As I once said to Sarah, we need new people so that our gene pool does not develop into a wading pool! The first ones here were the child survivors of those who lived and worked inside the mountain. Once we settled into Thunder Mountain, we began sending out teams, who recruited people to work for us, either directly by bringing them here, or indirectly by having them act as recorders for events occurring in the world outside. Only team members living in Thunder Mountain know its exact location. They can nominate people for recruitment, based on potential skills they can bring to Thunder Mountain, but ultimately it is Council who determines which potential recruits will be accepted. I still have the final executive say, though I tend to abide by the decisions of Council. The watchers know only their direct contacts - it helps keep Thunder Mountain safe.

Officially, we do not accept "strays”, since we find it necessary to develop a deep knowledge of our potential new community members before we move them into the mountain. We have hard rules on contacts with the outside world, and bringing new people inside. We are at such a high risk of threat from the outside world we need to be able to trust every single individual within the community. Jeremiah and Kurdy have pushed the envelope a few times ­ to put it mildly ­ by bringing back people without any discussion, though they have always had clearly moral cases to set before the Council in their favour. Saving Lydia from her abuse at the hands of the raiders was necessary, and while Lee was angry, everyone truly believed they did the right thing in bringing her back to Thunder Mountain.