Faction Overviews[G5]

[Janitorial Closet]

I am going to buy this game sometime in the next 2 years (probably after I finish 4, which will be after I finish 3, etc.) and I wanted to ask those of you who DO have this game this question-

 

What are the five factions, and will you give a short overview of each one (as in, who the leader is, what they believe in, what their goal is, how they seek to achieve that goal)?

 

 

And yes, I do realize that there is the Most/Least Ethical Faction thread. This is a different question.

[Øther]

Rawal-He lusts for power, and doesn't care to much about the war. Most people regard him as a (censored).

 

Astoria- All she cares about is ending the war, and she thinks that to achieve that, she must make peace with the rebels.

 

Alwan- All he cares about is ending the war, and he thinks to do it he must crush them in war. He is unbending in his ways, but he is sympathetic. Slightly.

 

Taygen- All he cares about is ending the war by any means possible. He has gotten so paranoid and lives almost by the rule "What can go wrong, will." for creations.

 

Ghaldrig-He is maddened by canisters and power gained that way, but he is determined to destroy the shapers. The others of the rebellion (humans and "lesser" creations) don't exactly approve of what he does, but he is winning the war for them.

 

Litalia- Wants the war to end and for the shapers and others to accept trakovites. Lives basically by the rule " The ends justify the means.".

[Alorael at Large]

Those are their leaders. Their names might be the Astorians, the Shapers (Alwan is the poster child of unyielding but also non-extremist Shaper doctrine), Taygen's group (definitely not the usual Shapers, but I don't think they get a name. Taygenites?), the Rebels (Ghaldring isn't the favorite of all the rebels, but he's the game's representative of the forces of the rebellion), and the Trakovites.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't think Litalia wants acceptance so much as an end to shaping. She's a Trakovite, and while she's not exactly an exemplar of their beliefs, she does promote them in her not quite kosher way.

[Aoslare]

Jeff refers to the factions by the name of their leader throughout the game, the manual, and the hint book. Yes, the Rebels and Trakovites are still in play as names, but Alwan's sect is emphatically NOT referred to as "the Shapers." Four of the sects (all but Ghaldring's) follow the Shaper path, more or less, and three of them are led by Shaper Council members; and in only one out of six endings is Alwan's extremist path adhered to. I don't think I saw "Astorian" anywhere, either.

[Alorael at Large]

No, but that's the sense of the factions I got from these boards. "Astorians" gets thrown around, probably because her name lends itself to adjectivization.

 

—Alorael, who is flattered to note that his words have been immortalized in a signature.

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted By: Alorael

Taygen's group (definitely not the usual Shapers, but I don't think they get a name. Taygenites?)

Taygenators.

[Haplo888]

Hi, I'm completely new to this game series and still trying to get my hands around things.

 

Reading here, I would like to join Ghaldrig's faction though Rawal just stuck a control crystal in my Servile's chest. Does this mean I'm in his faction now or am I still in a "newbie" area?

 

Thanks,

Haplo

[Alorael at Large]

Rawal doesn't care about your other allegiances or plans when he takes control of you. On the other hand, he can't inflict his horrible torments on you if he can't see you, so you can do what you want as long as you stay away from him.

 

More clearly, no, you're not in Rawal's faction. He doesn't really have a full-fledged faction of his own, and you're still free to join another group of your choosing later. The control tool can become a problem or not depending on how things play out.

 

—Alorael, who has to give Taygen credit where it's due: his ideas aren't all bad. They're just not bold enough. A much better ending would be taking your one-man army and offing rebels and loyalists alike. Unleash plagues on everyone! Then shape a populace you can live with.

[Gnaeus Pompeius]

Originally Posted By: Revileréd

—Alorael, who has to give Taygen credit where it's due: his ideas aren't all bad. They're just not bold enough. A much better ending would be taking your one-man army and offing rebels and loyalists alike. Unleash plagues on everyone! Then shape a populace you can live with.

That would work, provided the populace You shape don't rebel against you when they get powerful enough/get sick of living under your thumb. Afterall, I think that the rebellion was more or less inevitable as long as the shapers continued to oppress/exploit the creations and outsiders. The discovery and subsequent usage of the Geneforge by the rebels were just catalysts for the initiation of the revolution.

What tyrants fear most of all is not punishment for their crimes, but that they will be tyrannized in turn.

[Randomizer]

Well Taygen's solution was regular absorption and replacement of all shaped creations so they never exist long enough to rebel. Extra work, but it cut down on rogues.

[Alorael at Large]

Rebellion was inevitable as long as shapers oppressed intelligent and independent-minded beings and restricted knowledge while non-shapers were able to gain power through canisters and the Geneforge.

 

When I say kill everyone, I mean everyone. Kill the rebel creations. Kill the rebel humans. Kill the loyalist humans! Wipe the slate clean, play God, and make a world full of slightly stupid servile-types. They won't have the will or wits to rebel, and if they do you can crush them because you have near-omnipotence and they have to ponder which end of the spoon goes in their mouths.

 

—Alorael, who would recommend regularly absorbing them for good measure if going around absorbing and recreating that many critters weren't such a huge drain on your grapes and cabana time.

[Aoslare]

Aodare FTW.