Lore! Faction #3 - Faction Name Poll

[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 the third post. Help us name the faction in this thread!]



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
• Tal, Lord of Order
• Peacebringer Edelam

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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!

I like "The Unified Machine" because everyone will call them "T.U.M.s" or "T.U.M.ies"!

GET THAT TUMMY PLAYER!

Edit: I think you got the faction name/leader name options mixed up at the bottom of your post.

My suggestion is nominated? What!?

For the love of god "The Synchronous" sounds awesome, make this one happen

I usually don't post, but this inclined me to

I like "The Coalition". Only because I live in Australia and would love to trample "The Coalition" over and over again

+1 for "The Synchronus". Awesome faction name!

I can't say I'm a fan of "The Scourge." The name of the faction(s) should be less of a representation of how we might perceive them, and more of how they would see themselves.
For instance, the Catholics might have called their soldiers Holy Knights of the Crusades, but the defending Muslims would not have seen it that way.

Just keep this in mind, hopefully, when you cast your votes

@BradNicholson - uh... you may have mixed up the faction names and the leader names in the OP.

Kinda disappointed that there's no evolution subtext to these names. But that's ok.

Definitely The Synchronous, that's absolutely perfect. Matrarch the Machinist is my pick for leader name, as well.

I can't vote for any of these choices... where's the space for my write-in vote?

I vote for the faction to be named 1001001, which translates very roughly in English as The Body Electric. Of course the name of the faction leader is 0000001, which translates very roughly in Greek as Alpha.

And how exactly is synchronous better than the unified machine? Unified Machine describes exactly what this faction wants to do.

wow, guess I am voting Paradise Hammer

I'm still holding out for them to add a name which gives some form of homage to the Core for my vote

Let's get The Unified Machine for the faction name. There are a couple good reasons.
1. suggested by a player(me)
2. concisely describes what the faction wants to do.
3. The leading name for the leader is "The Machinist" and that just doesn't match up with any of the other faction names.

So vote for "The Unified Machine" and have a great day.

"The Synchronous" gets my vote, but I'd suggest a slight alteration to "The Synchronized"; for an extreme anti-biological faction, "The Synchronous" sounds a bit too... poetic? Flowery?

The Synchronus fits, because their goal is to live together in "true peace". That's the point, why I didn't vote for Unified Machine, because that sounds like they want to become a single machine.
And of course your behaviour in this thread.

Bad Raevn, no politics.

I really like the Unified Machine, but Synchronous wins out for me by dint of sounding a little less peaceful

What about something along the lines of The Singularity or The Singularity Collective.
These guys are marching to a point where they want to destroy all life. Once matter reaches a singularity in a black hole there is no return for it. From a machines point of view it is the point where everything is collected and one. From anything looking at it it is destruction.

I vote Paradise Hammer because the leader has a big army and intends to use it to create paradise as he sees it.