Faction Guide
“ | Until now in world's history, whenever we've had a dark age, it's been temporary and local. And other parts of the world have been doing fine. And eventually, they help you get out of the dark age. We are now facing a possible dark age which is going to be world-wide and permanent! That's not fun. That's a different thing. But once we have established many worlds, we can do whatever we want as long as we do it one world at a time. | ” |
—Isaac Asimov, speech at Newark College of Engineering, 1974 |
Nearly 40% of all Fen are independent, either as neutral as humanly possible when it comes to politics[1], or generally liking many different groups but not enough to join any of them. (These Fen are often called "Neutrals" and "Generalists", respectively.) The rest belong to one or more factions - something of a cross between a nation-state, a political party, a business, a social club, and a mutual-aid society, but not quite like any of those types of groups.
Confusing? A bit, but think how much worse it is to the people who live there.
Government, or what passes for it in Fenspace
- Great Justice
- Fenspace's equivalent to NATO and the Warsaw Pact
Major Factions
These six groups, listed by size, are the largest factions in Fenspace:
- United Federation of Planets
- Also called Trekkies, Trekkers, or FedFen, the UFP is the single largest faction in Fenspace. Based around Mars, they have a reputation for staying on their ships and exploring far afield.
- Galactic Republic
- The Warsies have colonized the Saturn subsystem, but maintain a presence throughout the rest of Fenspace, working with Great Justice to defend the Solar System. The Trekkie/Warsie feud is greatly exaggerated for the tourists, but was the cause of the largest interfactional dispute in Fenspace history.
- The Wizarding World
- Scattered throughout the Main Belt and elsewhere, the Wizards (or Potterites) are fans of all sorts of modern-magic stories, not just the recent blockbusters. They have a bad habit of debating and dithering rather than acting, which lead to them taking heavy losses during the Boskone War.
- Interstellar Alliance
- The Fivers (or Rangers, if you prefer) can be found throughout Fenspace, acting as diplomats between other factions. They're believed to be based out of Earth orbit.
- Independent Faction
- Call them Browncoats, Whedonites, or Jossies, the members of the Independent Faction are the major colonists of the Jupiter subsystem. They've turned Ganymede into the breadbasket of the Solar System.
- Crystal Millennium
- Some are called Senshi, others are called Action Girls, but they're all busy terraforming Venus and coming to the aid of distressed travelers.
Minor Factions
- Belters
- a.k.a. Nivenites or Rockrats
- Kingdom of the Abh
- foo
- Kingdom of Jurai
- bar
- Justice League Interplanetary
- a.k.a. Supers
- Koopa Kingdom
- baz
- SOS-dan
- qux
- Soviet Air Force
- bat
- Space Pirates
- a.k.a. Leijiites or Buccaneers
- The Twelve Colonies of Kobol
- a.k.a. Colonials or Galacticans
- United Stars Organization
- a.k.a. USO or Rhodanites
- Village Hidden in Asteroids
- a.k.a. Ninjas
Cultures and Subcultures
These groups are identifiable as distinct cultures in Fenspace.
- Furries
- foo
- Heinlein Society
- a.k.a. Heinleinians
- Military fen
- If someone in Fenspace needs to understand something of a military nature, and they don't have access to the Dorsai or the Roughriders, they consult their local Military Fen.
- Pellucidarans
- bar
- Pulpers
- a.k.a. Golden Agers
- Submariners
- baz
- Timelords
- a.k.a. Whovians
- Turnerites
- a.k.a. Skinheads, Space Nazis, Church of White Jebus, etc. Named after the first group of people in space identified to think this way, the Turnerites held onto their racist and sexist beliefs when they moved Up from Earth. They are considered an "enemy" culture by many Fen but not by the Fenspace Convention as a whole, who offer them as a group the rights and protection that they deny to some of their own members.
Non-Governmental Organizations
Some things need to be done, or should be done, but cannot effectively be done by a company or a government. These groups are the ones who do these things.
- Artemis Foundation
- foo
- Banzai Institute for Biomedical Research and Strategic Information
- aka Blue Blazers[2]
- The Cyber Confederation
- bar
- The Hacker Underspace
- Fenspace's "l33t hackers"
- The Knight Foundation
- baz
- The Mars Terraforming Project
- qux
- The Mob
- both Black Hats and White Hats
- Musician's Aid Society
- a.k.a Dandelions, Filkers
- Nikaido Foundation
- bat
- Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric
- foobar
- The Quartermass Institute
- fubar
- The Venus Terraforming Project
- fubar?
Other Groups
Assemblages that resemble groups from the outside.
- Antis
- a.k.a. Anti-'Danes - virtually indistinguishable from Generalists, from the outside
- Boskonians
- a.k.a. Black Hats, the Dark Kingdom, Death Eaters, Pirates, Reavers, Shadows, Sith, or less-flattering things we can't list in a family publication. Whatever name one gives them, the Boskonians are Fenspace's organized-crime element. The Fenspace Convention considers them to be outlaws and terrorists; the whole point of the Space Patrol and Great Justice is to arrest or subdue (respectively) Boskonians whenever and wherever they arise.
- Gearheads
- foo
- Herbertites
- bar
- Humourists
- Some people can't take anything seriously – in Fenspace, these people are called Humorists. Or Humourists. (Some will insist you spelled the group's name incorrectly, no matter which spelling you used.)
- Panzer Kunst Gruppe
- baz
- The Watch
- a.k.a. Discworld fen
Related Pages
- Fen Companies
- Mercantile and other business groups in Fenspace.
Notes
- ↑ Which means not at all neutral, of course.
- ↑ Most Blue Blazers would say they technically count as a subset of the Pulpers, but the sheer size and scope of Dr. Banzai's operation leads this
TroperEditor to separate them into their own faction.
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