Issue found! The game had left the debug tick for "LEGARDE DEAD" as On at all times, simply turning it off and getting to him fixed it. Likely an issue on my behalf
Dunno if I broke my game somehow, but every save I have Le'garde is always dead pre-30 minutes and the cavedweller village is always dead. Is it a Fear and Hunger glitch? or is it specifically a mod-manager glitch?