# Factions

A faction is a group with an agenda: the Harbor Guild, the Drowned Choir, the Duke's men. Put
characters and creatures in factions and the game uses those relations whenever members meet.

![The Factions step with factions list and member details](/images/docs/factions-step.png)

## Identity

**Name** and **Description**. The description is who they are, what they want, and how a
stranger would recognize one. Renaming a faction updates every member and every relation that
names it, so rename freely.

## Relations

A relation is one faction's stance toward another, **written as prose**, not picked from
ally / enemy / neutral:

> A trade truce both sides cheat. Guild captains will share a drink with a Choir member and
> report them to the harbormaster the same night.

That sentence carries things a label never could: they cooperate, they don't trust each other,
and betrayal is expected. The narrator, off-screen fights between NPCs and gossip between them
all read what you wrote and weigh it against everything else they know.

- Relations are **one-sided**. The Guild can resent the Choir while the Choir has written
  nothing back. A one-sided grudge is useful information.
- **No relation means no opinion.** Nothing is assumed; the game doesn't treat silence as
  "neutral".
- Only factions actually present in a scene reach the narrator, so a world with forty factions
  costs no more per turn than one with four.

## Tips

- Write what members **do** about the relationship, not just how they feel. "Attack on sight"
  and "refuse to trade, but never draw steel inside the walls" play very differently.
- Two or three factions with sharp, conflicting wants beat ten polite ones.
- Do factions early. Characters, creatures and places hang off them.