Skeleton BanditsReport
English：Skeleton Bandits · Factions
A crowd of Greenlanders in skeleton masks, talked out of being human by a thousand-year-old machine. They hold The Crags in the southeast and kill humans, Shek and Hivers on sight — including the race they came from.
It is not surprising to me that you will join us. Because you are the same as us. Your purpose is the same. Otherwise you are not a proper skele-ton, clearly. A proper skele-ton would converse with his fellow skele-tons about histories and such... — Upgraded Skeleton Guard
The Skeleton Bandits are a faction native to the southeastern corner of the continent. They call themselves Skeletons, behave like Skeletons and pronounce the word in two careful syllables — but they are overwhelmingly Greenlanders wearing Skeleton Masks. They are living humans.
What convinced them otherwise is their leader: a P4 Unit called Elder. The Wiki does not soften the description — he enjoys watching humans massacre each other.
Brainwashing in two steps
The The Crags entry breaks Elder's method down with unpleasant precision:
Step one — make Greenlanders give up being human. The tool is religious language. Elder's propaganda runs:
We are superior! We are free from flesh pleasures! We are free from bodily filth! We are free from the grasping mind! We. Are. Skeletons.
Step two — send them to kill their own kind. And he never has to lift a hand himself. In The Pits, these "Skeletons" have been grinding against the crabs for years on end.
The doctrine that holds it together is Stobe worship: they revere Stobe as both deity and martyr, and Elder has rewritten that ancient being into an "exterminator of the human plague". See Stobe worship.
Turf
Iron HQ is their only settlement and Elder's location, in The Crags. The outpost consists of several Wallhouses — presumably barracks — plus a Faction HQ; two of the Wallhouses are for sale.
Four patrol zones, all in the southeastern badlands: The Crags, The Pits, Stobe's Gamble and Stobe's Garden. Patrols are led by an Upgraded Skeleton Bandit heading 10–15 rank and file.
Who they attack
The Skeleton Bandits' hostility list is written by race, not by faction:
That is everyone except Skeletons — including the very race they came from. This is the finished product of Elder's programme.
At the faction level:
| Faction | Standing |
|---|---|
| Skeleton Legion | +100 |
| Reavers | -100 |
| Crab Raiders | -100 |
| United Cities | -100 |
Joining them
Players can join the Skeleton Bandits regardless of race — walk into the central lab at Iron HQ, find Elder, and pick the right dialogue options.
- Skeleton characters have it easiest: the residents are not hostile to you, and Elder has unique dialogue branches — including the one where you call his lie a lie.
- Human characters have it harder: the Skeleton Bandits in the HQ are hostile. But there is a very interesting hole here — even if you trespass as a Human and are treated as hostile, Elder will still talk to you and let you join on the spot.
- Allying with the Crab Raiders or the Skin Bandits turns the Skeleton Bandits against you.
World states
Elder is this faction's only load-bearing beam, and he carries two valuable things: a Meitou-grade Ringed Sabre, and an AI Core worth around 25,000 Cats in his pack. Removing that core kills him instantly, and the core counts as stolen goods.
Once he is dead or imprisoned:
- Patrols still spawn in the same four zones, but every member is replaced by a Broken Skeleton Bandit — the source of the brainwashing is gone, and only the shell is left.
- Iron HQ changes hands; it may become Destroyed or fall to the Southern Hive, with Skin Bandits and the Southern Hive filling in across The Crags.
Trivia
- Skeleton Bandits do not scream in pain when placed in a Peeler Machine. Given that they are actually human, that setting reads rather badly.
- They sometimes say "Resistance is futile" — an Easter egg referencing the Borg from Star Trek.
- The faction has a colour scheme attached, so members' armour and clothing are dyed to match.