After the original Vault Hunters defeated General Knoxx, the Atlas corporation's attempted takeover of Pandora failed. ECHO recorders found in Sanctuary during Borderlands 2 suggest that Atlas cut their losses and left a large number of Crimson Lance soldiers stranded with no supplies or ammunition, leaving them defenseless and ripe for bandit attacks. Roland pledged to give these soldiers a cause worth fighting for if they joined him in the building of a militia against Hyperion, and so the Crimson Raiders were born.