Factions

From Parhelion
Jump to: navigation, search

Major factions

STELO

Formed from the Federal space programme imposed after a cataclysmic war with its arch-nemesis Vidalia, the Space Transport, Enterprise and Logistics Organization (STELO) sees itself as the guardian of the largest free trade zone in all human civilisation as well as the guardian of all that is just, holy and pure. In game, STELO is your average boom/late rush faction, focused on bolstering its surface forces with light vehicles, ranging from the Snakehead IFV to combat bikes and other more specialised units. Because of its position as the largest trading power in space STELO also starts the campaign with a Wealth Boom card and an extra space ship. The soldiers that make up the military arm of STELO won't lack for anything as long as you keep the economy rolling.

Vidalist Confederacy

The remnants of the old Vidalist Union formed in Eastern Eurasia and southern Oceania, the Confederated Vidalist Ergatocracies are heirs to the heritage of the Vidalist Union, a highly militaristic superstate which was the first nation on old Earth to run a successful space colonisation programme dating back to the late 70s, and consists of the descendents of the Vidalist survivors of the War of '84 who managed to make it into space, or remained in the relative safety of Bolivarist Oceania when the war broke out — and later "fellow travellers" from all corners of Earth seeking to keep the old traditions and spirit of Vidalism alive.

Today, almost 200 years into the future, the Vidalist Confederacy continues to survive and thrive on the Red Planet, where it has carved out several colonies throughout the Red Planet, where the rules of strict self-sufficiency and communal shareholdership of the resources of the land continue to be the status quo. The dream of Vidalism — of a single human race living in peace and harmony with one another free of predatory economic competition and the strictures of the sins and superstitions of Old Earth — however remains an unfulfilled vision, for most of Old Earth is fast coming under the tyranny of the Auroral Empire, even as the spectres of capitalism and Salviatism were not exorcised, but now haunt the very fringes of space. Needless to say, the workers of the Vidalist Confederacy must unite and strive together to keep the fires of the Revolution burning in order to form a better future for their children and the rest of humanity.

Salviatist Commonwealth

Formed out of a group of nations in Western Eurasia to resist Vidalian attempts at imposing an ultra-communist regime throughout the world throughout the 20th century, the Salviatist Commonwealth (formally Statkommuno de Salviatia but also das Geminwohl, or G-SALV to some of its enemies) consists of the descendents of the survivors of the War of '84: that last titanic war "that ended all wars" on earth once and for all. Although the war saw the biggest threat to their existence, the Vidalist Union, being wiped out throughout Eurasia, it did not come without a heavy cost, for by the time the war ended, most of Salviatia, including the old capital of Franz-Heinrichsstadt, was all but ruined. This was further exacerbated by their Federal allies turning on them and a civil war caused by the upheavals of systemic collapse.

Since then, Salviatian loyalists retreated to their only remaining major city importance, Siegstadt, and have vigorously attempted to rebuild their power with a slew of unconventional and highly controversial technologies, aided by the iron rule of the all-omnipresent Supreme Salviat, which is headed by the reclusive Franz Heinrich von Salviat. A space programme using technologies scavenged from the badlands of Eurasia has since then see the Salviatian Commonwealth develop colonies on the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos as well as a single super space station in terrestrial orbit, but this new arrangement did not fully result in a full recovery as expected. STELO's control over space continues to solidify, while raids from fringe groups from their old enemy, the Vidalist Confederacy, have continued to intensify. It will ultimately be the task of the Salviatist Commonwealth to resurrect the glories of the late Salviatist Reich and purge Earth and the rest of the Solar System of all untermenschen, plutocrats and godless Vidalist anarchists before they destroy the human race with their intolerable vices and philosophies of decadence.

Auroral Empire

A latecomer to the space race, the Auroral Empire has only been able to survive for so long due to its being "at the right place at the right time" and the highly sophisticated technologies it had been researching since the 1950s. The War of '84 was somewhat of a godsend for the Auroral Empire, and following the destruction of its rivals, most notably the Vidalist Union and the Shinte Altan Ordu or "New Golden Horde", it was able to consolidate its hold on the eastern shores of Siberian Eurasia with colonies overseeing the cantonment of Aleksandrovsk.

However, the Empire now faces new challenges. Climate change has devasted its Indo-Pacific territories, threatening some of the economic resources of the Empire. A new rebel movement, PEUR, has seized various parts of India and Daitenka, threatening the hold of the Empire on the mainland of Eastasia, even as the Empire has expanded its role in the world, inducting Africa into its Pan-Asian Community. Thus while the Empire now has most of Earth under its control, it faces an uncertain future as civil war continues to roil its Eastasian possessions and concerns arise that its former partners and rivals, especially the Atlantic Federation, now dominated by STELO, have decisively leapfrogged past the Empire .... and into the great extra-terrestrial beyond .....