Factions/Faderan Conclave

Faderan have “Relic Worlds” — random cards they can put into play with situationally powerful abilities. Recommended for players who enjoy being surprised, and like to wrap their minds around strange play styles midway through the game. Fun for new players, although they are unlikely to win with them.

## Background

For the last thirty million years, the only sapient species in the galaxy have been the Faderan and their creations - enough time for the stains of rust that marked the locations of once great Faderan cities to themselves erode and blow away. The Faderan value time periods that the other aliens think of as "geologic", and yet their creations inevitably decay before such periods pass. Faderan society is one poised between the futility of action, and the drive to nonetheless have a meaningful impact in the thousands of millenia ahead.

The Faderan refuse to speak of the deep past. What happened to leave the galaxy devoid of other sapience for so long, and whether there are other enclaves among the stars, are both deeply held secrets.

Extremely recently by Faderan standards, explorers discovered that new sapient life had evolved on several worlds. The Conclave at first chose a policy of watching silently, lest their interference cause irrecoverable harm. Then two species made them take action.

The Kjasjavikalimm, Balkanized and warlike, were at the cusp of interstellar travel, having invented primitive hyperdrives. They saw conquest of the galaxy as their manifest destiny..

The Kt'Zr'Kt'Rtl had developed an insane engine called the "nullspace drive" that promised to catapult them throughout the galaxy, in a foolishly shortsighted bid to outrun their own overpopulation.

If the Faderan did nothing, the galaxy was sure to be engulfed in war between these two species. That said, in private, Faderan sometimes confide that there was another reason they held the Kjasjavikalimm back in particular: they saw their younger selves in the Kjasjavikalimm, and felt that no other species should have to shoulder such regrets.

The Faderan sabotaged both species' technologies while secretly advancing the other aliens to comparable ability. During this time, the Faderan sought out Im'dril fleets and the Unity. With promises of boundless shared technology, they convinced each species to work together to build a single, joint society where everyone would be the equals of the others. A Sidereal Confluence.

### History

#### Dawn Age, Age of Cooperation, Age of Strife

The new civilization reached to the stars, got along with other beings, and then a galaxy-spanning war started. The Faderan have almost no records from these early periods, and what little they have is distorted by propaganda from later ages. Notably, there's no record of first contact with aliens at all, suggesting that it was intentionally expunged by some Faderan civilization, which itself has been forgotten in time.

The Faderan believe that they were a minor power in the Age of Strife, at least at first. Eventually, as the major powers declined, their prominence rose by default.

#### Infanticide

This part of history was also subject to propaganda and historical revisionism, but this is the best current reconstruction:

At this point, the Faderan and their allies represented one side of the war, and an array of civilizations that specialized in uplifting sub-sapient life to full sapience constituted the other side. The opponents engaged in guerrilla warfare from within Faderan-held territory by uplifting and arming every species they could find. In response, the early Faderan visited every world in turn and wiped out all species that were near-sapience, to deny the uplifters the resources they needed to continue. Such destruction was carried out in haste, but those Faderan sought to destroy only what they needed. Still, if they had found Earth as it is today, they would probably have wiped out all chordates.

In the end, the Faderan became the sole rulers of a ruined galaxy.

#### Age of Recovery

A thousand year period where the early Faderan came to terms with what they did and refocused their society as far from war as they could manage.

#### Golden Age

The galaxy was colonized by the Faderan, and they began crafting the first wonders. Ringworlds were built to house ever more people, and hyperspace was rearranged to their tastes. This wasn't even remotely the pinnacle of Faderan technology, but it would be the last time the entire galaxy was controlled by them simultaneously. Relics from this period are incredibly highly valued but are never functional. The Faderan of the Golden Age didn't build to last, and ultimately, their grand monuments all unraveled.

#### The Fall

The end of the Golden Age saw Faderan civilization slowly collapse, descending until nothing was left but small isolated colonies. Surprisingly, it was a non-violent period as the Faderan had no interest in fighting amongst themselves, given their ugly history.

#### The Fading

Everything the Faderan have ever created crumbled and turned to dust. No civilizations lasted. No monuments endured. The hopelessness of ever leaving a lasting impact on a galaxy they had themselves ruined left its mark on all future Faderan civilizations.

The Fading continues. Throughout history, Faderan enclaves would rise into full civilizations, striving for relevance and struggling against the Fading for a brief time.

The history of the Fading is a jumbled mess, as different civilizations had their own calendars and could exist simultaneously in different parts of the galaxy without ever meeting. Still, two ages stand out: The Circle and the Age of Star and Empire.

#### The Circle

Two million years later (twenty-eight million years ago), the Circle was a powerful civilization that held the galactic core. They created huge self-maintaining megastructures: ringworlds and Dyson spheres, not as places to live but as museums and monuments to their glory. In the end, most of their megastructures were destroyed by nearby supernovae, and many were simply never finished. One is much more likely to find the shattered remnants of part of a ringworld drifting between stars than ever to find an intact megastructure.

#### Age of Star and Empire

Sometimes referred to as the second golden age, by this point, the Faderan had lived in the Fading for five million years. The Age of Star and Empire was by far the most successful strike against the Fading, both in its longevity and its lasting impact on the galaxy.

In the Faderan picture, the map is of Star and Empire. Star was a single star system (or possibly a small alliance of systems) that stood against a huge Empire during this period. The details of this relationship are long lost, but the apparent antagonism was unusually stable. That said, the original names of Star and Empire are lost to history (hence the name of the age).

The first huge impact of Empire was the release of their AIs, allowing them to explore the galaxy and build civilizations of their own. (The origin of those AIs isn't known, but they were probably a mix of created minds and uploaded Faderan). The AIs spent the better part of a million years expanding and exploring, long outlasting Star and Empire. During this period, a world orbiting a stable red dwarf was computerized to house the more creative AIs, who played as gods over simulated universes. To distinguish that planet from the panoply of the galaxy, it was named "One" or "Singular". Over time, more and more AIs settled there, until there were almost no free AIs elsewhere in the galaxy — Unity.

The second impact of Empire was, if anything, far greater. To strike their greatest blow against the Fading, they created a new species whole cloth. They gifted them with the genetic understanding of technology, so they would never fall below space travel, and the ability to thrive in microgravity so the ground-dwelling civilizations would never compete with them. Their society was forged at a genetic level to make them a perfect match to any Faderan civilization — complementing each other and ensuring that those civilizations could stand the test of time. Finally, the Faderan granted the Im'dril what they saw as the greatest gift of all: the ability to forget. The Im'dril were made to lose their history, so they would not be crushed by the weight of the horrors of the past or the depthless eternity of the future.

It is unfortunate that the Age of Star and Empire came to a bloody end, as the Im'dril were left traveling the stars without ever realizing that half their economy had died long ago.

### Modern Faderan

The Faderan Conclave is merely one of many surviving enclaves. Indeed, there may currently be another Faderan civilization in some other part of the galaxy. Enclaves are, in principle, civilization seeds. They survive for many thousands of years as individual worlds, before briefly blooming into a civilization, which, in turn, drops more seeds. The most recent civilization was some tens of thousands of years ago and was created for the sole purpose of having sufficient industry to manufacture the suits the Faderan now wear, which make them nearly invincible.

### Homeworld

The homeworld of the Faderan Conclave is obviously terraformed and modified by some past civilization. Life there shares no common ancestor and is clearly modified to be as beautiful as possible. The forests glow iridescent blues and violets at night. The few cities are built into the landforms seamlessly.

### Society

Faderan culture is comprised of organizations that focus on various topics for entertainment, essentially clubs, some more exclusive than others. They have a fully post-shortage economy, as their self-maintaining infrastructure supports them. While they are arguably masters of their technology, the Faderan do not fully understand it. They certainly know that it is not magic, but even the simplest tool would take lifetimes to research and comprehend, so they do not bother to delve deep into its understanding. If the last one of its kind breaks, they will build a new civilization to produce more.

The Faderan are not technically one species. Thirty million years of on-and-off genetic modification have left them all genetically unique and incapable of natural reproduction with each other. That said, they still have three working baby machines, and those interested in raising a family more naturally can always opt for an artisanal baby.

### Picture

In the Faderan picture a suited Faderan teaches history. They are holding a stylus that casually disregards the laws of physics. They're pointing to a map of the galaxy where a huge empire occupies nearly half the space, and a single marked star stands apart. To the left is text. It reads, in English:

30 MYA:

* DAWN AGE
* AGE OF COOPERATION
* AGE OF STRIFE
* THE INFANTICIDE
* AGE OF RECOVERY
* GOLDEN AGE
* THE FALL

30 MYA - PRESENT

* THE FADING
* 28 MYA THE CIRCLE
* 19 MYA AGE OF STAR AND EMPIRE

## Gameplay Information

* They have a relic world deck.
* They can trade acknowledgements. (Worth 1 point to the Faderan later).

### Relic Worlds

The Faderan have a deck of relic worlds which is shuffled before the game and kept face down. On the back of each card is a converter that can be run during the Trade Phase to play the top card of the deck. Despite being printed on the back of each card, there is only one such converter - it can be run at most once per turn. Most relic worlds have special rules.

Unless otherwise noted, relic worlds can be traded and will be returned at the end of the turn like all other cards with faction names.

### Acknowledgements

The Faderan have a set of tokens called "Acknowledgements". Acknowledgements can be traded to players by the Faderan.

Non-Faderan players cannot trade away Acknowledgements. When a non-Faderan player with an Acknowledgement invents a technology, they must return 1 Acknowledgement to the Faderan, and the Faderan gain 1 victory point from the common pool.

If a player completes multiple technologies in a single turn, they return 1 Acknowledgement per technology completed, and the Faderan gain 1 point for each. Thus, each Acknowledgement accepted will eventually be worth 1 point to the Faderan, so long as the player who holds them invents as many technologies.

### Advice

Giving another player a small or large cube in exchange for accepting an Acknowledgement is a fair price in the mid-game. The Faderan should avoid paying players to accept Acknowledgements for the first two turns - it is more important that they invest in their economy and relic worlds. If someone wins a bid for a tech, the Faderan should offer them a cube towards that invention in return for accepting an Acknowledgement. The other player invents for cheaper and the Faderan shares in the points, and it costs the other player nothing.

On the last turn, trade becomes more difficult because players can't trade victory points. The Faderan's ability to hand out Acknowledgements is a partial solution: anyone can pay them a victory point easily. They should use this to make late game trades more fluid when they're involved.

Relic worlds are more powerful if the Faderan bring them out early in the game; it is rarely worth it to play one on the last turn. A Faderan player should expect to get two to three out during their game. Faderan strategy is about adapting to their Relic Worlds. They should try to get them out as early as possible during a Trade Phase to get more time to adapt. Otherwise, they'll find themselves scrambling to get needed resources near the end of trading, when everyone else is happy with what they have and are overcharging.

The Faderan can get blocked from their primary strategies and need to pivot. If the other players don't understand the value of Acknowledgements and refuse to accept them, instead the Faderan should focus more on their economy and inventing technologies (and use Acknowledgements on the last turn to streamline trading). If they can't find ice worlds to spend for relic worlds, they should pour their excess white into Ritual Government to be reliably wealthy instead.

## Rules Clarifications

### Piece Limit

Acknowledgements are piece limited.

1. ↑ https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2985145/article/41301384#41301384