Ciphers

The Ciphers of the West are a tribe of gifted people, brilliant mathmaticians and scientists in the western United States. They hide themselves in the hills of Mesa Verde, just outside of the Republic's reach, who don't care for them and regard them as tribals. They favour pre-war schematics of great complexity, that no wastelander can fathom, minus the most gifted of them.

Background
Lacking a purpose, after the Great War, a group of military scientists and soldiers left the atomic Laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico and journeyed north, with a band of other survivors, looking for a new haven. They assumed that they were the last bit of civilization left, since everyone else they came across tried to attack them for their supplies. They eventually set up camp at Mesa Verde for, what was supposed to be, a temporary period.

They found themselves technologically limited and though the soldiers were decently armed, the scientists only had one computer, that was close to junked and enough parts to build several water purifiers and a wind turbine, that would power up their equipment. They also carried several boxes (lead lined) of Enriched Uranium and a small supply of medical supplies. The rest of the group had several other pieces of gear, that they made use of, over the next decade.

None of this equipment could last a decade in these conditions and it began to fail. Hoping to keep the technology of the old world alive, they carved dozens of electronic schematics on the walls,of the pit. They insisted that mathmatics and science were emphasized, in their children's education so that their descendants would understand how to use schematics.

Because of this, the villagers tend to use a lot of mathematical terms to express themsselves. Most outsiders found their way of speaking to be cryptic, earning them the term 'Ciphers' from the outside world. This was an accepted name by the community and it was eventually embraced.

Over the decades, the Ciphers disregarded their disciplined scientific roots and became more concerned with survival, rather than scientific theories. Their concerns came from if things worked, rather than how they worked. So long as the symbols said it, it was deemed acceptable to them, to the point that their cave scrawled text book on the wall became a bible to them.

They have become somewhat culturally reliant on certain numbers, to the point that they feel like a religion. Each Cipher is given a personal number, determined by the Nemonik at their birth. Ciphers take their personal number into consideration, when doing anything, to the point that it commands their entire lives. This is one of many things that baffles outsiders.

What was once a tiny village was now too small to hold its many residents, spacewise and resourcewise. It actually created a culture, where the able bodied villagers would live a nomadic lifestyle and only those who couldn't handle it would stay behind.

Both men and women of the tribe are capable fighters and even the children are trained combatants. Families travel together, typically and have several electronic devices to defend themselves from raiders and animals.