Either way, I will be here to help with brainstorming if anyone wants some assistance. I suspect that is a typo - He likely means PM, short for "private message." The option is found by scrolling to the top of the page and finding the little envelope symbol, selecting it and then starting a "new conversation" with just Hummel. Be aware that Hummel can sometimes take a few days to respond. This is part of the reason that Hummel just posted - it does not exist as much in the public forums so as to prevent spoilers for those who wish to play the game to find things out. That being said, simply stating that ARC exists as a mercenary group formed in the aftermath of the War of Silence will be enough. Yup, exactly; why I am here as a brainstorm-assistant. You cannot have both "a mercenary group for hire" and "a faction that is more benevolent." They are mutually exclusive concepts. So IF you want a faction that has a more benevolent leaning, then take your faction away from the purely mercenary, and more to something in-depth/substantial. Consider that ARC could be some kind of rebel group, or it could be its own civilization, or a small group of civilizations; Edit: it could also be peaceful; no need for every faction to be warlike. Remember: at this point in the creation process you can still be highly flexible; no need to treat things like they are set in-stone, so consider different potentials for the faction and then if you want to keep them as mercenaries, embrace the indifference to suffering! One other thought; if there is a challenge with a language barrier here(meaning, if English is not your primary language) and you want me to repeat or to try and explain in more detail, please let me know.
I should also add; Polaris are definitely not "good guys." They are a pan-galactic corporate monstrosity that is constantly attempting monopolies of services, resources, goods, etc. - very much not very nice and might play well with ARC if you keep them(ARC) as mercenaries.
Ok thats some great infos there @Fractalite. really appreciate your help and efforts. and for the languagebarrier (26 year old learned oxford englisch in a rotten state for me^^) , when i dont understand something i do the usual 2 step, google translate and if its not working i call my wife, she teaches englisch... I will have to think about if i want to keep them as mercenarys just or if i open them up and add maybe something to it. You gave me a lot of good thoughts to work with. will change the Line with its first appearance to the Line u mentioned for now and maybe can come up with something better in the future, but something like that needs a little time to think about. Even if Mercenary are not such a "indepth"-faction with a big story now, it could maybe one later. You are such a great help erasing all the little questionmarks. If i have questions , regarding my upcoming brainstorming, ill post them here. Maybe ill upload a pic of my mindmap then too, if its not so messy like last time^^
Yes. And you need a google account login as I won’t make the document public for obvious reasons and need to be able to track who has access as these info are confidential
is there a faction called this? i cant dm you for some reason. i have some ideas i was wandering if i could run by you?
No, and sure. Sorry about the DM thing; for some reason I can DM but others cannot DM me. Not that I mind. So I will message you.
I am glad that I found this thread! I already submitted the application for my faction. Link here for anyone who wants to take a look: https://empyriononline.com/threads/npc-factions-call-for-papers.92373/page-3 I am finishing up 2 POIs that I will attach. I am fully open to feedback (from anyone really) on what you like as well as constructive criticism. I have a lot more planned so feedback will be super helpful on future builds. I have only built a couple of CVs from start to finish before so I am well aware that I am a POI building newbie. To sum things up if you don't want to sift through the application, my faction is called Helios. They have an official stated goal of facilitating the free flow of goods and services throughout the galaxy. They aren't necessarily a corporation in themselves but more of an interest group that advances free markets. Behind the scenes, they are a sort of a Bilderberg Group/Illuminati-esque faction. I want their POIs to have a very "corporate" feel with a noir element to them. They aren't really an "evil" faction necessarily. I would describe them as just being morally ambiguous. They do maintain partnerships with other groups that they see as lucrative and will not jeopardize those partnerships without good reason. Helios is controlled by a board of directors. Much of the board is representative of the larger corporations that they represent but the board likes to maintain a diverse set of skills to take charge of their many divisions. They board recruits military leaders, scientists, diplomats and others. They started off as a Terran organization to give themselves economic bargaining power, being the new players in the galaxy but now are filling out their ranks with other alien species. While they have the capability to use military force to advance their interests, they often utilize other methods of control with economic pressure, strategic partnerships, etc. Although not made public, they also have a rumored special operations group called the Omega Initiative. The Omega Teams are responsible for intelligence gathering (including acting as handlers for Helios' spy network) and "pest removal" when it needs to be done quietly. They are responsible for counter-intelligence as well. Maybe being a nemesis to the House of Ghyst? Helios also maintains a bio-research division. They have planetary labs and mobile research vessels. I could see the bio-research division taking a particular interest in the spread of the Legacy. Helios is not known for restraint so whether the bio-research division would want to destroy the Legacy or try to harness it is anyone's guess. Helios is very compartmentalized. Only those at the top echelon of the organization have a full understanding of everything that Helios does (mostly the board and a group of regional directors). Helios does have a public presence too with a network of freight transport vessels and trading stations. With the exception of slavery, pretty much anything goes on the trading stations. Helios' vessel classes usually make reference to something in Greek, Roman or Norse mythology. I found this to be fitting since they have something of a god complex with how they try to control the galaxy and nature itself. I also thought the name would be fitting with Helios being the offspring of Hyperion. Helios' main enemy is the Zirax Empire. Publicly, they are enemies because Helios claims that the Zirax are stifling free trade. Privately, Helios just does not like to share control of the galaxy.
Alrighty, looks like we got ourselves some behind-the-scenes operators goin. Very nice very nice. You seem to be chuggin along pretty well on your own, did you have any specific areas you wanted additional brainstorming assistance with? Some idle thoughts... The Gh'yst are an excellent choice, they sound like they would bump up against your factions MO. Just keep in mind that the Gh'yst are formidable opponents(i.e. make sure to write them that way.) The Terran presence in the galaxy is very, very small. They would likely not have enough personnel themselves to execute a faction of the type you are describing. So you will need to figure out how to have a small group of Terran shadow puppeteers BEHIND the already shadowy puppeteers that is the overall faction. Could make for some interesting writing though - how would Terrans of that persuasion feel about having to use others for this kind of power broking? An organization like this one is inherently prejudiced so that could also be a challenging factor. With regards to the Legacy, for now, the Legacy must always "win" <- if that makes any sense. They are meant to be an end-game threat that is dormant/not interested in the galaxy right now. So if your fun research teams try for some kind of control they should fail and lose the base to the legacy or need to abandon it and then that POI would become another part of the abandoned series of buildings - as a legacy remnant. You can go either way with it too - the more archetypal "we are trying to harness its power for our own and take over the galaxy" or "we are curious about what happened in the galaxy so we are experimenting for more knowledge." The second of the two options will be the harder to write, but also gives you more creative lee-way. A similar thing might happen if you bump up against House Abyssal, The infection story in Project Eden, The Tesch, The Progenitors, The Void in Project Eden, or the Drones in Project Eden. They are all intended to be factions in their own right, but also aspects of the universe to help put things in perspective - that there are some truly awesome aspects to the universe that we are just not suppose to contend with effectively. However, the legacy are outright we are going to "consume/control/alter/infect/etc." I note that you say that they have a public presence as well in the form of trade stations... might I recommend banks? Little cliche I know, but it would work better. I would focus your faction a touch more as opposed to have them try to have aspects that are jack-of-all-trades. Decide, are we in the background, or more in the forefront? If banks are too cliche for you, then go for hidden caches of intel, OR, really have fun with it and make civilian settlements with some humdrum buildings to them but then work in "drop points" for secret espionage! Could be a fun recursive mission for the players to complete. I also realize that you are new to POI building and this might be a touch overwhelming to think about but could be a good goal to work towards? I see that the ships have a combat orientation to them. In fact, the one is heavily armed. They might be better less as armed ships and more for speed and intelligence - more thrusters/antenna and less turrets. ...But then a more challenging thought for consideration: One of the more interesting aspects of writing and creating is that it tugs at the truth of things and tries to bring about an honesty with respect to ideas and the world we live in. You have written a group that is inherently an impossibility; a group cannot be, both, a shadowy power broker AND a believer in free trade. Unless you mean that "tongue-in-cheek," those two concepts are diametrically opposed. If you do intend some cheekiness, then make sure to include that in the description of your faction, but if you do not, then you will need to decide as otherwise the concept is too scattered. It cannot exist. I do not mean to challenge any political views with this, but more, to help you with your writing. IF, you did not already realize this about the world, AND you note that, "wait a sec, doesn't that mean in our current world setting that perhaps some things are not what they seem and challenges the very nature that a concept like a "free markets" or "free trade" is/are decidedly not a real thing, not possible, and maybe everyone is under a giant hoax/illusion?" Sure, sure, good thing to note. But lets not derail the thread. Specific to your faction, for THIS creative writing, is your faction oriented on the illusion of free trade, OR, are they behind the scenes power brokers? Expand on each concept - add more description. Then, specific to that, and assuming you go the route of power brokers, I have an interesting proposition for you; why do they hate the Zirax Empire? Why shouldn't they love it? Maybe they hate the Gh'yst because they are interfering with their attempts at controlling the empire?
Thanks for your help! I suppose the help I am looking for is just to tie together all of the details and make sure all of the lore lines up with the rest of the game and make sure that it would be a valuable addition to the galaxy and not be a third wheel that is just there for no reason. I have a little over 700 hours into the game but not quite as much experience as some of the rest of you so I just want to make sure everything is squared away and I don't do anything really stupid. Escarli was already able to clear up some things with the Kriel so I think I am good with that side of it. Overall, I am pretty happy with the basic direction of the faction. Just need the finishing touches and to make sure that this provides a facet to the game that other players will enjoy, not just something that I think is cool. I think part of the issue is that I don't think I fully explained a few things: -In regard to the promotion of free trade/network of trading stations (I do like the banks/financial institution idea. Works well with how they would control the money supply) vs being a power broker, that's kind of the irony I was going for. The stated mission of promotion of free trade, the banks, the trading stations, it is all a front. In reality, they are doing the exact opposite of what they claim. To further complicate matters, I thought I would throw in that their intentions are not always nefarious (sometimes they are). Sometimes they actually do good things in the galaxy, or at least are the lesser of the evils. They DO actually try to keep groups like the pirates in check. They DO actually provide protective services for the corporations they represent. I want to make the choice to ally with them or not a little bit more difficult for the player. The player will have to determine whether the ends justify the means both for Helios' actions and the player's. Do they want to make an enemy out of Helios and potentially thrust the galaxy into chaos? Helios DOES provide a level of stability to those under their protection. If Helios were to be taken down and there is a power vacuum, can the player be sure that the results will be an improvement? On the other hand, most of the galaxy doesn't know what Helios is doing in secret and I am sure would not appreciate that the whole protectors of free trade narrative is a lie. Will the player stand on principle even if innocent people could be harmed in the process? -As to the small Terran presence. I figured that would be the case. While Helios STARTED as a Terran organization (at the time they were attempting to facilitate free trade), they have morphed into something else. There are still a lot of Terrans in the ranks of Helios but Helios no longer exists as protectors of Terran economic interests but instead, wants to "stabilize" the entire galactic economy; Terran and alien alike. Also, the corporations under the protection of Helios are not always members of the Helios organization. Think of Helios like the galactic version of the World Trade Organization but with a military arm. They set the rules for trade between those under their protection (corporations that existed prior to the formation of Helios as well as new start up ventures) and the military arm provides "teeth" to the rules. Not to get political here... just trying to describe Helios' perspective: their stated goal is not free trade in the anarcho-capitalist sense, more like that they are (on the surface) providing a level playing field. Like, you can undercut a competitor's prices but you can't take a plasma cannon to their inventory to drive them out of business. That sort of thing. -As far as how they are able to have the level of reach that they do, I will use the example of the Omega Teams. One of the key ways that Helios gathers intelligence is not by inserting Omega operatives into an organization that they need intelligence on (not to say that this would NEVER happen). Instead, I used the real life examples of how the Soviets/Eastern Germany recruited spies during the Cold War. Robert Hanssen and James Hall III weren't really passionate Communist partisans. They weren't sent over from the Soviet Union. They were Americans who wanted money. Similarly, the Omega Teams would identify weak points in the target organization's personnel and offer money/resources/whatever else they want. They could also identify a compromised high level official and blackmail them into cooperation. The basic idea is that they use the resources of the target organization to get what they need rather than having to always extract it themselves. The reason why the Omega Teams have been frustrated by the Zirax is that the Gh'yst have made meaningful intel extraction rather difficult. -Helios is also very careful with how they utilize their military arm. Let's say hypothetically, Polaris and Helios had a trade disagreement and were unable to arrange an acceptable business arrangement. Helios uses their military arm to protect transport freighters and making sure that hostile raiders aren't harming their interests. Regardless of the outcome, military conflict with Polaris would be costly. Sending the Helios fleet to wage war is a last resort. In addition, it is looking likely that they may need to reserve their military resources for the Zirax. Waging war on multiple fronts is a recipe for disaster. Instead, Helios might try to bring one of the Polaris top brass into the fold, maybe offer a position on the board of directors to someone who would be a good candidate. Failing that, Omega might get involved and try to recruit or blackmail key Polaris officials. Of course, the first option is preferable. -In regard to the Legacy, my thought was that the bio-research division has a team (not the whole division) that was attempting to control the Legacy. I thought that maybe a mission for the player would be that there was a "lab leak" and specimens escaped. However, the team had valuable information on the Legacy which the player would need to retrieve. The team was either destroyed by the Legacy or fled and the lab would become a Legacy remnant. The rest of the division would come to the realization that perhaps trying to control the Legacy was ill-advised and maybe we should just concentrate on weapons development/a way to destroy these things. -I do have ideas for the espionage focused ships. Specifically, I want to have a scout vessel or two, possibly with light armaments or maybe none at all (observation would be their objective rather than combat). The Gaia research vessel I posted has no weapons except for the onboard sentries and is basically a mobile lab. I was also tossing around the idea of a larger research vessel that would be mission specific (maybe the player would make contact with them before the Legacy remnant?). I do want to have some combat vessels and a dreadnought (the dreadnought would only spawn in the orbits of Helios' home star system and maybe as a mission specific). One aspect of Helios' cover operation is providing protection to the business interests of their affiliated firms as well as protecting their transport freighters. -The reason why Helios hates the Zirax is similar to what you stated. The Zirax Empire has money, resources and control. Helios wants access to it and the Zirax I suspect would not be interested in sharing. Hope that cleared things up! I am going to try to write up an official lore document at some point.
This is excellent. Thank you for your consideration - it makes things smoother for everybody and is just, plain super considerate. Do not get me wrong I understand this is a sandbox game and that brings about more self-absorption on the players part... much like playing with legos, but it is still a sandbox game in a galaxy with pre-existing core lore + galaxy from a game developer(plus others.) @Escarli is also a good person to talk to as he is very supportive. Nice choice. *whew!* I was hoping I would not have to be the bearer of the disillusionment concerning free trade. Who doesn't like a moral tug-of-war? So you do understand the contradiction and wish to put the player in moral binds. Good, good. That will be fun. Typing this out helps. Remember to get to get your thoughts on the paper! Include everything you wrote here in the official faction right up, and, if you can, even expand on it some more with sample mission ideas. That expansion is, of course, dependent on POI's and other factors, but! This could be really fun. It would work well with some of the other moral conundrums that are present in the game with regards to entities like Polaris Corp. The creator of Polaris is the player @rainyday and he only stops by infrequently(something about "wives" and "not wanting to have various important parts of his anatomy removed. Can you imagine?) His original idea was to have Polaris cut in the mold of the Weyland corp from the Alien movie franchise. If you are really serious about taking this faction places, there could be a tie-in there as weyland is full of moral conundrums. I make no promises of course, but the more you flesh things out, the more Hummel and others will be receptive. One thing I will say, as far as the terms "power vacuum" and "thrust the galaxy into chaos" are concerned - that might not work. That would imply that you are displacing the core game lore/framework a touch, and we need to be a touch careful of that. No one player faction can or should get that powerful..... although, to be fair, it really depends on effort. If you really generated tens of POI's and made the case you were really committed, it would be possible. This is also related to the next point: HMMMMMMM.... HMMMMMMM.... We already kinda have something like this in the trade guild/federation thing.... but in theory, they are more of a directly coordinated sort of block, and Helios could be a part of that. Maybe. We shall see how far you get with POI's and such, but this could be made to work in the context of core factions. Helios could be something that the Traders guild turns to in lieu of the lessons learned from the time before the War of Silence... Yeah, that might be interesting because that is exactly.... well, maybe not exactly, but something similar to the way entities like the WTO came into being via WWII and the Cold War. It would have to be different as the War of Silence was a very different kind of event, but I spy potential! This also really works relative to what you say here: Which is just right. Like the part about the Gh'yst jamming things up. Good, good. Yeah, I could see a love <-> hate relationship with Polaris. This would be easy to work in. That works. A tie in with the Abyssal is possible here. Could be interesting, but is also by no means certain(the Abyssal should only be used sparingly.) I despise Twitter speak, but in this case, as I have worked with @ravien_ff on; #BecauseAbyssal HHHHMMMMMMMMM. Having a ship in orbit and then a transition to a legacy remnant is just all sorts of right. That is exactly the kind of thing that the players want. It would be the reverse of the start of the infection missions in Eden(on the snow dwarf start <- highly recommended if you have not already tried it) and is similar to the core game mission regarding the Illmarinen. We really need more of this kind of content in the base game. I still think that this is a touch black & white and you are bringing pre-existing conceptions into things. Mind you, that is easy to do as the Zirax are archetypal bad guys, but Helios, if really cut in the mold of the World Trade Organization, as you put it, would be a weird sort of "grey" hyper evil. Or uncaring, or evolutionary dead-end kind o' stuff. I highly doubt the "powers behind the scenes" of the world trade organization and other entities of this planet hate anybody. They are more neutral anti-social and evaluating whether or not things can be worked into the system or not. The Zirax *could* be something that Helios is trying to corrupt? Ultimately still your faction and I am not trying to tell you what to do, just, consider it. ******************************************************************** All-in-all, excellent, excellent work. Keep going with it!
thanks I think i have pretty much nailed it, several revisions and some small tweaks later but i feel the lore is done at least for now. With regards to poi/opv building pretty much everything on the original list is built and submitted, ive got 2 wip pois to finish and an idea for another but there isnt alot left on the revised list on my poi challenge thread, unless someone else has an idea or build
Regarding the Terrans, how long have they been in the galaxy for? If I recall correctly the player crash lands a year after the Titan appears? I'm just thinking of the time frame, if the Terrans did arrive a year before the player lands then they would need some time to pick up the pieces after their....interesting arrival, find a place where they can recover without the Zirax hunting them further. Just thinking about that bit alone that's an awful lot of things to think about in itself. Finding themselves in a brand new galaxy which was very much an unplanned visit (at least I think that's the case), it's bit like who what why when? Would they have had time to start the Helios as well? Don't get me wrong I love the ideas and can see some interesting things going on, but if the Terrans have indeed only been around for a year then there has to be some thought into how much they can actually achieve in that year.
I suppose I am reading into the lore a little bit and making some assumptions but is it implied that the Hyperion was the first vessel to be sent to another galaxy? That is the assumption I was running off of and part of the reason why I gave the faction the name "Helios" as Helios was the offspring of Hyperion in Greek mythology. If my assumption is incorrect, or if the player isn't supposed to know that then I could change it to being started by a group of aliens (that would mean that I would need to come up with an alternate reason for the ship names as they wouldn't have known about Terran mythology) but in any case, the Hyperion Incident occurred on 2459 plus whatever amount of time to account for time dilation. Operation Phoenix II occurred in 2473 plus one year for the difference in time dilation. That is 15 years difference. The lore doesn't specify if there were other ships sent over between this 15 year difference so that is possible. Making another assumption here (with my remedial understanding of general relativity), depending on the difference in length of trip, FTL travel could make the difference longer (or shorter). But even assuming that they had the same length of trip, the Hyperion was staffed by scientists, right? So it makes sense that they would be interested in setting up research labs and would need to find a way to look out for their own interests in an unfamiliar galaxy. They seem to know what they are doing anyway in building ships and infrastructure, given that they had just constructed their first ship in 2452. Going from a single ship to a full fleet in 7 years is a pretty resourceful group of people. Regardless, the assumption I was running off of was that 15 year time difference in events (possibly more for general relativity reasons) and that the Hyperion was, in fact, sent outside of the galaxy. If any of the devs want to message me the answer if this would be considered spoilers, I am fine with that. I can adjust when I write up the final document to account for this.
Guess it depends on how many humans survived the incident and where they ended up, is that something we know? When it comes to that part of the lore I'm not that good on it. What you've put though is definitely well thought out so could work When it comes to the Kriel I can add some lore for you to help you out as not all of it is out there. The key part of their origin comes from JRandall when I spoke to him quite some time ago. Kriel Origin Essentially the Kriel used to be some kind of alien ant colony for a very long period of time. They weren’t intelligent just went about their way doing ant hive stuff, then along comes an advanced race and for all intents and purposes either re-programmed the Kriel or replaced the queen. The result of doing this transformed the Kriel into what we have today. This would have happened 100’s of years ago. Why was this done? The race was involved in a war and they wanted to use the Kriel as a weapon. The race either went away, maybe even losing the war leaving the Kriel behind to fend for themselves. In the result of the war the original Kriel Homeworld was destroyed and they were split into two distinct factions. The Kriel as we have in the game already, and the Elder Kriel. With the war over and the advanced that altered/infiltrated them gone they expanded, with the Elder Kriel going their separate ways turning into quite an elusive race. Expanded Origin So the above section pretty much is what J came up with, so upon thinking about that I filled in some of the blanks. For that I need to explain about the Tresari. Essentially the Tresari are an ex hive mind that evolved into a race of individuals, however not all of the hive oriented DNA is out of their system and so under certain circumstances the hive mind can be reactivated in an individual, a group, or at extreme cases the whole race....but not permanently. Now the thing about the Tresari is their culture is unique in the galaxy and they are genuinely highly misunderstood...and pretty much can't be trusted as a result. Some Tresari are born with too much of the hive orientated DNA and when this happens those particular Tresari try to organise a hive, which is never going to happen. For all intents and purposes it's literally impossible for them to be part of society and are in an extreme state of mental pain. The rest of the Tresari can tell when an individual is like this because that individual will become ever so friendly as a result of trying to form a hive. So in the eyes of the Tresari the best thing to do to help them is...well.....to eat them. But don't see this as being evil, it's simply the Tresari and their culture. It's seem as compassionate and in no way is an evil act. Now this being part of their culture makes it awkward and somewhat dangerous to interact with the Tresari because if you come across as too friendly, you're going to get eaten. So early on in the Kriel's history the Tresari and another faction (I'll call them Faction X for now) were enjoying a good relationship. At first it was ok, trade (which the Tresari absolutely love) was excellent for both parties, culture was exchanged and tourism was very profitable. Over a fair period of time however Faction X experienced some unexplained occurences of their citizens going missing. At first it was just rumour but then as the rumours got louder and louder, in the full view at a public place a citizen of Faction X was set upon by a group of Tresari and promptly eaten. From there things escalated quickly and the Tresari hive mind was activated. Unfortunately this meant they were intent upon releasing the pain of Faction X. From the perspective of an outsider it looked like the Tresari went mad and without provocation made a full out attack on Faction X. Unfortunately it was such a surprise and quick transition it caught Faction X unawares and they suffered key losses early on. The Tresari Hive mind state also made the Tresai highly efficient which boosted their production rate of ships and supplies considerably. The saving grace for Faction X is their position in the galaxy was far removed from the other factions so they had a measure of protection in that sense. It became clear however that they needed help and so they decided to bring the Kriel into the war. I have this worked out in much more detail but do quick summaary, essentially Faction X altered the Kriel making them a lot more aggressive than they were naturally and when the time was right they orchestrated a situation where the Kriel encountered the Tresrai. The Kriel being far more closer meant that the Tresari had to switch their focus and after a while because they were no longer focussed on Faction X they came out of their hive mind state. Aghast at what was going on the Tresari were unable to open diplomatic ties with the Kriel. So the war goes on with the Kriel not backing down and the Tresari (at this time frame) more advanced than the Kriel, but the Kriel are surprisingly good at reproducing and very effective ship builders themselves so the war drags on. Until the Tresri find a ground breaking way to track the Kriel's movements. As a result they get the upper hand on the Kriel but despite this the Kriel do not back down and the resulting battle devastated the Kriel home world leaving it uninhabitable. The aftermath is due to the interference of Faction X the Kriel split into two factions the Kriel that's in the game, and the Elder Kriel. The Kriel do not understand that the Tresrai are no longer a hive mind, and over time despite the war and the loss of their home world they have a neutral respect. Being bugs, the Kriel do not see them as a resource to exploit like the factions that are in the game today. Faction X and the Tresari work things out, Faction X understands what happened and what triggered the Tresari's hive mind state and they rebuild their relationship again, though extremely carefully and never again to the same extent as before. The Kriel, Tresari and Faction X enjoy a somewhat nervous yet surprisingly stable relationship with each other. None of them want a war with each other but none of them fully trusts the other, whilst at the same time they have an understanding about each other that a lot of other factions simply don't and will never have. The Kriel go on to found a new home world and build the Kriel Empire which we see in the game today. Addtional Lore (about 30-40 years before the game start) The Tresari are in trade negotiations with Polaris and again there's an incident, this time the lead Polaris negotiator comes across too friendly (in the eyes of the Tresari) and the hive mind is activated again. A war breaks out between the Tresari and Polaris, but this time Faction X steps in and asks the Zirax to attack the Tresari (the Zirax and the Tresari have a good trade relationship after Faction X explained to the Zirax the best way to interact with them.). The attack by the Zirax is quick and decisive and brings the Tresari out of their hive mind state once again. After realising it happened again, the Tresari never want the hive mind to ever be activated again. And so they vow to enforce peace within the galaxy for that point onwards. The aftermath is the Tresari are highly apologetic to Polaris and want nothing more than to open up trade with them, whlst Polaris absolutely hate the Tresri and have no interest in what Faction X tells them when they step in to help smooth relations. When it comes to peace keeping, the Tresari are able to use their....intelligence gathering to eve drop on others (something which they excel at) and use that to intervene if a war or skirmish breaks out. For example, say the Wastelanders attacked the Zirax, the Tresari would join the side of the Zirax (without asking them and not bothering to ask if they wanted or even needed any help). They would do so until the war is over except and until the tide turns and instead of stopping the war the Zirax press on to begin to deal real damage to the Wastelanders. If that happened and the Zirax kept pressing, the Tresari would switch sides and join forces with the Wastelanders (again not bothering to ask them first). So the Tresari are highly misunderstood individuals you don't want to become too friendly with, love to trade....with an absolute passion, and see themselves as galactic peacekeepers (which tends to have the opposite result, they're not that good at actually helping keep the peace). It's no wonder then that a lot of factions simply don't trust the Tresari. So bringing it back to your faction lore, I'm thinking that the Tresari would find not like the fact they are enemies of the Zirax. Take the wastelaanders for example, if I understand their lore correctly they have sworn to bring down the Zirax and so the Tresari do not have a good opinion of them (of course it doesn't help that the Tresari feed information to the Pirates on other factions all in the name of Galactic Peace). I'm thinking from what you've put that The Tresari and your faction would be rivals in the intelligence field, and have a complicated Trade relationship. It's the kind of thing where I can imagine some fun lore/story/quests going on between the two
Good stuff. That is helpful. I think there may be opportunities for crossover as well. Helios could definitely have an interesting relationship with the Tresari. Helios isn't one to get too friendly with others. If they are getting really friendly, there is a 90% chance that they are trying to manipulate you for some reason; and they would do their homework first to make sure that you would respond favorably to that sort of relationship. At the upper echelons of Helios, their culture is built on distrust and deception towards others. The rank and file members of Helios are taught to just follow orders as those who make a habit of stepping out of line tend to "disappear." One thing that I will comment on about their relationship with the Zirax: I wouldn't say that they are absolute mortal enemies. I am kind of interested in @Fractalite 's suggestion about trying to corrupt the Zirax because that is ideally what they would want to do; they just haven't been successful so far. Ultimately, they just want control and they don't necessarily need to destroy an organization or faction to control it. For Helios, in a perfect scenario, the Zirax would become their proxy and carry out their orders. Not sure what that would look like but we will see where this goes.
I kind of drew inspiration for this faction from a sort of mashup of the corpos from Cyberpunk (Militech and Arasaka), the illuminati from Deus Ex and the Noveria Development Corporation from Mass Effect and I could see some interesting interaction with a Weyland type faction. We will see what happens.
Feel's to me like Helios and the Tresari would have a weird cold war type relationship where they both try to use each other to forward their own interests (tresari to help keep the peace in the galaxy and helios to control) yet fully aware what each other are doing. Neutral on the outside whilst not trusting each other.
