Who Would Make a Good Warlord?

[Raellus]

It seems like most of the well-known T2K module marauder leaders are ex-military. That obviously makes a lot of sense but I'd like options, and I'm sure there would be non-military bandit kings out there too in a post-apoc world. Who would make a good warlord?

Let's except crime bosses and street gang leaders as being fairly obvious as well. Who does that leave?

Powerful local law enforcement figures. Here in Arizona there's a long-serving Sheriff who's often been accused of making his own laws, or at least acting as though he were above the existing ones. Such figures strike me as being perfectly placed to assumed warlorddom when the SHTF.

Someone who runs a security company might be in a position to try to accrue more power. He/she would have a ready force of armed personnel, and perhaps access to armored vehicles (AFAIK, most bankroll/payroll transporters belong to private contractors and not the financial institutions themselves).

For some reason, construction company owners strike me as being in a good position to become local strongmen. They have experience and resources that would be in high demand in the event of a governmental breakdown, and rolls of employees used to hard, physical labor, and getting their hands dirty (literally).

Maybe talk radio hosts? A really charismatic figure with a large audience could, while the airwaves are still open, mobilize quite a force of like-minded people.

Along the same lines, charismatic religious leaders could manipulate followers into becoming their private armies. I'm thinking that evangelical millennialists and "end-timers" would be particularly well-sited to seize power on a local or even regional level.

What other types of pre-war careers would produce unconventional but plausible candidates for post-TDM warlordism?

[Cdnwolf]

Gang leaders.... major CEOs of some corporation.... spin doctors

[pmulcahy11b]

Possibly...under the right circumstances...an evangelical preacher.

[Tegyrius]

In many parts of rural America, particularly the Deep South, your local warlords will be whichever families already hold power in their home counties by virtue of multi-generational accrual of wealth and political connections. They're the dynasties who've had a sheriff or county commissioner or judge or county coroner or jailer in every generation. Their names are already on the local companies that are the county's biggest employers. Their kids always get away with everything in high school before going to a private college. They may not be powerful in D.C. but they sure can pull strings in the state senate. When things start falling apart, the ones who are actually competent (as opposed to just riding along on their ancestors' achievements) will emerge as natural power foci.

- C.

[Rainbow Six]

A bar or nightclub owner may have, initially at least, access to a number of "luxury" items - alcohol, tobacco, drugs, women, as well as a range of contacts they might be able to call on, and be well known within the local community, all of which may come in useful when empire building.

On a related note to the bar / nightclub owner, I don't know if you intended to include this under security companies, but in the UK it's common for bar / nightclub bouncers to work for specialist companies who then provide doormen to pubs on a contract basis, so someone who owned one of those companies would potentially have access to a number of people who are well used to trouble. In some cases the same companies also provided stewards for concerts / football matches, etc, so have hundreds of people on their payrolll (for many it's a second job opportunity and / or a chance to get into events for free).

Probably too obvious, but pre war politicians might be an option.

A charismatic university professor perhaps? Possibly one who has studied / taught certain periods of history that may have given them some knowledge / insight that may prove useful in the T2K World? For example, someone who is a subject matter expert on the medieval World may attempt to use their knowledge to recreate some sort of feudal State with themselves at its centre?

Ultimately though, all you really need is someone particularly charismatic who is ideally a good orator as well. When I put my Alternative Survivor's Guide to the UK together I made one of the major marauder leaders a former call centre worker who manoeuvred himself into being in the right place at the right time

http://www.twilight2000files.com/page702.html

Another was a student nurse before the war

http://www.twilight2000files.com/page72.html

So whilst some career paths obviously offer an advantage in terms of having resources / people already in place, I think pretty much anyone could end up as a warlord, particularly in areas where there is a mass movement of people leading to refugees overwhelming established communities.

[Targan]

Me.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

A charismatic university professor perhaps? Possibly one who has studied / taught certain periods of history that may have given them some knowledge / insight that may prove useful in the T2K World? For example, someone who is a subject matter expert on the medieval World may attempt to use their knowledge to recreate some sort of feudal State with themselves at its centre?

If not a professor, a university president/chancellor/provost/whatever-- someone used to holding power, who's got some cachet in the community outside the university, perhaps as a former professor or judge.

Heck, combine it with politician-- a former mayor or governor, now univ. professor/president. I think most US states and cities might have a law prohibiting too many back-to-back terms as chief executive, so a "retirement" to State U., located in the capitol, might be a nice way for Popular Governor X. to sit out the four-year term of his handpicked successor (or opposite party opponent) in the Governor's Mansion.

I don't know of anyone like this in the '90s, but Ohio's Gov. Jim Rhodes was governor for 2 terms, sat out the 1971-75 term and returned to the Statehouse 1975-83, since the law was "no more than 2 consecutive terms as governor". He ran again in 1986 for a 5th term, but lost. He wasn't a university president in between, but someone else could have done it. Someone with that kind of longevity would have a lot of influence over state office-holders, local politicians, and even police and militia appointments.

Woodrow Wilson went from Princeton Univ. president to NJ governor to US President.

Alternately, cities don't usually have such restrictions, so a mayor who had been re-elected over and over could have deep roots into patronage and power, to become a warlord.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Possibly...under the right circumstances...an evangelical preacher.

I used this idea with the Blood Horde in northern New England. I've been thinking about trying to develop something with a bit less cannibalism and sacking and more genuinely Christian spirit for a surviving community in Phoenix.