Classic Factions
University of Planet (Academician Prokhor Zakharov)
Soviet physicist Prokhor Zakharov was often touted as the greatest public scientist of the Blackjack Century. Over a career spanning more than fifty years, his groundbreaking work rehabilitated the study of cold fusion, underwrote Soviet preeminence in the exploitation of Venus, and gave Unity its star-drive. A true inter-disciplinarian, he carried on frequent and lively correspondence with the leading international researchers in two dozen fields, so that no symposium was complete without his input. Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly and in the pages of Pravda, he touted the ways in which Soviet technology was transforming peasant life across the Communist world--easing their burdens, soothing their aches and pains, and connecting them to one another. Under Zakharov's aegis, a group of survivors have organized themselves into a faculty dedicated to the close empirical study of their new homeworld--all the better to create the tools with which to tame it.
There is often a dark side to genius. Soviet progress came at a considerable human cost, and Zakharov was a profligate spender of both conscripts and prisoners. In the grim words of one American intelligence analyst, "You shall know him by the procession of lead-lined coffins in his wake." Zakharov is convinced that misguided deference to religion and folkways, along with bureaucratic timidity, prevented Old Earth societies from embracing the technological tools that could have saved them. His model for progress owes much to the Soviet system, where he had access to a steady supply of conscripts and prisoners. He now calls for a program of scientific inquiry unrestricted by “conventional ethics.”
The University explores the promise, appeal, and yes, the dangers, of technology, as well as the experts who claim they will interpret and turn it to some good use. Like the man who leads them, they exude a proud confidence. Planet is a set of problems that can, and will be, overcome. But creators must beware the delusion that what they make, they can control, and it is no different here.
By the stats, this faction is a research powerhouse. The tradeoffs for this advantage are unprecedented levels of inequality and a pronounced vulnerability to network infiltration. Woe be to its many subjects who have less than a comfortable relationship with the cultures, ambitions, and moods of academia.
Zakharov was the oldest of the Unity passengers, and already sickly when he came aboard. Fear of death, combined with a vaulting hubris, caused him to insist on uncertain repairs rather than lay Unity into a more-certain return orbit at the cost of his own life. Once it became clear that Unity was doomed, he was also first to suggest dissolving the Mission Charter, having decided he could no longer endure the moralizing fecklessness of U.N. leadership.
Gaia's Stepdaughters (Lady Deirdre Skye)
Arch-environmentalists led by the radical conservationist Lady Deirdre Skye, a Free Scottish plant biologist once responsible for Unity’s food supplies. The Gaians believe all living things are interdependent. Skye teaches that humans knowingly poisoned Planet Earth to death. She and her followers insist that survival on Chiron will require living "in dialogue" with the land—in other words, practicing self-restraint to limit the negative impacts of human settlement. The Gaians receive significant bonuses when interacting with Planet, giving them important and potentially compounding advantages in nutrient production, movement, pollution control, and defense against native lifeforms.
Early exposure to tragedy--both her own and that of others--combined with the sense of noblesse oblige instilled by the example of her mother stoked a passion for social justice that at times led Skye to embrace violence, while the keenness of these wounds causes her to withhold empathy from any who reject the imperative of her message.
The Gaians elevate environmental concerns to the forefront of future civilization. This is one of a number of societies on Planet afflicted by doubt. Whereas so many of the other factions are grasping in ambitions, the Gaians are self-limiting. They are direct reaction to the twentieth-century sea change in the human species's relationship with Old Earth, when we who once feared the destructive power of Nature gained the power to obliterate it--and ourselves, too.
Human Labyrinth (Chairman Sheng-ji Yang)
Better known as "The Hive,” this collection of hapless survivors has come under the authoritarian control of Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, an ex-Chinese political prisoner. Having determined that all historical forms of socio-political organization are inadequate to the moment, Yang seeks to radically redefine what it means to be human, trampling preconceived notions about the capacities of the mind, the needs of the spirit, and even the concepts of right and wrong.
The Hive looks at the role of totalitarianism in human history. Yang is certainly an evocative exemplar. As a rehabilitated Bingtuan official, Yang articulated a philosophy of Three Pillars: 法 (Fa), or law, meaning that the law is known, and obeyed because systematically enforced; 術 (Shu), or method, whereby the leader holds himself apart from society and uses "special tactics and secrets" to obscure his motivations, reducing the opportunity for confidants to influence him inappropriately; and 勢 (Shi), or legitimacy, which focuses on drawing distinctions between the ruler and the man. Was he drive mad by torture, or did his experience of the lash spur a revolution in self-awareness that most never experience?
Yang blames hyper-individualism for the disasters on Old Earth and teaches that only a completely new set of eusocial ethics, enforced by disciplined exemplars, can prevent human extinction. Either humans will learn to subsume themselves in a harmonious synthesis--almost like that of insects--or their songs will surely be snuffed out, one by one. Yang immediately retreated with his people underground after Planetfall, earning himself the moniker "Hermit King." The Hive has the makings of an industrial colossus but features all the hallmarks of a police state.
Morgan Industries (CEO Nwabudike Morgan)
Nwabudike Morgan of Namibia was the richest man in human history. He was ever the supplier of banned things to banned people, cornering markets no one else would serve. From these inauspicious beginnings, his companies grew to wield more power than many countries and were instrumental in building the Unity and training its crew. He has offered survivors a seductive argument: that humanity simply outgrew Old Earth. The only thing to do now is to resist misguided calls to change the age-old pattern of consumption. Life on Chiron will be exactly as it was before: a rat race to determine the haves and have-nots. There is no higher calling but to eat, drink, and be merry. In time, we shall exhaust the resources of this new world just as we exhausted the resources of the old. As we approach that point, our interest will shift predictably toward our own salvation, and the effort of building an ark will begin again. This is Morgan's First Paradox.
Journalists found Morgan's rags-to-riches tale irresistible. Governments found him infuriating--and indispensable. Consumers were always hungry for his products. Admirers saw a successful rule-breaker whose idiosyncratic perspective should be embraced. Even those who counted him a liar and a bully admitted that his great wealth made it necessary to study his every utterance. He skillfully exploited the West's obsession with Cold War dichotomy, presenting himself as a practitioner par excellence of capitalism even as his lobbyists reset the boards in his favor.
As an idea, Morgan Industries holds up capitalism itself for critical examination. This leads to Morgan's Second Paradox. In a capitalist system, each player (corporation) looks to break the rules, yet all are held in mutual check either by competition with each other or the greater power of government. This formulation breaks down when either one corporation gains a commanding lead, or when government is too weak to resist corporate capture. Morgan's clear ambition is to achieve a trade monopoly on Chiron, through which he will gain the currency to shape events to suit his whims. His faction is organized in the manner of a private corporation, and his followers are often glad to reject the hard road walked by survivors under other leaders.
Morgan was one of many mission stowaways, surrounding himself with picked retainers and emerging just prior to Planetfall, but unique in that he gained access to the Bridge. Despite standing outside the chain of command, he inserted himself readily into the business of the moment and spoke decisively in favor of Zakharov's suggestion of dissolving the Mission.
Spartan Federation (Colonel Corazón Santiago)
Self-styled colonel Corazón Santiago grew up tough on the streets of New Los Angeles, knowing she could rely on no one else to take care of her. The emerging philosophies of Survivalism were a natural fit for someone already deeply alienated by government and in constant fear of exploitation by others. She later served on both sides of the Second American Civil War, both as a leader of local self-defense militias in independent Florida and as an officer in the California National Guard.
From this vantage point, Thomas Hobbes was right: existence is a war of all against all. Billions perished on Old Earth because they sat meekly by while Unity left without them. Though not strictly speaking a taxpayer, she argued that the Unity Mission was every citizen's birthright. Santiago therefore determined to claim her berth by the only language she felt was bound to be respected: force. To achieve this goal, she allied herself with the Holnist Movement, a collection of Neo-fascist separatist groups masquerading under the broad Survivalist banner.
The Spartan Federation has two dimensions. In one respect, the faction organizes around humanity's most self-destructive impulses, calling into question why communal violence has been so central to the human experience. Santiago is one of the few leaders without a university education, but her outlook stands in provocative contrast to the conventional view of many intellectuals that the outbreak of war is usually evidence of failure. In the second dimension, Sparta speaks to the alienation of people from their government and the uniquely American obsession with firearms.
Santiago infiltrated the ship’s security detachment along with her followers. When the time was right, they struck, taking their share of mission resources. Upon landing, they set immediately to work building a battle-ready society.
Sparta is an armed camp in which every heart and hand is turned toward war-making. Reflecting their recent past, the Spartans begin the game locked in a vendetta with all other factions for eighty turns, and with the Human Tribe permanently.
Lord's Conclave (Sister Miriam Godwinson)
American theologian and Christian ecumenicist Sister Miriam Godwinson was a rock of strength during the Unity Crisis and refused to leave the wounded and discarded behind. Now, she has cast them as the inheritors of a God-given bequest. For Miriam, lack of faith explains the collapse of human civilization. Who does not love God, cannot love himself. Who does not love himself is soon at war with his neighbors. The solution? Close study--and obedience to--His manual for right living. The Conclave is a cultural dynamo, and Miriam is determined to collect all the wayward lambs of the Unity flock.
Brian Reynolds used the Conclave to represent one of the most enduring forces in human history. Racing the Darkness does the same. Belief in a higher power is as old as human civilization itself, inspiring art, architecture, philosophy, and literature. Yet, because religion speaks to concerns beyond the Earthly realm, and claims to offer access to timeless truths, it has often been cast in opposition to empiricism, as well as to material progress. Faith has also had an uncomfortable relationship with violence. Religious communities have been both perpetrators and victims.
The Blackjack Century must have had a profound effect on religion. How might faith be changed if the Bombs go off? What if almost everyone agreed that Earth was dying? How much more would we need community, and salvation, with tens or hundreds of millions in need of care? To whom will we appeal as the miracle of human creation becomes increasingly corrupted by the poisons we have put into the air, water, and soil? Carl Sagan warned us against the danger of losing the power to explain the complexity of the artificial world we have created.
And what about our future in space? Frank Herbert famously proposed that interstellar space travel would transform religion. There would be too many questions raised by new discovery, and too few answers. Our fragile egos would not be able to endure the added proof of our essential insignificance. We must then call upon God, he said, to stand against all the imagined horrors.
After escaping an inauspicious beginning, Miriam Godwinson forever after stood close to those with their hands on the lever of power. As Psych Chaplain on Unity. she was a bystander to the Crisis, but hardly helpless. Miriam was the last leader to depart, taking with her as many of her fellow survivors as she was able. The Conclave is poised for a cultural boom.
Peacekeeping Forces (Commissioner Pravin Lal)
Pravin Lal, a former U.N. chief of staff and Unity’s Chief Medical Officer, was also a close friend and confidant of the late Captain Garland, whose mantle he has claimed. A Pakistani by birth, Lal holds that unfree governments suffocated human potential and doomed Old Earth to a death spiral of calamities they were powerless to resist. His followers are heirs to the Liberal political tradition: they avow that the only legitimate government is one that has the consent of the governed. The Peacekeeping Forces are a united society that punches far above their own weight on the Planetary Council.
In 1999, it was perhaps inevitable that a serious look at the future of human civilization would need to contend with the question of global unification--and how an institution often pilloried of as an impotent "debate club" would fare when handed responsibility for permanent governance. Racing the Darkness presents a far more muscular United Nations, but one badly chastened by a litany of failures both actual and perceived.
Crisis often blunts the keenness to think for oneself. As the foremost evangelist of self-government, Lal is inviting his fellow survivors to do something hard--take responsibility for themselves--and it is not certain they will be inclined to accept. Inherent in this call to action is the expectation to be informed--quite a tall order in a society where the speed, density, and quality of information is orders of magnitude less than we are used to.
Lal's history as U.N. Chief of Staff makes it highly likely that he has a personal history with most of the other faction leaders, although it will often have been antagonistic. The United Nations is the best-administered faction on Planet, and a balanced choice for players who don't wish to place all their eggs in one basket.
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