Khans

The Khans are a raider tribe descended from one of the three raider clans that originated from Vault 15. They have a long and turbulent history and have been nearly wiped out on three separate occasions.

Characteristics
A raiding, roving group, their main targets were the communities of Shady Sands, with whom they once shared a vault, and Junktown. By 2281, they have been reduced to making and trading chems to the local group of Fiends in the Mojave Wasteland. They usually travel in small scouting bands, but sometimes roam the wastes in full war parties. The Khans, above all else, respect strength. They are eager in combat to prove their worthiness to the clan by engaging in hand-to-hand combat with fists or clubs. Though the Khans prefer melee weapons to firearms, some will carry pistols and other varieties of small arms. Some of them are said to have worn tire armor. All members are expected to be initiated into Khan status.

Origins
The Khans are one of three raider tribes to emerge from Vault 15 in spring of 2141, banding together into raider tribes as the winter came. The Khans adopted the lifestyle of warriors, raiding towns for loot, burning what they cannot use, and capturing survivors as slaves. Strength became a key virtue, with worth proven in hand-to-hand combat. The strong rule, the weak perish. For this reason, the Khans would also fight with other raider tribes, their warbands, and larger war parties clashing in deadly combat. One of the most notable clashes was with the Jackals just four years after emergence from the Vault. The Khans brutalized the raider clan, forcing it to flee New California northeast in 2125.Fallout Bible 6: "In some ancient design documentation that I think was written by Scott Campbell, one of the original designers (I'm still checking if it was him, so I may need to print a retraction on the credits), there was actually supposed to be three groups of raiders: The Jackals, the Khans, and the Vipers. Not only did they raid local towns and caravans, but they also preyed on each other - as you'll see from the descriptions below, their behavior and habits in F1 dictated (or were dictated by) their name choice. ''The Khans: The last group, the Khans, is probably the most dangerous. They live the lifestyles of Mongol warriors, raiding towns, burning what they cannot take and capturing the survivors for use as slaves. They usually travel in small scouting bands, but sometimes they roam as full war parties. The Khans above all else respect strength. They are eager in combat to prove their worthiness to the clan by engaging in hand to hand combat with fists or clubs. The Khans carry very few firearms (since they are for cowards). Anyone showing superior strength is worthy of their respect. The leader of the Khans is so because no one has beaten him in combat.'' One interesting thing listed in the original documentation is that all raider bands were supposedly all from Vault 15 after it opened, but they all splintered off into different groups from the overpopulated Vault. ''All of these raider groups officially exist in the Fallout universe, though only the Khans are in southern California at the start of Fallout 1. The handful of Vipers that survived Rhombus' campaign of extermination in 2155 fled North and East, following the same path the Jackals took after they had their asses handed to them by the Khans thirty years before."''

By 2161, the Khans operated under Garl Death-Hand, a violent man who killed his own father to secure his position. His war band became a more or less permanent element of the wasteland, raiding smaller settlements and communities while trading with larger towns like Junktown and the Hub. Garl's delusions of grandeur led him to believe that he can take over the world, earning him the mockery of the more law-abiding inhabitants of the wastelands. Their raids gradually intensified, to the point that many settlements up north were facing destruction.

Fall of Garl and the New Khans
Garl's dreams of domination were cut short in 2161 when the Khans made a grave error, they kidnapped Tandi. This attracted the attention of the Vault Dweller, who came into the settlement and slaughtered the raiders. With the largest of the raider bands gone, the stability that followed allowed the New California Republic to emerge. However, the extermination was not complete. Darion, son of Garl Death-Hand, escaped the Dweller's wrath. The lone survivor would go on to slowly reform the Khans, suffering from survivor's guilt and planning his revenge against Tandi. Plans gradually turned into an obsession, then into overwhelming paranoia. The New Khans were not the tribe that came before them; with Darion as the only true Khan remaining, he was forced to supplement his "tribe" with mercenaries.

His survivor's guilt did not cripple his strategic acumen, however. By 2241, Darion had established a base in the ruins of Vault 15, using a large band of vagrants to provide a smokescreen. In exchange for his promise of returning the vault to full functionality, the squatters would deter NCR attempts to retake the Vault. When Darion's mercenaries were not kidnapping squatters, they were raiding Republic caravans in the vicinity for their food and water to maintain the appearance of a functioning bunker. Darion also managed to plant a spy in the NCR Congress, giving him near perfect intel on the NCR. However, nothing lasts forever. The Vault Dweller's blood once again broke the Khans. Hired by President Tandi to retrieve computer parts from Vault 15, the Chosen One managed to broker a deal between the squatters and the Republic. They would kill Darion and retrieve the parts, while the squatters would grant the NCR access to the Vault in return for annexation, education, and supplies necessary to survive.

The Great Khans
 The history of the Khans did not end with Darion's death. Though his mercenary war band was the governing band, it was not the only one. Over the next 25 years, the fragmented Khans gradually coalesced into a single group. No longer were they small raiding bands, this time the Khans became an unified, large tribe united under the leadership of Papa Khan, who led an exodus into the Mojave Wasteland, abandoning New California in 2267. The Follower vanguard in the Mojave taught the Khans basic science skills, such as chemistry, reading and writing. They hoped that the Khans would use that knowledge to manufacture medicine. The attempt to civilize them failed, as the Khans turned to drug running instead. Drugs were nothing new for the Khans, as they already knew how to use plants and herbs to create mind-altering substances. The Followers just made them more efficient and indirectly contributed to the popularity of substance abuse among the Khans. Still, some of the chems they produce go toward trading with others, namely the Fiends and Westside addicts, for supplies that the tribe needs.

With their martial prowess and know-how provided by the Followers, the Great Khans were the single most organized tribe in the wasteland and effectively its rulers. However, their hegemony would not last long. When Robert House detected NCR scouts at the dam, he moved to claim New Vegas, end the tribal conflicts, and establish his rule. He offered the tribes their own casinos to operate under his aegis. He gave the tribes that declared loyalty to him (the Mojave Boot-Riders, the Mojave's cannibals and the Slither Kin) weapons, ammunition, medicine, and other necessities to allow them to push back the Khans. With House's aid, the three tribes drove the Khans out of the northern Mojave, forcing them to settle at Bitter Springs.

Instead, the Great Khans began to attack the New California Republic, raiding their caravans, towns, and camps, as they seemed easy pickings for years. Things changed in 2278. After the First Battle of Hoover Dam and the defeat of the Legion and the Brotherhood, the NCR stood virtually unopposed. Great Khan raids continued on, but it was the abduction and killing of four NCR soldiers that tipped the scale. The NCR decided to cut off the head from the serpent and mounted an assault on Bitter Springs. In what would become known as the Bitter Springs Massacre, NCR military units ended up killing a large number of Great Khan non-combatants, including women, children, and the elderly, breaking the power of the raider clan, but also causing the Khans to become bitterly hostile.

The surviving Great Khans were permitted by NCR military authorities to resettle at Red Rock Canyon without interference. In an effort to create a source of income, the Khans established a drug lab in the desolate gorges. By 2281, drugs manufactured in this lab formed the basis of their economy, providing much needed basic living necessities unavailable in the inhospitable canyon, where there is no food, barely any water, and nothing of note. Unfortunately, this drug business has destroyed what good will they had among others, as the drugs made their way to dozens of villages west of Vegas, thanks to their knowledge of the land, making it easy to make deliveries and escape the NCR's wrath. The Republic was unwilling to deal with the problem directly, as an assault on the Red Rock Canyon would be expensive in terms of both caps and men. Remnants of Khan presence who remained outside the canyon waged a desperate guerrilla war against the Republic, further straining their supplies.

Present day
Easy access to narcotics has also led to many Great Khans becoming addicts, trying to cope with the trauma of Bitter Springs through alcohol and hard drugs. Red Rock Canyon, already desolate before their arrival, became little more than a drug den filled with the stench of alcohol and drug fumes, where even the flies buzzing around are hopped up on one drug or another. The steady stream of narcotics turned dozens of villages out west into junkie dens, on top of the aforementioned fiends.

Such an existence is understandably intolerable to many, most importantly Papa Khan himself, who longs to leave behind a strong legacy. This is why Caesar sent Frumentarius Karl to act as ambassador to the Khans under the guise of seeking great warriors and in exchange for promises of land, wealth, and revenge against the NCR to secure their allegiance. Papa Khan's hatred of the Republic caused him to agree to the alliance almost instantly. The Khans would march to assist Caesar when the time came. Karl has appeased Papa Khan's advisers with promises of holding positions of power within the Legion. However, in reality, the Legion does not intend to keep any of the promises made.

Karl secretly despises the Great Khans, considering them to be unworthy of the Legion and sub-par warriors at that. He fully expects that the Great Khans will have to be decimated first in order to bring them to heel. The Khans remain oblivious, and they know of no alternative way to move forward. They are dying out and every day brings their enemies closer to launching a strike against them. The dream of becoming Caesar's elite cohorts is tempting, to the point that the Khans are blind to the reality of absorption by the Legion. 

Appearances
The Khans appear in Fallout, as well as in Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas under a new name.

Behind the scenes

 * The Khans are the only one of the three raider groups planned for Fallout (the Vipers and Jackals being the others) to appear in the game as a faction.
 * Their name is a reference to Mongol rulers known as Khans, mainly Genghis Khan, an infamous Mongolian warlord.