Episode 151: Factions of the Eden Ship

Eden Ship

00:00 / 28:26

Main Topic

Last episode we touched on a faction in the ship today we are going to touch on a few more. They are going to have a bit of info about them and how they try to get things done. Factions are a simple, in air quotes, way to set up organizations. These are groups of people or power structures with shared interests, goals, and methods allowing you to shorthand the political and sociological conflicts that can occur in a game.

Zendead-

Civilian Civil Defense Force

The CCDF of CDeF is a ragtag group of people that have started to protect the Civilian Sector of the ship. From the other sections coming in and stealing everything not bolted down. They are not a very large faction but they do try to keep the other groups out. It doesn’t work very well all the time. They do keep the bigger groups at bay when they come into pillage.

Saveron is the head of the group and he used to be a Regulation Officer in his younger days. Now he takes time to recruit and train the new members of the CDeF. He does have a hard time though. Since many in this section of the ship have started to turn to gangs to protect their own. He has made some headway though.

GuardaManger-

Gaians

A problem with having a supercomputer around is that eventually, organics like to assume it knows all the answers. The Gaians have fallen into the belief that GAIA will be the solution to all the problems faced on the Ark. Simply put they worship at the input port of their computational overlord. To this end, Gaians can be a help to the rest of the Ark because they will prioritize finding ways to fix, protect, or ensure GAIA maintains operational capacity. Conversely, they will be underfoot as they attempt to commune with their “god”, impair other factions in the name of preserving GAIA’s access to the data, and protect with occasional violent intent the mechanics of the Eden Ship they associate with GAIA.

High Tesh Fedir Saetang leads the Gaians with a renewed vigor. While they were once more passive and merely omnipresent, Tesh Fedir has taken a more evangelical approach in spreading the practice of GAIA worship, though this has not come without some ecclesiastical dissent.

Prophylaxis Phylum

It is hard to keep a long-term perspective when you are mired in the day-to-day operations of something. The Prophylaxis Phylum recognizes that and works in secret to ensure that the Command Section keeps the “best interests of all aboard Eden” moving in the right direction. Simply put, the Prophylaxis Phylum see themselves as a secret line of defense against a corruption of the original mission and the last best hope for Eden to ensure the continuity of the human species.

Chosen from among promising, but disruptive, youth to be indoctrinated into the secret orders of protection, the members are incredibly loyal to each other and their cause. That cause often seems to be maintaining the power system from which they benefit, but that structure does allow them to keep the food being produced in volumes enough to feed everyone aboard, replace the failing oxygen scrubbers when they are growing old, and even put a stalking horse candidate for leadership up to prevent a radical Xenoseperatist from taking control. Eggs. Omelets. A sad truth.

The Right Honorable Constance Kazuya quietly leads the Phylum when not acting as an Adjudicator Minimus in the Command Section. Adjudicator Kazuya comes from a long line of well respected movers and shakers on Eden, but nobody has noticed the small shield like sigil of the Phylum on her garments even when she opposes sending exploratory teams with valuable resources away from the ship.

Rump Shakers

The cover of a raucous social club is the perfect camouflage for this out in the open political movement. A rising tide of discontent has been given a voice in the backrooms of Eden under the Rump Shakers’ banner. While most see “rump” as a side-eyed reference to dancing with an energetic shaking of the posterior, the inner circle of the Rump Shakers chose it for its other meaning. As the final remaining unbroken descendants of the launch crew, the Rump Shakers’ inner circle saw the factionalizing of the inhabitants of Eden tearing apart any chance for completing the mission – finding a new homeworld. Survival was never enough, but thriving was what was required.

Knowing that the social aspect of humans needed its own feeding and also hiding the political movement in plain sight under the haze of beer goggles, the Rump Shakers were born as an organization. Distributed in a cell-like structure, the Rump Shakers work to protect the everyday inhabitants of Eden, humans and whatever else there may be, from the vacuum of space, the clinical coldness of GAIA, and the bureaucratic failings of the Command Section. Food drives, a new post modern space version of Saint Nicholas, and a low key get out the vote whisper campaign are all hallmarks of the Rump Shakers. Too bad they can’t organize to be a stronger force on Eden or maybe things would actually get better.

Tall, dark, and handsome, if Ethlebert Boer had a sense of organization as developed as their sense of righteousness, then Eden would be a very different place. Ethlebert has never shied away from attention, but also never sought it out. In the quiet places, they befriended the people who work the longest and the hardest. This drove the overeducated and underemployed Ethlebert to form the Rump Shakers … an organization that has slowly grown beyond their ability to steer.

Closing remarks

Zendead –

Predator 2 Yep it is campy and fun but shows how you can take an IP that seemed like a one movie wonder. And make it into a multiple movie franchise.

Guard-A-Manger – The Sonnets of William Shakespeare. 14 line iambic pentameter poems that break the rules ever so slightly with a hint of cheekiness in each, the sonnets are a poetic inspiration for mood, theme, and tone for any english speaking gamemaster.

Music is courtesy of Sim on Twitter you can find him at @TheSimulacrae