The Lord's Conclave Description: A religious group. The Believer. Leader: Sister Miriam The Labyrinth Description: Values science above all, scientists. Big Brother. Leader: Chairman/Doctor Sheng-ji Yang Texts: "God in the Eye" "Ethics for Tomorrow" "Essays on Mind and Matter" Quotes: "What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: Take control of the input and you shall become the master of the output." -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter" Bio-Engineering: Why do you insist the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter, we are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of you mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself - Chairman Yang, "God in the Eye" Recycling Tanks It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people. - Chairman Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow" Spartan Federation Description: Military-oriented, a military group. The Survivalist. Leader: Santiago Texts: "The Council of War" Spartan Battle Manual Quotes: "Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander that embraces this totality of battle shall win even with an inferior force." -- Spartan Battle Manual Doctrine: Total War Man has killed man from the begining of time, and each new frontier has brought new ways and new places to die. Should a world of pure thought be so different? - Marshal Joachim Ortega, "The Council of War" Morgan Conglomerate Description: A group of arch-capitalists. The Mogul. The industrial mogul is quite wealthy and has a high-income level, but his followers are more spoiled and demand a higher standard of living, so it's more difficult for him to grow his population. Leader: Director/CEO Nwabuoike Morgan Texts: "The Ethics of Greed" "The Centauri Monopoly" Quotes: Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed have followed us to the stars, and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse. -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Centauri Monopoly" Matter Transmission/Applied Relativity: Who cares if you are here, and I am there, and we move past and with and through and around each other, if there's not some gain to be made from it? - Director Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed" The University of Planet Description: The Scientist. Leader: Academician Prokhor Saratov Founding Base: University Base Texts: "Now We Are Alone" "The Feedback Principle" "For I Have Tasted the Fruit" "The Gating Fallacy" Quotes: "The substructure of the universe regresses infinitely towards smaller and smaller components. Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons quarks. Each layer unraveled reveals new secrets, but also new mysteries." -- Prokhor Saratov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit" Matter Trnasmission The first lving thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say. - Academician Sorov, "The Gating Fallacy" Keepers of Wisdom, Peacekeeping Forces Description: The Philosopher. Leader: Keeper/Brother/Doctor/Commissioner Pravin Lal Founding Base: United Nations Headquarters Texts: "The Science of Our Fathers" "Our Next Journey" "Mind Worm, Mind Worm" Quotes: "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." -- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Librarian's Preface" Temporal Mechanics: "Time travel in the classic sense has no place in rational theory, but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more important it can be controlled." -- Keeper Pravin Lal Stepdaughters of Gaia Description: An environmentalist movement. The Green. Leader: Lady Deirdre Skye Founding Base: Gaia's High Garden Texts: "Our Secret War" "A Comparative Biology of Planet" "The Collected Poems" "Planet Dreams" Quotes: "In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth." -- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams" Centauri Ecology: Observe the Razorbeak as it tends so carefully the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then a swatch from the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: someone or something is managing the ecology of this planet. - Lady Deirdre, "Planet Dreams" All rules relating to Factions, along with most other rules in the game, are availible in text files that can be fully customized by the player. So you can indeed create your own Factions! We haven't settled on "final" names for everybody yet, and some details of the story are still congealing, so that's why we haven't published a definitive faction list.