The Cadun are one of the least common ethnicities in the wastes. Most people consider it a miracle they have not gone extinct.
More than any other culture in the wastes, the Cadun relish freedom. They make no settlements and rarely travel in groups of their own kind. The Cadun make their living as pirates, bandits, mercenaries, prostitutes, and all manner of scoundrels.
Cadun have the greatest disparity between genders of all wastelander cultures. They do not get married or form family units of any kind.
Cadun women dress to blend in with whatever culture they are living amongst. Like Cadun men, they generally avoid becoming entangled in long-term relationships. Finding a Cadun mate is preferable but by no means necessary.
Only the child of a Cadun woman may become a Cadun. The child of a Cadun man is considered the race of their mother. Cadun women take sole responsibility for the raising of their child. The mothers often relocate to separate the child from non Cadun fathers who try to remain in the child's life.
The mother will teach the child everything they need to know about being a Cadun. When the child becomes physically mature (sometime in their early to mid teens), they leave their mother and sever ties with her.
The child will then seek out a Cadun man to train them for combat. Cadun men may never refuse to take an apprentice. The apprentice spends the next ten years as a virtual slave to their master in exchange for learning all the secrets of combat the master can teach them. After the apprenticeship, the apprentice is dubbed a Cadun by their master and goes out into the world to make their own path.
Cadun men also dress in the manner of the culture they live amongst, but unlike women, they are easily identified. Men compete to have the largest, most elaborate beards they possibly can.
Cadun are boisterous and outspoken; they make friends and enemies quickly. Nothing seems to get to them, and they always appear to be having a good time.
The Cadun religion is called Asherai and follows the teachings of a book by the same name. The book tells stories of the adventures of a complicated pantheon of Founders and mortal heroes alike, each story emphasizing the beliefs and virtues valued by the Cadun.
The central message of the book is that if you get the most out of life and live without fear, you will get to spend eternity feasting with the heroes of the Asherai in a magical place called Haistone.
Outsiders credit this religion with the reckless devil may care attitude of the Cadun. But in truth, no Cadun actually believes the Asherai is true. They enjoy the stories and think they teach valuable lessons about getting the most out of your life, but the Cadun are actually nihilists. They believe there is no meaning to anything, and you should get as much enjoyment from life as possible while you can. Fear is the only thing that can prevent you from living your best life.
Cadun are expected to master as many forms of combat as possible, but they favor aggressive attacks that overwhelm their opponents. Regardless of any other weapons they have, all Cadun carry a pair of close combat weapons, most often daggers or hand axes. Traditional Cadun martial arts focus on fighting with weapons like these in each hand.