In the game that I’m designing, the Witchblooded is the main faction. Witchblooded is something of a counter culture made up of those who practice magick. Anyone can practice magick, but the Witchblooded are those who walk this path. Each faction is split into several sub factions. Such as the Duhn Mul being separated between the Ogres, Goblins, and Trolls. The Witchblooded, within the story, come from two different places.
Avalon: Avalon is a small island nation and is considered a haven for witchblooded. It’s citizenry come from all walks of life and practice various traditions of magic. The island is home to an academy that trains magical heroes. These students go off to be champions of liberty and justice.
The Far North: The Far North is a set of secretive areas in Scandinavia that, for one reason or another, Christianity could not touch. The far north is very traditional. It is very wealthy. Unlike Avalon, the far north favors their warriors over their magicians.
I’ve designed Avalon as a representation of how I see Paganism. It’s this all encompassing melting pot of different traditions with an emphasis on magic. Avalon tends to lean on the liberal side politically, fighting for equality, freedom, and justice. (Sometimes falling in the SJW route.) However, Avalon aims for the future through the wisdom of the past. In the game, Avalon is very magic heavy.
The far north is a personal depiction of modern day heathenry and asatru. It’s very traditional and has a preference for physical power and skill over magic. The far north may be proud, but it has a hard time acknowledging change. So it is very orthodox in its ways. In the game, the far north is very combat heavy.
I want to add a third sub faction. It has to tie into some occult tradition or cultural religion. It also has to play some sort of function in the witchblooded community. Also, it has to have an in game specialty that the two other sub factions don’t have.
I once had an idea of a reverse Hellsing. In the movie, Van Hellsing, Hellsing is a monster hunter working for a secret sect of the church that protects people from what goes bump the night. However, the idea was a secretive Satanist group called Pandemonia that makes pacts with demons to protect people from religious fanatics. They would be assassins.
However, I have recently decided to add a faction of vampires, werewolves, and half demons to the game. Anything left hand path based would go to them. Plus, I’ve already established that Witchblooded are still prejudice against dark forces.
I could involve a sub faction based on hermeticism. Though, I don’t know what they’d do in game that Avalon wouldn’t.
I’d like to employ something African, South American, or oriental, but I usually don’t because “It’s not my place to portray other cultures I don’t know too much about.” I may be able to get away with portraying ancient Egyptian imagery in the hermeticism idea.
I can always portray the antagonists of the story, the radiants. They’re something of an illuminati. The church is under their control. There is currently a single hero in the witchblooded faction who is secretly a one of them. I can always make her in game profile sub race “radiant” and add a set of infantry figures to act as assassins or agents of the Radiants.
