The factions and alliances

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Destructionator
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The factions and alliances

Post by Destructionator »

I'm copy/pasting Artemis' post out of the long reboot thread to have it here as an easier reference. Also, if you guys want to list the member nations you are creating for each one or expand on what Artemis said, that would be outstanding and should also go in this thread so we have it all in one place.
Artemis wrote:A shotgun-blast of random inklings and ideas

So, here's what I've been thinking for the various factions. Obviously, this is just a first draft of sketchy ideas, and I welcome your help in evolving and adding to them.

Outer Arms Solidarity (OAS)

Sometimes called the Outer Arms Treaty Alliance, the Solidarity is dedicated to upholding freedom and prosperity within their sphere of influence and its immediate environs in the Orion and Sagittarius Arms. They are a highly diverse alliance, with more than a dozen member races and even more distinct polities, though the original founding races hold the most power within the Solidarity. Individual polities have a great deal of freedom in their domestic and foreign dealings, as long as they adhere to the sparse and constantly-evolving Outer Arms Solidarity Treaty. However, they are not as well-unified as C-WEB, and their drastically different cultures, economies, and militaries do not always mesh as well as the alliance's leaders would like. However, their diversity and mutual respect is also their greatest strength.

Core-Worlds Ecopolitical Bloc (C-WEB)

C-WEB is located along the inner galactic halo, and was formerly the Dreynar Protectorate, until a progressive movement within the Dreynar Kingdom led to the emancipation of the Kingdom's vassal states two hundred years ago. The former Protectorate evolved into C-WEB, as most of the former vassal races reformed their governments and found it much easier to stick together than to try and make it on their own, and that included maintaining their connections to their former masters. Naturally, the Dreynar Kingdom still holds most of the power in C-WEB, but they have begun to loosen the reins a little. Their strength lies in their unified history and culture - for many races, Royal Dreynon has completely replaced any native languages that once existed, and worlds and even whole species are known by their Dreynar names. They are an interventionist power, taking part in military adventurism and "galactic policing," which sometimes gives them a bad name, but which C-WEB insists is to uphold the security and stability of civilized space.

Outer Rim Coalition (ORC)

A loose alliance of former colonies, exiles, and corporations on the far edge of Sagittarius Arm, ORC is united mostly by the fact none of their polities want to be absorbed by the larger power blocs. The galactic rim is a mostly untapped resource region as well as home to more than two dozen graveddy hubs, and as such OAS, C-WEB, and independent polities have begun expanding into it. Fearing that they would be absorbed or outright destroyed by this influx, the rim nations formed ORC as a mutual protection pact. However, they are not nearly as close-knit as the OAS or C-WEB, and many member polities are in fact bitter enemies, nursing grudges from past wars when they had the outer rim mostly to themselves. There is no central leadership in ORC, and only a handful of "gentleman's agreements" to outline their shared responsibilities, but if they were to become better unified, they could easily rival OAS or C-WEB.

Magellan Trade Axis (The Axis)

Originating in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Axis powers are the newest power bloc in the Solidarity Wars, ever since the discovery of a linked graveddy that opened from that galaxy into the Orion Arm. Since then, they have expanded rapidly, colonizing worlds and setting up trade routes with native polities. The vastly different cultures, products, and economies put them in the position of profiting greatly from the Milky Way, eager as its denizens are for new, fresh markets to buy from and sell to. However, the Axis’ quick expansion, as well as their not insignificant military assets and largely unknown motives, makes the other power blocs extremely nervous. Their relatively small presence in the Milky Way has kept them mostly out of the gunsights, but that could change quickly as the Solidarity Wars grow in scale and intensity.
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Heretic »

I think these need a bit more detail now. With only this information, my current impression on the two main factions are "OAS=Capitalists" and "C-Web-Socialists".
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Malchus »

Which is actually kinda funny, Heretic, since in the original setting OAS (or OATA, as it was known back then) were enlightened socialists and the C-WEB were imperialistic.
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Not just Imperialists, capitalist imperialists. If memory serves they referred to the Concordites as 'civilised barbarians' because they had a free market economy. They were essentially the British Empire in space.
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Destructionator »

Thinking about these again and rereading the post, what it looks like we have is, combined with a lot of my own embellishments:


OAS: Like a confederacy - the members have a lot of individual power, but give a little bit of it to a central leadership for mutual defense. I'd imagine individual polities keeping their own militaries, but, when faced with an external threat, they all are put under a single chain of command.

For example, fleet admirals work for the OAS as a whole, but the lesser admirals and captains still work for their individual polity. Thus, you have unification for big strategic matters while keeping militaries that might not work the best together.

Surely there would be some bias in the commanders too - Fleet Admiral Alice, from Wonderland, is forced to send her troopers into what is sure to be a bloodbath.

Not wanting to send her Wonderfleet into the meat grinder, she orders Admiral Bob to take his Oz fleet in the initial wave, saving her Wonderfleet for the much less bloody second wave.

Admiral Bob isn't happy about this, but under the treaty, orders are orders...


C-WEB: It is a centralized Empire in all but name. Sure, on paper, it gave independence to the former colonies and protectorates, but in reality, they still have control over them, and are using the threat of OAS expansion to keep that control ("We'll take over your military to better protect all of us. We're stronger together than we can ever be apart!"). It is like a combination of the British Commonwealth and former Soviet Union.


ORC: Unlike the OAS, the ORC doesn't have a unified command. They don't pay into any central bureaucracy - there is no ORC headquarters, no ORC officers. Cooperation comes mostly on the field. There is loose document the diplomats wrote up outlining how it is supposed to work, but it is considered generally useless by field commanders.

Without a central apparatus, there is no unified strategy, and thus no real method of coordinating large attacks. The best you might see are a few commanders of coalition members getting together to take out a shared threat.

Similarly, on defense, each polity tends to take care of itself, with neighboring nations sometimes offering up help - when it suits them. Graveddie choke points are in everyone's benefit to hold, so you can see a strong combined defense there, but once inside, you are probably facing one nation at a time, with international assistance coming in mainly when a nearby field commander decides to pitch in on his own authority.

While top generals and the political structure may do the same kind of tricks I described as happening in the OAS ("let's send our old enemy to die here!"), this rarely succeeds. The old enemy will simply say "fuck you" if asked to do that.

This leads to a kind of balance. You help your neighbor simply so he is still around to help you later if need be. You want him dead, but don't ask him to die for you without either wrapping it in some nice sounding rhetoric (leading to distrust down the line if discovered) lest you piss him off and he tells you to go to hell.

And the top politicians and generals might hate each other, but the field commanders, forced to work together on their own, would probably have more respect for each other. This can lead to fun "better treason than dishonor" or "worthy opponent" plot elements.


The Axis is more of an economic coalition rather than a military one. Their treaty guarantees free trade between members, but no mutual defense. Militaries are separate and only work together when it leads to superior profit. I'm thinking Star Trek's Ferengi Alliance done right.
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Artemis »

I think the Axis should have some kind of centralized military organization, though, perhaps something between an international security force and an "insurance group."
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Destructionator »

Hmm, consider this: they have an internal security force, funded with shipping license fees, tasked with protecting established trade routes.

Their primary jobs are: fighting piracy, smuggling and other illegal shippers. Basically, their job is a police like one, enforcing the terms of shipping licenses.

They would sit close to graveddies and act like customs officers. Foreign invaders are stopped at the border by this organization simply because they don't have the appropriate licenses!

They would need to be rather powerful to discourage anyone from trying to shoot his way past the graveddy checkpoint. Their control of the checkpoints also let them influence whose fleets go where, sort of like the Spacing Guild in Dune. keeping internal threats contained and shaping the political landscape to their liking, becoming a de facto central government, if they aren't already a formal central government.

By paying the license fee, you can get some access to the trade route. Passenger licenses might be the cheapest (to encourage tourism). Bulk cargo licenses cost a bit more, but are still fairly easily affordable. Military licenses are the expensive ones, which might lead to tech development to skirt the terms of the license. "Oh that's a FREEDOM CRUISER not a battleship!" or "Gentlemen, we only have a license for ships no bigger than 10,000 ton. Build me one that can stand up to ships twice its size." (This leads somewhat into what Malchus wrote for his Lomwun - their very powerful deflection systems and high density power generators may be skirting the terms of a military shipping license!)


I like the idea of private insurance companies dishing out revenge too. You buy into a policy that covers being attacked, but instead of cutting you a check for the damage, they send their private fleet to paste the guy who attacked you.

Since this threat acts as a decent deterrant to attacks, it lets them be profitable enough to afford the private starfleet and appropriate licenses, something your little mining company or young colony can't afford on your own.

The problem comes when they expand into the Milky Way with all these n00blars who aren't familiar with insurance revenge, so the deterrant doesn't work at first. Defenseless companies and smaller polities get creamed, and now the insurance company can't actually afford to uphold the terms of the policy, leading to more internal fun in addition to the external struggle!
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Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
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Re: The factions and alliances

Post by Malchus »

Destructionator wrote:Military licenses are the expensive ones, which might lead to tech development to skirt the terms of the license. "Oh that's a FREEDOM CRUISER not a battleship!" or "Gentlemen, we only have a license for ships no bigger than 10,000 ton. Build me one that can stand up to ships twice its size." (This leads somewhat into what Malchus wrote for his Lomwun - their very powerful deflection systems and high density power generators may be skirting the terms of a military shipping license!)
That's actually a rather clever explanation. It also fits with how relatively small the largest Lomwun military vessels spotted in the Milky Way have been, only around 300 meters in diameter max--but easily enough firepower to stay kilometer-long beasties of a lot of the Milky Way powers. :twisted:

EDIT: As an aside, shouldn't this thread be stickified? Since it outlines the basic factions and alliances of the setting and all.
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