Traiders:The Dalles

Raising the Cloud

This technologist enclave was once the datacenter for one of the most important corporations in the world. This company specialized in making sense out of the Internet. In fact it's name became synonymous with searching the world wide web. With the demise of the global economy the Internet as it once was has ceased to exist. The history, technology and content of the internet have been backed up and preserved by technologists at The Dalles and other locations but a living breathing internet is almost inconceivable without a global e-commerce culture and most people don't even own a phone anymore.

The technologists at The Dalles want to change that. With religious devotion they work to create a world where people not only survive but thrive, where life is about more than controlling wind farms and grazing land. They aspire to nothing less than Raising the Cloud: a network of networks of machines and people that can think thoughts and solve problems that transcend mere human capability.

Although the technology being deployed by these technologists is superficially similar to the old Internet the underlying design is very different. A constantly changing self-regulating system of autonomous software called The Virus feeds on information and infects machines, expanding to make use of any and all resources that connect to those machines. The Virus essentially maintains and defends itself as long as the machines keep running.

Motorcycle Gang Diplomacy

The Dalles technologists have adopted a Traiding lifestyle where they raid nearby pacifist communities for the things they cannot easily produce themselves or acquire through trade. Traiders from The Dalles use technology and 4th generation warfare so effectively that they are practically untouchable by the average warlord, making them the dominant force in the region. The Dalles technologists collect tribute in the form of both material goods and conscripts with technical aptitude when they can be found in technologically impoverished communities.

The Dalles has been at war with mystical religious movements affiliated with the Human Potential Movement since the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attacks. The technologists of The Dalles see mysticism and primitivism as twin enemies of science and technology and actively hunt down and silence gurus and elfs who promote anti-technology sentiment.