Beyond Earth Factions

[Art Grin]

I haven't researched the meaning of the name Elodie. For a non-native French speaker like me, it sounded unissex somehow.

By the way, would it be safe to assume that the pink colored faction showed in some screenshots would be Franco Iberia? That would kind of support a female Elodie or, even funnier, the LGBT-friendly state mentioned above

Nah, Elodie is a pretty typical female name. Her being female would also makes sense with the 50/50 male to female ratio they're going for.
Asia, Kiwithans, America and France get female leaders.
Brazil, Africa, Polystralia and the Slavs get males ones.

France being pink might be a reference to good old Civ3 and it's pink Frenchmen(who were conveniently also led by a woman).

 

[3of5]

I haven't researched the meaning of the name Elodie.

according to some "baby name webpage" Elodie comes from old gothic or old germanic, meaning "foreign Wealth" or "whole wealth". A fitting name for an Explorer/colonist, a trader or even someone deeply culturally inclined or tolerant/diplomatic if the translation is not taken literally. And since the naming of a child often is reflective of the priorities/expectations parents harbor towards their child, a persons name can often correlate with personality.

 

[Veras]

according to some "baby name webpage" Elodie comes from old gothic or old germanic, meaning "foreign Wealth" or "whole wealth". A fitting name for an Explorer/colonist, a trader or even someone deeply culturally inclined or tolerant/diplomatic if the translation is not taken literally. And since the naming of a child often is reflective of the priorities/expectations parents harbor towards their child, a persons name can often correlate with personality.

Taking this into consideration, maybe we can try to trace some leader's personalities. Just for fun.

Bolivar seems to be an obvious reference to Simon Bolivar and its liberator legacy. But the name also bears some meaning by itself. Acording to some other "meanings of names" websites, Bolívar means mighty and warlike (very appropriate). I also find an interesting description on a Brazilian website that says: "indicates a person who works hard and usually manages to destroy obstacles to your progress. The person also is particularly successful in activities directly or indirectly linked to agriculture, diplomacy and communication."

We already know that Samatar Jama Barre means "doer of good" in Somali.

Kozlov is something like a slavic patronymic for goat. It is probably used to denote a goatherd. Or a Sheperd. That's interesting.

I couldn't find anything very profound about the other names, though. Daoming means "shining path". Couldn't find anything about Sochua. Utama (as I didn't find anything from Hutama), means prominent, ultimate.

What do you think about Suzanne Marjorie Fielding? I only found that Suzanne means something like rose, while Marjorie means something like pearls. Nothing useful.

 

[3of5]

What do you think about Suzanne Marjorie Fielding? I only found that Suzanne means something like rose, while Marjorie means something like pearls. Nothing useful.

interesting, maybe they did not hide a deeper meaning in every name, but they could have.

Rose and pearls are both symbols for excellency, for being special and unique. That goes well with western obsession with individualism and Fieldings expectations of herself and her subordinates as well. She definitely thinks in terms of elite and has no patience for second class anything (according to the interview).

 

[TPangolin]

Thanks, 8th grade English teacher.

 

[ptoss1]

Elodie sounds like what I would name a sentient colony ship AI。

 

[Teproc]

Elodie sounds like what I would name a sentient colony ship AI。

Wouldn't that tilt the faction too much towards supremacy though ?

 

[Lord Shadow]

Wouldn't that tilt the faction too much towards supremacy though ?

Yeah. Personally I find it great all characters are "normal" humans, with aspirations largely unrelated to the game's affinities. Means they can plausibly go for any without losing neither their identity nor what makes them interesting. There's no Lady Deirdre-style leader who would look weird not going down the Harmony path, nor an Aki Zeta-5-like losing much of who they are, say, going Purity instead of Supremacy.

 

[ptoss1]

Wouldn't that tilt the faction too much towards supremacy though ?

Idk, maybe the AI has a midlife crisis and decides to transport his consciousness into the planet. Maybe it hates itself and wants humans to have nothing to do with advanced technology.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Having an AI as a 'leader' really only says something about the political system of the faction. Such a system could still have democratic elements if the all powerful AI acts as a benevolent dictator and takes the values and opinions of the colonists into account and make decisions based on whether a majority of the population wants to turn the planet into a second Earth, adapt to and merge with the new ecosystem, or become something that would be hardly recognizable as naturally evolved life to outsiders.
If the purity route is taken things mostly stay the same for the AI, if supremacy is the way to go the AI eventually merges with the people, and if they decide on harmony the AI will help accomplish that goal and either find a way to get in on it with a biological avatar or shut down once it decides it has done it's duty and is no longer needed.

 

[Josh123914]

I kinda got a theory on the Franco-Iberians. I think Krajzen had the right idea about it being a Neo-Frankish empire.
Come to think of it, the faction is Franco-Iberian. What are some of the first things people would think of when it comes to France and Spain that these two have in common?
Catholicism and their rather militant history when it comes to religion.
France had Charlemagne and his wars against pagan Saxons, the crusades, Hugenotes Wars and Joan d'Arc.
Spain had it's reconquista, inquisition and missionary actions in the Americas.
These two combined could mean that Franco-Iberia is going to be the militant religious zealot faction of BE. We know that the Kiwithans are rather religious but they don't seem to militarily focused.
It possible that the effect of the Great Mistake on Western Europe was a radicalization of religious activity and the people seeking protection&salvation in god, seeing the Great Mistake as his punishment for the sins of mankind. As a result of this the entire region might've transformed into a militaristic theocracy with it's core based around France and the Iberian peninsula.
Elodie would fit into this as a second Joan d'Arc. A girl that supposedly speaks to god and is his chosen to lead the faithful away from Earth and into a new Eden on another planet. The Franco-Iberians goal would be to establish a new world for mankind in god's image and purge those sinners trying to steal this new paradise from the faithful. Whether god wishes man to remain pure, live in harmony with the new world or to transcend his human body will be the Elodie's/player's choice.

Yes.
All of this.
Firaxis make this happen or I will earmark it to be modded into the game.

 

[VictoryLass]

...What if they are an absolutistic monarchy?...

I kind of like the idea of the seeders re-imagining France the way it was under Louis XIV, under whom there was almost no Pyrenees. I believe a sun would be a good faction symbol. It could lend itself to any of the affinities, as I think the darker side of Harmony would be similar to Huxley's Brave New World.

 

[Veras]

I think it has been already said in some of the reviews that the symbol resembles a Fleur de Lys

EDIT: Yes, it was:

"In the hands-off part of the demonstration I also spotted a city called “Le Crouer” sporting a faction symbol in blue and white that looked a lot like a stylized fleur-de-lis, which could indicate the presence of a French-inspired civilization in the game."

From http://www.gamecrate.com/civilization-beyond-earth-hands-details-galore/

I really thought Franco Iberia would be the pink one

 

[Red_warning]

I hope for a Nordic/Scandinavian faction, but I could settle with an EU-ish nation as well.

 

[3of5]

I think it has been already said in some of the reviews that the symbol resembles a Fleur de Lys

"By the late 13th century, an allegorical poem by Guillaume de Nangis (d. 1300), written at the abbey of Joyenval at Chambourcy, relates how the golden lilies on an azure ground were miraculously substituted for the crescents on Clovis' shield, a projection into the past of contemporary images of heraldry. Through this propagandist connection to Clovis, the fleur-de-lis has been taken in retrospect to symbolize all the Christian Frankish kings, most notably Charlemagne."
- Fleur de lis, Wikipedia

And here again, Krajzens frankish empire. I'm not very fond of monarchy, what did we europeans do wrong during the great mistake to deserve this?

Hmm, Brave new world, i shoud reread that some time, i only remember the heave use of drugs in the book (Soma) and the communal upbringing for indoctrination, not much about the political system itself or about society and how that would relate to the Harmony affinity.

 

[Krajzen]

It can be constitutional monarchy, like in modern Britain

I am more and more interested in this Franco - Iberia. So far it seems there are only two options:

1) Some kind of reference to Frankish Kingdom/Charlemagne Empire/Christian Europe as a new source of European identity

2) ...French national empire

 

[poom3619]

Having an AI as a 'leader' really only says something about the political system of the faction. Such a system could still have democratic elements if the all powerful AI acts as a benevolent dictator and takes the values and opinions of the colonists into account and make decisions based on whether a majority of the population wants to turn the planet into a second Earth, adapt to and merge with the new ecosystem, or become something that would be hardly recognizable as naturally evolved life to outsiders.

If the purity route is taken things mostly stay the same for the AI, if supremacy is the way to go the AI eventually merges with the people, and if they decide on harmony the AI will help accomplish that goal and either find a way to get in on it with a biological avatar or shut down once it decides it has done it's duty and is no longer needed.

It's just a few days ago when I read that a Taiwanese company put an AI as one of decision maker, another news that say that an AI just pass the Turing test.

It's sound quite possible to me now, although with slim chance, that there are a feminine AI named Elodie being leader of FI's colony, but I think it would sound ridiculous to anyone who don't see it coming.

 

[3of5]

It's just a few days ago when I read that a Taiwanese company put an AI as one of decision maker, another news that say that an AI just pass the Turing test.

I don't know about the taiwan AI (that makes sense though since an enterprise is managed by very well defined rules easily writable as algorithms, which would work well as long nothing new comes around the corner). Coming to think of it a corporation IS basically an analogue AI running on the wetware of the managers (it even can rewrite its own code if necessary by harnessing the creativity of the manangers).
The Touring test news was hyped a bit though. It was just one of the 3 jurors that tagget him as human and the AI cheated a bit (claimed to be a 13 year old foreigner (so it did not have to get syntax right, or understand complex issues).
We still don't know how to make AIs learn things off the predefined path (like new concepts), resuling in workable AGI (artificial general intelligence) that could learn to handle new problems, not only those predefined by the programmers, and we have no idea whatsoever how AI could achieve sentience. Thats why the best shots at uploading is just to map the whole cortical network and simulate it 1:1 in a computer, which would be hugely energy intensive and slow to begin with. These things could very well be resolved by 2200 but Kurzweils time targets? i would not bet on that. We knew how computers would work in the victorian era (the mathematical models, nothing about the hardware), but it took 100 years to actually build one. With AGI and sentient AI we don't even know how they could work theoretically (according to linguist Chomsky we are even fishing in the wrong pond).

 

[GenyaArikado]

Either way Elodi can't be an AI, considering the other affinities :/

I'm kinda expecting Elodie to look like Audrey Toutou with Aki zeta hairdo.

 

[Liex]

New blog entry: "The story behind PAC leader Daoming Sochua"

Sochua seems to be really determined. Now I can see why her early description says she is respected, but not beloved by the colonists; and why she is ok with that.