet it is small. It is powerful, yet it is weak. It is a symbol of the future of the Russian Wastes, and a reminder of their past.

Aleksander Adolfovich Burba rose to power promising a convergence of these dual natures. He promised a strong centralized state, but not the iron-fisted dictatorship of Malenkov. He promised to respect the independent desires and needs of the people of Orenburg, but not succumb to the communes anarchic nature. And who better? Burba also seems to be made of contradictions. He is as rich a capitalist magnate as one can find among the warlords, yet he acts seemingly only out of concern for his fellow citizens. His first move in power was was to cement his control over Orenburg's institutions, yet his seconds are independent souls rather than toadies or henchmen.

Burba is most of all a deal maker, and the choice he has offered the people of Orenburg is a tempting one indeed. Their city can be made great again, forged in the fires of industry into the shining jewel of the Urals, paid for with loyalty, obedience, and hard work. And is it such a terrible price to pay? Are full bellies and warm homes worth a voice in government? Are nights free from gunfire worth squares empty of demonstrators? Is a glorious future worth a stifling present? Only time will tell how far Burba's ambitions stretch, and how far the people of Orenburg are willing to go to fulfill them.

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• Emperor Scientist: A talented engineer and industrial magnate mainly responsible for turning Orenburg into the Venice of West Russia, Burba can take charge in Orenburg and turn it into a democratic republic heavily influenced by scientists, engineers and industrialists.
• Expy: In many ways, Burba is Robert Edwin House. A gifted captain of industry, Burba, similar to what House did to New Vegas, turned Orenburg to a shining jewel in the wastes and wants to assert firm control over the city and its nearby communes as a means to accomplish his grand and ambitious vision for the future, while providing sufficient security to protect it from the raiders and barbarians coming from the East. While House is more dictatorial, like Burba he does seek to ultimately better the populace through his technocratic leadership.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Burba is a prominent industrialist who used his skills and influence to recreate Orenburg into a prosperous city, by post-Soviet standards.
• Repressive, but Efficient: Downplayed. While his rule isn't really that repressive (he is supportive of democracy, in fact), especially in comparison to many other authoritarian and totalitarian regimes so common in TNO, he still has to curtail the power of the Workers' Council and centralize power to make any considerable changes and get things done.

Dirlewanger Brigade

^{Flag of Dirlewanger's Realm}

Official Name: Dirlewanger Brigade, Dirlewanger's Realm (regional unification)

Ruling Party: Dirlewanger-Loyalisten^note Dirlewanger Loyalists

Ideology: National Socialism

Oskar Dirlewanger and his Brigade are some of the vilest people to ever walk the land of the Earth. Made up of the worst people Nazi Germany has to offer and headed by the worst among the worst, the Brigade carved a legacy so bloody and notorious that even the SS wanted nothing to do with them, their name striking fear in Germans and Russians alike. During the West Russian War and the SS mutiny, Speidel's loyalists subdued Himmler's rebelling SS forces, but Dirlewanger slipped through. The Dirlewanger Brigade fled the Reich's territory and marched into the Urals, where they defied onlookers' hopes and survived in the harsh environment. Having totally abandoned the Nazi hierarchy, the Black Bandits now freely roam the Southern Urals in search of thrills and plunder.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: The flag of Dirlewanger's realm is the historical flag of Orsk.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: The Dirlewanger Brigade was already infamous during WWII for being a mob of criminals, rapists and other scum who were used by the Nazis as Cannon Fodder on the front lines. When the Brigade began operating in the wilderness of the Urals, they started to attract people with even lower moral standards.
• Bandit Clan: The various degenerates and felons in the Brigade have stuck together under Dirlewanger through thick and thin to take their brigandry to the next level. They're beyond the Reich's authority in the lawless wastes, so they've been operating with impunity by the time the game begins.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Magnitagorsk for the Southern Urals.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Despite being originally part of the Nazi Germany, history's most infamous Knight Templar state, the Dirlewanger Brigade is fully congicent of their evil, having abandoned National Socialist beliefs and proudly declaring themselves a gang of murderous, hedonistic raiders.
• Egocentric Team Naming: The Dirlewanger Brigade is named as such because they're entirely centred around their leader, and will swiftly disperse after his death.
• Egopolis: If Dirlewanger manages to unite the Southern Urals, his 'country' is simply called Dirlewanger's Realm.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Since the Brigade fled from Germany to Russia, its ranks have been swelled with Russians, Kazakhs and Poles who seek an escape from their poverty-stricken lives.
• Keystone Army: The personality of Dirlewanger is the only thing that unifies bandits of the Dirlewanger Brigade. If Dirlewanger dies, the further fate of the Black Bandits will be a short one, even if another bandit comes in charge.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Dirlewanger's Brigade barely holds itself together and is prone to brutal, lethal infighting. Even Direlwanger himself can fall victim to this. True to form, after destroying their mutual enemies it is inevitable that the Brigade and Magnitogorsk turn on one another.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Dirlewanger Brigade are some of the worst people in the Russian Anarchy, and even their foci mention just how horribly unsafe any woman unlucky enough to fall into their hands is.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Black Bandits don't have any ambitions beyond robbing and pillaging villages and cities near them. This is also a gameplay mechanic, where any state they conquer is stripped of all industry and infrastructure for immediate gains in equipment.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: After the failure of the SS's coup, Oskar Dirlewanger and his Brigade went rogue from the Reich and fled to the Urals, far away from Germany's jurisdiction. They (or at least the old German members who had joined the Brigade before the coup) still nominally subscribe to National Socialism, but the Brigade itself has since abandoned the Nazi hierarchy and now only seeks to plunder. In turn, the territory controlled by the Brigade still gets bombed by Luftwaffe pilots on a regular basis, like other nearby warlord states are.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Many old members who joined the Dirlewanger Brigade when it was still the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS continue to wear their disheveled Waffen-SS uniforms, even after the Brigade went rogue from both the Reich and Heinrich Himmler.
• Totalitarian Gangsterism: The Dirlewanger Brigade's territory around the city of Orsk is a hub for the vilest criminals of the Urals, where they lick their wounds and plan their next raids.
• Villain Team-Up: The focus trees prod Dirlewanger to make an alliance with the about as monstrous Lysenko in Magnitogorsk.
• Wretched Hive: Dirlewanger's rule has not been kind to Orsk.

Oskar Dirlewanger

Role: Military Commander, Head of State

Party: Dirlewanger-Loyalisten^note Dirlewanger Loyalists

Ideology: National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Oskar Dirlewanger, the bandit king, is perhaps the single most hated - and feared - man in Southern Russia. Standing at the head of his men, a collection of rapists, murderers, and savages without equal, he terrorizes all unfortunate enough to call the Southern Urals their home.

A lifetime criminal opportunitst, Dirlewanger was imprisoned in 1934 for the rape of an underaged girl, and escaped only this and other later convictions through political connections and, in 1939, by his volunteering for service in the Waffen-SS. There, his depravity was found to be accompanied by a talent for effective, if brutal, leadership, resulting in his promotion to command what would become the first iteration of the so-called 'Dirlewanger Brigade.'

During the war this unit, shielded by association with the SS, committed uncounted atrocities in the Eastern campaigns, burning and pillaging its way across Poland and Russia. These actions were repeated in the West Russian War, and what evidence of those actions survives make it clear that Dirlewanger's brutality and criminality only increased with time.

His life changed dramatically, however, in the aftermath of Himmler and the SS's failed coup. Opening fire on the Wehrmacht units that had arrived to disarm and imprison them, Dirlewanger and his men escaped into the Russian winter, eventually carving out a fiefdom in the Southern Urals from which they could pursue their greatest passions - plunder and blood.

At this, he and his Brigade are all too effective. But Dirlewanger has grown somewhat tired with ravaging nameless villages, and has his eyes set on the two prizes of the region: the city of Orenburg and the facilities on the Black Mountain. He thinks he would very much enjoy burning them to the ground.

After taking everything of value, of course.

A former SS commander and leader of his Brigade, Oskar Dirlewanger is considered the most brutal and despicable person to ever walk the Earth, and for good reason. Joining the NSDAP during its early years and becoming a member of the SS during WW2, Dirlewanger commanded an exceptionally brutal anti-partisan unit that killed and raped Poles and Russians alike. Luck would run out for Dirlewanger when he and his men were forced to flee after an attempted SS coup against the Heer...or so it would seem. Despite the hopes of the Wehrmacht, their victims and most of humanity, his unit managed to survive in the Russian wastes, taking over the Ural city of Orsk and setting up their headquarters there. With their position now secure, Dirlewanger has set his sights on the weak but wealthy anarchist state of Orenburg, protected by the Ural League. Now known as the Bandit King, Dirlewanger is confident that he and his men will defeat the warlords of the Southern Urals and will soon loot everything in sight. However, Dirlewanger's brigade is only kept together by Oskar's brutality and fearlessness and should he die, his Brigade would surely disperse without their leader to keep it together.

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• The Alcoholic: Dirlewanger is a big alcoholic and can die during a drunken brawl.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • One of his death events is pretty much directly lifted from the real-life attempt by John Hinckley, Jr. to assassinate Ronald Reagan, only successful.
  • One of the death events where he is arrested and executed by the NKVD is very similar to the "trial" and execution of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, the Minister of Internal Affairs and head of the NKVD during the reign of Stalin. Both were notoriously brutal and sadistic murders as well as serial rapists, and Beria's corpse was also incinerated after he was shot.
• Ambition Is Evil: Tempted by the riches of foreign lands, Dirlewanger wants to be remembered as one of the greatest conquerors in history, a new Alexander, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, even Hitler.
• And I Must Scream: In one of his death events, Dirlewanger gets locked in the catacombs of the Black Mountain and eventually dies, with his voice played on repeat through ancient speaker systems.
  Getting into the Black Mountain is not the hard part. It's letting go.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: In many of his death events, it is mentioned that the people of Russia (and even other parts of the world) become relieved and happy when they hear about the death of the Bandit King. Even the acknowledgment text usually contains some snarking about Dirlewanger's yet another unlucky death.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: One of his numerous death events has the NKVD 22nd Motor Rifle Division capture Dirlewanger and charge him with "2,758 counts of murder, 490 counts of rape, heinous actions against the Soviet Union, gross terrorism, serving as an accomplice of the Nazis, and political unreliability". After finding him guilty on all charges, he is shot in the head and his corpse is incinerated.
• Asshole Victim: Such a myriad of hilarious and gruesome death events were specifically made by the entire mod development team to do justice to one of the worst Nazi war criminals, the pedophile, rapist, and sadist that is Oskar Dirlewanger.
• Bad Boss: His aides are noted to walk on eggshells around him, as his constant drunkenness renders his already bad temper rather unstable, and he tends to shoot people when he is angry.
• Bond One-Liner: When he kills Lysenko during the fall of the Black Mountain, he decapitates his corpse and and, in his words, decides to "leave it on the ground. It will be his last contribution to agriculture".
• Blood Knight: He continues to command battles well into his old age, loving the slaughter just as much as his men.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of Dirlewanger's death events has him come to realize that the player is watching him, and kills himself.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Dirlewanger is proudly cognizant of the sheer breadth of his cruelty and revels in it. Despite being given the title "Nationalist Socialist" by the game, he believes in absolutely nothing but his own self-interest and plundering the wastes, joyfully giving himself the moniker of "The Bandit King". Equally monstrous factions such as The Aryan Brotherhood, Taboritsky, and even Himmler all believe they are righteous, but Dirlewanger fully recogizes he is evil.
• Colony Drop: When the Sun Gun fails and falls back to Earth, it can end up falling right on top of Dirlewagner.
• Decapitated Army: Should Dirlewanger die (and he has A LOT of ways to die), his band will quickly disintegrate.
• Decapitation Presentation: In one of his death events, unknown people kidnap Dirlewanger, mutilate him and put his head on a stick.
• Dirty Old Man: Dirlewanger was a convicted child rapist in real life and there's no indication that he's gotten any less randy and depraved in TNO, especially given that the NKVD charges him with 490 counts of rape in one of his death events. While that sounds hyperbolic, it's probably not actually that far off considering how long his brigade has been terrorizing eastern Europe...
• The Dreaded: Dirlewanger is feared and hated across the entirety of Southern Russia, and with good reason.
• Evil Old Folks: He's 66 at the start of the mod, and there are less than a half-dozen people worse than him.
• Failure Is the Only Option: In the event the player does an Orsk playthrough, the question is never, "How can Dirlewanger win?" because the game will simply never let him survive that long. The real question is; "How will Dirlewanger die?" Even if the player actively tries to avoid any of his scripted death events, he will eventually get killed off by one of several random events.
• Fame Through Infamy: The closest Dirlewanger has to an "end goal" is his desire to be remembered forever across the Earth as a conqueror, emulating those who went on similar campaigns in the past like Alexander the Great or Adolf Hitler himself. In his campaign, he makes sure to spread terror whenever he conquers, all in a effort to become Russia's "boogeyman".
• Foregone Conclusion: No matter what happens, Dirlewanger will eventually die, and without him to keep it together, his brigade will fracture into chaos. The entertainment value provided by playing as him comes from seeing how far he make it before it happens, and, of course, exactly which, if not outright amusing, then at the very least richly deserved demise the game eventually sees fit to subject him to.
• Hated by All: As a psychotic serial rapist with little belief beyond murdering, conquering and torturing everyone in his path, Dirlewanger manages to be hated not only by all of Russia but his own country, which has little interest in him after he defected from Germany, and his own men see him as little more than the person who sends them on raids and only leave him alive our of fear and/or laziness.
• Hate Sink: Much like in real life, Dirlewanger has little in the way of endearing qualities. He's an ugly, depraved, child-raping psychopath who's rightfully feared and hated by just about everyone in Russia. Most of the Russian warlords are morally grey, but Dirlewanger is one of the select few who's truly, unambiguously evil.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: A rare subversion. He was JUST as bad in real life, though he has a longer time scale here to do damage.
• Karmic Death: Dirlewanger, a notorious rapist and unrepentant war criminal who frequently reveled in wanton cruelty and his own depravity as he ran campaigns of terror and extermination against countless civilians on the Eastern front, can meet his end in various ways, and quite a few of them are quite karmatic. One that truly stands out, is the one where he ends up being kidnapped and torn apart by over 50 revenge-seeking Russian women, who then sell his organs on the black market.
• King of Thieves: Dirlewanger leads a band of bandits named after himself, and is considered the Bandit King of Southern Russia.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Dirlewanger, bizarrely enough, portrays himself as the inheritor of the likes of Alexander the Great, but in addition to his territory having no chance of surviving through the 70s can never leave the Ostland-sized patch of land that is the Southern Urals.
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: One of Dirlewanger's death events details an attempt to imitate The Prince by appointing a ruthless governor in Orenburg, then killing him, in an attempt to "satisfy and stupefy" the people. It doesn't work, and the next time he visits he's murdered by an angry mob.
• The Many Deaths of You: Dirlewanger has over a myriad of death events in the mod with various flavors.
• No One Could Survive That!: Many people in Germany assumed that Dirlewanger died during the harsh Ural winter after he escaped from Speidel in the 50s. They were mistaken.
• Not Quite Dead: When Dirlewanger escaped from Speidel to the Urals, many in the Reich assumed that he couldn't survive the Russian frozen wastelands and angry Slavic hordes in it. To the dismay of the Urals' population, they were wrong.
• Playing with Syringes: If Dirlewanger is successfully captured by Lysenko's forces during their "negotiations", he becomes just another test subject for the Black Mountain scientists.
• Public Execution: If Orenburg defeats the Dirlewanger Brigade, one of his men will knock Dirlewanger out and hand him to the enemy. He is then dragged to Orenburg, where crowds of happy citizens gather to see his execution.
• Shout-Out: With the game's many references to Fallout, it's possible that Dirlewanger and his Brigade, are a reference to Caesar's Legion.
• Smug Snake: Dirlewanger has an enormously-inflated opinion of himself, dreaming of conquering the world and celebrating in every broken capitol city◊. Of course, in reality, he can't even get out of the southern Urals, let alone Germania, New York, or Tokyo, and he's likely to die in hilarious fashion.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion: In one of his death events, Dirlewanger just gets set on fire for no visible reason. This is surprisingly truth in television, as alcoholics have been known to spontaneously combust in very rare circumstances.
  "Maybe hell had simply claimed him."
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He can work with Lysenko, who will provide him resources, but both of them are on poor terms with each other, and he plans to kill Lysenko as soon as he can.
• Villainous Valour: Even as evil a monster of Dirlewanger has got at least one quality that draws his bandits to himself and secures their loyalty: he's brave and fearless, facing death in events where he's being executed with total defiance and not being afraid to personally fight and duel enemies even in his advancing years.
• Who Shot JFK?: One event is pretty much a direct homage to these rumors, with talk of 'magic bullets' and the reaction text being 'Who shot Oskar Dirlewanger?'

Fritz Schmedes

Role: Military Commander, Head of Government (Dirlewanger cabinet), Security Minister (Dirlewanger cabinet), Head of State (Dirlewanger dead)

Party: Dirlewanger-Loyalisten^note Dirlewanger Loyalists

Ideology: National Socialism

In-Game Biography (General) ^{Click to Show} Fritz Schmedes was a good German, a loyal National Socialist, and a true believer in the superiority of the Aryan race. And it all mattered naught, for a dispute with Heinrich Himmler ended with him exiled to the Dirlewanger Brigade as punishment. When the Brigade abandoned the German cause and marched into the Russian wilderness, Schmedes followed. As the once-loyal German soldiers pillaged and raided like the bandits they were once conscripted to fight, Schmedes fought beside them. His seething anger and resentment for being sent here manifests itself in the cruelties he inflicts alongside the Brigade's other officers and men. Even if not by choice, Schmedes is a loyal son of Germany no longer. He is a monster like the rest.

In-Game Biography (Leader) ^{Click to Show} Oskar Dirlewanger is dead. But the Brigade, such as it is, limps on under the command of Fritz Schmedes, the only man capable of attempting to keep it together.

Exiled to the Brigade long ago following a dispute with Heinrich Himmler, and although he initially had worked hard to try and escape it, when it turned from a military unit into a bandit force he followed, and adapted. Perhaps tapping to a darkness that was always there, he quickly became almost as monstrous as his commander, working to plan and execute many of the Brigade's most daring raids.

Now, with Dirlewanger dead and the Brigade in near-anarchy, Schmedes leads the crippled remnants that are still loyal, desperately trying to maintain some form of unity. However, with desertions increasing, splinter groups forming, and punitive expeditions increasingly launched against him, it would seem as though his efforts are doomed to failure.

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• Short-Lived Leadership: Schmedes becomes the Dirlewanger Brigade's leader after Oskar Dirlewanger's death, but he can only retain leadership for around a week before the Brigade collapses and disperses without Dirlewanger to pull it together.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Oddly enough the real Schmedes died of natural causes in 1952, in TNO he lived at least a decade longer.
• The Starscream: In one of Oskar Dirlewanger's death events, he is ambushed and killed by Schmedes to take over the Brigade.

Magnitogorsk

^{Flag of NKVD Magnitogorsk}

Official Name: People's Republic of Magnitogorsk, Southern Ural Autonomous Oblast (regional unification)

Ruling Party: Tekhnokraticheskaya Klika^note Technocratic Clique

Ideology: Civilian Dictatorship^note Despotism

When the Soviet front collapsed during WWII, Soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko and his clique of loyal scientists were evacuated east by the 22nd Motor Rifle Division NKVD. When the Soviet government collapsed, Lysenko made an alliance with the now aimless 22nd, convincing them that his research was still necessary for the greater good. The group found the abandoned industrial city of Magnitogorsk and turned it into Lysenko's new research facility. Lysenko, having never abandoned his belief of Lamarckian evolution, now works inside the Black Mountain to see if his theories can be applied to create the ultimate soldier...

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• Breeding Slave: Lysenko forces captured and tortured men and women to breed together so they can pass their acquired traits to their offspring.
• Crapsaccharine World: Initially, it seemed like the Black Mountain scientists gave a new life to the Dying Town, as they restored the dormant industry and made Magnitogorsk self-sufficient. Then people started disappearing...
• Deadly Euphemism: In the decisions screen, the description for performing human tests is accompanied with the phrase "Some subjects will be rendered 'unrecoverable' by the experiments", implying their deadly nature.
• Elite Army: By virtue of being home to the remnants of a Soviet NKVD division, Magnitogorsk has one of the most professional armies in Southern Russia at their disposal, but they are lacking in numbers, mostly because their potential manpower is utilized for other purposes.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Magnitogorsk can make a short alliance with Dirlewanger against the Ural League and Orenburg, which falls apart quickly after their common enemies are dealt with.
  • If the NKVD takes charge, they can form an alliance with Burba's Orenburg in the face of the common threat of Dirlewanger, even though they acknowledge that Burba is not someone who aligns with the NKVD's interests.
• For Science!: Lysenko and his comrades believe that their human experiments advancing science and on the route to making supersoldiers, but to any observer, their experiments are just a form of elaborate torture on innocent people.
• In Name Only: The People's Republic of Magnitogorsk claims that their allegiance is to the Soviet Union, even though it's a technocratic state with some Soviet symbolism. For this reason, Magnitogorsk's starting ideology is Despotism instead of Communism.
• Lamarck Was Right: Magnitogorsk operates on the ideas of Lamarck driven to the point of absurdity. Believing that living organisms inherit the acquired traits of their forebears and that plants can acquire desirable traits if they grow under extreme duress, Lysenko extrapolated this view to people and came to the conclusion that you can make Super Soldiers out of humans if you put them under the worst conditions.
• Last Stand:
  • Lysenko and his henchmen don't go easily even when surrounded without any hope of escape. They can even attempt to release their prisoners to fight for them, but they simply tear their jailors to shreds..
  • In one of Lysenko's endings, Black Mountain is on the receiving end of this when they are besieged by the Aryan Brotherhood, with Lysenko ordering his forces to make the Mountain the Nazis tomb before ordering them to open fire.
  • In one of the NKVD ending slides, they are invaded by an Outside-Context Problem consisting of Gas Mask Mooks who utilize substances of yellow plumes. Despite their efforts, the mighty NKVD succumbs to the unknown enemy. Come post-release, they're very likely facing Sergey Taboritsky's soldiers.
• Mad Scientist: Magnitogorsk is a nation ruled by a group of talented but insane scientists. In order to defeat their enemies, Lysenko and his colleagues perform all kinds of abuse and torture on their people for the sake of their dubious theories. In the game, Magnitogorsk starts with the "Mad Scientist" spirit, which improves their defenses and gives boosts to research time, but decreases their manpower.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: Despite Lysenko's extreme brutality and despotism, Magnitogorsk bills itself as the "People's Republic of Magnitogorsk," as Lysenko thinks that he's ruling a legitimate Soviet successor state.
• Persecuted Intellectuals: A rare positive example of this trope in fiction. Though they often end up no better than their former masters, the NKVD after their coup try to capture and punish every Black Mountain scientist who was involved in Lysenkoist atrocities.
• Playing with Syringes: The scientists of Magnitogorsk put kidnapped people under all types of unethical experiments (which are hardly different from torture) in their futile attempts to turn them into Super Soldiers.
• Praetorian Guard: The 22nd NKVD division first accompanied and served as bodyguards to the Soviet scientist group, but later it found itself as a capable military force in the region as well. If the NKVD comes to power, it can serve as bodyguards to various Russian unifers, including Tomsk.
• Red and Black Totalitarianism: If the NKVD take over, they switch to a flag that primarily uses red and black colors. While nowhere near as bad as Lysenko, the NKVD are also still willing to use brutal measures to keep the population in line.
• Renegade Russian: Magnitogorsk is led by a group of scientists and NKVD who deserted the WRRF after the West Russian War.
• The Remnant: Magnitogorsk serves as a refuge for Lysenko's group of Soviet scientists and the 22nd NKVD Motor Rifle Division. The scientific elite of the Black Mountain still views themselves as a continuation of the Soviet science program, but rather than adhering to the principles of Communism and trying to restore the Soviet Union, they are more interested in maintaining technocracy for their own gains.
• Safely Secluded Science Center: The Black Mountain is an underground laboratory complex that's been built into a mountain just outside Magnitogorsk, itself completely self-sufficient. This is the centre of Lysenko's efforts to create super-soldiers that can supposedly destroy Germany; unfortunately, Lysenko and his NKVD compatriots are more than willing to abduct test subjects from Magnitogorsk to that end...
• Schmuck Bait: The "Unleash the New Russians" decision supposedly allows Lysenko to employ the tortured prisoners as military units as he believes that they have become super soldiers. To his surprise, once released, they are not very eager to fight for their tormentor....
• Scrapbook Story: Many of Magnitogorsk's national focus descriptions and events are presented in the form of communiqués from Lysenko, meeting excerpts, and other in-universe documents.
• Shout-Out:
  • Aside from Magnitogorsk being a reference to the Big MT from the Old World Blues DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, the alternate name for Magnitogorsk, the Black Mountain, comes from the same game.
  • One of Magnitogorsk's focuses involves starting the "Programma Zimnego Soldata" super soldier program, or Winter Soldier Program in English.
• Soviet Superscience: Perhaps more closely post-Soviet Superscience, but the Mad Scientist Trofim Lysenko, a remnant of the old Soviet Union, possesses all manner of insane and advanced technology, and as a result of Lysenko's brilliance/insanity and his abandoning of any ethical limitations he ever had, his nation of Magnitogorsk gets a massive 25% reduction in research time, all but assuring that Magnitogorsk will always be on the cutting edge of global technology.
• State Sec: Lysenko has an NKVD division in his pocket, which is pretty much his entire military force.
• Twist Ending: A secret path and focus tree to the nation was teased. It turns out to be a rare positive example, especially for this mod. Should their loyalty vanish, the NKVD can overthrow Lysenko, which would normally be a From Bad to Worse situation given the infamous brutality of the Soviet secret police, but they also have an option to pursue a relatively benevolent rule, ending the nightmare of the Black Mountain.

Trofim Lysenko

Role: Head of State

Party: Tekhnokraticheskaya Klika^note Technocratic Clique

Ideology: Civilian Dictatorship^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Trofim Lysenko was once hailed by the Soviet Union as the golden child of socialist science. At last, a humble proletarian scientist who was dismissing the reactionary "education" propagated by bourgeois institutions! A man who has proven that the principles of Marx apply not only to human societies, but to the very fruits of the earth! His theories will revolutionize agronomy and transform the Soviet Union into a global agricultural juggernaut! Darwinism is the past, and Lysenkoism is the future!

At the very least, that was what he promised.

While his results were far more disappointing, the convenient arrival of the war saved him from facing serious consequences. Lysenko and his clique of loyal scientists were evacuated east by the 22nd Motor Rifle Division NKVD as the Soviet front lines collapsed, to prevent his "vital research" from falling into fascist hands. When the Union disintegrated, Lysenko found himself without patronage and the 22nd found themselves without orders, so an alliance was struck between the two groups. He swayed the 22nd's leaders into believing that his research was still necessary to continue for the good of the Union, even if the Union had ceased to exist as a coherent state, and that a new research facility was necessary. After working for (and eventually leaving) the West Russian Revolutionary Front, they found a haven in the abandoned industrial city of Magnitogorsk, turning the once-derelict Black Mountain into a hub of research and scientific innovation.

Lysenko, however, never abandoned his pseudo-Lamarckian view of evolution, however, and continued to pour time and resources into proving it right. And with the Union in such dire straits, there might be military merit in proving that his theories apply to humans as well...

A former Soviet scientist who at some point in his life convinced himself that humans could "evolve" under extreme conditions, Trofim Lysenko now regularly experiments on the citizens of Magnitogorsk to advance "Soviet science".

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• Emperor Scientist: Lysenko is the technocratic ruler of Magnitogorsk who treats the entire city as a guinea pig for his wicked experiments.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lysenko sincerely believes that prisoners are grateful to him for his experiments. Either during his Last Stand or by taking the "Unleash the New Russians" decision, he tries to release his prisoners, fully expecting them to defend him, and not to tear him apart for all the suffering Lysenko brought upon them. His hopes turn out to be misplaced.
• Evil Feels Good: Or, at least, feels comforting in Lysenko's case. Performing experiments on people keeps Lysenko's sanity intact, and if no experiments take place, his sanity noticeably degrades, causing concerns for his circle.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Initially, Lysenko didn't think that his theories could be applied to humans. However, at some point after World War II, he came to believe that not only could humans improve under extreme conditions, like crops, but that it was necessary for the benefit of mankind. In Magnitogorsk, Lysenko set up a massive system of "experimental chambers", where people are subjected to torture, in an attempt to confirm his theories and turn prisoners into Super Soldiers.
• Foil: Lysenko is one to Andrei Zhdanov in Komi. While there are parallels in how both have pseudoscientific pursuits in the name of ideology and aren't letting things like ethics stand in the way of progress, Lysenko has all but bought into his own delusions of advancing "Soviet science". Zhdanov, meanwhile, doesn't let it all get to his head and only sees Ultravisionary Socialism, even at its most audacious, simply as a means of enforcing ideological purity through a technocratic veneer.
• Former Regime Personnel: A former Soviet scientist, Lysenko still feels his experiments are aiding the cause of "Soviet science". In one of his endings, the neo-Stalinist regime of Tyumen decides to rehire him (due to agreeing with his pseudoscientific belief in Lamarckism, and his disdain for the "thinly-veiled capitalism" of Darwinian theory), which Lysenko eagerly accepts, so he would have funding for future projects.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: One of the setting's premier mad scientists is wearing glasses in his portrait. Cracked glasses no less.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: While the real Lysenko used political means to advance his pseudoscientific theories and eliminate his opponents, he never argued for human experimentation.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When the Ural Guards reach his laboratory, a completely maddened Lysenko releases his prisoners, believing that they have become Super Soldiers who will defend him to the last. To Lysenko's surprise, the enraged prisoners rip him to shreds instead.
  • Considering Lysenko held onto his power by turning his pocketed NKVD Division into basically his entire military, Stepan Bunkov turning them on him also qualifies as this trope.
• Karma Houdini: He ends up being this in the ending where he's recruited by Tyumen.
• Mad Scientist: Lysenko, a brilliant yet delusional and immoral biologist, who took over the city of Magnitogorsk in order to kidnap and experiment on the local people. In the mod proper, Magnitogorsk under Lysenko starts with a "Mad Scientist" spirit, which lowers research time and improves defenses for the country but decreases the growth of manpower.
• Obliviously Evil: In Lysenko's mind, he's ruling a legitimate Soviet successor state where his brilliant experiments are creating a mighty race of superhumans, with participants grateful to him for the opportunity to gain extraordinary abilities. In practice, of course, he's torturing innocent people and dismissing their agony as "propaganda," and the only people who see either his science or his reign as legitimate are the equally ideological Lazar Kaganovich's Stalinists.
• Sanity Slippage: While Lysenko's sanity is already not very stable at the start of the game, his mental state can get worse as the game progresses, which actually serves as a game mechanic that impacts decisions and triggers new events.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Though not exactly small-fry, Lysenko's delusions of advancing his brand of class-based science, no matter how abhorrent and insane his methods are, far surpass his clique's actual capabilities.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Lysenko's portrait effectively characterizes him, with his mild expression and glasses making him look intellectual... and one cracked lens hinting at the insanity beneath.
• Trap Master: Lysenko set up a complex system of traps in his fortress, threatening to kill any uninvited guests, including Dirlewanger.
• Unperson: If the Ultravisionaries emerge triumphant in Komi and seize control over Magnitogorsk, what's uncovered proves shocking even to Zhdanov that Lysenko's name is all but purged, while much of his research is either kept under wraps or otherwise destroyed as useless.
• Would Hurt a Child: Some of the experiments available in the decisions screen have names like "Childhood Upbringing Testing", which suggests that Lysenko involves children in his deadly experiments too.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: If Lysenko either completely empties his Sanity Meter, or raises disloyalty from the NKVD, things do NOT end well for the doctor...

Stepan Bunkov

Role: Military Commander, Security Minister (Lysenko cabinet), Head of State (NKVD coup)

Party: Klika NKVD^note NKVD Clique

Ideology: Civilian Dictatorship^note Despotism, Military Junta^note Despotism (NKVD coup)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Stepan Mikhailovich Bunkov, the irreplaceable commander of the 22nd NKVD Motor Division, faithfully served the Soviet Motherland even after it was crushed by the German tanks. Little is known how exactly his paths intersected with the path of Lysenko, but it is commonly believed comrade Bunkov was tasked by the Kremlin right before the fall of Moscow to evacuate the scientific and technical intelligentsia to the Urals so they could labor for the benefit of the country even when the heart of Russia succumbed to the invader. In their travels, unrequired by every other self-proclaimed successor of the Soviet Union, Lysenko established his control the exiled scientist clique and turned the NKVD division into his weapon of suppression and terror.

Since their arrival in Magnitogorsk, Bunkov took a part in numerous atrocities overseen by Lysenko, putting his faith in Lysenko's best judgment. However, as the experiments of Lysenko became more and more brutal and insane in their nature, Bunkov grew more skeptical and opposing towards the Magnitogorsk scientific elite, to the point of considering Lysenko a liability to the restoration of the Soviet ways. Bunkov took the initiative against his former master and overthrew Lysenko to take his place. During his short rule, Bunkov finished with many of the Lysenkoist nightmares and put forth attempts to rebuild the old Soviet institutions, putting an end to anarchy that reigned under Lysenko. But as his grip over the country holds tight, it wouldn't be reprehensible to assume that we can resort to no less brutal measures to keep the dissented population in line.

The commander of the NKVD 22th Motor Division, Lysenko's main instrument of waging war and terror across the Southern Urals.

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• The Coup: Of all people, especially considering the dark nature of the mod, it is the NKVD that can pull this off should their loyalty reach zero. After their coup, they can proceed to choose a benevolent path and restore some true order and sanity to the state.
• Cult of Personality: If NKVD Magnitogorsk takes a "bad" route, they will try to establish a cult of Bunkov.
• Defector from Decadence: In the good NKVD route, Bunkov arrests and executes Lysenko and starts bringing order back to Magnitogorsk.
• Due to the Dead: In the aftermath of Lysenko's rule, the NKVD can begin accounting, categorising and detailing the details of his destructive experiments, in order to bring some order to Magnitogorsk and justice to his victims.
• Everyone Has Standards: If Lysenko goes completely insane, or if the NKVD's loyalty bottoms out, the NKVD under Bunkov will overthrow Lysenko and execute him, taking over Magnitogorsk and imposing their own rule.
• Former Regime Personnel: When the NKVD removes Lysenko from power, they also ensure they don't have a master to follow. Several Russian unifiers can recruit them, including the democratic republic in Tomsk, as shown in one slide of the Old World Blues ending.
• Police State: In the evil NKVD route, the NKVD will establish a very pervasive network of surveillance and control of Magnitogorsk's population. Even in the good route, they have to keep a close eye on the people, who mistrust them due to their complicity in Lysenko's crimes.

Anarchies

The Anarchy of the Southern Urals, the legacy of Oskar Dirlewanger

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The monster lies dead, his legacy is not that of an empire rivaling Alexander, but one of bloodshed and misery.

Dirlewanger's base and perverted interests were widely shared by his men but his ambitions were not, only serving him and his fiefdom out of fear and a need to satisfy their own greed. With their king dead, the loyalty among thieves has been shattered, forming rival bandit factions that fight amongst each other for the remains of what is left in the Southern Urals.

This collapse is no reprieve for the Brigade's victims, who continue to suffer as this constant state of warfare has prevented any possibility of a new government from forming that has more authority than a village elder. These villages focus inwards to protect what little they have left from men who only believe in wanton violence and cruelty. This chaotic situation will continue to be the status quo until an outside power can put an end to the anarchy in the future.

But for now, the residents of the South Urals must persist in a failed state where life is nasty, brutish and short.

Should Dirlewanger unite the Southern Urals and inevitably die, his whole empire of suffering will collapse into anarchy without its vile monster keeping it together.

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• Anarchy Is Chaos: Dirlewanger's men scatter upon their leader's death and fight over what remains, slaughtering the innocent survivors still left and leaving the region in shambles, until a larger unifier can come.
• Downer Ending: The collapse of authority in the Southern Urals is a disappointing end to the region as Dirlewanger's legacy continues to haunt the region. Innocents find themselves terrorised by his former bandits, who destroy and prevent any possibility of a new government from forming. Its only hope is for a stronger unifier to restore order to the anarchy.
• History Repeats: In a sense, Dirlewanger really did become the next Alexander the Great. Not in deeds, but in leaving behind a fragile empire that collapses soon after his death.
• Villainous Legacy: The game outright calls this place the "legacy of Oskar Dirlewanger", since the Southern Urals can only fall into this state when he unifies the region. Until a unifier appears in West Russia or West Siberia, the Southern Urals will remain in this state.

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