There are extremists like the Demens everywhere. Plotting in the shadows. They're decentralized by nature. Not one organization to rule them all. Just a common ideology.
– Die-Hardman
The Homo Demens, also known as Terrorists and Separatists, are a militant separatist organization. They are directly opposed to the United Cities of America and have a reputation for slaughtering the residents of towns and for engineering voidouts.
Overview[]
The Homo Demens are a highly decentralized group of individuals whose predilection towards slaughter and dedication to violence make them a vilified and destructive opponent. One distinction between the MULEs, another fanatical faction, and the Demens is that they only ping Sam on their scanners while MULEs only ping cargo. They also use lethal weapons, even if this would lead to the death of the victim and the subsequent appearance of a BT. Their obsession with maintaining separatism and independence borders on psychopathy, as does their engineering voidouts as means of creating and perpetuating fear throughout the UCA alliance between cities.
There is no structural hierarchy present within the Homo Demens as there is no need to have one, but in general, individuals display unwavering loyalty to Higgs. Despite finding the idea of being controlled reprehensible, he styles himself as the higher power and coordinator of all the events that are orchestrated by the Homo Demens.
Operating mainly outside, and therefore with the danger of the timefall, the Demens wear a suit similar to that of their leader Higgs: a dark green suit under a dark bulletproof vest on the torso, black armor plates in the shoulder with gold streaks and the phrase "VOID OUT", gloves and boots. They wear a protective helmet of an unconventional shape with two pieces of animal hide attached, to give a sense of strangeness but also as camouflage. A power skeleton is attached to their legs and a 3-pronged flower-shaped odradek attached to their back. They are also equipped with lethal assault rifles and grenades.
History[]
Background[]
The root of the terrorist activities can be traced back to Coffin's group who became infamous for their attacks on various UCA facilities, mainly related to BBs research, for which they were branded as terrorists in the public eye, since the UCA would not admit the true nature of these facilities to the citizens. When Bridges blew up the BB factory raided by Coffin's group, they fed the public the story that, despite terrible destruction and loss of life, they'd finally managed to eliminate the terrorist threat; but it was already too late, the seeds of terrorism, separatism and isolationism had spread.
Activities against Reconstructionism[]
The first terrorist cell that operated against the BRIDGES organization in the central region dumped a corpse and let it go necro near a BRIDGES waystation, causing a voidout. When Demens heard that Bridges was sending an expeditionary force out west to "facilitate the reconstruction of America", they didn't take kindly to that, fearing that Bridges wanted to put them in chains, taking away their freedom. Demens and terrorists began getting more aggressive after the Bridges expedition team set out, but without a proper organization and a strong leadership, their attacks were useless against the expedition led by Amelie, which thanks to her DOOMS avoided the areas of the BTs.
A group of Homo Demens capture Amelie
But all this changed when Higgs unified the Demens and the other terrorists into a single group, and Homo Demens were born. Higgs introduced many of his Homo Demens to Fragile Express, and began trafficking arms and bombs to the whole central region. They used a thermonuclear bomb to wipe out Middle Knot City, framing Fragile Express in the process. After numerous terrorist attacks, Higgs then tried to do the same with South Knot City, but Fragile stopped the nuke midway. When the Bridges expedition reached Edge Knot City, the Homo Demens isolated the city with a tar pit, captured Amelie and held her in the city as an insurance policy against the UCA.
Using one of their earliest tactics, the Demens abandoned a body that was about to go to necrotic in Central Knot City; this was a plan by Higgs to kill Sam Porter; destroy Bridges HQ, which had been relocated to Capital Knot City due to recent terrorist activities in the area; and terminate the second expedition leaving for the west. In the event Central Knot City was obliterated but Sam, being a repatriate, survived.
When the Last Stranding is averted and Higgs is defeated by Sam and left stranded on the Beach, it is not known what happened to the Homo Demens, although small groups scattered in the central region suggest a return to pre-Higgs habits.
Notes[]
- Homo Demens means "mad man" in Latin.
- Even if they are part of the plot, the Homo Demens only make their physical appearance in the second half of the central region, effectively replacing the MULEs as human "enemies" of the game.
- It is not known whether the first Demens cell was formed by the survivors of Coffin's group or was a new group inspired by them.
Gallery[]
