Faction Overview - eskerthebreton/thrum GitHub Wiki

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The backdrop of the world of The THRUM is that of competing oligarchs at the heads of their respective corporations. However, while most people's lives are controlled on some level by these organizations, the actual corporate heads are a remote, somewhat inscrutable force, and their day-to-day interactions are shaped more directly by groups closer to the ground.

These factions in The THRUM fall broadly into three categories according to their primary motivation: those seeking to exploit the world order, those preferring to withdraw from it, or those seeking to remake it. Within each of these three categories, the individual factions differ according to the primary source of their leverage: there are those who rely on force, those who rely on numbers, and those who rely on ingenuity. The characterization of factions in this way is not meant to be overly prescriptive -- after all, individuals within any group will differ from each other as much or more than the groups differ from each other -- but as a GM creating narrative situations involving the factions, it may be useful to use a faction's motivation and leverage as a guide.

The Condotierri

Motivation: Exploit
Leverage: Force

The Condotierri are the mercenary security, the "hired muscle" that have taken the place of public law enforcement. They tend to be paid well by their employers, though for many the physical power and sanctioned violence they wield has a more visceral appeal. At any given time an individual "Terry" is likely employed by one particular corpo which has "jurisdiction" over a particular set of districts of the city, enforcing that corpo's regulations, though many Terries will go from one jurisdiction to another as payrolls expand and contract, and some may also moonlight for non-corporate clients. Ultimately, their loyalty is to whoever is paying them, and bribes are very much on the table.

The Confederation

Motivation: Exploit
Leverage: Numbers

The Confederation is a coalition of labor groups, similar to unions, the bulk of which consists of those employed by the corporations. Like the Condotierri, the Confederation is protective of their position: though most "Confeds" do not have financial independence, they have some measure of stability from their company housing and meals, and tend to be protective of it, as at least they're not starving in the streets. They don't have enough leverage to organize for better conditions, but they do have enough to keep outsiders out.

The Brokers

Motivation: Exploit
Leverage: Ingenuity

The Brokers are independent merchants who are not directly affiliated with any corporation, but who have a symbiotic relationship with them, as well as with several other groups in the city. They deal in anything and everything -- weapons, protective gear, raw materials, drugs, magical artifacts -- and those who have the most successful businesses are some of the wealthier residents of the city outside corporate leadership, and would be very much opposed to anyone threatening their enterprise.

The Molokoi

Motivation: Withdraw
Leverage: Force

As the corpos consolidated their power they pushed those they had no immediate use for to the fringes of society. Some sought solace in community or religion, but others turned to more hedonistic and occult pursuits. The Molokoi consume a drug they call "demon's milk" that imbues them with preternatural strength, and which they believe allows them to commune with a flesh-eating demon. Whether this demon is real or whether it is the product of drug-addled minds is unclear, but in this state they exhibit violent, cannibalistic behavior with near-complete disregard for self-preservation. In some districts, people do not venture outside after dark, for fear of ambush by one of these "Milkers".

The Eremites

Motivation: Withdraw
Leverage: Numbers

The Eremites try their best to isolate themselves from the rest of the city, residing in walled compounds of their own construction, and even going so far as to keep membership secret. They are said to subsist entirely on food grown inside their compounds on hydroponic farms and energy drawn from earth and sky, but little is known to outsiders about what goes on inside their citadels, or the extent to which they are truly as self-sustaining as they would have outsiders believe. They don't appear to be a threat to those who don't threaten them, though there have been some reports of people disappearing after venturing nearby.

The Extropians

Motivation: Withdraw
Leverage: Ingenuity

The Extropians are a less a formal organization than an underground interest group united by a desire to make use of magic and technology to break free of the constraints of the human body and brain. Some have grafted animal parts onto their bodies, others have augmented themselves with clockwork machinery, many have experimented with both, often aided by arcane magics. Most districts of the city have outlawed such practices, viewing them as a threat to corporate maintenance of order, leading some Extropian communities to live in seclusion, while others develop means to mask their alterations in order to appear in public and evade the scrutiny of the Terries. Though most Extropians prefer to keep to themselves, their lifestyle doesn't come cheaply and avenues to "legitimate" affluence are limited, leading many of them to burglary, while others make arrangements to be left alone by selling their services to powerful clients with... specific tastes. Many Extropians are also not above stealing from or even killing each other in order to acquire their augments.

The Ketumati

Motivation: Remake
Leverage: Force

The Ketumati are a militant fundamentalist religious order (or a cult, depending who you ask) worshipping a figure they call the Pearl Mother. They believe the world as it is is hopelessly corrupt and that by thoroughly "cleansing" civilization as it is, a new, pure, utopia free of suffering for the righteous will take its place. Ketumati proudly advertise their affiliation by wearing iridescent nacre armor, traditionally extracted from molluscs, though as the natural supply has waned, the order has turned to a synthetic substitute derived from bones dissolved in lye, and only those of the highest ranks wear the natural variety. This process has come to represent purification of wickedness, and has been incorporated into the funereal rites for fallen Ketumati to prepare them to meet the Pearl Mother in the hereafter, though some of the most zealous priests believe that "pre-mortal purification" is the best way to deal with heretics. Though most corpos officially consider the Ketumati a terrorist organization, they rarely intercede unless their assets are directly threatened.

The Gestalt

Motivation: Remake
Leverage: Numbers

The Gestalt is a collective in the strongest sense of the word, claiming to have sublimated all individual differences and needs by linking their minds as though a single superorganism. It is not known how this is achieved, or indeed whether this is even an accurate description of their experience, but one individual will often appear to "remember" interactions that a different individual has had. From the outside, they appear to be in a state of detached bliss, as though perpetually having an out-of-body experience. On the rare occasion that they converse with those outside the Gestalt, it is usually to try to convince them to leave behind the pain of isolation to join the embrace of the collective. New recruits must reportedly do so willingly, though as isolation and despair has risen, so too have their numbers.

The Mezzoramians

Motivation: Remake
Leverage: Ingenuity

After the government crumbled, education was only available to those who could afford private tutors (mostly Brokers and corporate management) or in the form of very narrow and concrete job training provided to corporate employees. Alternatively, parents who can't afford a tutor but still want their children to receive education in science and the arcane arts can apply to the Mezzoramian Academy, run by a group of mostly ex-corporate scientists and mages who had resigned or been let go over research deemed fringe or impractical. If they make it through the grueling admissions process, students at the academy are taught that any problem can be solved through formal rational analysis and optimization, and that as the time horizon of analysis extends into the future, those capable of carrying out such calculations are exponentially more valuable to society as a whole than those who aren't. It therefore follows that, in the big picture, the lives of those who would impede important research are a rounding error, ethically speaking, compared to the value of the progress lost.

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