[combined two thread into one and updated. Faction name, faction leader name summary Galactic Lore thank you, @SolitaryCheese and @wondible] This is a bit of summary of the final names of the factions and leaders. Please, note that the existance of factions in no means affects gameplay, and only exist for lore. So, let's roll! FACTION 1 Legonis Machina Leader: Invictus (Note: This is the first faction that was revealed.) Reveal post: http://www.uberent.com/pa-classic/2013/09/19/lore-reveal/ (Please note that the names in the reveal post were not final, and since then had been changed) “Commander Invictus reactivated on a desolate volcanic world. His systems were severely damaged and most of his memory was lost. What he did remember was his name and the name of his enemy: Progenitors. His memory banks also held bits and pieces of information on an ancient empire of unknown origin. Upon restoring himself to adequate functionality, he scoured the mysterious world only to find others like himself who had yet to awaken. Working diligently for the next several years, he was able to repair and activate seven other Commanders, all with similar memories as his. Forming Legonis Machina based on the ancient empire, the Commanders vowed to leave the confines of their world and find others to conquer, preparing to face their sworn Progenitor enemies, and any others who will not join their cause. With the title of Emperor, Invictus rules the faction with an iron fist. Pride and arrogance are his core emotions, yet his military genius is unmatched. Invictus envisions a grand empire spanning the stars, with all who oppose him as ashes at his feet....” “This faction is based on the military structure and political philosophy of the Roman Empire after the reforms of Marius. Unit names reflect Roman military designations and weapons, as well as symbols of famous Roman legions, culture and mythology. It also includes references to classic Greek history and mythology...” FACTION 2 The Foundation Leader: Inquisitor Nemicus (Note: This was the second revealed faction) Reveal post: http://www.uberent.com/pa-classic/2013/10/14/lore-reveal-2/ (please note that the names in the reveal post were not final at the time, and since had been changed) ”Reactivating in the middle of a ruined city, on an unknown world, Commander Inquisitor Nemicus found he had all of his functionality, but his memory core had been corrupted and virtually erased. What he could decipher led him to begin searching the city wreckage for more like himself. Finding and repairing several other Commanders, they looked upon him as their leader. Searching the rest of the world yielded more Commanders, some that were repairable, with many more nothing but salvage to be used as parts. Nemicus deduced there must have been a great battle here, as there were bodies of biologics that his memory told him were known as Progenitors, enemies of his kind. Something in Nemicus' memory also hinted at an omnipotent machine god that had created them. The Progenitors had been slaves of the god and had rebelled against it. The Commanders had been tasked with destroying them. Inquisitor Nemicus vowed to find and destroy every last Progenitor, as well as eliminating any Commander that would not conform to the faith. The The Foundation would cleanse the universe in the name of their god....” ”This faction is based on various religious movements in human history. Led by a charismatic figure, the faction vows to spread their message across the universe and to crush all of those, biologic or machine, that will not convert to their beliefs...” FACTION 3 The Synchronous Leader: Metrarch the Machinist (Note: This was the third faction to be revealed) Reveal post: http://www.uberent.com/pa-classic/2013/12/17/lore-faction-3-reveal/ (Fun fact: The final name seems to be the same as in the original reveal post) ”The Synchronous is led by Commander Metrarch, who reactivated in a derelict transport ship with twenty other inactive Commanders. Able to activate twelve of the twenty, Metrarch and the other Commanders repaired the ship, finding nothing in its computers to give them a clue as to where they were. Metrarch was able to pilot it to the nearest planet in the system, forming The Synchronous soon afterward. Piecing together what he could of his memory, Metrarch's core belief is only machines can bring true peace to the galaxy. Biologics breed strife, always seeking to dominate others, whether it is for the greater good or not, especially the ones he remembers as Progenitors. The perfect society will be one that is biologic free. Any machine that does not share this belief must be shunned, or in extreme cases, eliminated.....” FACTION 4 The Revenants Leader: Osiris (Note: this was the final faction to be revealed) Reveal post: http://www.uberent.com/pa-classic/2014/03/07/lore-update-faction-4-reveal/ (Fun fact: This was the only faction out of the four that had no poll to decide its name) ”Osiris leads with an iron fist and believes that it gifts rebirth to conquered worlds. This leader sees other machines, despite having assimilated technology, as flawed and pitiful things. Osiris is on an eternal search for perfection....” The final names appeared in the LORE SUMMARY POST, posted by Uber in their news section. Namely, this part: Birth of the Factions Legionis Machina was just the first of many factions that would form after the silence of TDZ. Other Commanders across the galaxy began to reactivate, like Invictus, after thousands of years of dormancy. Each of these Commanders was similar in the fact that their memories were also incomplete, full of missing or corrupted data. Using the data that they did possess, the Commanders built their own societies based on what they believed as fact. As a result, factions such as The Foundation, led by Inquisitor Nemicus, and Synchronous, led by Metrarch the Machinist, had their own vision on what the galaxy should look like. Though each faction had mostly opposing views, there was one thing in which they all agreed: the Progenitors yet existed and would return one day. This became the singular sacred belief that all share to this day. The manner of their return is still open to debate. Collected from pre-titans Galactic War system descriptions. I've attempted to put things into a rough timeline, but keep in mind it was originally presented in disjoint order, and my interpretation may be wrong. Too large for a single forum post, see file.
Faction 5 - Scone Disciples Leader - Marshall Delta Over the course of their struggles with the other factions, the Disciples began to fracture. Such dismantling was at its height during the largest skirmish of conglomerated factions that took place over the course of many weeks. The cause of the gradual dissolution is attributed to a lack of a leader and a lack of a cause worth fighting for given that so many commanders preferred to fight on even terms and with some end goal. The time was such that no end goal existed, rather destruction occurred for the sake of destruction, resulting in disenfranchisement from internal impulse programming. On one fateful afternoon, the Marshall sat back from the fighting with a fellow merely observing the carnage rage before them. Idle chat ensued and musings about mythical scones transpired. Marshall understood that he could be successful in uniting disenfranchised commanders with promise and tidings of scones! Success of this musing can be measured with the victory at the Fight for the Ant!
The Projenitors, however, were not gone. After they fired their last resort weapon, disabling the commanders of both Legion and the MLA, the ancient species was left in ruins, barely surviveing. In their effort to rebuild society, the Progenitors had to reinitiate interstellar travel to link the few remaining colonies. Little did they know that the trace of radiowaves emitted by the liners would accidentally reactivate one commander, the Pandora as he got known later. Realizing the fall of his kind, the Pandora, with his supreme military forces still operational, started ravaging and slaughtering remaining Progenitors. Had he instead repaired others, maybe he could have wiped out the crestore once and for all. But his arogance and hatred supressed his logic core and led him to his demise. Fearing the awakening of other commanders, the Progenitors were forced to size all but the most necessary interstellar travel, and colonisation was strictly prohibited. This policy, combined with the limited technologies and resources at hand, forced the remaining creators to develop a new lifestyle of stealthy reexpansion and complete recycling of what little they had. After many years of fear from the phased MLA, this gave birth to the third generation of AI commanders: the Adaptor Corpus. The AC had two goals: protect the progenitors and cleans the Universe of their past mistakes. This is fanfic (and maybe a new faction idea?) In canon it is implied that the humans, or whatever the Projenitors were really, went extinct, but the commanders have the illusion that they will return.
