abovegrounds | Fun with Factions

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mod: update

Fun with Factions

Afternoon, folks! The game has now been open for nearly six months, so it's time to do a quick review of faction information. Plus, a second opportunity to create characters who will be your faction leaders.

Factions
I'd love to get a snapshot of where you see your factions being at right now: what are their goals? Who are their allies? Enemies? Biggest threats and opportunities? Are they in good shape or suffering from in-fighting or lack of direction?

This is partly because I'd like to update the faction information to take account of recent game developments, so please do let me know if there is anything on the Faction pages that you would suggest updating. For example, has your faction allied with another that isn't listed on this page? (It does have to be a faction-wide strategy in order to count, not just individual characters choosing to help out another faction for personal reasons.)

If you'd like to use this post as an opportunity to discuss the overall state of your faction and bounce around ideas, please feel free to do so!

Elites
You may recall that a few months ago we created a list of NPC Elites, the most powerful characters in the game. Some factions have better representation of Elites than others, and given the shifts in player characters over the last few months, I'd like to throw this out there again to give you another opportunity to create NPCs.

Please note: these NPCs are not designed to be played*. This is about world building and establishing the status quo of the game. Why make up NPCs if they won't be played? Because it gives you the players the chance to decide what sort of character you want to lead your character's people. The personalities and beliefs of the NPCs will influence the overall direction of the game. It also gives you a target to ~~eliminate~~ gently dislodge in the future when your character gets ambitious.

*That's not to say they could never be played. I've done a thread with one so far, and if other players would be interested in playing NPCs for one-off threads, you're definitely welcome to do so!

Choose your Leaders
Let's make up some NPCs! There are a few guidelines to follow, namely that the characters you submit should 1) be original characters; 2) match up with the game information about their factions; and 3) be consistent with the game information about their type.

Here are some suggested roles to fill for each faction:

Circle Daybreak: Maiden (age under 30), Crone (age 60+). Norrell, submit yourself!
Circle Midnight: Abigail, submit yourself!
East End Pack: They've been missing an alpha for a while, you guys could really do with one!
Hillingdon Clan: Faolan, submit yourself! If you like, you could also submit a level 4 faction leader.
Islington Nest: None required, but if you want you could add the Marquess/Marchioness of the various boroughs under Islington control.
Night Council: None required.
Redbright Institute: None required.
Seelie Court: None required.
Unseelie Court: None required.

To submit an NPC, fill in the form below:

I recommend that you get together with other players in your faction to discuss the NPC(s) you'd like to create. Feel free to use this post to discuss before you make your final submissions!

You have until 23rd November 20:00 GMT to submit your character(s). The final roster will then be announced with the next plotting post on 28th November, as well as any updates to the game and setting information.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Submit a character to add to the list of Elites!

Let's talk factions! There's no deadline for this since it could be an ongoing discussion, but I would like to update the game info in time for the next plotting post (28th Nov), so any suggestions I can use before then would be great.

Put the name of your faction in the subject line when you reply, so we can keep all the comments for each faction in one subthread. Some ideas for discussion:

• Faction goals
• Allies
• Enemies
• Threats
• Opportunities
• Overall state of play

Allies: We still seem to be on good terms with the Night Council and Redbright so far as I can tell

Enemies: Midnight still, but Seelie & Unseelie weren't mentioned before. Since the fae moved more they definitely feel like an enemy!

Faction goals: I think the 'keeping the peace' goal still stands, it's just being gone about in a slightly more heavy handed and hypocritical way. 'Keeping the peace' by taking control of areas and stopping Midnight/Seelie & Unseelie Court having territory.

Threats: Possibility of Midnight and Seelie & Unselie court alliance? Maybe?

FEEL FREE TO DISAGREE

Name: Abigail Widdowson
Age: 20
Species: witch
Faction(s) and roles: Circle Midnight, High Priestess
Supports: Unseelie & Seelie courts
Neutral: East End Pack, Islington Nest, Hillingdon Clan
Against: Circle Daybreak, Redbright Institute
Goals: Abigail's greatest goal now is to gain a seat on the Night Council for Circle Midnight, so their interests can be equally represented. She also wants to claim more territory and expand the area where Circle Midnight witches are safe.a
Notes: Abigail was coerced into a non-aggression pact with Sylvia Redbright and forced to name all the known Midnight witches. To say that this has put strain on her opinion of Sylvia would be an understatement.
Mug shot: Picture

My child here is the lone baby of the Seelie Court as of right now so I will be making some grand assumptions about the whole of the faction lmao. Outside the other realm the two courts generally behave as one but they do behave a bit differently and probably have slightly different goals.

FACTION GOALS Finnick's primary one is that fae should be able to roam London freely. He didn't necessarily support having their own land in the mortal realm but in his eyes he saw it as the only way for them to exist without worrying about witches and vampires so he'll continue supporting any claims the fae make to the territories unless the Night Council suddenly decides to grant them the Respect They Deserve. The Seelie Court in general is probably of a similar mind - they think it's beneath them to play the human's territory game but if it's going to remind them of their place then might as well you know?

ALLIES I kind of envision the Seelie Court as being to proud to have official allies but they'll make deals and things if it means self-preservation and getting ahead. They also consider the Unseelie court their ally in the mortal realm because it's better to present a united front to the uppity humans.

ENEMIES The Seelie Court doesn't deign to have "enemies" per se but those vampires sure are nasty amirite.

THREATS The Daybreak witches determination to push the fae out is really grinding his gears.

Overall the Seelie court has shrunk a lot and so as a result it's kind of gone on the defensive and has to re-strategize. If anyone has any more comments or anything to add wrt enemies and allies etc just leave a comment!

I figure it makes most sense for me to cover Redbright! The Redbright Institute is doing well, having survived an attack on Barnet. Sylvia's stated goal for Redbright is to extend their influence to the north of London, and given that they currently have a non-aggression pact with Circle Midnight, there isn't currently scope for further expansion. So the attitude right now is to sit tight and maintain the peace for as long as possible.

The Night Council and Circle Daybreak remain allies. Circle Midnight are the closest they have to enemies at the moment, but even here a peaceful resolution is preferred. Redbright have to maintain their image as the squeaky-clean supernatural protectors of the city, after all. If at any point Sylvia sees a threat from an adjacent territory that could justify Redbright moving in to "restore the peace", that's when she'd make a move. She has eyes in both Hillingdon and Circle Midnight to alert her to any such possibilities.

Overall, Redbright are still welcoming rather than hostile to characters from other factions, as long as you're willing to play nice. They're pretty secure right now, and there's no immediate indication of any threat to their power.

The Night Council is different from all the other factions because a) it has a policy of non-expansion and b) it's really meant to be the legal body that represents all* the other factions more than an entity in itself. In short, it's the Underground's version of the government.

What that means is that the shifting politics of the game itself affects the Night Council, and vice versa. The most significant development thus far has been the new law which forbids the killing of any witch, and thus extends Night Council protection to Circle Midnight witches as well as those in Daybreak. There is some sympathy amongst certain representatives in the Night Council for Circle Midnight, but the prevailing opinion is to tolerate rather than support them.

Most recently, the fae have been the biggest threat to the interests of the Night Council representatives, but with Islington moving to counter them, this threat is now less significant. More significant will be the interplay and rivalries between the Night Council members as they continue to pursue the goals of their own factions. I am expecting this to get more interesting as player characters get involved, so watch this space!

*not all

I would agree that hostilities between Daybreak and Seelie/Unseelie Court have grown to the point that they can be considered enemies. The possibility of any alliance between the Seelie/Unseelie Court and another faction is a threat, but a combination with Midnight is certainly the one that worries Sylvia the most.

The Daybreak witches are all about hippy kumbayah songs and holding hands in circles, I dunno where you got this hypocritical thing from. :P Kidding. They've gotten too used to having things their own way and warding off dark magic. A lot of witches will have been shaken by the fae taking over Croydon. It's like chaos raining down on a once orderly and peaceful world. So it actually makes a lot of sense for Norrell to be the man of the moment, because his screams of "ORDER! ORDER!" will appeal to witches now in a way it wouldn't have before.

In general if Norrell is your 'man of the moment' something has very much gone wrong I think we can all agree

...Yes. Yes, that is true. Mind you, Sylvia still wants Daybreak to take over the whole of south London which means wiping out the fae territories altogether. \o/

Name: Gilbert Norrell
Age: 42
Species: Witch
Faction(s) and roles: Circle Daybreak, High Priest and Leader of Norrellite Coven
Supports: Circle Daybreak, Night Council
Neutral: Redbright Institute, Hillingdon Clan, Islington Nest
Against: Seelie & Unseelie Court, Circle Midnight, East End Pack
Goals: Norrell is keen to join the Night Council, mostly so he might further his other goals of stamping out dark magic and driving the fae out of London.
Notes: Although he has supported Islington Nest Norrell is very wary of vampires. He uses Hillingdon frequently but is uncertain about supporting them whole-sail as they work for the highest bidder and their own goals are unclear.
Mug shot: This work?

Starting this thread since Faolan is clan leader right now, and therefore speaks for at least a portion of the faction!

STATE OF PLAY: As of right now Hillingdon has been largely maintaining its state of neutrality. It means that the faction as a whole right now does not have allies, enemies, nor outside threats to speak of. Individuals themselves have been allied with different outside factions, including that of Circle Daybreak and those of the Fae. Some individuals have personal vendettas against vampires and are therefore opposed to the Islingdon Nest. Faolan himself is a secret member of the Night Council Guardians, while most of the faction oppose the idea of them. TO SAY THAT THEY ARE A RAGTAG BUNCH OF CHARACTERS IS PUTTING IT MILDLY. Up until when Faolan was placed in charge, we weren't even entirely certain who was.

OPPORTUNITIES: With Faolan being in charge now, we have the chance to change some of this. Sway it in different directions. Create more organization, create more of an idea of what Hillingdon House means to its members, what sorts of areas/rooms there might be in the house, etc. Establish more of a faction out of it. OR we could keep it as is, neutral and skirting along safely on the edge of things. Hillingdon has a surprisingly large amount of members compared to the other factions, but it's also full of individuals.

Have anything else to add? Have anything else to discuss? Have any suggestions for the faction itself? LET US KNOW I don't want to roll in and make decisions for everyone involved but I'm happy to have Faolan begin to gather people together for something more unified, personally! He believes in strength in numbers, supporting their own -- he likes how they're neutral right now and therefore no one's after them, but at the same time he doesn't like how everyone wants to use their people and no one seems to be truly on their side.

Throwin this up here for posterity!

Arthur's opinion is that Hillingdon should kind of act as a foil to the Night Council in some regards. He sees the Night Council condoning the organization of vampires, and while he doesn't think they all need to be wiped out he does think that any system of supernatural government needs to be policing vampires rather than protecting them. As Hillingdon is the only actual group of people who are trained in killing vampires he sees them as potential force against them. Not in any official sense and they don't need to form the anti-Islington brigade but they have the ability to hold vampires accountable, and maybe they should focus some resources on revealing vampire violence with the intention of persuading the Night Council to start buckling down on them.

He also just generally doesn't trust Redbright or Daybreak or any organization that tries to enforce peace through control, so undermining them is a big thing for him.

HOWEVER, he really does think Hillingdon shouldn't be involved with politics the same way they other factions are because that's also condoning the system that he thinks is kind of ineffective. He would be pretty grossed out if he found out Faolan was spying for Redbright on the dl.

That's Arthur's two cents at least. For me OOC I'm interested to see where it goes, but I think it's definitely more interesting if there's an internal power struggle or attempt at organization OR they do go get involved and get themselves in trouble with another faction or two. It'll be interesting to see if we can get the characters to agree one way or another as more conflicts come up IC now that they have somewhat of a power structure.

Name: Faolan O'Neill
Age: 29
Species: Human
Faction(s) and roles: Hillingdon, Clan Leader; Night Council, Guardian.
Supports: Hillingdon.
Neutral: Pretty much Everyone.
Against: Islingdon Nest (neutrally so).
Goals: Hillingdon Clan has been lacking in organization for a long time, up until when Faolan found suddenly in charge of them. He would like to make them a more unified group, have the more experienced have a more established role in training the newbie hunters, and strengthen their sense of identity within the underground world.
Notes: Faolan is keeping his Night Council work a secret. He has done some previous spy work for Sylvia besides, and under oath must report back to her about any security threats. Overall however he would prefer to keep Hillingdon neutral and elevate it to a position of greater importance (and respect).
Mug shot: Picture

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Fun with Factions

QUESTIONS

SUBMIT AN ELITE

FACTIONS

Daybreak

no subject

SEELIE COURT

REDBRIGHT INSTITUTE

NIGHT COUNCIL

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

HILLINGDON

Re: HILLINGDON

no subject