The Desert Rangers (Team Alpha and Recruits, Team Echo and Recruits, Team November and Recruits) - Major Antagonists
The Patriarch and the Buchanan Family - Other Recurring Characters
—— Factions and Settlements ——
Arizona and Nevada - California
Colorado (Colorado Springs, The Plains Gangs, Other Factions and Characters in Colorado)
A character sheet for the factions and inhabitants of Colorado Springs from Wasteland 3.
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The Patriarch's Marshals
In General
" I thought I made myself clear."
The Patriarch's Marshals are the main security force of Colorado Springs. Formed by the Patriarch himself, and under his direct authority, the Marshals are effectively a combination of the local military, police, and jailers... mixed with an incredible amount of corruption.
They are led by Sheriff Daisy, a soft-spoken, friendly old gal... unless you cross her.
- By-the-Book Cop: Subverted; none of the Marshals are too worried about doing things legally, since they basically get to decide what the law is whenever they want. You can even run into a traveling caravan of them that will sell you confiscated goods, cheerfully telling you that no one is innocent, and they can find guilt in anybody if they try.
- Control Freak: Daisy hates it when the Rangers do anything she doesn't like, and seems to believe that the Rangers are effectively just another Marshals squad at her beck and call. Reminding her of the fact that you are an independent group that she has no official say over will cause a big drop in your Reputation with her.
- Cool Old Guy: Sheriff Daisy tries to come across as the female version of this, and succeeds if you don't do anything she doesn't like.
- Corrupt Cop: The defining trope for the faction as a whole. It's to the point that Marshal Kwon, who freely admits to taking bribes and other unlawful behavior, is strongly indicated to be the most moral member of the group, which is why he quits to join the Rangers in the first place.
- Dirty Cop: The Marshals are pretty glad to resort to force whenever they want to. Securing them Powered Armor will facilitate one standing about on patrol to remark about how much more comfortable this makes punching refugees.
- Evil Old Folks: Daisy is much more like this if you piss her off, since she clearly thinks the Rangers owe her their allegiance. Forcefully reminding her that you answer to the Patriarch, and not her, will cause you to lose a great deal of reputation with the Marshals. Given that Daisy was a full supporter of the Patriarch's deal with the gangs, and evinces tremendously strong controlling tendencies, this is probably her real personality at day's end.
- Foil:
- It's not obvious at first, but the Marshals become a fairly clear one to the Rangers themselves, and surprisingly, manage to be one no matter what morality Team November has.
- On runs where Team November try to do good, the Marshals are what the Rangers would be if they were beholden to any government but themselves; the Rangers are capable of great evil as well, but they haven't institutionalized corruption the way the Marshals have. This goes even further in Angela Deth endings, as the Marshals become one of the last opposing forces that try to stop the Rangers from taking out the Patriarch.
- On runs where Team November are basically just raiders with Patriarch backing, the Marshals are a foil because, for all their Corrupt Cop tendencies, they at least impose some kind of law and order; the evil paths available to Team November make them outright monsters, and the Marshals are better than that, at least.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Daisy's plan to catch Brygo with his pants down boils down to this. Brygo is a mobster; but the most guilt he bears for the Dorsey attack is being aware that McTavish thought it was a good idea. This is, nonetheless, the crime Sheriff Daisy can get him killed or arrested for. Given the Marshal's corruption, it's clear that this is no barrier to her.
- Guide Dang It!: The major roadblock to the secret ending is the fact that almost all the early-game decisions affect the reputation of Team November with the Marshals, and almost no late-game decisions affect it in any way. In order to get November Reigns, you must have good reputation with the Marshals, so it's easy to lock yourself out of the November Reigns path within the first two hours of gameplay.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Daisy's defense if you bring up the deal the Patriarch made with the Savage Council gangs - i.e. exchanging human lives for safety. She claims they used scumbags and criminals, a defense that seems rather flimsy in light of how corrupt and unjust the Marshals are. It's unlikely the criminals they rounded up were all bad enough to deserve becoming slaves to the gangs or sacrifices, depending on where they ended up.
- Powered Armor: One early-game choice involves picking to either save an innocent family from Dorseys, or get a shipment of power armor to the city. The Marshals are weirdly ungrateful for the power armor; you can only get a single reputation point with them for it in an optional dialogue, not nearly enough to overcome any decisions they disliked early on. This is also a bad idea if you want to fight the Patriarch; the Marshals will have this upgrade when you battle them.
Colorado Springs Inhabitants
In General
Colorado Springs has a wide variety of... interesting inhabitants. As the largest city in post-apocalyptic Colorado, the Springs are the centerpiece and effective capitol of the Patriarch's reign, and the very first town Team November can get to.
Colorado Springs' most prominent members are the Hundred Families, the richest and wealthiest supporters of the Patriarch, being the original settler families that banded together behind him to form the Springs. They mostly reside in Broadmoor, which is effectively the "upscale" district of the post-apocalyptic town.
The city is currently undergoing a number of ongoing crises; it just got attacked by the Dorseys, some remnants of that Dorsey army are still in town and in the Garden of the Gods, the Gippers have cut off their oil supply, refugees fleeing Liberty's Savage Council in the east are swamping the city and straining food production to the limits...
The Desert Rangers got their work cut out for them.
- Book Ends: Colorado Springs is the very first friendly area that Team November visits in Colorado. It is also the last place visited, and on the majority of runs, it will not be so friendly in that final visit.
- Determined Homesteader: The Hundred Families basically started out as a post-apocalyptic version of this. Some elements of that rough 'n tumble frontier spirit remain, most notably in Lucia Wesson.
- Infinite Supplies:
- Subverted by showing the player exactly how they support themselves. One of the first levels in the game is the Garden of the Gods, which shows off one of their major farming areas, where powerful solar lights and heat lamps dull the endless winter long enough for plants to grow. There's also a greenhouse in Broadmoor, both of which show how the city supports itself foodwise. It's also stated they get all their oil from the Gippers, further establishing just how Colorado Springs can function.
- The food supply, in a further subversion, is notably not infinite. The refugees threaten to stretch their capacity to provide food past the breaking point; while Gideon Reyes and the Hundred Families are very obviously also motivated by xenophobia and distaste for the Refugees, the fear of starvation and of their resources running out are very real dangers.
- The aforementioned oil problem is also why the city falls apart without Gipper support, whether given freely or... coerced.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Hundred Families aren't actually comprised of a hundred families, the real number being sixty three when the Springs was founded, but "hundred" sounded better, so that's what they went with.
- The Proud Elite: Yes, the Hundred Families as a whole are elitist jerks, and they don't make the best first impression considering that many players will first meet the group of Hundred Families kids who supported the Dorsey's attack. Despite that, the Hundred Families do make up the majority of citizens of Colorado Springs, so if you want November Reigns, you're going to have to appease them. In their defense, they come around to supporting the Rangers whole-heartedly if you help them.
- Rich Bitch: The default attitude of Broadmoor residents and Hundred Families members in general - unless you have Loved reputation, in which case they switch to shilling your accomplishments wholeheartedly. If you want November Reigns, you'll need their support.
- Shining City:
- The closest thing to one in Colorado, despite the sordid nature of much of its inner workings.
- You can also choose to wreck the place.
- Upper-Class Twit: Many of them are starting to devolve into this due to their relative affluence and safety compared to the common Wastelander.
Wasteland Refugees
In General
" We've got nowhere else to go."
A varied group of survivors, all fleeing from the Savage Council's raids into Colorado. Most of their homes have been destroyed; they have flooded into the Springs for lack of elsewhere to go, hoping that the most stable and best-defended city in Colorado will have the resources to feed them and defend them both. Poor and friendless, the Refugees have to rely on the kindness of others to survive.
- Guide Dang It!:
- In many ways, the Refugees are a trap. Their sympathetic position and poor circumstances, as well as the dismissive way most of the Hundred Families treat them, will lead many a player to back them up at every opportunity. This is a terrible idea; it not only locks you out of the November Reigns ending, as well as damaging your reputation with almost every other faction in the game, but there's no real pay-off for helping them. Further, supporting the refugees squatting in your HQ will keep Ranger loyalties divided, and half of them will betray you when you choose a path at game's end- and while it's possible to avoid this decision, that requires you to be on November Reigns, something that supporting the Refugees prevents you from doing!
- And to be more specific, Team November MUST arrest Mama Cotter on November Reigns. There's no way around this decision. The most the Rangers can do is ensure she enters the lockup at Ranger HQ, where she will be treated well, instead of handing her to the Marshals, who will almost certainly kill her.
- Invading Refugees: It's not reached this point yet, but the Hundred Families in Broadmoor fear it will, and act accordingly.
- The Load: Surely the Rangers helping the most helpless citizens will pay off, right? Absolutely not. They are poor, displaced folk, with no resources with which to aid the Rangers- if they had those resources, they wouldn't be refugees in the first place. The Refugees have no real ability to assist the Rangers in any way, and they cannot help in any way with getting the November Reigns ending. The only advantage to Refugee support is that it allows you to avoid fighting any of them at a few key points in the game.
- Made a Slave: The fate many of them fear, and the fate of many of their loved ones who didn't make it. La Perla seeks Hailie, a very pretty young girl, for just this purpose, and can succeed if the Rangers decide to help her.
- Perpetual Poverty: The refugees are so incredibly beaten down- most having only fled with the clothes on their backs- that it's not a surprise they have no money.
- Sex Slave: Very specifically the fate La Perla intends for Hailie, if she catches her.
- Tattered Flag: A sign of just how badly off the Wasteland Refugees are in comparison to everyone else can be seen on the Reputation screen; the flag they use is ragged and torn, the only faction flag so abused.
- War Refugees: What they are, though the Wasteland being what it is, no one is officially declaring war in the formal fashion. They are fleeing the increasing predation of the eastern gangs, which has grown to horrible new highs after Liberty took command and formed her Savage Council.
- Wasteland Elder: Mama Cotter, who has basically emerged as the leader of the Refugees. She's putting a lot of effort into making sure that other refugees make it to the Springs and the relative safety it provides, even hiring smugglers to bring them in. Arresting her is absolutely necessary for the November Reigns ending, as stopping the flow of refugees is necessary to get the Hundred Families onboard with Ranger leadership.
- Wrench Wench: Gender-inverted example. If you pick Mama Cotter over Gideon Reyes, then her sons will fill the role the Arapaho mechanics usually fulfill.
