Racing the Darkness Factions
Human Tribe (Selectman Pete Landers)
The Human Tribe is a network of local self-defense compacts (some would say a cult) founded in the United States just before its last civil war. Members believe that the ideal society is no larger than a single neighborhood: intimate, immediate, and determinedly parochial. "Tribals" set aside their loyalties to unreliable governments and gathered instead with neighbors and blood relations--those under the same immediate threats. They follow the philosophical teachings of a lay pastor and radio personality, Jean-Baptiste Keller, who did not survive the Second American Civil War. Tribals, better known as Kellerites, stowed away aboard Unity and helped contribute to the ship’s destruction—retribution, they said, for past persecution. Their veteran soldiers are highly effective, especially when on defense, and this suspicious society is hard to infiltrate or subvert. Reflecting their participation in the fighting that led to Unity’s destruction, the Tribe begins the game locked in Vendetta with all other factions for twenty turns, and with the Spartans permanently. The Human Tribe is led by Selectman Pete Landers, an ex-U.S. Army National Guard sergeant lured away by the Kellerite movement.
The New 2,000 (Squire Oscar van de Graaf)
The "Bold Two Thousand" are investors, courtiers, employees, and hangers-on of Oscar van de Graaf, an ex-American cabinet secretary and industrialist who was also the largest private donor to the Unity mission. By the late twenty-second century, some on Old Earth had come to believe that a despot, well-educated, wealthy enough to resist seduction by special interests, and with the full blessings of genetic medicine, was a better guarantee of wisdom and predictability than the “democratic rabble” or even the boardroom. After all, with the expectation that their children would succeed them, a monarch might be expected to exhibit an especially strong interest in the welfare of their subjects. Might they measure their success using some other metric than quarterly earnings? The New 2,000 are an expedition-within-an expedition: a joint-stock company that was promised land grants and political independence from the mission hierarchy after five years of service.
The Human Ascendancy (Director Tamineh Pahlavi)
The Human Ascendancy is a society of eugenicists whose avowed intention is to produce Homo sapien superior, an artificially engineered human uniquely suited to life on Chiron—in other words, pantropy. To accomplish this goal, they will exploit genetic medicine to its uttermost limits and impose social mores that reserve the lion’s share of community resources for those they deem likely to thrive. The Ascendancy is highly efficient and its super-soldiers are highly lethal in any situation but it suffers from major maluses to population growth and morale. The Ascendancy is led by Tamineh Pahlavi, the Persian director of Unity’s Genetic Research Laboratory.
The Planet-Hunters (Warden J.T. Marsh)
Jeremy Tanner Marsh led Unity’s Forward Landing Team. Shocked to discover that the mission disintegrated during their thirty day head-start on Planet, they have since dispersed into a series of nomadic caravans, roaming the new frontier of Planet in search of adventure. Marsh, like his followers, is a man somewhat out of time--an Anglo-Irish soldier-of-fortune who placed himself at the disposal of any number of doomed causes before leading a mostly-solitary life as a big game hunter and national parks administrator. From Marsh's perspective, the chief problem of humanity was straightforward: we engineered ourselves into a physical decline, and our willingness to do great things soon followed. Marsh's people, now scattered to the four winds, intend to safeguard Planet as a final frontier where men can be properly made.
The New State (Contre-Amirale Raoul André St. Germaine)
This undersea faction is what remains of Unity's Aquatic Operations Division. Their leader is a former French sailor, Raoul André St. Germaine, with a decidedly mixed service record. The Contre-amirale is a paternalist, believing that, when under pressure, a people will always trade freedom of thought and action for an immediate guarantee of security. Compromise is therefore needed to safeguard the democratic process. Society must be carefully curated. Those with the sense and skill to advanced should be trusted with the difficult work of management, while everyone else is welcome to dwell in whatever dissolution they like, so long as it does not endanger the body politic. The New State is a caste society in which one's rank is determined by their service to the government. The New State makes Planetfall in the ocean.
Digital Oracle (Mediator Johann Anhaldt)
Followers of the Digital Oracle believe that human survival depends on exploiting an intelligence greater than our own. Fortunately, we have already created it: the computer. The Oracle’s aim is to built more perfect computers that can then be tasked to solve increasingly complex problems. The Oracle receives a very strong administrative bonus that allows it to make interesting and impactful adjustments to base operations earlier than any other faction, but this comes at a steep cost to efficiency. The Oracle is led by Swiss mathematician and civil servant, Johann Anhaldt. Like the Hive, the Oracle’s first base is below ground.
Dreamers of Chiron (Factor Roshann Cobb and Dr. Aleigha Cohen)
The Dreamers of Chiron believe that the secrets of the human mind, not of Chiron, deserve the focused attention of the mission survivors. The Dreamers begin with the Neuropsych technology, reflecting insights gained from decades of automated research carried out on Unity’s quarter-million passengers while in cold sleep. The faction is unparalleled at Probe warfare thanks to its unique insights about how we think. They are led by the drug-addicted scion of a Hong Kong trading house, Roshann Cobb, and an Australian behavioral scientist, Aleigha Cohen, Unity’s Chief of Neurosurgery. The Dreamers excel at trade, Probe operations, doctrinal research but face critical efficiency problems.
Shapers of Chiron (Synchronizer Shoichiro Nagao)
Widely-revered Japanese geologist and environmental engineer Shoichiro Nagao did what he could to restore some of Earth's worst-polluted regions before signing onto Project Unity as head of Terraforming Operations. On Planetfall, he made what is now called the Great Promise: to take the unfamiliar putty of Chiron and produce a near-facsimile of Old Earth. Nagao's followers cling fast to the traditions of the place they left behind, and have every intention of going back to "rescue" its people. The Shapers have the resources to shape Planet in a way no other faction does at game start.
Legacy Initiative (Annunciator Satheiu Metrion)
All that remains of Unity's Data Services Division, Thai data librarian Sathieu Metrion and his followers have but one ambition: to ensure the free flow of information on Chiron. From this first and essential good, all the benefits of enlightenment and good governance may follow. These computer scientists, historians, and archivists see the information in Unity's computers, including the jettisoned Data Core, as the inalienable property of all mankind. The Legacy Initiative is designed for a late-game breakout in any of several directions, buoyed by advantages in efficiency, cultural output, and Probe defense.
New SMAC quizzes available.
