As part of our aim to be the best source of Black Prophecy information and resources, we will be putting up some new style articles of site, different to the news posts so far. In these articles we will do our best to collect Black Prophecy facts and material and collate them into what is known and then draw some conclusions or speculate on liklehoods from what we know.
The Black Prophecy universe, as apparently developed by german author Micheal Marrack has a variety of factions competeing to complete their aims. In this article we'll look into what we know and can expect from those factions identifiable so far.
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Genides - According to the details on the offical site, these are the older of the two playable "races". Genetically altered humans, exiled from the mainline human planets in what appears to have been a race driven war. Based on their description as aesthetically obsessed and the image of a pilot in a sleek blue spacesuit, it seems likley that the Genide ships in the trailers and screenshots are the smoother, brighter coloured ships. Taking a bigger leap, I'd expect genide ships to trade some armour/firepower for speed or more likley special abilitie.Tyi - The second of the playable races. Artifically augmented humans, created to protect humans from the Genide backlash (which never happened) who later broke away from their masters themselves. Looking at the rather industrial and deep red Tyi pilot provided, it would seem likley that the Tyi ships are the blockier, redder ships with more "knobbly bits" in the screenshots - this impression seems borne out by the gameplay trailer, in which a Tyi character is played throughout. Taking into account their more millitary background and industrial look, I'd expect Tyi craft to be more powerful and tough, but probably at some loss in speed or versatility.
Restorers - Unknown big bads. Sole allusion to them so far in the story elements we have is a message from earth saying "beware the restorers" and the cinematic trailer of Restorer forces moving through a field including debris of Tyi and (possibly) genide ships. Gameplay wise, I'd expect the Restorers to reprsent NPC antagonists, probably only for higher level tasks - maybe story only, maybe including random. If BP does have an ongoing story during gameplay I'd expect the advancing restorers to be a big part of it. They may also be favourites of ingame events. As for their story, many guesses can be made. One of the more common devices to sci-fi game environments such as BP and tracing it's origins back at least as far as Master of Orion is the former galaxy spanning super-race who left artefacts scattered on many worlds. The Restorers could quite conceivably be the return of this race, or pretenders to the throne. It is also possible that they are extremely xenophobic and seek to "restore" the galaxy to it's former cleanliness, free of other impure species. The timeline leads us to believe that a restorer force wiped out earth, although some have speculated that they are in fact a pure human faction back to cause trouble.
Jadd Barran - An extremist and seemingly terrorist group, described by the timeline as being "at war with everybody except themselves" and effectivley a hard-line "pure humanity" group, with hatred against the Tyi, Genides and androids and even more loathing of crosses between the two. I'd anticipate the Jadd Barran being regular NPC antagonist -we've seen evidence of them being such in both some screenshots and the gameplay trailer. Whether they will be lower level opponents or still credible at higher levels remains to be seen.
"Humans" - While the Tyi and Genide are offshoots of humanity, and there is apparently no proper species barrier between them (as Tyi/Genide hybrids are known to be possible, and the Tyi aren't even genetically altered). Still, there remain mainstream humanity in signficant numbers. Reading the timeline, Sabiador, the first extrasolar planet colonized by humans may still be under human governance. Throughout the Tyi and Genide areas however, they are considered second class citizens. Early information about BP stated that humans would play a minor role as traders and similar. It seems quite possible that various items in game will only be available from human sources, as well as some missions being available from the humans. In the gameplay trailer however, items were simplyt bought from a big, faceless spacecraft that could have been of any faction.
Church of the Preservers - Relegious group of some kind, beliefs unknown but seems to have some kind of drive towards equal rights (started by a Genide/Tyi hybrid, supporters of android rights). While it's exact role is unclear it would seem from the timeline that the church becomes quite powerful, apparently having the power to declare humans as "prey" and make them legal to kill. In gameplay terms, if the church has some ships of its own, it is quite possible that some missions will revolve around attacking or defending their craft - it may even be that they can provide some missions.
Androids - Someone would appear to have created sentient androids, which with assistance from the church have been seeking and gaining greater freedoms. Whether they count as much of a faction for gameplay factors remains to be seen, however the timeline does allude to an andriodian millitary being created, which again opens up the possibility of mission involvement or again maybe antagonists.
Conclusions:
Of course, there could well be other factions and elements that play a factor, while it is quite possible that several of these groups will be completely irrelevant. Perhaps the game will start immediatley after a devestating Restorer attack on Sabiador, rendering many of these groups irrelevant.
It seems apparent that the majority of the gam will be based around a Red vs Blue arrangement with all players being on the Tyi or Genide side. However, the timeline does state that those 2 factions are not actually at war, but merely squabbling over new territories and remote resources, meaning that mingling between players should be possible. However PvP is presumably going to be side vs side, and the gameplay and cinematic trailers would suggest that most combat vs NPCs will also be against the opposing post-human side. Many of the other factions' roles would appear to be their ability to change the relationship between the sides, while the Restorers are seemingly present to provide a threat.
Key Sources:
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