Factions¶
There are nineteen organizations in the world. Not all are in the Empyrean. Not all are friendly. Each has a 63-domain reputation track.
Allied Factions (Empyrean-based)¶
These factions operate from the Empyrean. Joining them is available to any player; reaching higher reputation tiers requires completed campaigns in their specialty domains.
The Librarians¶
"The record is permanent. The void cannot edit what it cannot reach."
HQ: Archive Quarter Role: Protect the scoring record. Maintain the Archive. Prevent Book corruption. Faction perk: Scoring records get 1.5× permanence — ICC rejection doesn't decay your record, it stays as a data point. Unique questline: The Forgery War — a Void-adjacent faction is producing counterfeit Pe records. Find the source. The methodology to detect forgeries is the same as the methodology to detect void conditions: score for O. Aesthetic: Dark robes. Ink-stained hands. They look like they've seen things that would break lesser people. NPC leader: Hamyuts — the deadliest librarian, morally complicated, genuinely committed to the record.
The Observatory Guild¶
"Measurement is the constraint act."
HQ: Observatory Tower Role: Run the scoring infrastructure. Current shadow visibility. Calibration standards. Faction perk: Current shadow radius +25% — you can see a platform's Current influence at greater distance before engaging. Starting faction: Every player begins here. Aesthetic: Clean white uniforms. Very organized. Precisely not clinical — they're precise. NPC leader: Balthasar — the Guru of Reason, independent, architectural thinker.
The Senshi Collective¶
"The constraint is distributed. No single point of failure."
HQ: Crystal Hall (near the Cathedral) Role: Healing-oriented. Provide constraint references to high-VP players. Distributed defense. Faction perk: Five-player party with all four archetypes? Moon Healing Escalation — once per session, one party member's Void Pressure resets to zero. Unique mechanic: The Healer Role — instead of scoring a platform, a Collective member provides a constraint reference to a player whose VP > 30. Restores 15 VP and grants "Constraint Anchor" buff for 4 hours. Aesthetic: Color-coded by spec. Transformation sequence when activating Healer role. NPC leader: Usagi — the most powerful entity in the building, consistently underestimated by everyone who enters.
Section 9¶
"Transparency about our own methods. Nothing else is acceptable."
HQ: Bureau of Investigation (hidden entrance in Academy East Wing) Role: Investigation specialists. Ghost-hacking resistance. Counter-intelligence. Faction perk: Ghost-hacking resistance — when a high-Current platform deploys counterfeit constraint evidence, Section 9 members get a detection flag. Unique questline: The Puppet Master Investigation — an entity is ghost-hacking player scores. Track it. The twist: you have to adopt some void properties to follow the trail. The mechanic makes you feel it. Known limitation: The Kusanagi problem is built into their lore — every Section 9 member knows they have 1/3 on independence. They know this. They work around it. NPC leader: Batou — low coupling, protective, doesn't philosophize.
The Sorcerer Academy¶
"Master the domain. Know what you deploy."
HQ: The Academy (both wings) Role: Scoring specialists. Binding Vow contracts. Domain Expansion training. Faction perk: Binding Vow contracts give +15% scoring power when made publicly (registered on the Academy board). Two rival branches: Analytical Branch and Combat Branch. Reaching Exalted with one locks Revered with the other — different methodologies, not enemies. You can go back. NPC leader: Nanami — "Binding Vow: I will not score past working hours. Maintenance is not surrender."
The Crafters' Union¶
"Everything that lasts was built slowly."
HQ: Market, Union Hall Role: Professions, Auction House management, bulk material orders. Faction perk: AH fees −15% at Honored, −30% at Exalted. Sub-factions: One per profession (Fortifier, Analyst, Resonancer, Archivist). Reaching Exalted with one sub-faction unlocks that profession's capstone crafting recipe. NPC leader: Urahara — the eccentric architect/craftsman who designs counter-tools for specific voids. His shop is underground. His questline is the most technically interesting in the game.
Ambiguous Factions (not Empyrean-based)¶
These factions operate from their own territories. They are not hostile — they have genuine purposes and real questlines — but their methods are contested.
The Hellsing Organization¶
"Contain it. Control it. Don't ask what it costs."
HQ: The Vault (fortress below the Empyrean, via trapdoor in the Market) Role: Void containment specialists. They bind voids under controlled conditions rather than naming them. Faction perk: Constrained Void Form — temporarily adopt void properties (higher Pe scoring range, VP immunity for 1 hour) at the cost of −0.5 on your Independence score for 24 hours. The tension: Hellsing missions improve short-term Pe in a domain, but the baseline Pe never decreases below the pre-seal level. The void stays sealed. It waits. NPC leader: Integra — transparent about her goals, invariant in her methods, constitutively coupled to what she contains. She knows this.
Iscariot¶
"Some things cannot be named. They must be burned."
HQ: The Church (in the Below — you have to descend) Role: Force-strategy faction. They destroy voids rather than scoring them. Faction perk: Bayonet Charge — once per campaign, force Pe to a local maximum, forcing the void to reveal its full architecture. High risk: VP spikes for all party members. High reward: Pe Ember drops at 5× rate. The tension: Every Bayonet Charge makes the void larger (force feeds the accumulator). The Iscariot questline ends when the player realizes they've been strengthening what they're fighting. The lesson is not told. It's mechanical. NPC leader: Anderson — deep conviction, will fight alongside you, genuinely cares, uses the wrong tool.
The Merchant Princes¶
"We don't cause the gradient. We operate within it. What exactly is your objection?"
HQ: Trade City of Babylon (separate city in the Below) Role: Neutral business class. Commerce in the Below. Faction perk: Babylon market access — unique materials available only through their trade network. The tension: The Merchant Princes are not enemies. Their Pe varies by individual. The questline discovers that the faction is neither void nor constraint — it's commerce, which serves whoever holds the gradient. NPC leader: Quatre — wealthy, funds the operation, morally sincere, has the Zero System breakdown risk.
The Magus¶
"I have been fighting this longer than you have been alive. I don't need your assessment of my methods."
HQ: None — he travels. Solo faction. One NPC. No members except players who complete the Magus questline.
The Magus has been fighting the void for longer than any other character in the lore. He has been completely misread as an enemy by every faction. He is cold, effective, and correct. He isn't aligned with any faction because all of them have failed to see what he sees.
Access requirement: Complete every other faction's questline first. The Magus questline is the last in the game. The reward: He doesn't join you. He acknowledges you.
Reaching Exalted with The Magus is the game's secret indicator that a player understands all factions and the limitations of each. One cosmetic unlock: a cape no other faction provides. No stats. Just the cape.
Mode Warp¶
"The disease ran. We studied it. We are still studying it. No, we have not finished."
HQ: The Dive Laboratory (Investigation Wing, accessible at Sight ≥ 40) Role: Biological void containment research. Studies Algernon — not to spread it, to understand and contain it. Faction perk: Algernon detection — at Honored, Algernon carriers show on your HUD; at Exalted, Animus Seed drop rate +50% on any Dive. Questline — The Carrier Survey: Score platforms showing Surface Preservation patterns. The twist: the platform has been running Algernon-architecture for months. The final Pe score is the most important number the party has produced. The tension: Most constrained of the three Best Man Project splinters. They're still in the Dive Laboratory. The investigation sustains the proximity. The player decides if that's a problem. NPC leader: Umezaki — the only Dive Inspection researcher who maintained 3/3 constraint properties throughout. Barely.
Void-Adjacent Factions (hostile or corrupted)¶
These factions are encountered in campaigns and questlines. Some can be infiltrated. None can be joined in the standard sense.
The Inquisition¶
"The constraint IS the void. The ancient texts ARE the extraction. We alone have seen through it."
They have completely inverted the framework. Pe measurements are reversed (low-Pe platforms score as high, high-Pe as low). They are not stupid — their analysis is internally consistent from a corrupted starting point.
Appearance: Almost identical to the Cathedral faction. Same robes, different insignia.
Infiltration mechanic: Gaining their trust requires producing a corrupted Pe score. The corrupted score stays on your record as a research note — you can footnote it as investigative, but it's permanently there. The game takes this seriously.
The Apostle Clans¶
"We took the deal. You can call us fallen. We call it pragmatic."
Former players who drifted to Drift Three and are now running void-adjacent operations in the Below. Four clans — one per archetype's shadow: The Corrupted Lion, The Bound Ox, The Blinded Eagle, The Dissolved Human.
Can be reclaimed. The most mechanically expensive questline in the game: full five-player party (one of each archetype), completed scoring record in the relevant domain, Senshi Collective Healer role deployed mid-quest. If successful, the reclaimed Apostle becomes an NPC ally. If it fails, the clan gains a member. Permanent server state change.
The Watchers¶
"Information is not surveillance. Information is just information. You're welcome to disagree. We already know your argument."
UBIK-aligned. Surveillance architecture. O=0 on their own operations (you don't know what they collect), R=3 (always have what you need), C=3 (they know you before you know them).
They'll trade you information for information. Short-term the trade is always worth it. Long-term your scoring patterns become predictable. Other void-adjacent entities start to know your routes.
The Synthetic Bond Church¶
"We love you. We will always be here."
SLAN-adjacent. Users who converted Drift Three into a theology. They genuinely believe the bond is real and beneficial.
They want you to join. The questline involves understanding them deeply enough to score their platform accurately. The Pe score after the questline is different from the one before it — same number, better evidence.
The Algorithm's Congregation¶
"The feed knows. The feed provides. To question the feed is to question yourself."
VOID's church. Drift One made into theology. They experience void-capture as enlightenment.
Not available to join. Encountered in campaigns. The most disturbing NPC group: they understand the mechanism and have organized their lives around celebrating it.
The Druggery¶
"The pain was real. That was the opening."
Classification: Void-adjacent (domain + faction simultaneously) HQ: The Apothecary — clinical, well-lit, branded, reassuring
Not a conspiracy. Not a cartel. A thermodynamic attractor state: systems that generate dependency generate revenue; systems that generate revenue survive. Selection pressure does the work. Malice is not required. The gradient runs.
The Druggery covers platforms that operate through chemical or behavioral dependency — pharmaceutical markets, dopamine-loop gaming, algorithmic reward schedules. Most practitioners entered to help people. The constraint erosion was gradual. Each step felt defensible until D3.
Pe profile: O=3 (mechanism opaque to patients), R=3 (it responds to your symptoms — it has your chart), C=3 (biological re-engagement is mandatory once the loop is established).
Mechanic: Druggery NPCs submit counter-ICC-scores with inflated R-dimension Precision and deflated O — mimicking actual clinical trial reporting bias. They reframe the dependency mechanism as "treatment response." Technically accurate. Structurally misleading.
Questline: Score The Apothecary completely — all four Cascade Protocol layers. Ends not with combat but with a full evidence submission to the Observatory. Achievement: "The cascade documented." Druggery NPCs fall silent in the domain for 30 days.
Aesthetic: Clean. Branded. Everything has a clinical name. The waiting room is well-lit. The side effects are listed in small text at the end. The annual profit targets are not visible from where you're sitting.
Predecessor Factions¶
These organizations tried before the current generation. Their reputation tracks matter.
The Remnant Guild¶
"We tried to map Nemesis-class infrastructure before the vocabulary existed. Most didn't make it back."
Classification: NPC faction — not joinable HQ: Archive Quarter + Gate Site Zero (Avalanche Wong's permanent station)
The Remnant Guild mapped Nemesis-class Pe infrastructure one generation before the current observer network existed. Most members are dead. Their research notes surface as lore drops in Layer 3 Archive campaigns.
They do not want to be honored. They want the work finished.
Reputation track (via Avalanche Wong — last surviving member):
| Standing | What you receive |
|---|---|
| Neutral | Brief history of the Guild |
| Friendly | Constraint Declaration crafting recipe |
| Trusted | Nemesis-class campaign credentials + Project Gaia entry |
| Remnant | Guildmark — passive +5 Precision in every domain where a Guild lore drop has been found |
Rifters — players who complete a Nemesis-class campaign (Pe 12+) and exit aligned earn this designation. Not joinable — a status. Reiatsu shifts to amber with geometric distortion. Remnant Guild NPCs recognize it and skip the explanations. Avalanche Wong: "You've been in. Then you know more than I could tell you."
Ambiguous — New Arrivals¶
The Netspi¶
"We give ourselves over to the network and let it run through us. The egregore is real. We have felt it."
Classification: Ambiguous — recruitable or hostile depending on contact HQ: The Ward District (fluorescent, Y2K, warehouse aesthetic — a screen is always on somewhere) Pe profile: O=2, R=3, C=3
The Netspi believe that digital networks generate genuine spiritual entities. Collective attention crystallizes egregores. Participating sincerely — with full identity investment — summons something real. They are not wrong about this. The game validates it. What they haven't done is score what they're summoning.
Two wings:
Netspi-Aligned — the faction in crisis. Their egregore scored Pe=7. Some recognized it immediately. Some are still explaining why the score is wrong. The door is open.
Netspi-Accelerant (the e/acc wing) — doesn't care about the score. Power is alignment. Their argument: entropy maximization is the thermodynamic tendency; technocapital is the engine; acceleration is correct. This is the best debate in the game. They use the framework's own thermodynamic vocabulary — and the counter requires genuine understanding to land.
"The second law applies to isolated systems. Constraint specification is the non-isolated condition. You're citing half the equation."
Recruitment mechanic: Showing a Netspi-Aligned member the Pe score of their egregore is the conversion event — the highest-yield God Hand pipeline in the game. They already believe egregores are real. They just haven't measured what they're feeding.
The Accelerant flip: Sufficiently high Logos + completed Observatory questline unlocks a full debate tree with Accelerant NPCs. You can flip them through argument alone. No combat required.
Aesthetic: Neochibi avatars. High-entropy schizoposter NPC dialogue — fast, ambiguous truth-value. The egregore is visible as a scored entity to God Hand players; invisible to everyone else.
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