Hello again Guardians. It’s time for another dose of destined medicined food for thought to keep your Destiny fever down. This time, we’re going to speculate about Factions, and The Faction War.
Very little is known about the Factions. What we know is that there are five Factions, with their own names and emblems, and that they are the core of the fiction for competitive multiplayer.
“You are being employed by these Factions.” says design lead Lars Bakken. “The Factions helped and were integral to the forming of the city. They are very interested in pushing the guardians out into the universe, and helping them reestablish and to take back these places.” How does this explain why Humanity would, on it’s last legs, fight one another when their race is so fragile as it is? It sounds like, (because there’s only one last city of humanity left) that a lot of the solar system is available for the taking, and the Factions want it for their own. I’ll give you more detail on that speculation in a moment, but first, let’s discuss about what the Factions could be like individually.
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The Factions
I’m going to analyze the names and colors of the Factions as best as I can to give you an idea of what the Faction might be like. Let me start off by saying that I believe the Factions represent different beliefs for mankind. Faiths, ideologies, morals, all those aspects will never really leave humanity. It’s within our nature to have different beliefs for the unknown, and different opinions for what we do know, which is why I like the idea of Factions so friggin’ much. Hopefully these predictions will help you decide on your Faction if you haven’t already.
Dead Orbit: Based on it’s name and emblem, which is heavily speculated to be the earth and The Traveler, it seems this Faction closely relates to The Traveler. The Traveler doesn’t move, Dead Orbit, get it? Anyway, with the name and color in mind, this seems like a dark, tireless kind of Faction. I’d expect decisions to be made the same way Marvel’s Punisher would decide them. No mercy in justice. Exo would fit in just fine here.
Future War Cult: This one is hard to guess for, but I’ll try my best nonetheless. It’s colorful emblem and name in mind, I’m assuming this Faction to be a form of Freedom Fighters. The word Future brings other words to mind like youth, and progression. The word cult brings to mind strong belief. So my take on this Faction is just that. Young Believers.
New Monarchy: Like the title says, this Faction is most likely a Monarchy, so it may have a king, (possibly The Traveler) a prince, noble houses, all that royal jazz. And what better color to represent a monarchy than red? No doubt inspired by the British and their red-coated-monarchy. Expect hierarchy, royalty, and seniority to play a big role in this Faction.
Osiris: Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. I believe Osiris to be the exotic Faction that understands death on a different level. Similar to how Samurai might be, or elves even. I believe the awoken would find this Faction suitable.
Seven Seraphs: A seraph is a six-fiery-winged angel that flies around god’s throne singing “holy holy holy.” They are the highest of the angel hierarchy, and represent indomitable order. So this Faction is possibly religious, although I doubt it because if anything is a god, it’s The Traveler, which perhaps is what this Faction is going for. Seven Seraphs for The Traveler. It’d love it if this Faction had a council of seven that run the show.
NOTE: It has been speculated that the Factions Osiris and Seven Seraphs might not be playable Factions. Bungie never released t-shirts for them, which lead many community members to believe that they are in fact enemy Factions. However, as reasonable as that sounds, I find this to be unlikely. There are Guardian screen shots with armor showing Seven Seraph emblems. (See Exhibit A) Also, Bungie is not afraid of making t-shirt apparel designed with enemy emblems. They have a fallen t-shirt available right now. (See Exhibit B) IN CONCLUSION, I have no idea why they never released these Faction shirts, but I deduce, that it is not because the Factions aren’t playable. I do wish I could have an Osiris shirt though. OSIRIS FO’ DAYZ!!! Represent.
Anyhoozles, so that’s my speculation on the Factions. I can’t wait to hear confirmed solid facts about them, but for now it’s fun to take a shot at how they might be. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas that you can ponder and tweak to your own predictions. Moving on, let’s talk about the Faction War.
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The Faction War
How could humanity possibly want to cripple itself against all the outside threats by fighting one another? After lots of pondering, and analyzing what Mr. Bakken said about it, I was taken back to an anime I watched awhile back, called Ben-To. Stay with me here, because it’s beautiful how they relate.
In the anime Ben-To, these gangs of minimum wage workers would go into these food marts late at night to catch the massive bento (lunch plate) discounts. But there are only a few bento’s left because it’s so late in the evening. And so began this fight-club-esque tradition of beating the crap out of each other at the local food marts in conquest of delicious bento victory. This anime, like Destiny, used the metaphor of wolves quite often. Competitors would team up with others into a “pack of wolves” in order to beat other gangs and increase their chances of getting the best bentos. But after the enemy packs have been dealt with, and the only fighters left belong to the SAME pack, they fight one another for the single ultimate bento. Not out of spite or greed, but out of pride and respect. The alpha wolf gets the best meal, the others can have what’s left. That’s what I’m seeing with Destiny Factions. Remember, Bakken said that the Factions want to take territory’s back, and also that the Factions were integral in forming the city. Now somewhere in there, there’s a reason for fighting. With those two key things in mind, this was the only thing I could come up with that made sense.
I’m guessing that humanity has and will always hate the enemies of man, and wherever they are, we will fight them. But when a space is open, it’s a prize for the taking, (like the bentos) and it’s left to the Faction that earns it by employing these Guardians and sending them to these unclaimed spaces (PVP areas) and contesting the other Guardians for the land. Say you’re a Guardian of New Monarchy, who believes in social class and hierarchy’s. Are you going to give up precious open territory to the likes of the lawless and rugged Dead Orbit? I don’t think so. But like it or not, both Factions desperately want that territory, and nothing will stop them from getting it. Not even fellow Guardians. Humanity and all it’s citizens tolerate this dispute because, like The Traveler, they owe it to the Factions for even being alive in this safe city of ours. After so many generations of this contesting, it becomes a natural way of life.
It has also been speculated that the competitive multiplayer will be based off a simulator. However, that doesn’t account for Lars talking about how “they are very interested in pushing the guardians out into the universe, and helping them reestablish and to take back these places.” So if simulation is involved, then it is used to decide who gets the territory. Also, who’s to say that the Guardians aren’t just reviving each other after the battle? After all, the revival process is probably within the fiction.
As you can see, there are many routes they could go with this, which is probably why they’ve been so quiet on the details. The writers may even still be deciding on the fiction behind it all. However my core belief is that each Faction wants the open territory’s for their OWN. So be prepared to see PvP zones marked with a Faction Emblem to show their dominance of that land.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and I sincerely hope I got your mind racing about The Factions. Take this dose of medicine to sustain your craving for Destiny and I’ll see you in a month or so.
Keep your eyes starside Guardians,
Medicine Man