Datalinks of the Second Ship [fanfiction]

MysticWind

Warlord
Joined
Dec 25, 2008
Messages
154
Quite some time ago I attempted an overambitious project to create two sets of factions, fourteen in all, that would take place after Alien Crossfire. Right now it's pretty much a fanfiction, though if AC 2 is ever released I am totally doing some modding.

The story is about the Federated Countries Ship Sovereignty, an Earth craft that was, like Unity, crash-built. My spin on Earth was that there was a war between opposing national blocs- the UN and the International Federation of Countries. Several years after the Unity was launched, at circa AD 2070, the Soverignty was sent after a truce.

What follows are the leader profiles following Firaxis format:

Michael Garrison
Major
Colonization Specialist/
Settler Representative
United States of America
01-31-2030

Service Record:
Born 2030, Bloomington, Indiana. Educated to a high school level, as a youth he was often discontent living in a city with one of the highest percentages of senior citizens in America, as well as one of the highest ratings for stability. Joined U.N. Resettling Program in Patagonia after graduating with a 2.5 GPA. Managed to demonstrate hardiness and ingenuity in a harsh environment. Promoted several times within program, eventually becoming ecologic adjuster.

After saving a settlement from a flood during the El Bestia cycle and expanding the colonies under his custody fivefold with no loss of threatened species, members of the Resettlement Commission designated him leader of the Antarctican Settling Program. Despite subzero conditions, he was able to resettle the refugees from the Crusader Wars with no losses, and had a knack to preserving the natural state around settled areas. After the United Nations/ International Federation of Countries armistice, he received an appointment to the post of Colonization Specialist from the U.N.-F.C. Trucial Alpha2 Committee.

Psych Profile: Pioneer Harmonist

Ability to create and maintain large communities within the wilderness shows a deep strength of leadership and resolve. Sense of wonder and appreciation of nature is enhanced by restlessness, a desire for new frontiers to explore and to claim. Strong survival skills create a sense of calmness in the face of a dangerous environment. Childhood records show an inclination for the “Settlers” gang-clique, a post-Boy Scouts organization stressing individual efforts and exploration rather than regimentation and discipline.

While claiming not to be “a sissy WorOrthChuGa,” subject shows a deep understanding of natural equilibrium despite rejection of the Gaian religion. Previous achievements demonstrate a keen ability to coexist with surroundings without causing harmful change. Coupled with skills and likeable, homespun personality, subject’s ability to harmonize with the environment make him a leader of considerable strengths.

Robin Huxley
Master Sergeant
Chief of Security
United Kingdom
05-04-2035

Service Record:

Born 2035, Cornwall, United Kingdom, to a nomadic family with strong military tradition. Attended Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and excelled at counterinsurgency tactics, mechanized weapon technologies, and political sciences. Joined British Territorial Army upon graduating, saw action in Edinburgh Retaliation (Second Scottish War of Independence outside U.K.) in a tank division she later commanded. During the near end of the war, her efficient anti-militia tactics crushed all nationalist opposition in Northumberland, earning her the nickname of “Boudicaa” from Briton and Scot alike and leading to a less humiliating defeat.

Later served in the Commonwealth Crisis, the “British Pax Decay.” In her five month tour of duty in North America, she played an instrumental part in defeating the Quebecois radicals in the brutal Battle of Montreal, and was awarded honors from both the Confederation of Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland for fighting renegade hyper-survivalists. One of her most infamous tactics was using “stealth” attacks with modified speeder tanks she helped to modify.

After her transfer to Australia, she saw less fighting and settled down somewhat. She became a guest professor on governmental theory at the Northern Territory University, studied aboriginal societies, and formed a close unit of fellow anti-militiamen, the Darwin Road Warriors.

The U.K., a member of the Big Nine, was able to assign her as a colonist for the Alpha2 Enterprise. As a renowned anti-survivalist and war heroine, she became the chief of security onboard the FCS Sovereignty and placed many anti-survivalists in key positions. In the last days before the Second Ship’s arrival at Planet, she, many of her security force, and members of the science team were all unaccounted for, as well as a colony module.

Psych Profile: Wanderer Restorationist

Strong combat prowess due to knowledge of military tactics and talent at adapting opponent strategies to her own use. Capable commander and capable of gathering great amounts of followers to her cause. Not content to stay in one place, favors movement and activity instead of sedentariness and complacency. Scorn for well-content and settled possibly due to lower middleclass upbringing.

Intellectual background is of interest. Though known to be an outspoken critic of Nat Holm’s neo-feudalistic survivalism, she is in favor of his assertions of a slow “dum-dum decay” of civilization, leading to an inevitable collapse and complete dark age. Unlike Holmist survivalists, however, she is fundamentally against the hypothetical catastrophe of a crash. Her ideals were stated in her teachings at NTU, inspiration unclear, possibly twentieth century works.


Gennaro Almeida
Steward
Chief Archivist
Brazil
07-09-2009

Service Record:
Born 2009, Recife, Brazil. Moved to Rio de Janeiro at age seven; father was a social worker at the hillside favelas and World Trade Organization representative for Brazil, mother worked for network security of the Brazilian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information. Studied library sciences and psychological analysis of history at Federal University of Pernambuco. Worked as information manager for the government; first claim to fame in 2034 for implementing new datalink technology to successfully record and back-up all of the National Library’s four million volumes. Involved with the Legacy Project in 2038 to store and save all of the sum total of Latin American cultural, historical, and technological knowledge, pioneered use of the yottabyte datacube.

Served as staff member on the compilation of the database of the ship Tiradentes during the country’s “Novo Brasil” period. Became prominent member of Brazilian Space Corps aboard the Museu da Vida, the “Museum of Life”, a national spacecraft that would contain vast databanks of all of humanity’s information. In 2040, at the zenith of the nation’s participation in the Space Age, abruptly left the Corps to teach reading and writing to children of the Amazonian Indians. Abducted in the 2042 Amazonian War by the eco-terrorist/indigenous tribalist group Smoke Jaguars for five weeks, rescued after the end of what has been described as “the worst jungle war of the 21st century.”

Remained a private citizen except for a brief stint as Unity datacore consultant until the Alpha2 Enterprise was begun. Worked on the Sovereignty cubematrix, later appointed chief archivist of the shipwide library and accepted position.

Psych Profile: Unifier Preservationist
Possesses comprehensive knowledge on the cataloguing of knowledge in electronic libraries, as well as a deeply in-grained desire to create united efforts in approaching problems. Conscientious, believes in dire necessity to protect knowledge. Beliefs of the immediate need to establish peace and reconciliation caused by weariness of political turmoil witnessed since young. Intellectualism and erudite speech may project false airs of mental superiority. Considered by some to be too pessimistic, too alarmist, nicknamed the "Malthus Librarian of Sociopolitics."

The Smoke Jaguar Affair caused an immense effect on subject. Personal beliefs regarding peaceful resolution held prior to kidnapping amplified by first-hand experience of Hobbesian chaos and disorder. Uprooting and destruction of millennia-old cultures caused subject to believe in the urgent need to protect humanity’s works and thoughts.

Slightly pacifistic tendencies seem to stem from guilt from the Palmares scandal. Presumed to be the whistleblower who leaked the BSC’s plans to militarize space. Subsequent denouncements exacted heavy social toll.

The Executive Board
Various Companies, Various Countries
Founding Date Unknown

Service Record:
Though the actual leadership of the Global Energy Exchange is often unknown, historians have suggested that the original Executive Board was founded by an offshoot of the Julius Society, an anti-laissez faire, anti-deregulatory international think-tank. Founded with a goal to “prevent economic royalism and currency destabilization”, several of the society’s members apparently were passengers on the UNS Unity and the FCS Soverignty.

Psych Profile: Unknown
No actual information. Popular sentiment considers the board members to be austere in their goals and ruthless in business practices.

Alexander Borokhov
Executive Officer
Second-in-Command (Sovereignty)
Ukraine
01-19-2015

Service Record:

Born 2015, Odessa, Ukraine. Child of liberal-democratic activists, grew up with acute awareness of the change undergoing in his nation. Followed in parents' footsteps since a young age, began local chapter of the Pora! student movement in primary school, continued political activities throughout academic career, achieved early recognition for organizing mass youth rallies in favor of reform. Studied International Law at Lviv University, postgraduate work interrupted by outbreak of the Slavic Resurgence. Lobbied heavily for Ukrainian entrance into Euro Union, identified by the government as a 'questionable personality' and drafted into the Ground Forces after apprehension at one of the pro-democratic Orange Rallies by MVS agents.

Subsquently fought in the Crimean Campaign, one of the worst theaters of the conflict, in an unit that saw eighty percent fatalities. Returned after the Great Rodina expansionist movement fell with the first Russian economic crash in 2041. Attempted to return to politics, became disillusioned by the failure of the Pancolor Revolution within his country, and the apparent apathy of the international establishment without. Traveled to the Americas, eventually settling in Buenos Aires in 2044. As a combat veteran, became an ardent follower of Rafael Cruz, bringing his personal eloquence and administrative abilities to the secessionist campaign. Eventually became a military commander and Cruz's personal envoy during the Federative War, seeing combat in Central America and Indonesia. Served in the 2066 peace talks, ended up as International Federation of Countries attaché to the Alpha2 Enterprise, then as Cruz's direct subordinate aboard the Sovereignty.

Psych Profile: Autonomist Legalist

Subject exhibits strongly paradoxical beliefs reflected by political activities. Former idealism of a worldwide community ordered around democratic principles and human rights- the same goals of the United Nations- are no longer possessed by subject, though remnants exist as artifacts of a youthful past. Disillusionment in the abilities of human beings to coexist through constitutional civil society led to an ideological mix of both authoritarian and classical liberal ideals- subject is a champion of a strict international system designed to maintain peace, yet allowing member nations to freely remain unintegrated from the central power. As a one-time pupil of Rafael Cruz, subject believes in supranational interventionist actions to prevent tyranny and infringement against human rights, but also in allowing "responsible nations" to maintain high levels of sovereignty apart for the world order. Possesses fervently skeptical, even paranoid views against the U.N. Disrespects mission regulations and protocol.

The truce with the Federated Countries remains tenuous at best. Loss of contact with the UNS Unity speculated to be result of sabotage, internal balkanization. Initiatives must remain in place to prevent any such betrayal of the Alpha2 mission by FC partisans. Subject's natural leadership and personal beliefs mark him as highly suspect. Contingency measures regard him as liability only second in priority to Secretary-General Cruz.

Avril Walker
Commander
Video Mechanics Chief (Sovereignty)
Canada
03-20-1977

Service Record:

Born 1977, Vancouver, Canada to an upper middle class family. Graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Masters in Media Studies and Communications. After a failed early acting career, she entered the corporate world via her parents' company, True View Limited. Gradually became a project manager during the second Netboom in 2005 on the multi-platform Watch 2.0 widget, gaining renown as an able manager and for her exploitation of the rise of selfcentric media. Her involvement in refining the popular application and the youthful, colorful personality she projected to the press made her the public face of the company. Though dismissed by skeptics as an opportunist with limited managerial and technical experience, she moved on to spearheading several associated memeapps, including the Now! Network, the Primeape Zone, and investment in panopticon technology, culminating in the centerpiece of her family's future, TrueVu Googles. Released in 2014 as the first widespread mainstream panoptics, T-V revolutionized digital culture and brought about the fourth Netboom, and earned a VP position within the company and the Gates/Fiorina Award. However, due to the rapidly increasing use of the portable recorders for government and counter-government surveillance, she was called upon by Parliament to testify in 2028 following the Farnham Incident. Within days, True View Ltd. was bombarded by multiple lawsuits and accused of "selling the public volatile and privacy-invading devices." Though she, and TVL, were eventually exonerated by the Supreme Court, the matter was not settled until the U.N. Declaration of Multilateral Secrecy in 2033.

By then she had long since resigned as Vice President of her company in favor of her brother, though not before introducing several successful incarnations of TrueVu Googles, including the Neutronium Edition, which almost singlehandedly brought the Helix OS to prominence in the public eye. After a brief stint as an independent consultant and as a producer for her Now! Network, she surprised many by moving from the private sector to international governance. Scorned by detractors as an attention-seeking dabbler or as a corporate cat's paw, she nontheless began a diplomatic career at the United Nations, representing various NGOs related to global communications and serving as an architect of the 2033 Declaration. Began philanthropic work with the Rockingham Foundation, providing aid to infrastructure in the developing world. Became involved in reconstruction of Los Angeles after the Year of Panic; later dismissed for nepotism in securing contracts for Global Manticore. Received experimental Edenic treatments in 2043, including extensive telomerase modifications. Entered space as one of the first guests at the Virgin Orbital Hilton in 2047 at the height of the Gaza Crisis. Heavily criticized for her excesses, as well as the generation she came from. After the passage of the Augmented Seniors Tax in 2056, she became a champion for the rights of aged persons in Canada and at the U.N. Ultimately appointed head of Video Mechanics of the Sovereignty for the Alpha2 Enterprise after serving as chairwoman of the United Nations Senior Rights Committee for only one term.

Psych Profile: Invasive Watcher

Innovative and tenacious personality. Subject's corporate career and personal life indicate preference for a variety of projects and initiatives, without any long-time commitment to any single one. Though not ruthless, personality and generational origin indicate a capricious attitude towards others except those considered to be in her personal network. Exhibits both voyeuristic and exhibitionist tendencies characteristic of "Generation Me and Mine." Despite this, subject possesses high emotional intelligence and the ability to effectively utilize electronic media to command others. Persistent presence in business for over fifty years indicates a high level of adaptation, abilities to survive and thrive, and usable experience. Expert knowledge of surveillance technologies will be invaluable to preventing sabotage. Main concern is subject's misplaced loyalty towards her fellow co-ages; may favor older members of the mission at the expense of those she deems "too young."
 
This is a placemark for my comment when I read all of it.
 
You should.

This is excellent stuff- the kind of thinking about the background of custom faction leaders I aspire to. Loved it.

There's a lot of good, hard work in this; it's info-dense. closely reasoned, and tells a story or two about future history in every paragraph.
 
That's a 10-4 good buddy, always intriqued by some good fan-fic, very well written, keep it up.
 
Hey, thanks! I tried to mimic the style and content of the faction leader profiles on the Firaxis site. So yeah, I tried to pack in as much future history as possible in each one as well as hint at the pre-Mission personal lives of the leaders. I also tried to include references (mostly to the novel Earth by David Brin), allusions to character complications (Almeida is disgraced for revealing secrets about weaponization of the Brazilian space program), in-jokes (Avril is a parody of what happens when Web 2.0 YouTube/MySpace/Twitter kids grow up and grow old, also she's Canadian hence her name), and try to remain consistent to the future history that's been established already in canon (Pax Decay, "New Los Angeles", etc.). This actually takes a long time, so a new part will take awhile, but if there are more readers (or any at all, really) I will definitely work on another.
 
Seneca ar-Ra'i
Civilian Contractor
Municipal Designer (Peacekeeping Forces)
United Arab Emirates
01-04-2010

Service Record:

Sugiarto Pangon, born 2010, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Son of Javanese expatriates, both parents service employees at the Diamond Shark Hotel located on the 131st floor of the Burj Khalifa. Worked at the Falconcity of Wonders attraction at Dubailand in teenage years. During the civil disorder following the Fourth Gulf Credit Crunch, rapidly organized relief efforts along with other park employees, preventing both casualties and property loss. Among those protected from the riots was a wealthy Hedjazi architect, Khadijah bint Ali, who was impressed by the young Sugiarto. He accepted her offer of sponsorship for higher schooling, against the objections of his parents.

Attended the Social Engineering division at KAUST, while being trained in arts and architecture by bint Ali, and pursuing his own interest in the Greco-Roman classics. Throughout his education, Sugiarto was approached by campus groups inspired by his story during the Dubailand riots, requesting his leadership and participation in various causes. Following the completion of his schooling, bint Ali likewise attempted to convince him to join her crusade. Though the details of what she asked of him are unknown to the public, Khadijah bint Ali was later arrested and executed during the failed Saudi component of the July 8 Liberationist Uprising. He likewise rebuffed the continued pleas from his former classmates, several of whom were similarly killed in the 2034 protests against the treatment of guest workers in the UAE, Bahrain, Dhahran, and the rest of the Gulf States.

Sugiarto instead moved to Riyadh and began his own architectural firm, Almeisan Inc. Notably, he designed not merely buildings, but housing communities, industrial towns, and eventually charter cities for clients such as Honeywell-Messerschmidt, Morgan Industries and GoApthorp. Gaining widespread regional success, he returned to Dubai, purchasing land and hiring exclusively from foreign workers (including his parents) to build a planned community. Almeisan City was a failure, and he never reconciled with his parents. Despite his inability to build his hypothetical 'test society', his talents were noticed by the Unity Project, and his company became one of the contractual corporations involved. Less due to his wealth and more to his political sway, he was selected as one of the crew, with no formal rank but ostensible chosen simply for his creative abilities and knowledge of social psychology.

Following Planetfall, changed his name and aligned himself with the Peacekeeping Forces, the loyalists to the original Unity mission. Became the chief municipal architect at U.N. Haven City, notorious for clashing with his superiors in favor of his own visions. Reprimanded several times for putting sociological concerns over material issues, as well as utilizing his own unique social model over accepted ones. After the disruption caused by a drone revolt at Haven, he disappeared with a group of likeminded companions and set out to build a new faction.

Psych Profile from Contractor Database: Neoclassical Visionary

Highly perceptive about human nature, with avant-garde artistic skills on the bleeding edge. Believes that an equitable, flourishing society can be designed that the masses can accept and embrace. Seeks to construct social situations that can be turned to his favor by appealing to base desires ("with a well-built culture, we can make virtue out of vice"). Admires historical figures, combining and refining their ideologies to create his own ("once again, it takes a Saracen armed with Greek learning to lift humanity out of the dark ages"). Despite his affinity for his Roman namesake, he is known to have promoted a less-than-stoic lifestyle in others, stating "hedonism is simply the reward of a fulfilled society" and that "even the just must have some fun beyond justice." Devoted to his vision, with an exceptional work ethic derived from working class upbringing ("just a former pauper of a tour guide turned philosopher-king"). Self-assured in his vision of creating a better society in a perfect city, and his role within it- "Chiron is a flock awaiting a shepherd."


So there you have it, Seneca ar-Ra'i: part Morgan, part Lord Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw from The Diamond Age, and part Ozymandias from the Watchmen (if he had idolized different classical figures from antiquity). Khadijah is meant to be sort of like revolutionary Dagny Taggart. The funniest thing is that originally the New Athenians was supposed to be led by a Greek hedonist. Then I changed them to quasi-Victorian types who were obsessed with art, pomp, and circumstance yet had a reformist streak to them- this was years before I've read The Diamond Age, actually! Then recently, when I revisited this project, I came full-circle and had Seneca take inspiration from one of the dumbest utopias conceived by man. As such, there's a Platonic influence to it- and I just realized the other day that the quotation attached to Ethical Calculus is from The Republic! Subconscious inspirations, I guess. Though his conception of a perfect city is really closer to Pericles than Plato, not to mention his personality. Not bad for a faction which I had originally conceived as no more than people who really liked urban design, led by a guy who would be smugger and more smart-mouthed than Nwabudike.

Incidentally, all of my current factions were initially planned circa 2003-5. I've only gotten around to continuing work on them again. Good thing this is basically just fanfiction and lore. If it was an actual mod it would be the worst delayed thing ever.

For reference, here is the revamped blurb for Seneca's faction.

New Athenians
“Come, you bourgeois, you neo-aristocrats, you patrons of ‘High Art!’ As we build a new Planet for human beings, why can’t it be a glittering, democratic, fashionable one? Why can’t it be one for the wealthy and the good?”
- Patrician Seneca ar-Ra'i, The First Metropolis

“Psion Centropolis? Morgan Vegas? Pretenders to our throne!”

Symbol/Insignia: A Greek-type Parthenon on top of a thick pedestal. Slightly visible inside the building is a figure holding up its arms, celebrating a light that comes from within. Underneath the pedestal is “NEO”, in highly-stylized lettering. The letters look like Aurabesh from Star Wars, since they are a bit jagged and do not connect.

Leader: Patrician Seneca ar-Ra'i
Background: Chief municipal architect of Peacekeepers, from the Euro Union.
Agenda: Creation of perfect cities of art, social justice, and wealth.
Technology: Ethical Calculus
+1 Growth (fecund, prosperous citizens)
+1 Industry (the rich fund city projects)
-2 Support (Ditto)
-2 Research (Foppery and dandying more important)
-1 Efficiency (cities tend to favor quality over quantity)
Extra talent for every two citizens. (Cultural centers)
Commerce
Free Rec Commons at each base.


Notes written in 2021:
  • ar-Ra'i is Arabic for "the shepherd", and is the name of the binary star system Gamma Cephei, officially known as Errai.
  • Yeah, I think my original idea was "what's a major aspect of human existence that can be fixated upon much like the original factions did? Well I guess everyone in SMAC lives in a city. What if you really want to live in a really good city?"
  • I'm not sure if the stats actually lend themselves to a faction who prioritizes quality over quantity cities.
  • Written around a year after the beginning of the Arab Spring. Ah, retrospect.
  • The Credit Crunch was a reference to the Great Recession shattering societies.
  • Dhahran being an independent Shia oil state is a very tiny reference to the massive Tripartite Alliance Earth alternate history.
  • I like how I posted this the week that the UAE got to Mars IRL
  • Seneca is distinct from Morgan, but I wonder if emphasizing the wealth of his cities is too Morganite-like. Then again, there's no reason why there couldn't be multiple Wealth factions.
 
Last edited:
Last time you posted a faction you had some requests for more so I'm sure you'd get that again.

This faction is interesting. Not one I would play (a bit decadent haha--reminds me of one of my own factions but this one is trying to be good as well). Very thorough backstory to boot! Hehe this guy trumps Morgan; Morgan snuck onto Unity from memory whereas this guy was chosen. :lol:

The stats are interesting. Big developmental and economic potential if one can put up with the downsides.
 
Introduction

So this whole project goes back to when I first started playing SMAC back in the heyday of NetworkNode.org a giant repository of fan-created factions. It was when Mod DB first got started, never mind Steam Workshop, so there weren't single hubs for mods for all games- NN was the biggest one for SMAC, at least when it came to custom factions. The ruins of the site are on Internet Archive, though sadly they shifted to Flash in 2004, which really screwed up the backups. But the coolest thing about the site is that it would neatly display the factions people submitted with each part of the .pcx files laid out, so you could see the leader portrait, faction icon, base building, base art all laid out alongside the stats- you can see bits and pieces of it if you scroll down on this archive. While the site is gone, many (but sadly not all) of the custom factions were preserved on places such as the AlphaCentauri2.info wiki.

In my young high schooler mind, the presentation of NetworkNode.org, which organized its factions in Greek alphabet-enumerated sets, and hosted fanfics that some of the authors had written, made me imagine a continuity of what if every single faction was in Alpha Centauri? A crowded world of tons of squabbling, often nonsensical, factions as well as random alien races, robots, wizards, and witches, all mucking about on a crowded Planet. I think it was just how the authors so confidently asserted their creations belonged there, sometimes criticizing the original characters in idiosyncratic ways- Zakharov doesn't care about sick people! Yang is a deviationist from proper Communist thought! Deirdre did ominous "nitrogen experiments"- made me imagine them coexisting with the original SMAC/X ones. And hey, maybe each other.

While there were several themed sets where all of the factions were part of the same story- a Progenitor Civil War, a Waterworld setting, a Return to Earth, a Second Mission consisting entirely of private corporations- most of the "faction sets" on the sites just happened to be whichever ones had been submitted around the same time. So you can easily imagine weird heterogeneous situations where Anarchists, Bards, mantis aliens and Barbarella were politicking and warring with the Peacekeepers and the Spartans.

Being inundated with not just SMAC content but fan works made me think of my own. The entire history of the SMAC community, sadly so much of it lost to the NetworkNode.org era, is about people coming up with new concepts and ideologies to base new factions around. Gameplay mechanics, too, but I'll admit that it's far from my strong suit. Either way, I was reading a lot of sci-fi at the time, so I came up with my own, and ended up having enough to create two "sets" with a basic narrative skeleton for the first one.


draft. I actually got rid of the Central Thought Tank.

I posted my ideas to Apolyton Civilization Site, got roasted once, then a second time for poor game balance, got roasted for my AXIS fanfic, and decided to focus on this fanfiction instead. Because at the end of the day, these work more conceptually than as an actual mod, not that custom factions in general have a great reputation for playability. (Fun fact, NN used to review their factions! They were probably too generous.)

Over the decades I've returned back to this project now and then because it holds a special place in my heart, and it's limited enough in scope for me to finish it some day not too distant. In some ways, I suppose this is like my version of Axe Cop to my tenth grader self.

Influences

At the time I had read Earth by David Brin, which is a breathtakingly vivid and vast work of humanist social science fiction world-building. As an actual novel, it's sort of so-so, though some of the characters have neat arcs. Set in 2038, it's a heavily environmentalist work about what life might be fifty years after it was written, with a middling plot about electrical plants powered by miniature manmade black holes. Meanwhile, you've got this basically proto-solarpunk setting where humanity has put aside its differences to wage war on pollution instead of each other- and it's still not enough. Huge Life Arks are being set up to house endangered species. Cities from Miami to Venice have been drowned, left to salvagers. A nomadic Sea State of climate refugees wanders the oceans, sort of like the Raft from Snow Crash except slightly more respectable. International warfare has fallen away after the last world war which was the entire planet against Switzerland over the latter's hoarding of bank secrets for crooks and dictators. Gaianism, both in James Lovelock's original scientific hypothesis and as an outright religion from a feminist teen subculture to an indigenous earth goddess tradition to a cause wielded by neopagan ecoterrorists, is widespread, even influencing old-line Catholicism. I'm not doing a great job summarizing it which is why you should read it yourself, but it's cogent and prophetic enough that readers set up a Predictions Wiki about it. It's an incredibly SMAC book, right down to the presence of Gaians.

"Hope, an alpha centauri fanfic" by Wanderlust. It's a little piece based on the "I sit in my cubicle" poem from the datalinks and is actually pretty unremarkable but it contains the line "And now, with the International Federation of Countries battling the United Nations in a never-ending nuclear war, I know it is all over." I thought that was a cool name for an organization so I decided to hang the entire premise of this project upon it.

Backstory

So the idea of the Second Ship is that, naturally, there was a second expedition launched after the UNS Unity. What happens after 2060 is within just a few years the IFOC, also called the Federated Countries, forms a rival bloc to the ones remaining in the United Nations. As to the identity of those countries and what their grievances are I am being deliberately vague about, though in the case of the one faction that represents them I tried to make them opposite the Peacekeepers in some ways. Either way, one world war between the U.N. and F.C. later, they decide to make peace by doing it all again in 2070 or so, meaning they also somehow built a second interstellar colony ship after all that, within a decade. (Maybe it already existed. "Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?")

So they launch the FCS Sovereignty, a vessel whose name is perhaps telling of the outlook of the International Federation of Countries, which arrives at Chiron twenty or so years after the Unity. There, this second mission also falls apart (war, war never changes), though amiably this time- I imagined the ship separating Tinkertoy-style. Why didn't they use the intact vessel to conduct scans of the Planet or communicate with the prior Unity mission or anything like that? Because I didn't care about those details, let's get to the factions!
 
Faction Set A

A summary of the first seven factions, just an overview of what they stand for and how I came up with them. The idea is that these descriptions could be skimmed before reading the actual bios of their respective faction leaders.



For all of the original concepts scrawled on binder paper, see here.

Planetary Settlers: As in Earth, the U.N. got smart and took advantage of global warming by opening up previously-inhospitable wastes like Siberia, Patagonia, and Antarctica for environmentally-conscious settlement. One of the leaders of the Antarctica project became a Sovereignty member, and thus the leader of this faction. Michael Garrison's Settlers are exploration and colonization-minded (naturally), but also have a very ecological slant. As a result, they can fight and they can build without hurting Mama Chiron, but they are rather poor economically speaking, and have bad security. If you've read Earth, you can tell that he's a combination of the Bloomington Settler boys and Nelson Grayson.

Apparently even before NetworkNode.org, on early SMAC communities such as Firaxis' official Alpha oWo forums, there was a lot of interest in making 'former-focused custom factions. Not sure why, I didn't know that you couldn't just play any of the existing factions as terraformer-focused, but seems like it was a popular concept. I was not aware of this trend at the time (I think), but the Settlers would fit it.

Sovereign Magistrates: the interventionist, "authoritarian U.N." The International Federation of Countries are a bloc of nations that seceded from the U.N. and started the war on Earth. They've got a paradoxical set of beliefs, and are in some ways both reactionary against the United Nation's attempts to rein in independent nations, but also want reform to improve the world community's ability to prosecute rogue nations and intervene against human rights atrocities. As such, they're a very contradictory group, but are essentially the broken mirror version of the U.N.- they are not bureaucratic and are more militarily inclined. Their leader Aleksandr Borokhov is a disillusioned democratic-rights reformer from the Ukraine, which I wrote back when the Orange Revolution was happening. On retrospect, perhaps I should have given them a Drone disadvantage.

I came up with this in the early 2000s so it's based on the diminishing clout of the U.N. in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. The Magistrates are named after the oppressively anti-mutant police force of Genosha from X-Men, because both their name and look are very cool.

Elders of Chiron: Some of the oldest, wealthiest, and formerly most influential of colonists, many of whom were augmented, attempt to outlive Earth among the stars. Belonging to Generations Y and Z, infamous for having their hand on the tiller when everything went to pot. Also for being social datalinks addicts. Led by a former social media and personal surveillance tech pioneer they want nothing more but to be able to live out their immortal lives in their own comfort and narcissism, hoarding the wisdom and much of the wealth apart from the hungry young whom they disdain. In a way they ended up being very low-growth Data Angels with research benefits.

This archetype is directly lifted from Earth, which goes on about how many of the wealthiest nations have become dominated by elderly voters, many of whom wield wearable surveillance or sousveillance tech ("True-Vu goggles") to constantly record public spaces like they're gargoyles from Snow Crash. As a consequence, street crime becomes a thing of the past, and the youth are bored. I don't think the Apple Vision Pro is going to make this happen, but it's a quaint late '80s futurist notion, at least. As a weird byproduct of this and the neopagan revival I guess, youth gangs become legalized as "tribals," for high schoolers to get form social structures and get their aggression out in legalized ritualized death-matches(???). The Settlers are one such gang.

I was also imagining what millennials will behave in our eventual old age. Maybe we'll be even worse than the popular caricatures of boomers. The name was inspired by the "Elders of Ozone" from Contact by Carl Sagan, a cabal of old wealthy people hiding out in the life-extending tax haven that is Earth's orbit.

Parish of Planet: The Roman Catholic Church in space. Led by a canny priest who worked extensively in defusing conflict situations and bringing relief to war zones, with some ecumenical inclinations towards other believers. Partly inspired by how in Earth there's a great passage where the Jesuits of the future find a way to theologically justify Gaian-friendly beliefs, and just by the fact that when I was young I was impressed by how the Vatican has its own little country. Also it was an attempt at making a non-fundamentalist non-Believer religious faction, and by the final act of A Canticle for St. Leibowitz, which I had also read around the time and became one of my favorite books. High-growth no-research penalty Believers, maybe?

I've noticed that other custom faction sets might have their own Catholic faction. Besides being impressed by how the real life Holy See has U.N. recognition, I think my other motivation was because I wanted a real-world religious faction but wanted to avoid the easy- and unfortunate- introduction of an Islamic faction, particularly because the War on Terror was happening at the time. From my draft above I guess I had thought of a name for a faction based on karmic or dharmic religions? I'm going to say Firaxis broke into my house and stole that idea for the Kavithans from Civ: Beyond Earth.

Originally the leader was European, but then I read The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins and the idea of future Christianity being dominated by the Global South gave me the idea of an African priest.

Sons of Centauri-Ra: In contrast to the North American Church of Gaia, in Earth there's a youth tribal movement for dudes. Basically, young bros start worshipping the Sun as a testosterone-laden macho reaction, going around picking fights with other tribals (like the teen Settlers). Brin has a whole bit where a Ra Boy celebrates the greenhouse effect. Anyway these were my battle Believers, but with solar bonuses including a significant economic boost, and bad Planet modifiers. So there's a tension there between eco-friendly solar power- though outside of game mechanics, you'd imagine that the rare earth minerals consumed in building solar arrays might not be the most environmentally sound- and their desire to drown Chiron as Earth was.

Darwin Raiders: What if Pirates, but on land? Or what if Spartans, but high-aggression and nomadic because of very low hab complex rules? Conceptually led by a former anti-militia counterinsurgent who went native, coming up with her own ideology that declares the present system is lost, the only way to survive is to go out into the wilds with the best and brightest, preserve past learning while pillaging the decrepit decadent remaining sedentary societies until a proper civilization can rise again in the distant future. Mechanically speaking, besides the incredibly low population limits, they would be also be able to steal techs, to reinforce that they're not so much anti-technology as they see themselves as the new barbarians who both challenge sedentary cultures and profit from them. In a twisted way, they see themselves as keeping the soft city-dwellers fit by being the scourge of God.

So, inspired by the Holnists from also by David Brin's The Postman (they're like a less hateful, classier, sassier version of them), Asimov's Foundation series' psychohistorical conclusions of an imminent Dark Age, and the Mongol Empire; the greatest nomadic conqueror superstate ever built. And in the actual leader bio fiction, some bits of Aussie post-apocalyptic sci-fi, from Mad Max to Tank Girl. But originally, I really was just thinking about sports teams names and thought, "hey, if there are Pirates, why not Raiders?"

Phoenix Nation: This was the second to most recent faction idea I came up with for the Second Ship. The original idea was to take some of Brin's concepts on "neo-feminism" from Earth and The Postman. Since then I've moved away from it, and basically made them a more generalized anti-oppression liberator faction whose desire is to uphold the weakest in society- but also safeguard against future abusers by systematically using psychological profiling and techniques to identify malcontents and to reward cooperative behavior. (Brin explores futuristic societal profiling in Sundiver, which I haven't read.) So a research-based social-focused instead of class-focused Free Drones with the potential to become the Hive if gone down a dark path. Psych bonuses as well. Led by a former veteran whose father was killed as collateral damage by foreign aggressors, and who later came to identify with the matriarchal indigenous fighters she allied with during the conflict. Somewhat influenced by The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, and Sofia Lamb from Bioshock 2. Probably the most tenuous concept, out of all of these. Gameplay-wise I also would like to give them aerial buffs since for the heck of it, I made their leader a fighter pilot.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom