Lore! Faction #3 - Faction Symbol Thread

[Over the last couple of months, we've revealed two of the four known factions in Planetary Annihilation. This is the third faction reveal post. Each faction is led by a Commander with a core set of philosophies or principles that inform how his followers look at the universe and war. Also, we've been letting you help us name these guys and their factions. This is where you suggest symbols for this faction!]



An intense, and maybe misguided, hatred borne from the ravages of Time Designation Zero is the driving force behind the philosophies of Planetary Annihilation’s third faction. In our universe, robots can hold a grudge. And more specifically, this faction’s leader is holding a really big one, dating back to a time when machines were almost an afterthought.

We’d like to introduce you to this faction and its fiery leader, and we’ll do it with yet another short story by our writer Matthew Kehm. This is so good:

A gentle breeze carried the scent of the first rains of the season among the thick forest canopy; the sounds of animals awakening from their nocturnal slumber echoing throughout. A kaleidoscope of flowers carpeted the forest floor below, appearing as waves on a vast ocean as they swayed in the breeze. Somewhere distant, the roar of a waterfall completed the symphony of sound as the first beams of daylight pierced the horizon.

The music suddenly changed as another sound joined in, foreign, invasive, beginning as a whisper and growing louder as it drew near. Tendrils of smoke began to appear amongst the massive trees like ghostly fingers of an unseen spectre, searching for its next victim. Creatures who called the forest their home fled from the haze, and the sound approaching behind it. What had started as a whisper soon turned to a roar. Trees that had stood for centuries were ripped from their roots and thrown to the ground. Flowers that had carpeted the forest floor were reduced to blackened earth as streams of flame engulfed them. Through the smoke emerged the source of the destruction. Towering machines walked on massive metallic legs, burning and crushing all in their path. Behind them came even more machines, spraying the charred landscape with chemicals to ensure nothing would ever grow there again.

As quickly as they had appeared the machines were gone, disappearing over a distant ridge to continue their campaign of destruction. As far as one could see there remained nothing but utter devastation, the once verdant land reduced to a charred wasteland. Life on this world, like many before it, had been extinguished.

Commander Metrarch monitored the progress from his base on the far side of the system that his forces were now sweeping. Purging was nearly complete on the forth planet; once completed, his forces would move on to the next until all seven worlds in the system had been cleansed of biologics. Another system free from the chaos bred of them, and given the peace that only machines could provide. Together with the other Commanders of his faction, Metrarch would carve out a perfect society where machines could live unified and free, one sector at a time.

At the center of it all was the primary obstacle to achieving his dream of peace and harmony in the universe: the Progenitors. Piecing together what he could from his fragmented memory, it had been the Progenitors that had caused Time Designation Zero, nearly destroying every machine in existence.

Until they were found and eliminated, Metrarch knew his dream of the perfect society could never be achieved. But it did not end with the Progenitors. Every biologic had to be eradicated. No matter how insignificant it may be, there was always the possibility that one may eventually evolve to the point where it would threaten the very existence of all machines. The Progenitors had already proved that.

To be sure, among machinekind, there were other Commanders that did not hold to the same goal that he and his followers did. They would in time. They had no alternative.

There would come a day, Metrarch knew, when the universe would be free of any and all biologic. Every machine would live and work together in peace as equals. It would be the perfect society.

It was a dream he had.

A perfect society for robots, eh? Sounds like that won’t get in the way of any other faction leader’s desires. OH WAIT.



Anyway, like last time, we want your help to name this faction, its leader, and help steer the direction of its symbol. In our Backers-only message board, we have polls set up for the names. We also have a free-form thread about the symbol open for thoughts and ideas. Please come in and vote and share your input!

Here’s an overall description:

(Faction name) is led by Commander (name), who reactivated in a derelict transport ship with twenty other inactive Commanders. Able to activate twelve of the twenty, (name) and the other Commanders repaired the ship, finding nothing in its computers to give them a clue as to where they were. (Name) was able to pilot it to the nearest planet in the system, forming (faction name) soon afterward.

Piecing together what he could of his memory, (name) 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.
​

We’ve got several options for the name of the faction. Here’s the thread for it:

• Erom the Wise
• Synchron the Tranquil
• Nyar the Unifier
• Metrarch the Machinist

​

We’ve also got several options for the name of its leader, some of which were suggested by our community in this thread. Here’s the new thread with the poll:

• Order of the Tranquil
• League of Pacification
• The Synchronous
• The Coalition
• The Scourge – suggested by “allister”
• The Unified Machine – suggested by “Nullimus”
• Paradise Hammer – suggested by “Nayzablade”

​

We got a ton of great responses last time, so we’re more than happy to do this again. Thanks for all the support and ideas, and have fun hopping into this discussion of the next faction. See you in the forums!

Because the faction is all about unifying machines and machines working together, I suggest the symbol should be gears that turn each other. This symbolizes pure machinery, no organic intervention. Something like this possibly:

I like the concept, but instead of one larger and one smaller gear, how about either just 1 large gear, or one large gear with multiple gears symmetrically around it? an odd number, like 3, 5, or 7

I think there should at least be multiple gears. At first I thought about having the gears in a circle like the flag of the EU:

replace stars with gears that are interlocking:



But this might be a little to complicated for a symbol. We could also go for the Olympics:
replace circles with gears:

Continuing the theme, how about something based on a planetary gear set?

Sure. If you want the IOC to come down on Uber like a ton of bricks.
I'm not even remotely joking or being facetious about this. They are insanely litigious.

A (highly) stylised version of the Antikythera mechanism would be esp. cool IMO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

The Unified Machine Symbol

Calipers holding a world

Perhaps since this a strip-miner planet looter faction, the symbol should be a industrial chimney stacks or refinery towers with a negative spaced strip-mining (saw-toothed) gear inside of it. Furthermore, the units should be given impersonal clinical names like Hyperion weapons in Borderlands: so names would be Negotiators, Conflict-Response Unit, Compliance Regulator, Armoured Countermeasure Tank, Pacificer etc.

The first faction already has gears as a component of their logo.

Perhaps something more circuitry-themed?

What about an emblem that is about the extinguishing of biological life?

I mean, what does life find extremely hard to deal with?

Anyone up for drawing a good ol' Lewis Dot Diagram of Cyanide?

what about a Biohazard sign?

A leaf in a crossed out circle maybe. Or perhaps, a DNA strand in a crossed out circle.

Maybe something like a stylized DNA strand getting grinded down into its components by two saw - toothed gears?

To he cross of gears is awesome, but I think would be better suited to one of the religious factions.

I like the UN style ring of gears.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with multiple factions using gears.

It makes sense, given that they are machines.

It would also be good to see how different factions use the gear symbol in different ways.

But yeah: ring of gears.
You can't get out without being ground up.
Merciless.

And a different shape from what we've had so far. Nice and distinctive.

Am I the only on to think that something linked to biohazard symbol won't be bad. I know that they are all machines but I doubt they don't know health and safety

An interpretation of that can be quite cool I think and it already has a number of axis to change in order to suggest a mechanisms.

More so, such an obsessive faction sounds a bit like a mad artist, and basic AI has already been coded to emulate art .

well, they do have a knee jerk rejection of anything living, so it might make sense for them to use a symbol of danger like biohazard, as their symbol. Then again, it doesn't really do to have them defined by what they oppose, and I like the idea of using circuitry to differetiate between factions that use gears. I would suggest doing something like the linking hands image expressed as a circuit.

The gear set I posted was an example, a planetary arrangement can have many different configs, take a look:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=planetary gear set

Why not have a DNA strand that's mechanical in nature, perhaps missing parts that are about to be put in place. Like an arm from one strand building another, and the other strand doing the same on the opposite end.

Could even make the DNA on a circuit board, then have numerous other electrical connections. Then have the DNA strand a series of connections on the board.

This has my vote.