A Faction is a shared Thread woven from many, a collective attempt to impose the order of a single Faith upon the chaos of a Tapestry. It is a living story, an agreement between individuals to interpret reality in the same way, for mutual benefit or shared purpose.

Factions are not mere collections of NPCs; they are emergent social organisms. They are born from a shared Need, are animated by a common Belief, and tell themselves a unifying Fiction to justify their existence. From nomadic tribes and corporate entities to sprawling empires and esoteric cults, a Faction is what happens when an idea becomes powerful enough to have a life of its own.

The Nature of Factions

Every Faction represents a promise and a peril. The promise is security—the consolidation of power to provide for its members, regulate social interaction, and defend against external threats. The peril is dogma—the tendency for a shared belief to ossify, stifling change, marginalizing dissent, and resisting new Facts that challenge its foundational narrative.

Like any living thing, a Faction has emergent needs: the need to preserve its identity, the need to acquire resources, and the need to propagate its core Faith. It is a force of narrative gravity, seeking to pull the disparate threads of individuals into its own grand, coherent pattern.

How Factions Arise

Factions come into being through two primary pathways, reflecting the interplay between emergent simulation and authorial intent.

• Emergent Formation (Bottom-Up): These Factions are born organically from the pressures of the Tapestry. They are the most common and dynamic.

  • From Shared Need: A group of survivors, like those in the Botanist scenario, might band together for safety. Their shared Need for survival forges a tight-knit, pragmatic group that may eventually formalize into a clan or settlement like Homestead.
  • From Shared Faith: A charismatic individual, like the Cantor in the Cultist scenario, can gather followers around a powerful new interpretation of reality. This gives rise to cults, new religions, or philosophical movements, bound by a shared, potent Faith.
  • From Shared Threat: A community facing a common enemy will consolidate its power, forming militias, resistance cells, or political alliances.

• Seeded Formation (Top-Down): These Factions are woven into the very fabric of a Tapestry by its creator.

  • By an Eidolon: A player who has ascended to the Eidolon state can design a new Tapestry with pre-defined Factions, complete with their histories, beliefs, and inherent conflicts.
  • By the Tapestry: Some Tapestries may be procedurally generated with “legacy” Factions, ancient powers like the Galactic Hegemony of Nova Roma, whose origins are lost to myth but whose influence is an undeniable Fact.

The Internal Life of a Faction

A Faction is not a monolith. It is a complex ecosystem of competing interests, internal politics, and ideological friction. This internal dynamic is a primary source of emergent quests and narrative tension.

• Hierarchy and Roles: Factions develop structures. Leaders, enforcers, spiritual guides, specialists, and laborers emerge. An agent’s Beliefs and Skills determine their role, and this hierarchy is a constant source of social conflict—struggles for promotion, challenges to authority, and resentment from the lower ranks.

• Ideological Coherence: A Faction constantly works to reinforce its identity through rituals, shared symbols, and the retelling of its founding Fictions. It will actively suppress or punish “heretical” beliefs that threaten its core narrative.

• The Engines of Change and Decay: A Faction’s greatest strength—its unifying Faith—is also its greatest vulnerability.

  • Internal Conflict: What happens when the Faction’s dogma fails to meet the evolving Needs of its members? What happens when a new, undeniable Fact (like the recycler flaw in Benevolent Leader) contradicts the Faction’s narrative of security? This creates internal pressure that can lead to reformation, rebellion, or collapse.
  • Memetic Drift: Over time, a Faction’s founding principles can be misinterpreted or corrupted, leading to schisms where subgroups break away, claiming to follow the “true” version of the original Faith.

Interacting with Factions

The player, like any other agent, is subject to the social and political realities of the Factions within their Tapestry. Engagement is a complex dance of reputation, allegiance, and influence.

• Joining and Reputation: A player can attempt to join most Factions, but acceptance is based on their actions and perceived beliefs. A Faction built on communal trust will reject a known murderer. A corporate entity will only welcome those who demonstrate a talent for generating profit. Reputation is a currency, earned through deeds that align with the Faction’s Faith.

• Influence and Subversion: Once inside, a player can attempt to climb the hierarchy or influence the Faction’s direction. This can be done overtly through Conversation and Intervention in political disputes, or covertly through manipulation and sabotage.

• Founding a Faction: This is a monumental, late-game undertaking. It requires the player to have immense personal charisma, a powerful and resonant new Faith to offer, and the ability to provide for the fundamental Needs of their followers. It is the ultimate test of an Incarnation’s ability to weave a new story powerful enough to rival the old ones.

Design Priorities

• Factions as Stories: Factions should be treated as living narratives, with their own histories, traumas, and ambitions. Their primary purpose in the game is to generate emergent social and ideological conflict.
• Belief as a Political Force: Factional mechanics are the macro-level expression of the Belief system. They demonstrate how personal convictions, when shared, become political power.
• The Player as Participant: The player should never feel like they are “above” the Factional politics of a Tapestry. They are an agent within the system, subject to its rules, pressures, and consequences, providing a grounded and immersive social simulation.