While I'm not ready to start one myself, I'd really like to keep track of things happening. I have to admit I haven't read any of the books or design documents.
Status Quo seems to be as follows:
Empire:
- Hengist Duval - Emperor, sick
- Senator Anders Blaine - Chancellor, saying:"...[FONT=pt_sansregular]nothing will really change. The Senate and I will continue to run the Empire.”[/FONT]
- Senator Zemina Torval - pro-slavery, sent 2 of her 5 Interdictors (capital ships) to system Sorbago to supress slave revolts. In Sorbago is a civil war ongoing between Mastopolos Mining and Liberals of Sorbogo factions; Torval is supporting Mastopolos Mining although her own faction in Sorbago seems to be the "Empire Society"(!).
The following systems are under patronage of Senator Zemina Torval: Synteini (Torvals home system), Shinigami, Quile, LTT 9810 (cap ship in that system), Tau-2 Gruis A, Naunei, Teperti.
The names of the ruling factions there include: "Empire Society", "Empire Pact", "Patron's Principles", "Citizens Forum", "Citizens of Tradition".
I found an "Empire League" as minority faction supporting Torval in another random system - there's probably more names her supporters are using all over the galaxy.
- Senator Denton Patreus - earning money with producing / selling weapons and giving loans to foreign governments (- probably to all sides?), trying to become popular by setting taxrate to zero.
He is sending forces to system Jera to support the rebels there. During Beta he was behind the Eranin conflict.
- Aislin Duval - arguably second in line for the throne if her parents where married (- or should I say first, as the heir Harold is officially declared mad now!?!); she is against slavery.
The following systems are "favoured" by her: Cemiess (Aislins home system) (lore: seems to be getting an influx of freed slaves), Ngun, Eta Horologii, Kuyu.
The names of the ruling factions there include: "Empire Party", "Patron's Principles", "Empire Group".
Federation:
- Jasmina Halsey - President
vs.
- Hudson - Shadow President
Recently Congress voted against Halsey to unblock the Navy's latest budget - a great victory for Hudson:“Finally our once great Navy can operate again (...) and we can start to bring our fleet out of mothballs."
The President of the Federation (Halsey) prohibited the use of the drug "Onionhead" which is produced as a rare commodity in system Kappa Fornacis (probably a good place to start smuggling.)
Farmers leader Georgio Algeria calls for help as Federation Admiral Vincent declares a blockade of the Kappa Fornacis system.
No news about the Alliance as of yet - seems to stay neutral for now.
Myself trying to make sense of the faction system:
The fact that "Patron's Principles" is the ruling faction on one of Zemina Torvals AND Aislin Duvals worlds either means, the names are drawn from the same pool, or that their supporting faction is not necessarily the ruling faction? Also "Empire Society" as a minor faction in Cemiess has no word about Zemina Torval in its description. It seems the faction names are randomly drawn from a pool and the important information what faction is supporting which contender is hidden on the right panel faction sub-page that comes up when you press the trigger on each faction on the page with the "influence"-bars.
In Cemiess the "Empire Party" not only is described as working on behalf of the Princess - it also has "Imperial Courtier" written in its description, where others would have "Corporation", "Patronage" - maybe that is the form of government that these local factions would establish in their system?
