Editing Setting:Nutopia/Factions (section)

==New Cossacks==
It began as a small-scale guerrilla war against the Ilium corporation and its presence in Russia. Its members were simple folk: former army personnel from closed-down rural bases, villagers and farmers fighting against bandits and mafia enforcers. In the beginning, their operations were small-scale convoy raids and the occasional kidnapping of mid-level Ilium employees (no efforts were made to rescue or negotiate for their release as per corporate policy). Just another group of dour men in fur hats with Kalashnikovs, of no significance.

But then, he appeared. No one knows who he was, or where he came from. His real name has long since been lost to history, but he preferred to call himself by a pseudonym; Stenka Razin, after the bandit chief of Russian folklore, like the hero of old songs and stories. He quietly remade the movement in his own image. The raids became more brutal, the attacks more daring. The Cossacks began to operate closer to major metropolitan areas, like Volgograd and Samara. In some of the more remote sectors of Central Russia, they became so audacious that they moved in the open, taking over police and military functions of small towns and villages, setting up roadblocks and taxing local residents for protection money. In Cossack-controlled areas, mafia activity stopped. Bandits were rounded up and shot, their bodies hung on telephone poles as a warning to would-be raiders and rapists. The Russian public hailed Stenka's Cossacks as liberators. The movement became an increasingly more irritating thorn in Ilium's side.

Following a few spectacular attacks in which Cossack forces managed to shoot down a PMC troop transport, stop and liberate a train carrying humans selected for Plague Doctor experiments, and kidnap and execute an Ilium executive, Stenka was put on the corporation's primary hit list. The price on his head was unprecedented; whoever murdered the rebel leader would be presented with a one-of-a-kind, personal fission-powered Maker. Mercenaries flocked to Russia to hunt the elusive king of Cossacks down, but the man seemed unkillable. Just as Ilium was about to initiate Operation Wolf Hunt, a huge effort to search out and exterminate all New Cossacks in the country using a massive number of troops, air power and satellite surveillance, the Central Park incident occurred and the revolution began. Stenka was saved by the chaos.

In the days after the Fall, Cossack forces moved in to take control of large sections of former Ilium territory. Their white-and-blue flag with the crossed saber emblem waved in many central Russian cities. Seizing the momentum, Stenka rode with his forces to claim the prize of his campaign; Novosibirsk, Ilium's headquarters. After several days of fierce street fighting the battle was won and the New Cossacks set up shop in the Ilium skyscraper, renaming it Razin Palace. Stenka was installed as the Gosudar (souvereign) of All Russia and leader of its peoples. Of course, the Cossacks still had to contend with the various other liberation movements active in the country, including the Free Nova community which was allowed to exist side by side with Stenka's forces in Novosibirsk.

The New Cossacks are the most influential group in liberated Russia. They're a bioconservative, traditionalist militia with strong nationalistic bias. The Cossacks mistrust foreigners, and biomods are hated and shunned because of the history the faction has with Ilium. Cyborg modifications are more accepted in a utilitarian manner, but Cossacks do not generally see cyborgization as a good idea, and refer to it derisively as "going to the doctor" and "sitting in the chair". They argue that cyborgs become dependent on maintenance and medical checkups in well-equipped facilities, something that is impossible to find in the Russian wilderness and therefore mostly useless. However, they respect the combat prowess and ability of a cyborg warrior.