The Best Faction: An explanation of lore and a question.

[ForTheRepublic]

Hello PS2 nuts. I'm a new user, but I've been watching these forums for quite a while. I'm an avid player of PlanetSide 2, and I have a character for all three factions. But the faction I play the most is the Terran Republic.
Unlike most players, I'm all about the lore and backstory behind the different factions, rather than the weapons and playstyle. Every "Best Faction" thread I've seen is gamewise, judged by the weapons and the vehicles. So I figured I'd do one based on the lore and story behind PlanetSide 2.

Here is a link to the official lore if you want to read it: http://wiki.planetside-universe.com/ps/Lore

Basically, there was a big war on earth that killed lots of people. Then this wormhole opened up for a few weeks until it closed, destroying Pluto in the process. When it did, the leaders of Earth realized that they needed to stop killing off the human race and start researching what had happened. During the time the wormhole was open, they sent probes looking for life and they actually found readings. They decided to stop being idiots right then.
This leads to the birth of a New World Order. But not the totalitarian So this New World Order is called the Terran Republic, and it is exactly that. There's a Senate to do all that Senate-y stuff, and they elected Presidents every few years. The TR made the people happy, so they kept electing them for about a hundred years. During this hundred years, the people were so happy and safe that they lost the urge to explore. But then, a hundred years later, the rift opens again. It was open for two weeks, then closed. This kind of scared the population of the TR so they wanted to stay home even more now. In the 2600s, this Space Explorer named Tom Connery found the shattered remains of Pluto in his travels, and among the wreckage, a strange signal they couldn't decode. So Tom went back to Earth and settled down. He became kind of a hero for finding the signal with his crew. A few years later, the VP of the TR dies, so he became VP for the rest of the term.
After the term ends, Tom runs for President and gets elected. Yay! But there was something else going on. A group of CEOs of corporations gathered to meet, talking about how the TR was becoming more involved in the Private Sector. By no means was this bad, but they just wanted to make sure that they didn't screw up. But after a few years, this group, called Business Forward got more and more radical. They decided to pressure the TR into freeing up the market by means unknown. They suspected that Tom was hiding something, so they wanted a part in his adventures to find out. Eventually, Business Forward formed a Conglomerate with some major banks, and became, guess what, the New Conglomerate.
Tom goes back to space travelling with his friend Henry Briggs, a Xenobiologist. When exploring Pluto, Henry gets these visions from an alien race called the Vanu. It kind of drove him crazy, making him think that the Vanu were like gods to the human race.
A few years later, before the estimated next opening of the wormhole, Tom goes to the Terran Senate and makes a case for exploring the wormhole. The Senate is like "yeah, go ahead", so Tom goes into space and gets these massive ships with tons of people on them. Just like they thought, the wormhole opened about a year later, and Tom took his chance. He dived straight in, stayed for a few days to chart the area, then turned back and headed home... not. The wormhole closed only a few days into his expedition so he was stranded there for 90 years, along with a ton of other humans. The Republic lost all communications, and Tom was in charge of this isolated, new TR. They explored the area they were in, but found no habitable planet for the humans to live on. To make matters worse, a few members of the NC had clung on board, and were not happy with what happened. The TR approached the citizens of the ship and gave them a choice; Freedom or Safety. A vote was held, and by a slim majority, Safety and Security was chosen, for the good of the people. Of course, the minority, which was made up of mostly the NC, complained about how they were losing their faith in the TR and how they were nothing but bad for the human race. Then, 50 NC insurgents stole some weapons and attacked the bridge of the main vessel. The TR soldiers held them off, but this raised concern about the security of the ship. Once again, a vote was held, and once again, the people voted for security. But the NC still were not happy. The tightening of safety restrictions was slavery in their minds, so they started all out war in the ships. Not good. So after a while, Tom decides to meet with the NC on a ship to do some peace talks. The talk goes well, and the NC is satisfied, until... the ship blows up. Someone got onto the main console and blew up the ship, killing Connery and everyone aboard. Not nice. The TR blamed it on the unhappy members of the NC who didn't want an agreement, and the NC blamed it on the TR troublemakers. It turns out that this TR guy named Brent Waterson did it so he could gain control of the fleet. Not good. But another vote is held, and the citizens chose security again. The NC is less in number now, but more extremist, since the nice guys are dead. Fortunately, the TR found a new planet, which they called Auraxis. Henry Briggs finds an artifact from the Vanu, and gets another vision. He kills himself 10 years later.
The TR land on Auraxis and begin to colonize. Unfortunately, the NC still weren't happy, so took to lots of protests. But every time a vote was held, the majority chose security over freedom. Yet the NC still weren't happy. So eventually it escalated into all-out war when the NC decided to fight again. To make matters worse, there were some TR scientists who wanted to experiment with dangerous technology, and used the artifacts discovered by Henry Briggs to make new, dangerous alien weapons, which were banned by the TR, because they didn't want even MORE unrest and war. Unfortunately, the new faction of scientists, the Vanu Sovereignty, decided to become radical and attack both sides, seeking the "enlightenment of the human race".
So here we are now. Fighting over Auraxis with three different factions. Now that you know the basic lore behind PlanetSide 2, which side do you favor lore-wise? You can love the VS weapons but stick with the NC in lore, it's fine either way.

Personally, as you can probably tell, I side with the Terran Republic. Why? Because these guys are trying to keep the people safe and happy, but these stupid Anarchic Terrorists are trying to dismantle the previously completely safe government. All they had to do was wait a while until they were completely sure they were safe, and vote their freedoms back in. As for the VS, well, I have no idea why anyone would side with them. They're Cultist Fascist Fanatics who need to be dealt with ASAP.
But anyways, which faction do you favor? I'd love to hear your completely biased opinions as to why you wouldn't side with the glorious TR.

For the Republic!

[Baneblade]

Only a TR player would send out a wall of text and expect anyone to read it.

[Ghoest9]

There is no best in a moral sense because it depends on your principals.

Vanu - do you think college professors and futurists would be the best leaders - Vanu is for you.

TR - Do you think a benevolent but authoritative fascist collective would be good for humanity - TR is for you

NC - Do you think freedom are awesome at the expense of everything else - NC is for you.

[ForTheRepublic]

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

There is no best in a moral sense because it depends on your principals.

Vanu - do you think college professors and futurists would be the best leaders - Vanu is for you.

TR - Do you think a benevolent but authoritative fascist collective would be good for humanity - TR is for you

NC - Do you think freedom are awesome at the expense of everything else - NC is for you.

*facepalm*
The TR is NOT authoritarian. That's kind of one of my main points. They're probably the most free of the factions. It'll all up to the people, but these NC feel that, for some reason, their ideology works better than democracy. As for the VS, well... they're barely human. They're the most fascist of all.

[Oty]

Originally Posted by ForTheRepublic

*facepalm*
The TR is NOT authoritarian. That's kind of one of my main points. They're probably the most free of the factions. It'll all up to the people, but these NC feel that, for some reason, their ideology works better than democracy. As for the VS, well... they're barely human. They're the most fascist of all.

Well here is the problem you have to face. If you look at the lore it is all almost exclusively written as dairies, personal notes, letters or recollections by individuals. As any historian will tell you, this is not sources to be trusted since they are biased.

If you start picking apart and analyzing the different texts you start finding statements that hint towards this and that.
Looking closer att TR from the prospective of the letters you can find the following:
-yes, back on earth people seem to have flourished under TR command, this is likely

- Connery suddenly gets an urge to explore the other side of the wormhole, as the founders of NC are talking about, may he have hidden intentions? May he be under the influence of Vanu? you can see hints of this in one of the t connery holovids.

- when connory dies in the Discovery-7 incident the TR gets new leadership, however it is not clear that their intentions are as honest as connerys. there are hints of a conspiracy and even though the fleet only contains 40.000 people, which is a very small number, anyone responsible for the attack is never found --> it is possible that it is TR command that staged all this.

- Finnaly there seems to be around 200 years of curfews and martial law after the TR is established on Auraxis indicating quite harsh ruling by the government.

- whit that said, the TR established on Auraxis seems to have little or no incommon with the repulic back on earth.

However from a strictly Republican point of view, which I ofcourse firmly hold, any and all of the above mentioned points are completely false and formulated by the traitors that plot against our Pecefull and fair rule over this planet that is rigthfully ours.

[Feyyore]

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

NC - Do you think freedom are awesome at the expense of everything else - NC is for you.

As I heard from an NC player yelling during a major TR/NC battle:

"Join the NC! Our Corporate backers pay better! :P"

Yes the TR are strict. But they brought peace for how many years? Things went wrong. Some people broke, got paranoid, panicked and made bad dicisions. But the Corps grew tired and found a crack in the seams and gave it a good hard shove.

The VS I have no issue with. They just want to be left alone to work on their stuff. Good for them.

And remember. Back on Earth all was fine and dandy. If the talks had gone on perhaps there would have been no issue. But as we know the talks were ruined by terrorists of unknown affilitation.

As for the best faction... I will not say. I joined the TR for the tanks that I loved since planetside 1. Which went against my love for the colour purple. XD Each side has a downside:

The TR for all their goodness are sadly strict. They brought only a skeleton gov who sadly made a few mistakes before being blown out of the side of a ship. The new ones kept up the system and ideas of the old crew and stayed rather strict and over-careful. The TR on Earth were fine with the corps and making sure a republic government stuck. Which is good for the people (but bad for business.) And remember once all was safe they were going to let up and allow stuff to be voted back in. But it all went to pot too fast.

The NC are a rough collection of mercenaries and the corps private armies. The fighting for freedom is more liek fighting for business freedoms and unobstructed and unobserved work practices. Having already gained the ability to have their own armies to "Safeguard their interests" the corps have a lot of power. Enough to rival the world Government. If any of you have played Shadowrun the games or pen and paper you will know that a world ruled by corps is a dark life indeed. But good for business right?

As for the VS their meddling in tech of non-human origin may be dangerous and could destroy the world but with the NC in the way the TR cannot monitor the research. Advancement of technology is good. if taken slowly and shared with the rest of the scientific community. The VS could be researching how to get back to Earth but are happy with what they are doing. As they are the neutral party they have neither allies nor any real enemies. Both sides may eventually come asking for new tech only to be obliterated by quad lasercannons. VS be careful. Be very careful.

All in all each side has fun lore. And fun toys. Playstyle for each is different. So in the end best let the player decide. :3

[ForTheRepublic]

Originally Posted by Feyyore

As I heard from an NC player yelling during a major TR/NC battle:

"Join the NC! Our Corporate backers pay better! :P"

Yes the TR are strict. But they brought peace for how many years? Things went wrong. Some people broke, got paranoid, panicked and made bad dicisions. But the Corps grew tired and found a crack in the seams and gave it a good hard shove.

The VS I have no issue with. They just want to be left alone to work on their stuff. Good for them.

And remember. Back on Earth all was fine and dandy.

The VS originally wanted to be left alone, but now they want to enforce their beliefs upon everyone else, and "reach enlightenment". Sounds hardly logical to me.

[capiqu]

The TR kept peace and prosperity for hundreds of years. But the rich with their conglomerate and greed hired mercenaries to destabilize the Terran Government. If there was marshal law it was because of the NC. They started the war. Now the VS went crazy on Arauxian weed, started seeing visions and started following some Vanu deity. Try figuring them out.

Anyway Long Live The Republic.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by ForTheRepublic

The VS originally wanted to be left alone, but now they want to enforce their beliefs upon everyone else, and "reach enlightenment". Sounds hardly logical to me.

Yeah, this is the part of the lore I just don't get...

I understand the bit about the Vanu Sovereignty wanting to achieve 'enlightenment' or become 'transhuman' or whatever. They are scientists after all, have received messages from the alien god Vanu himself and have been working with alien technology found on Auraxis for almost 200 years.

But when it comes to the point that they turn into a hyper-aggressive faction who suddenly want to force their views on everyone - it doesn't make sense. Violent, war-thirsty scientists - really?

If they're so advanced technologically, why don't they just try and make a space fleet and bug out of Auraxis, colonise their own world? What's the advantage of fighting a long and mostly pointless war on Auraxis?

It would make sense if the Terran Republic or New Conglomerate had attacked them first and tried to destroy the Vanu Sovereignty before they could react. That would piss them off enough to start a war. Alternatively, maybe they had become so radical that they now saw humanity as 'sub-human' (or 'sub-Vanu' maybe is better ). Either way, this is not at all explained in the official stories.

There is a hole in the lore, and the VS backstory doesn't make sense.

Sonny

[ForTheRepublic]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

Only a TR player would send out a wall of text and expect anyone to read it.

What am I supposed to do? Say "choose a side" without explanation? That's not really going to do anything.

[Ghoest9]

The TR IS authoritarian.

Democracy and Authoritarianism are not exclusive concepts.



Learn to think.

[Neutral Calypso]

The main reason NC broke away is they got tired of all the State of Emergency crap that was going on, and the Martial Law stuff.

That said, it seems Not Unlikely to me that the NC launched the terrorist attacks in the first place just because they didn't like a little rationing, then used the following period of Martial Law as their "See! The TR is out of control!" and rebelled at that point.

The science types just kind of went and then broke away themselves because at that point they didn't trust either faction. And then made their own wacky philosophy.

[ForTheRepublic]

Originally Posted by KesTro

As a long time NC player I can see where this guy is coming from. I chose the NC because I like their lore quite a bit. They're profiteers going under the guise of freedom. It's all about that money, baby. "Suits will cut you a bonus check!" And I will cut you a round from my Longshot - Corporate mercenaries ho! See you on the battlefield! I hope you've enjoyed your stay with the PS2 community so far and here's to sticking with us. This game has so much potential and we've only scratched the surface.

Ah, so you like their mercenary personality. I too admire them. Too much free will. EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE.

Originally Posted by Neutral Calypso

The main reason NC broke away is they got tired of all the State of Emergency crap that was going on, and the Martial Law stuff.

That said, it seems Not Unlikely to me that the NC launched the terrorist attacks in the first place just because they didn't like a little rationing, then used the following period of Martial Law as their "See! The TR is out of control!" and rebelled at that point.

The science types just kind of went and then broke away themselves because at that point they didn't trust either faction. And then made their own wacky philosophy.

Pretty much sums it up.

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

The TR IS authoritarian.

Democracy and Authoritarianism are not exclusive concepts.



Learn to think.

Not exactly sure what you mean. Are you saying that the TR is authoritarian? I do agree to that, but it's because the people made it that way, and they could just as easily vote it back in.

[Ghoest9]

I think i just showed you the other option.

[ForTheRepublic]

Mm... Doesn't seem quite right to me.