History Main / BanditClan

* In medieval western Europe, the line between this trope and the actual aristocracy was quite blurry, as local nobles would often flout the authority of the monarch and charge an exorbitant toll for passage through their land, then [[ShameIfSomethingHappened intimidate travellers into relinquishing their possessions when they couldn't pay said toll.]] The 19th century neologism "robber baron" was originally coined to describe this phenomenon.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':  Qrow and Raven Branwen were raised by such a clan early in life.  They left long enough to attend Beacon Academy, but Raven returned and eventually became the leader.  Raven is mad at Qrow for not coming back with her, while Qrow is mad at Raven for leaving all their friends behind, not to mention Raven's own daughter, Yang.

-->-- '''Sir Creator/WalterScott''', ''The Foray''

* ''Fanfic/LinkedInLifeAndLove'': As in [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} canon]], Raven and Qrow hail from a bandit clan in Mistral. However, [[AdaptationalHeroism Raven is a much better person here]], who only returned to the clan when [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou she had no choice but to leave her family]]. She started suggesting things like "mercy" and "not killing everyone they come across," which brushed the leader the wrong way, so he challenged her to a duel to put her in her place. She easily trounced him, [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority making her the boss]], and immediately started making changes. While she had some trouble at the start, by the time of the story the Branwen Private Defense is a respected [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary company]].

** The Bennett family were a rural clan of [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshiners]] and marijuana dealers who utterly dominated the township that bears their name, with EvilMatriarch [[CorruptHick Mags Bennett]] acting as the uncrowned FeudalOverlord of the town, while her sons, [[KillerCop Doyle]], [[PsychopathicManchild Dickie]], and [[TheBrute Coover]] controlled the police and local criminal underworld. Under their rule, Bennett township is [[IOwnThisTown closed to outsiders]], with the townsfolk utterly refusing to cooperate with the Kentucky State Police and US Marshals' Service for fear of retaliation from Mags or her boys.

* Many of the Somali pirate crews operating today are composed of extended families.

* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': The ''Slasher'' book brings us Freaks and Mutants, deformed killers who often pull together in inbred familial groups, and who survive, usually in rural areas, but sometimes in no-go areas of cities, via robbery and murder, with more extreme versions becoming full-on {{Cannibal Clan}]s.

Sometimes crime is a family business even when the family doesn't live in an urban environment. This clan or extended family lives in a rural or wilderness area, away from civil authorities, and makes a living by either robbing passers-by or traveling to raid farms, manors and villages. This can extend to 'protection' schemes similar to those used by urban criminal organizations, but otherwise there is little overlap in their activities. Like TheMafia, these groups tend to be strong practitioners of blood feud, and unwilling to involve outside authorities in their disputes.

* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' more or less presents Italy as entirely comprised of these, but in particular, the Count's valet, Bertuccio, is a former bandit, and comes from a family of bandits.

** The Bennett family were a rural clan of [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshiners]] and marijuana dealers who utterly dominated the township that bears their name, with EvilMatriarch [[CorruptHick Mags Bennett]] acting as the uncrowned FeudalOverlord of the town, while her sons, [[KillerCop Doyle]], [[PsychopathicManchild Dickie]], and [[TheBrute Coover]] controlled the police and local criminal underworld. Under their rule Bennett township is [[IOwnThisTown closed to outsiders]], with the townsfolk utterly refusing to cooperate with the Kentucky State Police and US Marshals' Service for fear of retaliation from Mags or her boys.

* The ''{{VideoGame/Borderlands}}'' series : Bandit clans serve as the primary source of {{Mooks}}, where the game's primary setting: Pandora is rife with them; they're all descended from the original inhabitants of the [[MegaCorp Dahl Corporation's]] penal colonies that were abandoned when said corporation lost interest/control of the planet, and later bolstered in numbers by ex-Crimson Lancemen after the original Atlas Corporation fell apart during the events of the first game, ''VideoGame/Borderlands1''. They can stray into GangOfHats territory (bikers, pirates, rednecks, Irish, etc.) but are usually filled with the same unstable, psychotic bandits out for blood, loot and the shiniest meat bicycle.

* ''Literature/TheCandlemassRoad,'' by the same author, is a novel set on the border, following a young noblewoman who inherits an estate hard by the Border. Her father kept the Reivers off, but he is dead and his men dispersed.

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'': Inuyasha and Kagome's adventures through feudal Japan had them encountering numerous bandit clans, some of which were being led by a demon in disguise. For the first bandit clan that Kagome and Inuyasha encounter, a Shikon Jewel shard was reanimating the corpse of their dead leader, and it was Kagome who noticed he was dead to begin with. When she started loudly ordering everyone to be careful of the now rampaging corpse, all the bandits declared her to be their new leader. She loudly objects to that as well.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977'': The Clan famously [[CannibalClan murder and eat]] travelers, but they also rob them, stealing food, equipment, and trinkets to barter to Grandpa Fred.

[[folder: Folklore ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/TheSteelBonnets'', by Creator/GeorgeMacdonaldFraser is a history of the Scottish Reiver clans, and the [[WretchedHive lawless border]]

* In SA Swann's ''Literature/TerranConfederacy'' universe pirate clans haunted space near wormhole exits. Tjaele Mosasa was a member of such a clan.
* In Creator/SMStirling's ''Literature/ThePeshawarLancers'', the Pashtun clan that Ibrahim comes from appears to make their living in this way. The clan of air pirates which attacks the zeppelin towards the end of the book are also examples.
* Creator/RudyardKipling's poem "The Ballad of East and West" deals with the leader of such a clan who steals a British officer's horse. The officer's son rides after him to retrieve it, and after impressing the bandit with his courage and manliness does so.
* In the historical novel ''Literature/LornaDoone'', the Doone clan are a family of aristocratic background who having fallen on hard times, become bandits who terrorize Exmoor, the novel's setting.

* Susan Price's novel ''The Sterkarm Handshake'' is about time travelers from the 21st century dealing with the Sterkarm clan of Border Reivers. The Sterkarms are left-handed, and the titular handshake is when they shake with their right while getting ready to stab you with their left.
* The Pack, violent outlaw bikers from the ''Literature/UkiahOregon'' series, form a peculiar example. They're not related in the ordinary sense, but [[HumanAlien under the skin]] they're [[TheVirus all the same creature]].

* Tariff ibn Hassan is the patriarch of a notorious bandit clan in ''Literature/TheLionsOfAlRassan''
* ''Literature/TheShippingNews'': Quoyle, a mild-mannered ExtremeDoormat, is surprised to find out that his Newfoundland ancestors were pirates that used lights to lure ships onto rocks, where they would crash, allowing the Quoyles to harvest the wrecks for goods.

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Poetry ]]

[[folder: Radio ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The first recurring enemies in several ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games have the player characters facing off against local bandit clans. This is a decent way to ease into the series as the hero usually has [[TacticalRockPaperScissors swords, which have the advantage over the axes]] that bandits prefer. Later in the game, you typically fight the evil Empire whose soldiers favor lances and swords to outdo or match your main character.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':  Qrow and Raven Branwen were adopted by such a clan early in life.  They left long enough to attend Beacon Academy, but Raven returned and eventually became the leader.  Raven is mad at Qrow for not coming back with her, while Qrow is mad at Raven for leaving all their friends behind, not to mention Raven's own daughter, Yang.

* Bandit clans serve as the primary source of {{Mooks}} in {{VideoGame/Borderlands}}, where the game's primary setting: Pandora is rife with them; they're all descended from the original inhabitants of the [[MegaCorp Dahl Corporation's]] penal colonies that were abandoned when said corporation lost interest/control of the planet, and later bolstered in numbers by ex-Crimson Lancemen after the original Atlas Corporation fell apart during the events of Borderlands 1. They can stray into GangOfHats territory (bikers, pirates, rednecks, Irish, etc.) but are usually filled with the same unstable, psychotic bandits out for blood, loot and the shiniest meat bicycle.

* The Skinners from ''Literature/TheGeneral'' series live in clan grouping and survive mostly by hunting the native sauroids, but their primary interaction with other cultures is to RapePillageAndBurn.

* {{VideoGame/Borderlands}}: Pandora is rife with bandit clans; they're all descended from the original inhabitants of the planet's penal colony. They can stray into GangOfHats territory (bikers, pirates, Hodunks are rednecks, Zafords are Irish, etc.)

* TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': The ''Slasher'' book brings us Freaks and Mutants, deformed killers who often pull together in inbred familial groups, and who survive, usually in rural areas, but sometimes in no-go areas of cities, via robbery and murder, with more extreme versions becoming full-on {{Cannibal Clan}]s.

** The Crowes are an extended family of smugglers, poachers, and hijackers with branches in both rural Kentucky and the Florida Everglades. A gang of {{Opportunistic Bastard}}s at heart, the Crowes hire themselves out to other criminal groups like [[TheCartel the Machado family]] and Boyd Crowder's gang as muscle, before [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betraying their employers]] and taking control of whatever enterprises they might have been involved in. Over the course of Season 5, family patriarch Daryl Crowe Jr and his brothers involved themselves in smuggling sugar from Cuba, poaching alligators, prostitution, transporting Mexican heroin, and multiple counts of [[PsychoForHire murder for hire]] all in the name of Daryl's obsession with keeping the family together.

** The Crowder family are a bandit clan in the process of transitioning into a more modern organized crime family. Under the leadership of family patriarch, Bo, the Crowders started out as thieves and hijackers of drug shipments, before extending their activities to include running a protection racket that encompassed every other criminal enterprise in Harlan County. Following Bo's release from prison, the clan assumed direct control of the Harlan County meth trade, while still running their protections schemes; with his death his son, former RightWingMilitiaNut Boyd moved the surviving family members into more typical organized crime activities, controlling heroin distribution and prostitution--though he's not above the occasional bank robbery or act of domestic terrorism.
** The Bennett family were a rural clan of [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshiners]] and marijuana dealers who utterly dominated the township that bears their name, with EvilMatriarch [[CorruptHick Mags Bennett]] acting as the uncrowned FeudalOverlord of the town, while her sons, [[KillerCop Doyle]], [[PsychopathicManchild Dickie]], and [[TheBrute Coover]] controlled the police and local criminal underworld.

** The Crowder family are a bandit clan in the process of transitioning into a more modern organized crime family. Under the leadership of family patriarch, Bo, the Crowders started out as thieves and hijackers of drug shipments, before extending their activities to include running a protection racket that encompassed every other criminal enterprise in Harlan County. Following Bo's release from prison, the clan assumed direct control of the Harlan County meth trade, while still running their protections schemes; with his death his son, former RightWingMilitaNut Boyd moved the surviving family members into more typical organized crime activities, controlling heroin distribution and prostitution--though he's not above the occasional bank robbery or act of domestic terrorism.
** The Bennett family were a rural clan of [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshiners]] and marijuana dealers who utterly dominated the township that bears their name, with EvilMatriarch Mags Bennett acting as the uncrowned FeudalOverlord of the town, while her sons, [[KillerCop Doyle]], [[PsychopathicManchild Dickie]], and [[TheBrute Coover]] controlled the police and local criminal underworld.

These groups are rare nowadays, as there are very few areas left sufficiently lawless to sustain them, but they can appear in historical fiction, fantasy, and any type of science fiction that involves TheFinalFrontier. They tend to have a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior culture]] that honors strength, cunning, and ruthlessness, and tend to be big fans of [[TheRustler cattle theft]], as well as a good old fashioned RapePillageAndBurn. While the family business isn't usually murder specifically, they aren't shy about killing anyone who stands in their way (or annoys them, or looks at them funny...), so many will have elements of an extended multi-generational [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether Family That Slays Together]]. They may well be a BadassFamily as well, when the outright criminality of the lifestyle is downplayed or because EvilIsCool. They are usually land-based, but seagoing and spacefaring pirate clans also fall under this trope.

* Bandits have appeared in the background of ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'', mostly in Luffy's home village. They're presented as sort of the {{Foil}} for pirates, sticking to one region instead of setting out on long journeys. While none of the bandit tribes are ever confirmed to be family units, the tribe we see the most of calls itself one and acts like one.