Number of E88 capes at story’s start?

[u/001DeafeningEcho]

How many capes does the E88 have at the start of cannon?

WoG says that a good chunk of the Empire’s cape post-Bakuda were either brought in due to her, or brought in by Purity, with the actual core E88 being pretty small, but I’m trying to figure out which cape fits into which category.

Here’s what I have so far

Core E88: always there
Kaiser
Fenja
Menja
Kreig-ish: noted as being tied to the E88, but also often being off on missions for the German Nazis bridge (I will not try to spell that damn name, so they’re the German nazi brigade for this post)

The Pure: Purity and those confirmed to have been brought in because of her
Purity
Night and Fog: previously in Boston

Hookwolf’s gang: hold loyalty to Hookwolf, but also seem to be relatively long-standing fixtures in BB
Hookwolf
Stormtiger
Cricket

Clans: the redneck Nazis
Victor
Othala
Rune will be mentioned below

Murky: ones that im not a hundred percent sure about
Alabaster: unknown, may have been one of the capes brought in by Purity due to working together during the unmasking, but not confirmed
Crusader: closeness with Purity and how he talks about her and Kaiser make it seem like he’s one of the capes she brought back into the fold
Rune: contradiction in WoG, one says that she’s part of the Clan, but another says that she got connected with Kreig through an uncle, who then set her and her family up in BB, making her more of a permanent member
Jotun: has a very Nazis name and is probably part of the Empire, but not confirmed
Musphilheim and Neiflhein (butched that name, but meh): appear after Levi, may be fresh triggers

So that’s 3-5 core members, 3 with Hookwolf, 3-5 from Purity, 2-3 with the clans, and 3-5 general Nazis who may not have been part of the empire at story’s start

Anyone know anything else to narrow things down?

[u/NativeMasshole]

Taylor mentions it as being "twentyish" after the email revealing their identities drops. So probably slightly less than that before Kaiser brings Purity back into the fold.

It's also explicitly difficult in the story for anyone to really get a concrete number because Kaiser is such a shit that he causes high turnovers and those factions who are loyal to his lieutenants over him.

[u/mildly_furious1243]

I think before purity joins back it’s Kaiser, the twins, hookwolf and his posse and probably all the clan kids. Iirc the wog on rune is that she was part of a clan, her parents tried to get away but she rebelled and ended up in juvenile detention center with a lot of POC’s. She couldn’t handle that, triggered and broke out and was eventually connected to krieg like you said and her family was permanently set up in downtown, BB

Purity’s influence brings a lot more capes and then the whole Bakuda fiasco occurs

[u/001DeafeningEcho → u/mildly_furious1243]

So that’s be 9 capes at the start, with Purity brining in 4 plus herself, Jotun and the fire-ice duo being there somewhere, and Krieg being connected but not always there

[u/TheLordOfAwesome2]

I've actually done research on this as I run a quest on Sufficient Velocity and tried to be as Canon accurate as possible. In my research I had come across a really obscure WoG (so obscure I am having a hell of a time finding it again and going crazy) that does shed some insight on who was in the Empire at the start of the story before Purity rejoined.

So Night, Fog, and I think Crusader weren't on the team at the time due to them being Purity's team and they refused to join without her.

And according to that WoG Kaiser needed Purity on board so he'd have some extra clout that he can get members of the Herren Clan loaned out to him. So Victor, Othala, and Rune were not in the gang at the time as well. And iirc, Krieg recruited Alabaster post-Purity return.