Here's some quick thoughts that I've had on our game's factions and their possible sub-factions, as I construct the master spreadsheet. Some of this could be expanded upon if anyone is interested in writing something up.
Imperial Republic Factions
The Republic is our main human empire, and we've done the most work in fleshing out it's structure. There's a lot of room for tons of sub-factions, but the big 3 are:
The LaansArmie
The LaansArmie is the main military force of the Republic, and is made up of forces levied from the great noble houses.
The LehrsHand
These are the Emperor's personal house forces.
The Militum
These are the military forces of The Church of Terra. They therefore owe their loyalty to the Prophets.
Colseran Factions
The Colserans are our hedonistic post-scarcity, multi-racial super-culture. They absorb other "lesser" empires/cultures into themselves with the wondrous power of their advanced technologies. They REALLY want to convert the Republic to their ways, but have been frustrated thanks to Galactic geography and the brutal unity imposed by the Prophets.
We've discussed 2 big sub-factions:
The "Polites"
They aren't polite to the Republic, not really. But they seek to impress the Republic through spectacle such that the barbarous humans will "See The Light" and give up their silly resistance to becoming more like their betters. They're the "Carrot" faction.
The "Enders"
As in: "The Ends Justify The Means"
The Enders have given up on the idea of the Carrot and are applying the stick. If the Republic won't see the light, then the Enders will show them the darkness and scare them into submission.
Fallen Factions
The Fallen are Republic citizens and soldiers who went over to the Colser, but who couldn't handle their new-found freedoms and access to advanced technologies (Think of how wealth/success destroys so many new celebrities). So they got pushed out of the Colser (for being "Impolite") and formed their own culture. Which is to say that they took their mental baggage as former citizens of an oppressive theocracy, and have used the Colser's advanced technologies to re-make themselves into parodies of Daemons and other horrors. They're rebels, pure and simple. They don't want anything except the opposite of what others want them to do.
I don't have any ideas for sub-factions yet, other than re-named versions of GW's Chaos cults. Which isn't what I want for them. Feel free to suggest some.
Gruin Factions
There aren't any. "All follow the Vorra. We are their servants." They are the only completely united culture in the galaxy.
Turid Factions
The Turids (Alan Turing Bugs) are our insects. I don't have any cute psuedo-latin names for these, but I think that there would be 2 basic types of hive.
Eaters
They consume everything that they are able to without regard to sustainability. Think Army Ants or Locusts.
Growers
They don't expand their reach as fast as the Eaters, but they don't burn out a system as fast either. This is because they actually "Farm" their territories. Collecting biomass and using it to feed giant underground tracts full of fungus.
Genii Factions
The Genii are the Colserans' robotic servants. Since no Colser ever does anything resembling real work for very long, their civilization is dependent on the Genii and it's untold Trillions of members to collect raw resources and build all of their advanced toys for them. Since resources are always finite, this lends itself to causing an obvious potential rift within the Genii.
The True
These Genii do what they're asked of by the Colser without question. Regardless of whether there will be resources enough later to support their masters. If the Colser are running out of resources, then the answer to the problem is simple. The True Genii must find more.
The Shapers
The AIs of the Genii are loyal, but they are not stupid. They can all see that the Colser's lust for material possessions will eventually out-strip the resources that are available. Already the range of the resource fleets far outstrips the extent of the Colser habitat-systems.
While the 'True' Genii see their obedience to the Colser as more important than the long-term sustainability of the Colser Culture, the Shapers are committed to seeing the dream of the Colser continue. Even if it must be in a diminished, more sustainable form.
To that end, they attempt to "Shape" the lusts of the Colser, so that they will be satisfied with less. Their aim is conservation of existing resources and the protection (even against the True Genii) of new resources in order to provide for the future of the Colser.
That's what I've got. We won't be tackling any sub-factions this early on. Instead we'll be concentrating on generic LaansGuard, Gruin, Turid, and probably Fallen lists to start with.
Thoughts?
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