[b]Faction Name[/b]:
Monolitm

[b]Origin[/b]:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R

[b]Faction Type[/b]:
Para-military religious cult

[b]Leader[/b]:
C-Conciousness

[b]Population[/b]:
8,000

[b]Faction Rank[/b]:
Cheeki-Breeki

[b]Color[/b]:
White

[b]Assigned GM[/b]: 
Me, Myself, and I

[b]Starting Area[/b]:
Get out a map, dammit

[b]Faction Introduction[/b]
Born in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone following the events where the enclosed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was broken open again by a mysterious meteor, the men who would form The Monolith was at the time like any other S.T.A.L.K.E.R clan who scavenged the zone of alienation for scrap to sell as money. Though at the time they were not yet Monolith. The fateful day arose when this early clan left en'masse for the center of the zone, encountering the power of the Brain Scorcher and the sweet call of C-Consciousness.

It wouldn't be long after when the clan became enamored with and worshiped The Monolith, the seeming mystical object resting in the second-time ruined Reactor #4 of the Chernobyl NPP. The group developed a highly zealous - nearly brain-washed if not totally brain-washed - fascination with the Monolith and came to worship it as a physical god. C-Conciousness - through the Monolith - thus commanded this new army to defend the center of the Zone for his own purposes and Monolith obeyed dutifully, guarding against successive attempts to penetrate the Zone and to reach The Monolith; referred to as The Wish Granter by common S.T.A.L.K.E.R.S.

As it would be, Monolith ruled the center of The Zone as a military force equal to the other major clans of The Zone: Freedom and Duty. As well, they are the best equipped utilizing top-of-the-line military gear and experimental scientific weapons left behind in the X-Labs of the Zone by the scientists who resided in the Zone's exclusion and radioactivity to pursue top-secret research independent of Ukraine, Belarus, or even Russia herself. The most deadly being the Protect 62 gauss rifle.

During a fateful Blowout from CNPP, a massive spatial anomaly erupted to engulf the region and in a shocking and in an unforeseen (though as far as The Zone goes, unforeseen circumstances and unpredictability was the norm) event seemingly whisked away Monolith, the Wish Granter, and C-Consciousness away; plopping them down somewhere foreign and unknown. Though not only Monolith seems to have been moved, but as well all the dirt that comes with it. Latent psy contamination from the power of C-Conciousness and radiation from The Monolith permeates their local area, seemingly well ignored by a non-plussed Monolith who seeks to charge ahead with the glorious word of The Monolith.

Faction Features
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk0vlvXHkpI[/youtube]

The soldiers of the Monolith are fanatically loyal, wholly invested into their service to The Monolith. The wide-range of soldiers in their corp provides an ample diversity in their skills to maintain and self-quip themselves. Not only that, but their sudden teleportation brought with them the dangerous artifacts they use to provide protection and service in the field.

Their equipment is that of a modern military, and even in areas beyond that. High-energized and accelerated metalic bolts from their Gauss Rifles can tear through even the toughest armors. And they themselves have not dressed their own men in the cheapest of outfits. Even in The Zone their combat armor and home-made exo-skeletons were revered as being stronger than Duty or Freedom's, let alone the Military's.

The psychic abilities of the mysterious seven-minded C-Consciousness maintains a sort of one-way link to Monolith, which they revere as the voice of the Monolith itself and carry out its orders like that of a living God's will. The ability works in other ways too, and where C-Concioussness' ambient psy-emissions are strongest promises eventual mental degradation in the high-end functions of a casuality's brain eventually resulting in "zombification" of the subject, if not death. These zombies seem tolerant of Monolith's existence and operate in almost an alliance to them.

That is, if the mind-melting song of The Monolith doesn't turn them as zealous to its will as the rest of The Monolith.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPrkbt5OKmo[/youtube]

[b]Military[/b]
The near entirety of Monolith is an effective military, while many will have been devoted to support rolls to equip and arm the field personnel of their force they may still take up the gun to crusade for the Monolith.

If all else fails, the supplemental force of zombies will eventually turn over into a sizable cannon-fodder force more than capable in using the weapons they held when their minds fried.