Parish of Planet
“The Church of Rome has lasted two millennia. It has withstood schism, heresy, invasion, pestilence, war, and scandal, and still remains a religious force to be reckoned with on Earth. Though we must admit that unfortunate mistakes have occurred, the Catholic Church of the 22nd century will be remembered as the peaceful light on Chiron.”
- Bishop Pierre Mputu Kasala, With the Grace of God

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
- Matthew 16:18


Symbol/Insignia: The Latin cross in Europa Universalis (except the main part of the cross is exaggerated), with rosary beads in the shape of a fish behind it.
Leader: Bishop Pierre Mputu Kasala
Background: Congo Union, Vatican papal legate
Agenda: Restoration of a compassionate Catholic Church on Planet
Technology: None
+2 Growth (Be fruitful and multiply)
-1 Support (All of the Crusaders have gone with Godwinson!)
+1 Police (But the Swiss Guard remains)
One bonus tech at beginning of game (Extensive records from Vatican Memorabilia)

• My intention was always to create a religious themed faction that didn't have the Believers' hang-ups and stigma. Though in time I've come to realize the positive aspects and nuances with Miriam and her faction, so the Parishioners end up being a less of a contrast. I originally was even going to make Fundamentalist their aversion, but then realized that’d be too extreme.
• The choice to make them Roman Catholics was younger me impressed by how the Papacy is the only religious authority to retain temporal power modern day to the extent of having its own territory. In retrospect that's a rather short-sighted view that ignores how religious organizations can hold power indirectly, and that other religions can have different relations with statehood. Like say, the caliph being a political and military title. And did you know there used to be a Sikh Empire?
• Having realized that others had the same idea of Catholics on Chiron, I decided to have Father Pierre be pragmatic enough to reach out to adherents of other faiths, especially ones like Islam that also have temporal power. Whether or not he's a syncretist who's watering down his religion/building Mystery Babylon/using other believers opportunistically to bolster Papal power is up to one's interpretation.
  
• On the flip side, I also like the idea of the Believers being less about a narrow theocracy focusing on a specific American Pentecostalist sect/cultural caricature, and more of a society built on the focus of faith. And so perhaps they admit believers in semi-compatible different faiths. Big fan of this short fanfic: "Godwinson's Hope" by Hydro, which is a touching rendition of a merciful and meek Miriam, and includes a non-Christian in her flock.
  
• My original Parishioners' agenda was even "Restoration of a compassionate Catholic Church on Planet against the Believer’s fanaticism." which I realized is too explicitly making them a faction's antithesis.
  
• As an aside, I found the Believers in the GURPS supplement to be quite good in some parts, even if the writing was heavy-handed at times. I get that they have a Conclave Bible but "Conclave Christianity" is such a meaningless phrase. Also I liked how their faith revolved around apologetics and debate, but labelling Dissent a pillar is just such lazy naming. Yeah Miriam writes "We Must Dissent" and it becomes a catchphrase especially in the Self-Aware Colony video but you could say they practice a lot of dissenting without naming it as a formal tenet.
• The tension the Roman Catholic Church faces between conservative "Madrid Catholics" (a Stand on Zanzibar reference?) and rising deep ecology ideologies in an environmentally-devastated world (including neopagans who literally worship a Gaian mother goddess) is from David Brin's Earth.
  
• I know I keep on mentioning Earth, but it's a good read because even if you ignore the so-so plot, it's essentially a masterful, prescient work of world-building with very SMAC-like beats. It's like a sourcebook in narrative form. Like most of my first set's factions, the Parish is inspired by it. If you read anything from it at all, read this excerpt between two Catholic priests, posted by the author himself. In the book it was preceded by the following:
  

Like most other religious special interest groups on the Net, we in the Friends of St. Francis Assembly [ SIG.Rel.disc. 12-RsyPD 634399889.058] have been discussing the Pope’s latest encyclical, Et in Terra pax et sapientia, which sanctions veneration of the Holy Mother as special protector of the Earth and its species. Some say this stands alongside his predecessor’s acceptance of the population oath as a breakthrough concession to common sense and the new worldview.

  Not all take this attitude, however. Consider the manifesto published yesterday on the Return to the Robe Channel [ SlG.Rel.disc. 12-RsyPD 987623089.098] criticizing His Holiness for “… succumbing to both creeping Gaianism and secular humanism, both incompatible with Judeo-Christian hermeneutics …”

  I just had a voice-text exchange with the Monsignor Nassan Bruhuni [ pers.addr. WaQ 237.69.6272-36 aadw], leading author of the manifesto, during an open question session. Here’s a replay of that exchange.

• Finally, the Parish is also inspired by A Canticle for Leibowitz, the greatest sci-fi novel incorporating Christianity and history, and one of the best post-apocalyptic stories ever.
  

• Originally named Peter St. Clare, then I decided I had written enough European representation, and renamed Pierre Olukayode (Yoruba for "God brings happiness"). Then I discovered Nwabudike is a Igbo name, and I decided there was enough Nigerian/Anglophone African representation.
• As an aside, Morgan's actual origins are somewhat of a mishmash in canon. In-game Datalinks describe him Namibian, the Firaxis profile said he's "African royalty", and GURPS Alpha Centauri, apropos of nothing, says he's from Kenya. Suffice to say Morgan is conceptually pan-African in the same way Lt. Uhura is. Kasala is more specifically Catholic, and Francophone African.
• Got to learn about the unique naming conventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo while writing this. Kasala is the character's postnom, and as a nod to his willingness to incorporate non-Catholic traditions, he goes by it. It also means "song of mourning" in the Luba language, which is both appropriate for an exile from Earth, an orphan with his background, and is also what the Kyrie is described as in the Congolese variant of the Latin Mass. Apparently the Zaire Use is popular within Africa and the African diaspora beyond Congo.
  
• I always intended this character to be named Peter, as an ominous reference to St. Malachy's prophecy. Pierre’s surname Mputu is a variant of Mpoto, meaning "Europe", so Pierre Mputu might even be closer to "Peter the Roman." Of course, the good bishop has yet to be chosen as pope of the remnant church…
  
• The Order of Muyembe is a future honorary order of distinction I’ve named after Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese microbiologist who recently developed the cure for ebola.
  
• ”Morganstar” is a luxury resort, echoing the historical Sun City Agreement.
  
• An African conflict zone divided into regions controlled by Muslims, Christians, and the Black Axe Confraternity (which is apparently a real-world Nigerian university fraternity turned secret society-cult-murder-gang) is a reference to a scene in Jonathan Hickman's Pax Romana, another sci-fi work with a ton of fictional character profiles, dystopian world-building, and Catholics bending space and time.
  
• I've only seen the first episode of The Young Pope but his age and lack of parents is inspired by Lenny Belardo.
  

The Phoenix Nation


“We fly from old Earth covered in ash, dreaming of a better home. But those responsible for the great pyre are still among us. There can be no peace, no new world, until the lion lays before the lamb. Violence is a malady of the mind; all maladies can be cured.” - Monitor-Protector Trung Thi Hoang, Seeds of Earth

Symbol/Insignia: A rising phoenix
Leader: Monitor-Protector Trung Thi Hoang
Background: Vietnam War II war hero and psych researcher, Sovereignty pilot
Agenda: Emancipation of the vulnerable through psychological methods

Technology: Social Psych
+1 Research (Better behavior through neurology)
+1 Planet (Views nature as non-aggressor worthy of defense)
-1 Growth (Reluctant to repeat mistakes of the past until society is perfected)
-1 Police (Mass profiling leads to aggrieved underclass)
Needlejet protoypes free with discovery of Doctrine: Air Power (Appreciates aerial superiority)
Free ability Hypnotic Trance for units with discovery of Secrets of the Human Brain
Revolting bases have 20% chance of joining faction (Breaker of chains)

• I originally had intended to create a “neo-feminist” faction based on David Brin’s explorations of the concept in Earth. I’ve since branched off that idea (discussed below), but the Phoenix does take some cues from some of his concepts.
• The idea is a faction that is focused on the protection of the defenseless, followed by the creation of a psychologically-focused research regime (like University, Consciousness) focused on the elimination of the conditions that led to the forever wars of Earth, then the elimination of those behaviors entirely. In some ways they could end up as a grassroots version of the Hive if gone wrong, but that’s not who they are at first glance.
• The faction leaders are intended to be fellow survivors who experienced firsthand the manmade traumas of Earth, and swore to uphold to build a new one. Just as some factions are coded masculine, there is a (traditionally) feminine nature to the Phoenix, as the promoted traits that would be compassion, cooperation, and community. The idea is not embodying traditional gender roles but the values associated with them.
• They were originally named the Phoenix Matriarchy, but I decided that was too narrow, and sounded too cheesy, like a minor Star Trek race because the setting demands each one to be named by a unique label or by government type. And they ended not being a pure matriarchy anyway.
  
• From David Brin’s fiction I took the concept of future societies employing cutting-edge psychological profiling to identify those with negative characteristic traits. In Sundiver it’s how interstellar government divides people into Citizens and Probationers.
  
• Neo-feminism in Earth is scanty and tends to be almost discussed only negatively. The book describes future girls as schooled in psychology and "sexual choice criteria." So for young men like the Bloomington teens, the women seem overly critical and judgmental to them. Some Gaian religion practitioners are also often described as neo-feminist. In the appendix, Brin says that he views that the future wave of feminism (after basic needs and safety, equality under law and in the workplace, etc.) would be "the decay of marriage and family as a dependable way of life", and admits that it's covered only briefly in the novel. In retrospect, none of this has aged well, which is why I got rid of most of it.
  
• In The Postman, he has a group of Amazonian (radical) neo-feminists who fight the Holnist toxic masculinists. Their portrayal, while too extreme (having a female character declare that women themselves failed for not culling bad men before the apocalypse), did give some notes about how a society of survivors might try to create a new order that actively roots out dangerous elements who could potentially cause a new catastrophe. Also, it's at least less first-world problems than how it's described in Earth.
  
• Generally speaking, Brin's views on feminism needing to address mate choice are problematic and dated and he's probably not the best author to be cribbing from. His speculations on feminism turning to polygamy to optimize mate choice are both questionable and somewhat too specific and limiting in focus for a sci-fi setting on the verge of transhumanism and the ability to do away with gender altogether.
  
• Not to mention, shifting marriage practices is too prosaic and specific a solution for a game about grand ideas. Interestingly enough, in Michael Ely’s Centauri Dawn it’s briefly mentioned that marriage went out of style on Earth, and that spouses were called “chosen”, probably as a sop to Lal’s one quote about his late wife.
  
• I've moved away from the Phoenix being a matriarchy (or gender-focused at all), but I had previously imagined them having a dedicated place for women in power similar to clan mothers in tribal societies. Much like the Iroquois, they would be a society that could have male warriors and male leaders, but there is a deliberative body of the most prominent women. There is nothing stopping men or any other gender from rising to the top, but women retain a guaranteed role in forging society. Of course, thanks to the Longevity Vaccine, that works out in practice about as well as the Peacekeepers allowing democratic elections to vote out Brother Lal.
  
• One idea that I might try to retrofit into their characterization is that the Phoenix are also big into biological and technological enhancements as a means to improve the opportunities of traditionally disadvantaged members of society. For instance, women's empowerment in the 20th century were aided by greater control over the reproductive cycle, mechanization of labor, and easily-accessible weapons that served as force equalizers. But again, I'm not sure if I should have that gender angle, is that too old-fashioned?
• The Phoenix are also inspired by Parable of the Sower/Talents, a series, like SMAC, that features that makes place on a Earth falling apart for a multitude of reasons, and creates the emergent religion Earthseed, which revolves around humanity's imperative to pursue space colonization! And I recently discovered Octavia Butler even had a quote about phoenixes!
  

• Hoang means female phoenix in East Asian mythology. The phoenix represents feminine energy, and is the symbol of empresses in contrast to the masculine dragon of emperors.
  
• Her visual appearance would resemble that of Paige Tico, right down to flight suit, but with more battle scars both physical and emotional.
  
• Hoang's desire to manage society (and cultivation of prosocial values, natch) through psychological development is a nod to Bioshock 2's Sofia Lamb.
• I actually think that the faction leader being Vietnamese was almost entirely based on the notion in the '00s that the U.S. might return to Vietnam by leasing a naval base, as both countries are currently aligned against China. (I had the Phoenix Matriarchy name in like 2013.) This concept ended up working out incredibly well because Vietnam has a surprisingly long history with female war heroes, from Lady Triệu and the Trung Sisters in ancient times to women soldiers in the Vietnam War, including Le Thi Thu Nguyet. Not to mention many Indochinese indigenous rural peoples like the Rhade are matriarchal or at least matrilineal/matrilocal/matrifocal.
  
• The Black Flag Army was a roving band of Chinese renegades active in Indochina after the 19th century Taiping Rebellion.
  
• The Fallen are mentioned in Centauri Dawn as rogue guerrilla fighters who launched coordinated attacks across Chinese cities in the first "Flash War". I like to think the name is a corruption of Falun Gong, and are successors to them as religious militants against the Chinese government, here allied to the followers of the deposed Golden Emperor.
  
• Vietnam War II is a reference to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
• While they're not explicitly a flyboy faction, the Phoenix does sort of try to be an aerial-oriented one.
  
• Hoang being a captain who ends up fighting the U.S. Air Force is a subversion of Carol Danvers.

Library of Planet
"The first craft of humanity to arrive on Chiron, the UNS Unity, could not fight against the forces of distrust and discord, shattering into seven factions even before Planetfall. As history shows, the rise and fall of peace and war cause further balkanizations, and the subsequent divisions thus made five more. Then came the warring Progenitors, the sorrowful Sovereignty, and today revolutions and countless discoveries of intelligent aliens continue. How many more factions will tomorrow bring? How much longer will we remain divided?"

- Oracle Gennaro da Gama, A House Crumbled: Geopolitics of Planet



Leader: Oracle Gennaro da Gama
Background: Chief archivist of Sovereignty, Brazil
Agenda: Preservation of human knowledge, peaceful unification of Chiron
Technology: Planetary Networks, Social Psych
+2 Probe (Formidable library network defenses)
-1 Morale (Scholars uninterested in warfare)
-1 Industry (Integration of Planet sought before industrialization)
Techcost 85% (Considerable knowledge kept)
Extra talent for every three citizens (Learning centers)
Gets an extra comm frequency at beginning (Diplomatically-minded)