Faction - Update and a Snippet

Update from the lastest assembled numbers a la Ian... 125 votes for Faction! Still in the number 1 slot, but the pace others are keeping may challenge the lead, so keep on voting everyone! Thanks!

Now for a snippet based off of a question from the Faction Forums at DimeStore.

So, this one I had to think about a little bit before responding, mainly to keep from giving away too much and trying to keep my rep as a “cryptic old sage”. Ha ha…

First off, I want to respond to your comment about fighting in the shadows versus open warfare. Unlike a lot of stories that have been done over the years involving genre blending, this is happening from the early stages of the re-discovery of several factions. We can assume that the 2009 in the characters’ past is what we are living right now. In 2025, events have occurred which shaped how society developed, but it’s still the “real” world. When the factions start popping up, they are not obvious, they don’t pop up on the news and say, “hi, I’m the Blood Lord and I approve this message.” The struggle between the Society and the Den started and remains in the shadows. As more join in the fray, they can only stay in those shadows so long…

Factions vary in size, organization, power, and ambition. Where the powerful demons in the Den-Malignity together are extremely powerful, they lack the organization to truly dominate the playing field. The Society has a lot of numbers between Knights, normal people, and “other”, but they aren’t trying to take over the world, nor do they have the individual power to, say, kill all of the Den-Malignity effectively. Of course, getting at the demons is a little more challenging than fighting their minions. The Blood Lord individually has a lot of power and has a lot of numbers between the vampires, lycanthropes, and zombies following him, but would they follow him blindly into combat should he decide to make a run for control, probably not. Each has their own weaknesses, too (his minions, not the Blood Lord himself), which make them ineffective in long term campaigns. The Mind is something a little bit different. They “could” do some significant damage, but again would they want to. As for the rest, you just have to wait and see… There is a reason emissaries come into play; what point would there be for them without some intrigue in the mix?

I will tell you this, however. Once the story gets running and all players ARE on the field, they come out about equal between numbers, powers, and weaknesses, etc… Now the scary part… one of the factions is merely comprised of two creatures. What kind of power scale would we be talking about there?

Oh, in regards to the Blood Lord having millions following him through central Europe, that would assume knowing the exact details of what leads to the dead rising and what keeps them animated. He DOES have significant numbers, but not millions, no.