NaGaDeMon / RoleVember 2019 - The First Factions

I'm going through the template I've generated for the different factions in this game. In some ways I like where this is heading, but in other ways it isn't quite heading the same way that I had initially expected it to and I'm having some reservations. I'm not sure whether to keep the factions linked to different types of familiars, or whether to make factions and familiars completely independent of one another.

If I follow the first path, where familiars are dedicated to a specific faction type, then I have a situation where a player will portray a familiar who always attracts the same types of awakened mortals to their side. It kind of makes sense that a familiar would share an affinity with a specific type of person, but that doesn't open up the dynamic world-building that I want to see in the first sessions of this game. 

If I follow the second path, I strip out one of the distinctive elements that defines each faction. On the positive side, it allows a wider diversity for player to choose from when mystics are being bonded.

Because it's been a few days since I posted something here, I wanted to make sure everyone was kept informed of the progress that's happening. Here's some of the first batch of factions that I've written up. These could easily be used as both allies and antagonists, all operating in some kind of moral and ethical grey area with politics consantly shifting between them.

Dionysians

Magic Books	The Alchemical Primer, The Six Scrolls of Ithaca, Violet Elixir, Ambrosian Cookbook
Energy Affinity	Flux (Dionysians typically have a stronger affinity for the consciousness-expanding drug known as Flux, each time they take the drug their mind is temporarily opened to heightened levels of levels of mystic insight, while long term exposure to the drug has more physiological and psychological effects.)
Character Concepts	-          Trained medical pharmacist -          Traditional apothecary -          Grey-market drug dealer -          Biochemical laboratory assistant -          Smuggler It is said that members of the Dionysians are often in contact with the drug dealers in their local areas. Using these contacts, they seed drug channels with Flux in the hope it might awaken any potential recruits they’ve been monitoring.
Familiar Affinity	Dionysian familiars have a complex relationship with the Flux used by their mystics. Some familiars push their mystics to use Flux at levels close to causing a metaphysical overdose, others urge more caution in its usage. Many Dionysian familiars only remain loosely linked to their mystics, knowing full well that it is their influence that subtly changes the raw chemicals into the drug that fuels their mystic’s magic. The flux acts as their leash and their reward.
Aspirations	Dionysians believe in the freedom of the mind and the soul, and resist any attempt to constrain the pursuit of those freedoms. They work to decriminalise all drug use across the world, and where they can’t decriminalise it, they work to ensure that anyone who might want to expand or alter their consciousness has the right chemicals and tools at their disposal.

Oneiromancers

Magic Books	The Spirits Song, Simulacra and Simulation, The First Chant, Guide to the Liminal
Energy Affinity	Dream (Oneiromancers enter a liminal space while asleep, here they may draw on energies of the spirit realm in a more pure form than they might do so in the waking world.)
Character Concepts	-          Shaman -          Late night television psychic -          Medium -          Psychologist / Hypnotherapist There is no specific path that leads Oneiromancers together, they simply follow their dreams. Mystics belonging to the group can often sense others who might be potential recruits, or the may have seen one another in their nocturnal wanderings.
Familiar Affinity	Oneiromancer familiars often choose to manifest as regular animals who aren’t particularly in contact with their mystics while they are awake. At night, or when the mystic is asleep, they wander through their mystic’s dreamscapes, often adding or removing elements, but sometimes they directly talk with their dreamers. Only once a mystic has started to transcend the mundane world do they reveal themselves to their mystics and begin to treat them as equals.
Aspirations	Transcending the mortal word through dream is a personal goal for the individual to know for themselves, the Oneiromancers believe that through helping others see the truth they will learn more about reality themselves. They often become community leaders, pursuing both their own dreams and those of the communities whom they serve.

Tabernacle of Rust

Magic Books	The Ninevah Scrolls, The End Fragments
Energy Affinity	Desecration (Members of the Tabernacle gain power from the desecration and destruction of religious items sacred to any faith or religion. The older, more regularly used, or more valuable the item, the more power it provides when it is destroyed. The belief energy of the faithful is liberated at the moment of destruction to empower their own manipulations of reality.)
Character Concepts	-          Mercenary -          Scientist -          Archaeologist -          Tomb Raider -          Atheist Internet Troll Any time someone makes an angry rant about a religious group, there’s a chance that they’ll draw the attention of the Tabernacle. The tabernacle then makes a number of veiled requests, to identify the true nature of the person, and to see if they’ll be useful to the faction’s cause.
Familiar Affinity	Virtually all familiars associated with the Tabernacle of Rust have had a conflict with one (or more) of the spiritual entities that claim to be gods. They know that they would be easily detected by those entities if they confronted them directly, so they manipulate awakened mortals to operate on the front lines of their war. Their modus operandi varies from familiar to familiar, but their hatred of the gods binds them together.
Aspirations	The Tabernacle believes that the majority of problems in the world can be traced back to the conflicts between different religious groups and faithful. It is their ultimate intention to prevent the faithful from fuelling the deities who have influenced the world for millennia, and ultimately consume the weakened deities themselves.

Acolytes of Thoth

Magic Books	The Alchemical Primer, The Lock of Solomon,
Energy Affinity	Words (Written text gives the Acolytes of Thoth their power, they must write incantations down, often in elaborate calligraphic script with carefully embellished illumination. Many effects last as long as the incantation scripts remain intact, with some lasting centuries, while other consume the parchments in a matter of seconds.)
Character Concepts	-          Librarian -          Lawyer -          News Reporter -          Literary Scholar -          Conspiracy Theorist The Acolytes of Thoth call on
Familiar Affinity	The familiars associated with the Acolytes of Thoth trace an ancestry back to the pantheon of the Nile, many claiming descent from Thoth himself as fractured avatars, demigods, or descendants of the ibis-headed deity. They push their mystics to discover knowledge at all costs, even if that knowledge has the potential to corrupt the mind, body, or soul.
Aspirations	If knowledge is power, the Acolytes of Thoth seek to gain as much power as possible. The fall of the Library of Alexandria was their greatest loss, so now they seek to restore it in as many places as possible, with some acolytes claiming that their greatest success is the internet. The pursuit of knowledge is never complete and remains an ongoing quest.

Tezcatlipoca’s Guard

Magic Books	The Obsidian Codex, The Tale of Quetzalcoatl
Energy Affinity	Death (The moment of consciousness on the cusp of oblivion is a powerful trigger of metaphysical energy that the Guards have managed to tap. Whether the murder of others, or their own instances of near-death experiences, the Guards claim to feel a kinship with their patron at the moment when death is imminent.)
Character Concepts	-          Revolutionary -          Euthanasia doctor -          Assassin -          Subversive priest/nun -          Sugar Skull aficionado While the vast majority of Tezcatlipoca’s Guard are of Mexican ancestry (often tracing their lineages back to pre-Columbian societies), there are increasingly more from a variety of cultures who share an affinity for death and revolution against the colonial cultures of history.
Familiar Affinity	At particular celestial alignments, the gates to the Aztec underworld of Mictlan open up and spirits of the underworld ascend to the realm of mortals. Some of these spirits have the potential to act as familiars and awaken latent-mystic mortals, especially among those who are descended from the bloodlines of those who once worshipped the Aztec gods.
Aspirations	The guards have an ultimate aim of restoring the power of the Aztec gods to the mortal realm, but they understand that this will first require the restoration of the people’s faith in those old gods. They have worked for generations to subvert the Catholicism of Central America in ways both subtle and not so subtle to restore the old rituals to the world.