Vigil

Vigil's Logo

Overview

Year Founded: 2019

Status: Active

Nestled in the quiet little Western town of Bor, Vigil is a close knit group of survivors that have bonded through hardship, friendship, mirth, and misfortunes. The glue that holds them together is their wish to help others. Despite the harshness of the world since the Day Zero outbreak, they believe there is hope to be found in every act of kindness, love, and charity. To facilitate this, they have built the Sanctuary, which is a community camp in Bor, meant for people to gather, share food, and talk. The Vigil always put themselves above everything else, but they never shied from helping survivors. They actively protect it from those who cannot respect its rules, and any other aggressors. Outside of Bor, they do what they need to do to survive and look out for one another. Once they come back to the Sanctuary, they tend to leave politics and other happenings in the land outside and try to relax with some good conversation.

Alignment

Due to their commitment to help others, while still being on alert for aggressors, Vigil is falls under Chaotic Good with their alignment archetype. They will mostly have friendly engagements, but will be on high alert when meeting survivors with their weapons out. They will try to observe a potential threat from afar, but if that's not possible, the threat will be neutralized to protect from any potential danger. They originally were pure Neutral, but the times have changed, resulting in more chaos for the members.

Appearance

Vigil members conversing

In the early days, the group's appearance was quite colorful. There was a whole mix of colors being worn by their members along with their original pink armbands. Mid 2020 after returning from a hiatus, there was a sudden influx of groups wearing pink armbands, which resulted in the group deciding to wear yellow for a month or so until they were able to create purple ones, which they still wear to this day. These days due to the rise in hostility and wars, many of the group are often more well equipped with heavy guns, ballistic protection and darker clothing.

Origins

Vigil was originally founded back in 2019 by Shifty and Bonnie. After they decided to end their time with The Cartel, the pair set off to create something new for themselves. They originally wanted to create something not just for themselves but for other survivors as well. At the time, the 506th were their close allies and helped the Vigil get started in Bor. They wanted to bring the lifeless town of Bor back into action and it was close to Zelenogorsk, so there was geographic closeness amongst the two groups. They got the first camp up and running after a couple weeks, which was fairly small and being used as Vigil's home while at the same time helping survivors. Their goal was to help not only themselves, but other survivors as well, and they were doing just that.

Map of Vigil's territory

Territory

• Bor and the surrounding areas

Located in the central southwest, Vigil lays claim to the town of Bor and the surrounding areas.

• The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is a community camp built by Vigil for survivors to gather to share food, supplies, and have conversation. It was originally just a small camp in Bor with a few farming plots meant to help survivors grow food, but then over the years, transformed into a giant fortress up on the hills overlooking the town with enough food and supplies to help any survivors or groups stopping by.

Goals

The Vigil's priority was to protect their own and whoever stepped foot inside of their territory, as long as they showed a level of respect back towards the group, they would be protected. Everybody took care and trusted each other within the group which is why over the years, it sustained a healthy core of members who considered themselves a family.

Values

Vigil is invested in protecting themselves, their home, and their visitors. The following values represent the members of Vigil:

• EMPATHY: Vigil prides itself on friendly interactions, so they value their visitors lives and believe that reaching out to them, even after their stay, is essential.
• GENEROSITY: Since helping others is the core belief of the group, kindness and charity are at the forefront of Vigil's interactions. Many of their members came to join the group because of the good-will that was shown towards them and they believe in paying this mentality forward.
• RESPECT: Vigil treats its members and visitors with utmost respect, and they like that mentality to be reciprocated. They are slow to anger because of their dedication to good-will, but they will not hesitate to react with fierce anger if their members, visitors, or area are provoked.
• PATIENCE: Running a community camp can be stressful at times, but the members of Vigil practice patience because they come across both older and newer survivors of the land. When put to the test, patience is critical to the members.
• PROTECTION: Vigil strives to maintain a helpful presence in the area, and with that comes the responsibility of keeping their members and visitors safe. They will do what it takes to keep everyone safe in their area, even if it means dealing with aggressors in a fierce way.

Sketch of Vigil members. Photo courtesy of Pablo

History

I. The Plan

The founding members of Vigil were Shifty and Bonnie back in August 2019. They had decided to end their time with The Cartel and start anew, creating something new for themselves. The two originally planned to create something not only for themselves, but for other survivors as well. They had the idea to start a camp that would help people with food and supplies. They decided to call Bor home and make this dream a reality. Because they were such good friends with the 506th, this location made sense since they were right next to their friends in Zelenogorsk. Within a couple weeks, a small camp was set up with a few farming plots, in which both Vigil and survivors were frequenting. This was the beginning of the Sanctuary. Over the years, the Sanctuary would become a fortress up on the hills of Bor, overlooking the town and providing both food and supplies to survivors and groups.

II. Growth

Through the later part of 2019, Vigil became an official group. These months were filled with building up friendships with local groups, including the Pavlovo Trade Union, the 506th, and the Carnival. Once they secured their place on the map, Bor had a steady stream of traffic. With this influx of traffic came survivors who shared the same vision of helping others as Shifty and Bonnie originally had. Mr. Green came across the Vigil and lent a helping hand in building up the group. He still remains in the Vigil to this day and is their longest serving member. There were many other long term members who each individually helped Vigil during testing times and have made it what it is today, including: Ted, Jean, Jones, Jonathan, Tony, Daniel, Jordan, Orange, Flute, Ryan, Ruck, Winslow, Tedic, Luna and Bann.

III. Current State

During late 2020 is when Vigil really experienced growth as a group and Bor became a hot-spot for survivors to pass through. There was much hostility shown towards Vigil in 2021 and 2022, which had hardened its members, making them colder, aggressive, and always on guard. They still aim to help and support survivors that pass through, but they also take a more no nonsense approach to things.

Winslow Coltrane

Shifty and Ted talking

Shifty and Ted at the barn

Notable Members

• Bonnie - Co-leader and co-founder of Vigil. After about a year, Bonnie decided to part ways with the group.
• Shifty - Co-leader and co-founder of Vigil. After Bonnie's departure from the group, Shifty continued to lead the group with a heavy focus on creating the family environment for all the members of the group. In the summer of 2022, Shifty parted ways with Vigil and passed leadership to Tony.
• Mr. Green - Longest serving member of Vigil. Mr. Green helped Vigil build their original camp just two days after the group was founded and continues to carry on Vigil's legacy.
• Ted - Ted is the reason Vigil really took off due to his ability to test and bring out the best in others. He helped form the BDL (Bor Defense League- consisted of Bor residents, The Dugout and 506th, which allowed people to help out the area and resulted in many members joining Vigil along the way.)
• Winslow - Part of the glue that has helped keep Vigil together during testing times. Winslow was ultimately taken in by DAMN, with this leading to his death at the hands of Shifty, who believed Winslow caused much trauma to Vigil with the situation.
• Tony - Leading Vigil during more recent times, Tony has also kept the group together during trying times. Just like Ted, Tony has the ability to bring out the best in others. He has gone missing fairly recently.

Relationships

Throughout the years, Vigil has maintained quite a few longstanding friendships including:

506th - During the early days, the 506th were Vigil's only allies, so both groups pitched in and Vigil decided to call Bor home since it was near Zelenogorsk. The idea Vigil had was to bring the lifeless town of Bor back into action and also create a healthy flow of traffic through the Southwest.

Carnival - Once Vigil became an official group, they worked to build friendly relations with the Carnival since they were also allies of the 506th. Tedic, who was an important member of Vigil, also was an instrumental part of the Carnival.

Pavlovo Trade Union - The Pavlovo Trade Union, or PTU, helped Vigil get their bearings and build their camp. PTU was considered truly neutral, but they offered fair trade deals that helped build up Bor and The Sanctuary.

Dugout/Odyssey - Vigil received lots of help from Dugout/Odyssey in building the camp and maintained very good relations with them. Shifty would later join their ranks being their ideals were very similar to Vigil's.

Black Sheep - In keeping with their goals, the Black Sheep assisted with the building of Vigil's territory. Another truly neutral group like the PTU, they offered fair trades and assistance since the goals of Vigil aligned closely with theirs.

While Vigil has maintained many friendships, they also have a few known enemies:

Dark as Midnight - Dark as Midnight had raided Bor while Winslow Coltrane was a member and Winslow managed to meet with the apocalypse gang and other eastern groups to try and smooth things over. Through a series of colluding, meetings and adversity, Winslow was taken in by DAMN, which ultimately led to his death at the hands of Shifty for causing so much trauma to Vigil at the Lollipop Tower.

Forsaken Loyalists - Known for bullying Vigil in its earlier days, Winslow tried to talk with Vriska to try and get the Forsaken Loyalists off their backs. FL would overhear the conversation (in disguise) about trying to feed the Scribes intel about the group. They made an attempt at taking Winslow's life.

The Regime - Wrestled Vigil into submission after the Bor massacre, and they were forced to pay reprimands to The Regime by supplying blood bags and human obtained by their visitors.