Paloverde lore (Fallout: New Vegas)
Dec. 9th, 2018 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flowerqueerI was looking through my old files to see if there was anything relevant to my OCs that I could post, and I came upon this fun write-up I did for my Paloverde faction. I wrote this as part of the backstory of my courier Sol Calaveras, who is half Paloverde. The TL;DR is that the Paloverde Nations are a post-war ethnic group in what used to be Arizona who were eventually conquered by the Legion. As of the events of the game, there is no one distinct group called the Paloverde, but individual remembers of the tribe remain and some are attempting a revitalization of the culture.
I did this write-up around this April, over the course of three of four playthroughs (none of which were ever fully completed) when I was first getting into the game, so there's a lot that doesn't match up with official lore, as well as some stuff that I no longer necessarily consider canon, but I'm putting it up as a bit of a glimpse of some of the cultures and themes I'm attempting to explore using Sol and his family. I think I tried to write this in the style of the New Vegas wiki, but gave up at some point. Enjoy!
The Paloverde Nations, also known to outsiders as the Silver Throats, were a post-war tribe formerly living outside Phoenix, Arizona, before being conquered by and absorbed into Caesar's Legion.
BACKGROUND
The Paloverde people originated in the post-war remnants of Phoenix as a loosely-affiliated community of former vault dwellers. When the vault opened and the community exited into the post-war world, these former vault dwellers gathered themselves into four groups, and headed off in four separate directions in search of other survivors. One of the groups settled to the west of Phoenix, near an old-world settlement that had once been known as Palo Verde. The palo verde plant itself proved key to the survival of these former vault dwellers, and they renamed themselves the Paloverde People to acknowledge and celebrate the plant that sustained them in the wilderness.
The Paloverde, small in number and knowing they were vulnerable to attacks from raiders, made themselves a new life amongst the ruins. The nascent tribe managed to sustain themselves through a combination of traditional, pre-war farming practices and looting the enarby towns and cities for any useable resources. Over time, the tribe grew and prospered, and eventually splintered into several bands, renaming themselves the Paloverde Nations in the process. The bands which grew from the Paloverde were the Clearwater band, the Dusty Cliff band, and the Desert Wind band.
As time went by, some of the Paloverde began to wonder what had become of the northward, eastward, and southward bound groups of the Phoenix vault community, and decided to send a caravan to re-establish contact. While they never made contact for certain with the descendants of their specific vault community, they did establish relationships with other tribal groups that had begun to coalesce in the southwest. The Paloverde Nations quickly became known as traders, spreaders of knowledge and of people, and had it not been for their conquest by Caesar's Legion they would likely have established formal caravan companies to rival those of the New California Republic.
A NEW NAME
Contact with the outside world brought with it a new name for the Paloverde Nations - the exonym "Silver Throats". The Paloverde became excellent silversmiths in an attempt to , and Paloverde youth receive distinctive silver necklaces upon their initiation into adulthood. These ornaments were the object of envy throughout the Southwest, but the Paloverde refused to sell or trade the necklaces to outsiders. Believing that their souls were housed in the jewelry, the Paloverde guarded their necklaces with their lives, and to trade away or lose a necklace was considered something akin to sacrilegious. Eventually, the jewelry became known as the primary symbol of the Paloverde, and so, outsiders with little imagination began to refer to the people by the adornments which hung around their necks.
CONQUEST BY THE LEGION
There was a long period of relative peace and prosperity, interrupted only rarely by raiding parties and skirmishes with other tribes. The Paloverde were not a war-faring people, preferring instead to farm, trade, and craft their way through life. When a young man wandered into camp one morning, half dead and rambling about a great and terrible army on the horizon, tribal leadership discounted his claims as those of a madman. No group in the area had been capable of that kind of warfare since before the Great War, and the Paloverde were respected throughout Arizona, and even given safe passage through other tribes' territories in recognition of the goods they brought and the connection they made.
It was not until Caesar himself arrived on their doorstep that they believed the "madman". He offered them riches beyond compare, if only they would support his army as suppliers and caravan runners. As a whole, they rebuffed his advances, though there were of course a few who defected to his side. Those who left the tribe gave vital information to Caesar, though they did not know it at the time. The rest of the Paloverde went about business as usual, hoping that the stranger in their midst would return to his people and let them trade in peace. Of course, he did anything but that.
One morning, Caesar attacked the Paloverde settlement with his new army, known as the Legion. Most of the Paloverde were still asleep, save for a few caravans preparing for an early morning departure. The Legion rounded up the people of the Paloverde with little resistance. Most of the people living in the settlement had no combat training, and of those who did, few had weaponry that was kept in any kind of working order. Most of the arms the tribe possessed were reserved for caravan defense, and Caesar had cunningly waited until a majority of the caravans were traveling to other settlements.
The famed silver necklaces ultimately led to the downfall of the Paloverde as a distinct tribe. Thanks to the early defectors, Caesar knew that the Paloverde would do anything to protect their necklaces. As a show of power, he had every piece of Paloverde jewelry confiscated and publicly melted down. Any tribe member caught with a piece of silver jewelry would be beaten, stripped, and crucified. The loss of the necklaces broke the collective spirit of Paloverde, and they were ultimately assimilated into Caesar's Legion as caravan runners, just as he planned.
Has anyone else made factions or groups wholesale for your worldbuilding? What are your factions like?
I did this write-up around this April, over the course of three of four playthroughs (none of which were ever fully completed) when I was first getting into the game, so there's a lot that doesn't match up with official lore, as well as some stuff that I no longer necessarily consider canon, but I'm putting it up as a bit of a glimpse of some of the cultures and themes I'm attempting to explore using Sol and his family. I think I tried to write this in the style of the New Vegas wiki, but gave up at some point. Enjoy!
The Paloverde Nations, also known to outsiders as the Silver Throats, were a post-war tribe formerly living outside Phoenix, Arizona, before being conquered by and absorbed into Caesar's Legion.
BACKGROUND
The Paloverde people originated in the post-war remnants of Phoenix as a loosely-affiliated community of former vault dwellers. When the vault opened and the community exited into the post-war world, these former vault dwellers gathered themselves into four groups, and headed off in four separate directions in search of other survivors. One of the groups settled to the west of Phoenix, near an old-world settlement that had once been known as Palo Verde. The palo verde plant itself proved key to the survival of these former vault dwellers, and they renamed themselves the Paloverde People to acknowledge and celebrate the plant that sustained them in the wilderness.
The Paloverde, small in number and knowing they were vulnerable to attacks from raiders, made themselves a new life amongst the ruins. The nascent tribe managed to sustain themselves through a combination of traditional, pre-war farming practices and looting the enarby towns and cities for any useable resources. Over time, the tribe grew and prospered, and eventually splintered into several bands, renaming themselves the Paloverde Nations in the process. The bands which grew from the Paloverde were the Clearwater band, the Dusty Cliff band, and the Desert Wind band.
As time went by, some of the Paloverde began to wonder what had become of the northward, eastward, and southward bound groups of the Phoenix vault community, and decided to send a caravan to re-establish contact. While they never made contact for certain with the descendants of their specific vault community, they did establish relationships with other tribal groups that had begun to coalesce in the southwest. The Paloverde Nations quickly became known as traders, spreaders of knowledge and of people, and had it not been for their conquest by Caesar's Legion they would likely have established formal caravan companies to rival those of the New California Republic.
A NEW NAME
Contact with the outside world brought with it a new name for the Paloverde Nations - the exonym "Silver Throats". The Paloverde became excellent silversmiths in an attempt to , and Paloverde youth receive distinctive silver necklaces upon their initiation into adulthood. These ornaments were the object of envy throughout the Southwest, but the Paloverde refused to sell or trade the necklaces to outsiders. Believing that their souls were housed in the jewelry, the Paloverde guarded their necklaces with their lives, and to trade away or lose a necklace was considered something akin to sacrilegious. Eventually, the jewelry became known as the primary symbol of the Paloverde, and so, outsiders with little imagination began to refer to the people by the adornments which hung around their necks.
CONQUEST BY THE LEGION
There was a long period of relative peace and prosperity, interrupted only rarely by raiding parties and skirmishes with other tribes. The Paloverde were not a war-faring people, preferring instead to farm, trade, and craft their way through life. When a young man wandered into camp one morning, half dead and rambling about a great and terrible army on the horizon, tribal leadership discounted his claims as those of a madman. No group in the area had been capable of that kind of warfare since before the Great War, and the Paloverde were respected throughout Arizona, and even given safe passage through other tribes' territories in recognition of the goods they brought and the connection they made.
It was not until Caesar himself arrived on their doorstep that they believed the "madman". He offered them riches beyond compare, if only they would support his army as suppliers and caravan runners. As a whole, they rebuffed his advances, though there were of course a few who defected to his side. Those who left the tribe gave vital information to Caesar, though they did not know it at the time. The rest of the Paloverde went about business as usual, hoping that the stranger in their midst would return to his people and let them trade in peace. Of course, he did anything but that.
One morning, Caesar attacked the Paloverde settlement with his new army, known as the Legion. Most of the Paloverde were still asleep, save for a few caravans preparing for an early morning departure. The Legion rounded up the people of the Paloverde with little resistance. Most of the people living in the settlement had no combat training, and of those who did, few had weaponry that was kept in any kind of working order. Most of the arms the tribe possessed were reserved for caravan defense, and Caesar had cunningly waited until a majority of the caravans were traveling to other settlements.
The famed silver necklaces ultimately led to the downfall of the Paloverde as a distinct tribe. Thanks to the early defectors, Caesar knew that the Paloverde would do anything to protect their necklaces. As a show of power, he had every piece of Paloverde jewelry confiscated and publicly melted down. Any tribe member caught with a piece of silver jewelry would be beaten, stripped, and crucified. The loss of the necklaces broke the collective spirit of Paloverde, and they were ultimately assimilated into Caesar's Legion as caravan runners, just as he planned.
Has anyone else made factions or groups wholesale for your worldbuilding? What are your factions like?
