Forest Sisters

[New Dornalia]

Some people don't like getting up. This poor motherfucker learned that the hard way

OOC: This is due to OG deciding to get in touch with his inner Dornie. It actually worked .

IC:

The "Lesnoy Sestrra" (лесной сестра) or Forest Sisters, also known as "bitches" (at your own peril) and "Wolfgirls" and "wolves" and "Bonks" (after the literal pronunciation of the Cyrillic lettering for "volk" or Wolf) other such things are the Eastern European answer to the gatas.

Origins

Much like the gatas, the Forest Sisters were an artificial creation of sorts. The same conglomerate that sought to make gatas as cute waitresses sought to create other animal-based variants, this time focusing on wolves for customers who wanted a little more oomph in their service.

Exploiting the chaos of Post-Soviet Russia, it was easy to locate suitable test subjects. Frankly, we're going to leave the mechanics of how the experiments got done to your imagination, but suffice it to say, the Apocalypse put a kibosh on the plan like with the Gatas.

However, Forest Sister history took a much violent turn. In the chaos of post-Apocalyptic Russia and the rise of the Russo-German Union and the revival of the czarist monarchy, fanatical pogroms were enacted against the Forest Sisters, who were targeted for any number of reasons. These pogroms are remembered as the Dark Times, and indeed unlike the gatas, the Forest Sisters were pushed to near-genocide.

Of course, this being New Dornalia, we don't take that shit lying down . The Forest Sisters escaped to the woods, and before long, began living as bandits and survivalists in small communities that kept to themselves as they began to rebuild their numbers. In an attempt to ensure the survival of their people, the various Packs began to band together for governance, fighting for resources, hunting, waging war against the Interior Troops and generally doing that thing survivalists refer to as going "inna woods."

Years of half-guerilla and half-"freaky survivalist" activity soon gave the Forest Sisters a reputation, which lasted into the MacIntyre Era and beyond. Largely unknown outside of Russia and the CIS until recently due to their policy of isolation, the Packs have attracted the eye of powerful outsiders....

[New Dornalia]

Governance

Generally, the Forest Sisters organize themselves into semi-military Bands, groups of which are called Packs, governed by "The Rules," an unspoken code of conduct and custom partly based on common sense, Russian customs and whatever edicts ("ukases") the head of the Pack (the alpha aka "Vozhd" or "Boss") comes up with. Trials are usually short, and consist of summary punishments, often the Running of the Gauntlet.

Packs cover a large geographic area--the White Tights, the largest Pack, covers most of Southern European Russia to the Caucasus, yet their total population isn't that big.

The Packs tend to keep to themselves, but have no explicit prohibition against dealing with outsiders and traveling--they're just very territorial. Do be careful when visiting woods known to be inhabited by the Sisters, as they don't like unannounced visitors.

They have been seen working with Russian Cossack units in the past; the White Tights have recently adopted elements of the Don Cossack tables of organization, and have been spotted supplying spotter and sniper teams to help the Terek Cossacks in their endless blood feud with the Chechens.

Additionally, a few have been seen off world. One band of the White Tights has been organized in New Hokkaido and currently aids the Territorial Police with tracking escaped convicts, and one character in the Jacinta saga has been proven to be a Forest Sister.

Physiology/Appearance

They have wolf ears, wolf tails and look like Eastern Europeans. There's not really much to describe here.

Uniform wise, many wear simple, practical clothing; camo jackets and BDUs are often seen, as are old Tsarist tunics with BDU pants. They clean up nice, but being that they are survivalists who are part apex predator, they're more focused on stealth, efficiency and how to get the drop on their prey. As such, they tend to favor camo and muted colors, and disdain shiny and noisy objects.

Abilities

The Forest Sisters have developed unusually strong senses like their gata cousins, with enhanced hearing and smell, for example, due to their wolf-based genetic modifications. These skills are used by the Sisters to become the best trackers and survivalists in the Russian steppe, if arguably not the CRE. Able to pick out enemy sign and spoor with the precision normally found in bloodhounds and bioscanners, Forest Sisters in law enforcement service, usually with Russian Cossack bands, have proven an invaluable asset in catching fugitives and prison escapees. Conversely, they're damn good at sneaking and silent tracking.

The Forest Sisters have also years of survival experience in the Russian taiga and steppes, and tend to be rather savvy about what works best "inna woods" and what doesn't. They're particularly good at scrounging and restoring things that shouldn't work--a product of being a society that's lived "on the run" for hundreds of years.

Finally, they play a mean accordion, a mean Russian squat dance, and are rather intelligent, being part wolf and all (thank OG for that bit on intelligence).

Squad cohesion is noticably higher with the Sisters, due to the fact they are trained to hunt in packs, partly by training and partly by instinct.

Cultural Notes

The Forest Sisters, unlike the gatas, do not discriminate between males and females within their society--to them, survival of the band and pack is more important, although the women do seem more prominent.

They speak, naturally, a form of Russian, albeit one which is a mix of Ukranian, Belarusian and other Eastern European languages, even a smattering of Yiddish and German.

Although they do inhabit wooded areas, they are NOT tree huggers. As OG noted, why would an apex predator be a tree hugger?

They also practice a form of Russian Sombo martial arts, mixed with Russian Fist Fighting and other, more decidedly "wolf-like" techniques. They also favor Russian weapons--no good Forest Sister goes without at least a Grach pistol or a Kalashnikov--but Bands have been seen with Western and Chinese weapons in the past (rarely).

[New Dornalia]

Unique Quirks

Russian-Ukrainian Packs

The "vanilla" packs which are most commonly encountered, as they're the largest in numbers. The biggest Pack as mentioned before is the White Tights, whose extent ranges from the Eastern Ukraine to the Caucasus, with the second largest being the North Star Pack in Northern Russia and parts of Eastern Finland. Nothing much to write about here that hasn't been said already, except a long running feud with the Chechens maybe.

Polish Packs

The Silesian Pack and the Lublin-Masovian Packs are the arguably smallest packs. However, they are ironically the most open. Unlike their Russian or Romanian cousins, their forest camps tend not to be as heavily fortified. Rather, the Poles prefer to trade and make peace to ensure their long term survival, a strategy that has lead to the inevitable Polack joke as it is seen as rather stupid. Still, it has paid off--rural peasants aren't all that hostile to the Bonks, and the Rules of the Polish Bonks explicitly endorse the protection of the weak and minorities. This has lead to situations resembling that of the Magnificent Seven, and a reputation for generosity which also puts them at odds with the other Packs.

Romanian Packs

The Carpathian and Transylvanian Packs are of a very different stripe than the others. They are decidedly the "paranoid gun nuts" of the Bonk world, having been locked in an eternal struggle with reportedly supernatural elements hiding in the Romanian backcountry. They are highly superstitious, paranoid, and keep to themselves in highly fortified camps which are decidedly hostile to outsiders. This has admittedly lead to occasional clashes with Romanian Gendarmerie policemen, who wonder what the hell is going on.

However, they are also the Bonks' number one source for advanced Western optics and precious metals, which makes them worth dealing with. In particular, they use more Western arms than any of the tribes, and can be seen wearing US-made ACU and carrying M249 SAW machineguns to augment their Romanian made AKs--which have ACOG scopes and M203s attached! They also like to carry silver knives and stakes and crosses with them at all times. Given their opponents, this is not surprising.


Yugoslav Packs

This is a collective name for various packs living in the Former Yugoslavia, including the Novi Sad Pack and Jovovich's Jaegers. These are the second smallest packs. They tend to keep a low profile compared to the others, and are the least famous. They have the most diversity of the packs besides maybe the Russian packs--Razak's Roughnecks, for example, is the only known Muslim Bonk force, known to be copious consumers of mutton and sheep products. They also prefer Yugoslav made products, such as the M70B1 AK.