Mennonites ("Religees")Location: Alexandria, Virginia. Bounded by Little River Turnpike (State Route 236) in the north and Old Keene Mill Road (State Route 644) in the south, between Rolling Road (State Route 638) and Guinea Road to S Van Dorn Street (State Route 401 and 613). Includes Northern Virginia Community College, Wakefield Park, Lake Accotink, Long Branch Park, Bradlick Shopping Center, Deerlick Park, Turkeycock Run Stream Valley Park, Franconia Park and Bren Mar Park.
Population: 1500
Military Strength: 470
Military Resources: Few civilian trucks and nearly all non-automatic small arms (shotguns, deer rifles).
Treaties: Treaty Hospital
Enemies: Skinheads, The Agency
Resources: The Mennonites have a extensive farming areas, as well as home-canning, carpentry, horse-breeding and animal herds, blacksmithing and various machine shops, as well as small industry, including ammunition reloading. The extensively salvage in the areas around their holdings but rarely enter the District proper.
Trade: The Mennonites will trade only foodstuffs with outsiders unless they are well-known and trusted. They instituted this policy years ago after some of their salvage finds turned up against them by the Skinheads.
General Reaction: +0 (-20 if known associates of either the Agency or the Skinheads)
Background: These survivors are an amalgam of Virginia Mennonites and several Alexandria area churches. While they try to be non-violent, the world they inhabit usually forces them to defend themselves and that on a regular basis. This has caused the actual Mennonites in the community to question their faith. While on the most part good people, the violence and cruelty of a post-war world has hardened them to the suffering of others in an effort to survive. What this spells for their long-term viability is anyone's guess, as the faith that bound them together is unraveling in the face of the harsh environment.
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Having just lectured on the Mennonites, you realize that they survived the religious wars of the 16th-17th c. without violating their pacifist precepts, yes?
ReplyDeleteI think better tension would arise from the traditionalists who refuse to use weapon period vs. the other Protestants who are part of their enclave. But that's just my thoughts.
@Anthony: I have to agree with you on that, being in the area of the country known for its Anabaptist population and having married into a Mennonite family.
ReplyDeleteI've heard it said that Mennonite is a unit of measure.
By the Mennonites do not engage in premarital sex because it might lead to dancing.
Good thoughts, all, thank you. I will incorporate that into the write-up for when I run this campaign in the future.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1990s when I wrote this for the first D.C. campaign, I wasn't really thinking about true-to-fact, merely trying to create a group that tries to be non-violent in a world where violence is the norm.
Having different factions within a community respond to that violence in a different way would be added tension to the setting. Especially when the PCs roll into town ....