Other Factions, Guilds and Groups

When the Gracious Depths realised this, she wept and cried, the strength of her grief raising storms crashing against the stone, trying to break it open. It failed. Meanwhile, our ocean under the Eternal Sky grew colder and colder, yearning for the warmth of their sibling, the Gracious Depths. This is why the storms of the Grieving Sea have battered the ocean ever since, trying to break open her prison, crying out for both her siblings and her lover.

– An extract from the Sailor myth The Grieving Sea, adapted from the version told by Sailors of the Nation of the Eternal Sky.

The Cartographers' Guild is a hub for interplanetary exploration, research, and settlement and as such many corporations, research teams, governments, and guilds are eager to get involved. Some seek to broaden the horizons of knowledge, others want to explore the wonders of deep space, others seek the Guild purely for their own gain. The factions listed here are some of the major groups at game start, though it is not a full list; countless individuals or smaller groups reach out to the Guild for a plethora of reasons, too numerous to list here. In addition, players are able to make their own factions in character creation or later on in the game through the Influence system.

The Balra population is broadly split into thirds: a third each on the North and South poles of Corico, and the remainder in the Oasis Republic, a large off-world colony about 12 light-years from Corico. Since the advent of FTL, the 3 major bodies have come together to form a council, the Corico Forum, with representatives from other Corico off-world colonies attending.

Prior to the war on Kallimar, the planet was governed by mostly independent city states, with some general confederations existing nationally. As the war went on, the sides fighting loosely conglomerated into two camps, with victory ultimately going to the egalitarian and meritocratic side. Now, the planet is united under one government, with the military having subsumed all other organs of state. All citizens of the planet hold a military rank, even if they do not actively engage in military activities.

Each of the nations split across the three oceans of the Thousand Colours Moon contains a unique forms of politics and government. Despite their differences, each nation does not exclusively contain a single culture. The large area of oceans and seas ensures that distinctive groups of Sailors are present within each nation.

The Sailors within the Nation of the Eternal Sky place their power within the Elders, an oligarchic group consisting of the most prominent families from the nation's nomadic days. The Elders all unified under one banner after a particularly severe cold snap swept the region. This created an increased need in resource consolidation and land-based technologies which provided all the necessary motivation for unification.

The Elders have all the power in proposal and implementation of laws and policies affecting the nation. The Elders themselves remain congruent, with many of the dozens of individual families holding a say on the agenda of the Elders. However, due to contact with the other nations, rapid developments in technology, and large booms in the Sky Sailor population, a growing egalitarian and democratic movement has arisen questioning the oligarchic rule of the Elders.

The Elders were forced to compromise, leading to the establishment of the Sailors' Assembly, holding limited veto power. Since that day, a precarious balance between the Elders and the Sailors' Assembly has been held. Recently, tensions brew once more as the Elders proposed fundamental constitutional changes further weakening the veto power of the Sailors' Assembly, all the while more of the Sky Sailor population begin to question the uninterrupted rule of the Elders.

The location of the the Nation of the Curved Leaf on ample hydrothermal vents has created many imperatives for technological research within the Leaf Sailors. The government of this nation mostly represents a Technocracy, where the most able Leaf Sailors, often experts in their specific fields, maintain leadership roles.

Within the government, unbiased algorithms are used to collect data, which is then used by experts to suggest a course of action resulting in the best beneficial consequence of for achieving the nation’s goals. Specific ideologies are often rejected in favour of using the scientific method and empirical analysis for deciding on policy.

While the government of this nation is made up of a variety of researchers, a powerful group known as the Thermo-Barons successfully managed to monopolise the majority of the research and technology. The Thermo-Barons hold most of the hydrothermal vents of the nation with an iron fist, securing their position as a powerful lobby within the technocratic proceedings of the nation, having a say in most technological developments.

Occupying the largest ocean and often facing the wrath of its storms, the Sea Sailors of the Nation of the Grieving Sea have developed highly spiritualist modes of thought. They ideologically value freedom above everything else and place their faith not in political institutions, which they see as corrupting, but rather the collective Sailors' Will for guidance.

The Sailor's Will is a spiritualist movement rooted in deep traditions for the Sea Sailors. It involves leading a humble lifestyle and placing one's faith in the natural elements and world. The Sea Sailors use the Sailors' Will as a criterion and as moral guidance for what each Sailor needs to be truly free. Belief in the Sailors' Will is the basis for the decisions undertaken by the Sea Sailors. The Sailors' Will heavily involves within itself mythology and spiritualist beliefs, with many Sea Sailors looking to the ocean for guidance. Despite having roots in the Sailor pantheon, the modern Sailors' Will has gradually moved away from older pagan religions and is now much more rooted on what is in the sea, rather than in the sky.

As a result, no traditional policy making institutions exist for the Sea Sailors nor do they elect a leader. Instead, the Sea Sailors themselves make the laws, using the Sailors' Will to produce policy that strives to achieve the common good of all the Sea Sailors within the nation. They seek through consensus to persuade each other of the value of a policy or agenda in accordance with the Sailors' Will. While there is the lack of a conventional leader, a simple figurehead is chosen by the Sea Sailors, their purpose being to represent the nation and spread the Sailors' Will, so more may be enlightened.

Despite their differences, the Sailors of each nation are keenly aware of how they represent the Thousand Colours Moon diplomatically to the Known Galaxy, especially to their neighbours, the Balra, the Xhuva, and the Rissi. This led to the recent establishment of the Commonwealth of the Moon, the first supra-national institution of its kind for the Sailors.

Its establishment was spurred on by considerable developments in FTL technology. The prime function of the Commonwealth of the Moon is to act as a vehicle for diplomacy with other sapient species. The three leaders of each of the nations are each in charge of representing their nation's interests within the Commonwealth, alongside a set number of representatives from each nation. Together, they represent the Sailors to the rest of the galaxy and dictate policy taken by the Thousand Colours Moon towards it.

The invention of FTL has had plenty of repercussions, some positive, some negative. It all depends whose hands it's in, and several groups are determined to make sure it's theirs. Smugglers can make interplanetary runs with relative ease, and all sorts of pirate crews are itching to get their hands on a handy way to expand their reach. Mercenary groups are also selling their services aboard the Cartographers' Guild station. Space is dangerous, and protection comes in handy.

A selection of these crews include:

• The Scourge Fleet: A fleet of a dozen or so sub-light ships and one FTL-capable craft, primarily crewed by Sailors, though the odd Balra or Android can be found among their ranks. These marauders disable and board merchant vessels around the Sandos system, killing all hands and stealing anything of worth, often including the spaceship itself. One crew member is always spared, to tell their story. The leader of this armada is unknown, being given only the moniker “the Dread Captain”.
• Murphy's Claw: Need something to go from one place to another very, very fast? Murphy and his crew of smugglers would like to introduce themselves. Priding themselves in handling sensitive items with the utmost discretion, the Claw would like to expand their range of operations, and an FTL drive would let them do exactly that.
• The Beast Wranglers: An altruistic crew of Balra “Megafauna Specialists”, who made their name as hunters-for-hire protecting Northern Balra settlements from aggressive Mudstalkers. Known colloquially as Corico's resident monster hunters, they've gained a lot of recognition for helping keep communities safe, and are now offering their services to explorers among the stars.

Operating from a luxury FTL-capable liner, the Shooting Star casino and resort was originally a planetside establishment on Kallimar. When the Kallimari government banned gambling after the Great War, the proprietor of the Shooting Star decided not just to avoid responsibility to that government, but to avoid any responsibility to any government ever again. They packed as many slot machines and neon lights as they could onto as many shuttles as they could hire, and set off for the stars.

The Shooting Star now has a reputation that can be described as dubious at best. There's nowhere in the galaxy that provides a comparable experience, and to many an all-inclusive trip to the Shooting Star is the sort of thing you'd save up for for cycles. Still, in a place beyond the literal borders of legality, it should be no surprise that the Shooting Star is home to its fair share of shady deals. While these… elements are welcome, the new proprietoress, Ardora, keeps a tight leash on the operation - tight enough that a naive guest might not notice a lord of the galactic underworld passing casually behind them.

A now-defunct Southern Corico spacefaring company, most famous for establishing the so-called “lost colony” of Huxxis V. Whilst the company's assets are now liquidated, a representative can still be contacted for legal purposes.

Not every spacefaring company is kind to its workers, and the Conclave seek to remedy that. Made up of disillusioned labourers and the remnants left behind of companies since disbanded, they seek to prevent the excesses of corporate action, keeping tabs and monitoring companies, taking in those mistreated by other systems.

While their membership can be disorganised and incredibly disjointed at times, they are nonetheless a threat to corporations that push too hard on their members. Focused attacks on mining facilities and other centres of commerce have taken place many times in the past. The Cartographers are in good standing with them, as a guild that values and cares for its membership, but caution is advised for any enterprising business-maker. You never know who might be watching…

With increasing worries about pollutants and worker's benefits, many industrialists have found greater profits to be had off-world. The Prismari Industrial Association is one of these groups. Stationed on the Prismari-27 Mining Complex, the PIA is formed from owners of various mines, refineries and manufacturing shops, jointly running both the Complex and the Prismari Company Town inside it. The Complex's owner, Director Onyx Guise, is also Chair of the Association.

A merchant company run by the elderly, some may say senile, Balra merchant Ibus Inoloc. Inoloc himself has come to the Guild, seeking the Cartographers' aid. He hasn't elaborated on precisely why.

A nascent technology company founded, owned, and run by the technology tycoon Omnipotent Light. Omnipotent Light has offered to provide StarShine equipment to the Guild, but has been repeatedly refused. Reputable sources warn against buying any of Omnipotent Light's inventions – none of them have been tested by any external company.

Run by Elder Tavi Yondaff, the Corico Preservation Society is centred around preserving Corico's unique culture. With the cultural drift caused by space travel, and now FTL, its members fear that the Balra's traditional way of life is slowly being eroded. As such, Tavi has petitioned for a place onboard the Cartographers' Guild station, to ensure their way of life goes on.