[patchwork]

You have a point; Marauders are an idea I don't like at all. Another variant set of mechanics ("Paradox never actually hurts us, we just take a time-out in another dimension when it gets too high to interact with this one!") I can do without, and I don't need a tie-in to Werewolf's Wyld nor another example of "mental illness is a superpower, tee-hee!".

If I had to deal with Marauders, as written, I suppose I would try to hang it on two points: Marauders tend to be tied to discarded human paradigms, not inhuman paradigms. The fantasy Middle Ages that never were, Greek mythology, Ming China...those are some of the standouts from the Butcher Street Irregulars. And thus, marauders are fundamentally defensive while Nephandi are offensive - the Wyld is dying, in Bridges' cosmology, and the Marauders are desperately trying to preserve what bits of it they can. The Nephandi have a plan (actually, they have a hundred) and are trying to install a new, much less human reality; they may or may not be sane, in a technical sense. The Wyld protects the Marauders and the Marauders protect the Wyld but it would unfair to accuse them of a plan. Which is part of why they make poor recurring characters.