Factions
The Dalphega's Cradle sector is filled with different factions competing for power, from governments (legitimate or not) to pirate clans to alien fleets.
"All these lordlings, vying for power. Look at the worms, obsessed as they are with their little insignificant worlds, stations, outposts.... They just don't realise how puny they are compared to the might of a reformed Empire under Lolthian rule! Driders will crawl through every airduct and show them the errors of their ways!"
-Golden Sun propaganda |
Governments of the Bytha System
Bythan MandateFaction Max HP : 21
Force : 2 Cunning : 4 Wealth : 5 Homeworld : Halruaa (Bytha-II) Faction Income : 4 income - 1 maintenance = +3/turn Traits : Expansionist, Commercial, Diplomatic Leader : President Luaryna Orlyduis The Bythan Mandate is the government of Nathae, the Homeworld. It extends its power all across the inner Bythan system.
The Mandate is a coalition of the six colonies that exist on Nathae, as well as of the former Directorate on Mol Renan, a mining colony that survived the Silence only to seek protection from pirates. The Mandate, led by President Luaryna Orlyduis, is a representative democracy; however, beneath the face of a smiling government that pushes for a return to space exploration, lies the seedy underbelly of a corrupted nation where corporate lobbies and organized cartels hold much sway and its major bank acts as a nearly independent state in its own right. The Golden Sun Cartel are officially the government's biggest enemy - yet shady deals with them abound. The Mandate aspires to become a rising hegemon in the entire subsector. Left relatively unharmed compared to many other worlds, it is able to cobble together a fleet big enough to defend itself, but it does not pursue military conquest. As the owner of a breadbasket world with a seed vault, the Mandate aggressively attempts to sway its neighbours with enticing trade deals and custom-tailored one-use seeds for their environment, then using food as its main leverage to get what it wants. Despite struggling with controlling the system and losing some of its ships, the Mandate still has a largest fleet in the area : 5 corvettes, 3 heavy frigates, and 14 patrol boats, often split into two Fleets, based around the fleet cruisers BMS Deliverance and BMS Valiant |
Credits ExchangeFaction Max HP : 20
Force : 2 Cunning : 2 Wealth : 6 Homeworld : Bytha-V Faction Income : 4 income - 1 maintenance = +3/turn Traits : Greedy, Commercial, Opportunistic Leader : CEO Vuzlyn Hunzrin The Credits Exchange is the Mandate's main bank. While technically bound by Mandate law, the Exchange has immense leeway and sway over the economy. They are a faction of traders, mercenaries and engineers occupying the Credits Exchange Starport around Bytha-V. They live in the lap of luxury, under the lead of eccentric and lavish CEO Vuzlyn Hunzrin, and manage the Bythan economy through a braked trading AI platform.
Vulzyn came up with the idea of basing the Bythan credits on its food stock - food being the Mandate's way to expand, and the one thing it produces, as well as one of the rarer and yet most direly needed products in the subsector. While they serve as the Bythan major bank, they are independent enough to have their own goals, and they are claiming to be far less corrupt than the legitimate Government - though also willing to corrupt other factions themselves, including the Mandate.. Under Vulzyn's leadership, the Exchange also fosters intense cultural creativity and pushes for the creation of all sorts of artistic wealth. Vulzyn's home ship, the Prima Vista, is a freighter converted into a lavish theatre ship that visits starports across the system and beyond, exporting Imperial and Republican culture to worlds beyond the solar system (as well as hefty bribes and secret agents). The Exchange has its own Blitzball team, the Golden Sharks. Where the Mandate acts as the legitimate civilian government of much of the system, the Exchange acts as a financial fifth column. Working together, they can turn the system into the entire sector's jewel in the rough; however, recent tensions and the new President's bid to cleanse corruption has not been met with praise from the eccentric CEO. |
Union of Mining FleetsFaction Max HP : 18
Force : 2 Cunning : 4 Wealth : 3 Homeworld : Bytha-VI Faction Income : 3 income - 1 maintenance = +2/turn Traits : Industrial, Subversive, Aggressive Leader : Admiral Drenzon Morayn The Union of Mining Fleets was initially created shortly after the Mandate reactivated several space stations in orbit around the gas giant and bountiful world Bytha-VI. However, not happy with the Mandate's inability to deal with a staggeringly active pirate threat nor their unwillingness to actually ensure the stations were livable enough, tensions built up very fast. When the Mandate started sending its exiled and prisoners to Bytha-VI - where they immediately joined the pirate gangs - local Fleet admiral Drenzon Morayn decided to take matters into his own hands and launched an attack on Yor Orbital, a major pirate hideout and refinery. He was recalled and stripped of rank, but the Admiral refused and instead declared his Fleet and the stations it was based on to be an independent power. Most if not all stations around Bytha-VI took the crisis as an opportunity to free themselves from the oppressive Mandate rule. The Battle of Pressha Station occured months later, but with no logistics to back them up and the nearest friendly starport on Bytha-V, the Mandate fleets were forced to abandon Bytha-VI and a treaty was signed. Ever since then, the various factions around the planet has become disunited again, often skirmishing against one another as well as pirates, but the Fleet attempts to maintain some sort of uneasy peace in a system that, despite losing, the Mandate cannot afford not to exploit. The Fleet's goals is to unite all of the starports under one flag, and survive - but it has become criticized for accepting the extortionate food prices from the Homeland, as few starports can produce their own food supply, bringing the whole planet into a different kind of Mandate domination. |
Other Factions in the Bytha System
Golden SunFaction Max HP : 16
Force : 2 Cunning : 4 Wealth : 3 Homeworld : Bytha-II (3rd Mainland) Faction Income : 3 income - 1 maintenance = +2/turn Traits : Religious, Aggressive, Expansionnist Leader : High Drider Nath'dial Public enemies number one - such is the status of the Golden Sun ever since they've started to operate. They're a religious extremist faction worshipping the Goddess Lolth - hunted down since early Imperial times. They reject the authority of the Mandate and the Grand Shrine, and believe the Scream was just cleansing, the final act of glory of the warriors of Lolth.
The Golden Sun are behind several terrorist attacks on the Homeland and beyond. They are believed to be supported by an organized drugs cartel. They operate out of camps on the Third Mainland - an untamed wilderness jungle - where they often come into conflict with the regressed tribes that have survived there. Slavery is very much a thing in Golden Sun camps. The current leader is Acorace Nath'dial, a ruthless woman under several death warrants. Interestingly, her Number One bears a Republican name : May'loaam, a former deadly pirate turned Lolthian zealot. UPDATE : An operation by bounty hunter Drizoyn Claddar has led to the arrest of high-profile Golden Sun targets, dealing a severe blow to an organization that was already declining behind the scenes for several years. |
Mechano-PriestsFaction Max HP : 24
Force : 5 Cunning : 2 Wealth : 5 Homeworld : Bytha-IV Faction Income : 4 income - 1 maintenance = +3/turn Traits : Religious, Industrious, Isolationist Leader : Unknown (assumed to be an unbraked AI, HEL-1OS) The Mechano-Priests are a strange cult of isolationist engineers from the world Bytha-IV. They were there since Pre-Scream times, and hoard technology that they do not trust outsiders with. They often come at odds with the Mandate over their salvage of forbidden pretech from Bytha-I, tensions that have come to war in 1551 - a war that the Mechano-Priests easily won, even though they took nothing of the relics they comlpained so much about.
They must be self sufficient, but very little is known of them. They live in underground bunkers and only come out to head to the burning world Bytha-I or to defend their territory. Sometimes they will make a trade if it benefits their enigmatic goals. The Priests maintain a strict isolation, and they operate an orbital defense system able to shoot down 99% of unauthorized transport to the planet. No one really knows who heads the Priests, or what they believe in - reports indicate an AI is in charge, and the Priests are said to be tasked with compiling and retaining pre-tech knowledge, so that one day a worthy civilization may retrieve its secrets and build on them. |
Mithril BladesFaction Max HP : 18
Force : 4 Cunning : 3 Wealth : 3 There are many pirate groups operating in the Bythan system - one might say it's infested. However, none are as successful or as cunning as the Mythil Blades, a small pirate fleet that operates from a hidden base on Bytha-2.
The number of ships in the Blades' fleet is always in constant debate, and they often have short-term deals with other pirates. Their favourite targets tend not to be the more heavily guarded grain shipments, and instead they prey on shipments from the Union (when they don't pay protection fees) or over the many far traders flocking to Bytha for the promise of food. Cynical minds claim that the Mandate and the Union both pay the pirates to leave their shipments alone, and instead prey on the commercially disruptive far traders. However, there is open warfare between the Mandate and the Blades, and most space battles have been between these two factions. Recently, a faction of the Blades tried to break away and lead a settled lifestyle on Bytha-2, but they were attacked on both sides by the Mandate and the loyalist Blades and crushed to death. Current leader is known to be Kennael Mlure. |
The Void Shrine, Faction Max HP : 16
Force : 2 Cunning : 4 Wealth : 2 Homeworld : Bytha-II Faction Income : 2 income - 1 maintenance = +1/turn Traits : Religious, Peaceful, Diplomatic Leader : High Summoner Liriel Also known officially as the Bythan Chantry of Elysdrae, the Void Shrine oversees religious matters in the Bytha system, as well as several other important community matters. The Shrine also takes responsibility for the training of Psykers, and while its mentors are banned from leaving the system, they also put great emphasis on rediscovering the lost secrets of psionics. The Chantry also manages the Healer's Guild, a NGO of doctors and healers working in the Bytha system to heal the sick and maintain public health, as well as in other systems, where they seek out medicine. Clandestine operations of the Healer's Guild allegedly involve the capture or recruitment of psykers in nearby systems. |
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