In another time, when the world was powered by the black fuel and the desert sprouted
great cities of pipe and steel, two mighty tribes went to war and touched off a blaze
which engulfed them all.
Only those mobile enough to scavenge or brutal enough to pillage would survive.
In this maelstrom of decay ordinary men were battered and smashed, but among the truly
ruthless, a few saw a vision of a new world rising from the ashes of the old.
One such man would become known as Immortan Joe and he would rule an empire from atop
his mighty Citadel.
How exactly Immortan Joe was able to seize the three great rock towers of the Citadel
has been long forgotten, replaced by the type of myth and legend that has grown common in
the Wasteland.
It is said that even as the ruins of the old world still smoldered, he led an attack to
seize the Citadel from whichever tribe had first claimed it.
Where his band of warriors failed, he alone brought victory, winning the title of the
Immortal Man, Immortan Joe.
This Triumph earned him far more than just a title however, for the Citadel stood atop
a great reserve of water and by controlling it, he transformed himself into a divine figure
across the Wasteland.
The mad and the desperate flocked to this stronghold, becoming Joe’s workers and soldiers.
The three towering rock columns of the Citadel were imbued with specific purpose as this
new society took shape.
The first among these held control over the aquifer and it was here that Immortan Joe
built his headquarters.
It maintained a level of luxury beyond even the most fevered dreams of the average Wastelander;
fresh water available on command, hydroponic gardens, fruits and vegetables, and even the
last remnants of knowledge from the old world.
Above all however was the “biodome”, home to Joe’s Five Wives who were used as breeding
stock to create a viable heir.
The second rock tower held what might have been considered the middle class.
Mechanics, medics and tradespeople whose skills had earned them a place of value in the Wasteland.
It also housed a gruesome form of blood bank, where captives were taken to be used as blood
bags for the Citadel’s warriors.
The last of the towers held the workers; slave labourers with arduous lives cut mercifully
short.
It is they who kept the wheels of industry turning and the great elevator in operation.
At the very bottom of this hierarchy were The Wretched, a mass of malnourished, sick
and homeless people who crowded the base of each tower in the hope of finding a better life.
They were kept in line by the promise of water, granted only sparingly at the discretion of
Immortan Joe.
The rule of this Empire expanded outwards from the Citadel and encompassed several other
great settlements that helped complete Joe’s monopoly on the two other necessary resources
of the Wasteland; guzzoline and bullets.
In Gas Town, a warlord known as the People Eater was appointed Mayor and ruled in Immortan
Joe’s stead.
Constantly drenched in a pervasive black smog, Gas Town provided fuel for the Citadel’s
war rigs and entertainment in the form of a gladiatorial arena reminiscent of the legendary
and infamous Thunderdome.
Likewise, an old ally of Joe’s known as the Bullet Farmer presided over a refurbished
lead mine, producing small arms, gunpowder and ammunition.
This Triumvirate was kept intact by an endless series of convoys, which transported resources
back and forth between the Citadel, Gas Town and the Bullet Farm across what its drivers
named the Fury Road.
Protecting these convoys was the work of the Citadel’s loyal corp of War Boys.
These were Immortan Joe’s soldiers and servants, hand picked from the Wretched at an early
age as “War Pups”, given new names, and indoctrinated to become completely loyal,
blindly following any command.
Dyed completely white in emulation of Immortan Joe’s own appearance, War Pups were trained
in all things mechanical, building vehicles and weapons as “rev heads” or “black thumbs”.
Those that survived long enough to become full fledged War Boys were given special markings
which included black rimmed eyes, and dyed mouths and skulls depending on their rank.
Imperators, Immortan Joe’s most trusted Warchiefs, were marked by black mechanical
grease and entrusted with the deadliest War Rigs.
In battle, the War Boys assembled a fleet of heavily customized vehicles and were consumed
by an overwhelming fatalistic ferocity: a central tenet of their religion, the Cult of V8.
Immortan Joe acted as the patriarchal and immortal god figure within the cult, and was
said to be the only one capable of granting access to the afterlife of Valhalla.
Other religious artifacts held tremendous importance as well, with special significance
given to the V8 Engine.
The V8 was said to be the source of the War Boy’s strength and power, a conduit between
the Wasteland and Valhalla.
Each practitioner was also bound to a personalized steering wheel, placed on the Altar of the
Cult when not in use and removed when called to war in order to symbiotically connect the
War Boy with their vehicle.
Beset by cancer and other ailments typical in the Wasteland, War Boys acknowledged they
lived a “half life” and despised the idea of “dying soft”, preferring instead to
sacrifice themselves in glorious battle on the Fury Road.
If a War Boy believed their death was near or they became overwhelmed with a suicidal
frenzy, they would spray themselves with Chrome paint and ask their brothers to Witness their
sacrifice before entering Valhalla shiny and chrome.
For a time, Immortan Joe’s Empire stood as a savage example of the type of “civilization”
that flourished in the Wasteland, but his rule would not last forever.
Imperator Furiosa, the greatest of his drivers, betrayed him, stealing a War Rig and taking
with her Joe’s Five Wives.
Across the Fury Road, Furiosa was pursued by Immortan Joe who led his entire army of
War Boys alongside his allies from Gas Town and the Bullet Farm.
Attacks from the rival Buzzards and Rock Rider gangs helped Furiosa in her escape and she
disappeared into the wasteland.
Yet in some display of madness or bravery, Furiosa returned to the Citadel alongside
a wanderer from the Wasteland.
Whoever this Road Warrior was, he was a driver of remarkable skill and through his and Furiosa’s
efforts, the War Boys were smashed on the Fury Road with Immortan Joe himself killed.
When Furiosa and the wanderer returned to the Citadel with Joe’s body, the myth of
his invincibility was shattered and his cult vanished in an instant.
Furiosa ascended to the top of the Citadel, and the water that had been so long denied
was now given freely to all.
As for the Road Warrior, he vanished back into the Wasteland from whence he had come
and all that remains of him now are memories.
The Templin Institute investigates alternate worlds and realities.
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