Power in Nowhere Land isn't held by governments or armies—it's held by factions: loose alliances, ideological movements, and organizations that transcend individual domains. Understanding these groups is key to navigating political intrigue.
📍 Featured Faction: The Partizan
Explore a fully developed faction example with internal conflicts, competing sub-factions, and narrative depth. The Partizan of Partiz shows how to build factions with democratic vs. authoritarian tensions, leaders whose goals don't match their followers, and multi-dimensional NPCs.
Explore The Partizan →🛠️ Creating Factions
Strong factions in a TTRPG are built like NPCs writ large: they need clear goals, history, relationships, resources, and memorable faces—all tied together by the conflicts of your sandbox. This section provides everything you need to create compelling factions for your campaign.
Core Must-Haves
These are the non-negotiables every faction should have to feel real and gameable:
Clear Goals & Motivations
What the faction wants right now and why. This is the engine that drives its actions.
Relevant History
A short, present-focused backstory explaining how they got their current power, enemies, and problems.
Web of Relationships
Explicit allies, enemies, rivals, and neutrals—ideally tied to the main conflicts of your sandbox.
Key Members with Authority
A small roster (3–4 max) of decision-makers or uniquely placed agents who actually do things in the world.
Concrete Resources & Limitations
What they can wield (money, troops, information, magic, legal authority) and what they conspicuously lack.
Mode of Operation
How they act to get what they want: open force, covert schemes, religious zeal, mercantile pressure, etc.
Useful Nice-to-Haves
These add depth and flavor but should come after the must-haves. Build them incrementally as play reveals what matters:
Governance Structure
Single leader, council, cell network, franchise, cult, guild—shapes internal conflict and decision speed.
Ranks & Hierarchy
Named tiers (novice, sworn, captain, inner circle) that express status and give PCs advancement hooks.
Symbols & Customs
Colors, oaths, jargon, rituals, taboos that make the faction instantly recognizable in fiction.
Standard Procedures
How they typically respond to threats, betrayal, recruitment, negotiation, success, and failure.
Internal Tensions
Factions within the faction—traditionalists vs reformers, zealots vs pragmatists—seeded for future plot.
📋 Faction Sheet Template
Use this as a fill-in sheet for each faction. Keep it to one page to stay usable at the table:
GM-Facing Faction Sheet
1. Identity
Name: _______________
Tagline (1-sentence elevator pitch): _______________
Public Image vs Reality: (2–3 bullet pairs)
2. Origin & Current Situation
Origin Snapshot: (2–3 bullets focused on now-relevant history)
How They Gained Influence: _______________
Recent Event Hook: (what pushed them into motion)
3. Goals & Motivations
Primary Goal: (short-term, 1–3 sessions scale)
Secondary Goal: (campaign scale)
Guiding Principle: (what they will never do, what they always try first)
4. Mode of Operation & Resources
Methods: (pick 2–3: violence, law, money, faith, propaganda, espionage, blackmail, sorcery)
Core Resources: _______________
Critical Weaknesses: _______________
5. Governance & Structure
Governance Model: (autocrat, council, syndicate, cult, loose network)
Decision Path: (how an order becomes action, in 2–3 steps)
Rank Ladder: (3–5 tiers with quick descriptions)
6. Key Members (Faces)
List only those likely to appear in play. Add more later.
• Leader: role, personality tags, leverage they hold
• Enforcer/Operative: appearance, favorite tactics
• Insider/Fixer: their domain (bureaucracy, markets, streets, clergy)
• Wild Card: member whose personal agenda complicates things
7. Relationships (Faction Web)
Allies (and why): _______________
Hostile Factions (core conflict: turf, ideology, resources, revenge): _______________
Neutral/Tense (what could tip them either way): _______________
Draw as a simple web: circles for factions, arrows for "supports", "opposes", "exploits", etc.
8. Contact & Access
Public Face: (shrines, guildhalls, informants, black markets, offices)
PC Contact Method: (jobs broker, patron NPC, secret sign, public petition)
Price for Cooperation: (money, secrets, favors, concessions)
9. Triggers & Moves
Write 4–6 "if-then" moves (inspired by faction clocks and fronts):
• If ___________ happens → the faction responds by ___________
• If left alone for a while → the faction advances ___________ plan
• If PCs help them → ___________
• If PCs oppose them → ___________
🎯 Step-by-Step Creation
Creating Factions from Scratch
A practical creation procedure for faction-driven games and clock-based sandboxes:
Step 1: Start from Conflict & Location
- • Pick a concrete conflict in a specific place (dock riots, heresy trials, border war)
- • Ask: Who benefits? Who suffers? Who is trying to change things?
- • Each answer suggests a faction
Step 2: Define Goals & Methods First
- • Answer: "What do they want this month?" and "How do they normally get it?"
- • Keep it sharp: "control river traffic", "erase a heretical text", "install a puppet baron"
- • Avoid vague abstractions
Step 3: Sketch the Relationship Web
- • Draw arrows: "supports", "opposes", "depends on", "secretly infiltrates"
- • Every important faction needs at least one enemy and one potential ally
- • This lets PCs triangulate choices
Step 4: Choose Governance & Internal Pressures
- • Centralized or fractious? Single leader, rival lieutenants, voting council, competing cells?
- • Pick one internal disagreement (ideology, tactics, succession) that might split them later
Step 5: Name Three Faces
- • 2–4 named members tied to goals: leader/mouthpiece, fixer, enforcer, sympathetic insider
- • Tie each face to a specific move ("sends bravos", "buys information", "preaches in public")
Step 6: Define Resources, Weaknesses, Moves
- • List what they have (militias, scribes, ships, informants, divine authority)
- • List one thing they conspicuously lack (legitimacy, money, manpower, secrecy)
- • Write 3–4 faction moves ("bribe officials", "mobilize zealots", "sponsor a proxy gang")
Step 7: Attach Player-Facing Hooks
- • Add 2+ ways PCs can intersect: job offers, forbidden knowledge, safe haven, rescue target
- • Decide what the faction wants from PCs and what PCs could want from them
- • That trade is your adventure fuel
🌐 Using Allies, Enemies & Dynamics
Conflict-First Design
Think in terms of conflicts first, then carve factions around the sides of those conflicts:
The Process
- List 3–6 central tensions in your sandbox (war vs peace, crown vs guilds, faith vs heresy, etc.)
- For each tension, define at least two factions with opposing goals
- Optionally add one opportunist that plays both sides
- Connect factions along shared enemies, shared resources, or ideological alignment
The Ripple Effect: When players act, consult your relationship web. Helping one group should improve standing with its allies and worsen it with enemies—even when those factions weren't on screen.
🎭 Making Factions Feel Alive
Factions feel three-dimensional when the table sees their actions and consequences, not when they hear lore dumps:
Show, Don't Tell History
Express backstory through physical traces—ruined caravans, legal decrees, relics, wanted posters, NPC gossip—rather than monologues.
Use Rumors & News
Tavern talk, temple sermons, and market gossip should regularly mention what factions have done recently—even when PCs weren't there.
Advance Off-Screen Clocks
Track each faction's key plan with a 4–6 step clock. Advance it every few sessions or when PCs ignore them.
Respond Logically to PCs
If the party hits a faction's assets, that faction should investigate, retaliate, subcontract, or make a deal—depending on its mode of operation.
The Loop: Faction acts → World shows consequence → PCs react → Faction adapts. This creates the feeling of a living political ecosystem.
🤝 Faction-PC Contact
Handling Contact at the Table
- Gate Contact Through Specific NPCs: Even huge organizations are experienced through one or two recurring faces. This simplifies play.
- Set Clear Prices & Risks: Every favor costs something—coin, information, enemies made elsewhere, obligations.
- Let Reputation Travel: When PCs help or hurt one faction, let word spread to others through your relationship web and adjust their initial attitude accordingly.
Over time, factions become evolving narrative devices: they react, scheme, grow, fracture, and provide a constant source of missions, dilemmas, and surprises.
📚 Established Factions of Nowhere Land
The following factions operate across multiple domains and represent major power blocks that players are likely to encounter. Each can serve as an ally, enemy, or complication depending on PC choices.
⚖️ THE LEDGER KEEPERS
Enforcers of The Count's Will
Faction Overview
Motto: "Every Debt Paid, Every Credit Honored"
Size: ~200 active members across domains
Headquarters: The Counting House (The Count's domain)
Leader: Magister Thorne (High Accountant)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (to a fault)
Symbol: Golden scales with unequal weights
Purpose:
The Ledger Keepers believe The Count's Ledger is the only thing maintaining order in Nowhere Land. They track debts, enforce payments, and hunt down those who try to cheat the system. They're not evil—just ruthlessly efficient.
Methods:
- • Meticulous record-keeping of all Ledger transactions
- • Bounty hunters sent after Ledger defaulters
- • Offer "debt restructuring" (always at a cost)
- • Information network—they know everyone's Ledger status
Player Interaction: PCs with negative Ledger may encounter Keeper auditors demanding payment. Keepers can also be hired to track down someone's Ledger status or authenticate a Count-related claim. Disposition starts at 0 (Neutral), but goes to -2 if players are in debt.
🔨 THE PORTAL BREAKERS
Revolutionaries & Anarchists
Faction Overview
Motto: "Break the Chains, Open the Gates"
Size: ~500 members in scattered cells
Headquarters: None (constantly moving)
Leader: Kira Yuan "Shatter" (Cell Network Coordinator)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Symbol: Shattered portal frame
Purpose:
The Portal Breakers believe The Count's monopoly on portal travel is tyranny. They want to democratize portal creation, allowing anyone to travel freely without owing debts. They're idealistic, reckless, and wanted in most stable domains.
Methods:
- • Sabotage Count-controlled portals
- • Teach portal creation to "liberate" travelers
- • Smuggle refugees from oppressive domains
- • Assassination (rarely, and with debate)
- • Propaganda campaigns highlighting The Count's manipulations
Internal Conflict: The Breakers are fracturing. Some want peaceful reform; others demand violent revolution. Kira holds the cells together through force of personality—but even she's losing control.
Player Interaction: Breakers may recruit PCs for raids or offer illegal portal training. Helping them gains faction favor (+2 Disposition) but makes enemies of the Ledger Keepers and domain authorities. Breakers can provide safe houses and forged documents.
🕊️ THE SANCTUARY KEEPERS
Protectors of the Lost
Faction Overview
Motto: "Shelter for All, Judgment for None"
Size: ~150 members, thousands aided
Headquarters: The First Sanctuary (The Passage)
Leader: Father Dmitri (Founder)
Alignment: True Neutral (compassionate)
Symbol: Open door with a candle
Purpose:
The Sanctuary Keepers operate safe houses across Nowhere Land, offering refuge to anyone—traveler, native, even criminals—no questions asked. They're pacifists who believe everyone deserves a second chance.
Sacred Rules:
- No violence within a Sanctuary (violators are expelled permanently)
- No pursuing vendettas beyond Sanctuary walls
- Everyone contributes (work, coin, or knowledge)
- Sanctuaries are neutral ground—all factions respected
Player Interaction: Sanctuaries provide free healing, shelter, and information. PCs can donate to gain favor (+1 Disposition per 100 silver donated). Keepers may ask players to escort refugees or retrieve supplies from dangerous domains.
🐍 THE ENCYCLOPEDIST'S EXPEDITIONS
Servants of the Castle
Faction Overview
Motto: "Observe. Catalog. Balance."
Size: ~80 active field teams, unknown castle staff
Headquarters: The Encyclopedist's Castle (her own domain)
Leader: The Encyclopedist (rarely seen)
Alignment: True Neutral (coldly pragmatic)
Symbol: Serpent coiled around a rose, owl perched atop with open beak
Purpose:
The Encyclopedist's expeditions serve as humanized laws of Darwin—actively managing the ecosystems of Nowhere Land. Their mandate: ensure domains evolve but neither die nor achieve Exaltation. They cultivate endangered species back to health, exterminate invasive variants, introduce new flora and fauna to domains, and study the bizarre life-forms that emerge in the in-between places.
Methods:
- • Dispatched field teams of scientists: botanists, zoologists, ethologists, herbalists, archivists
- • Each team accompanied by a Guardian Beast—a captured and bonded creature serving as protector
- • Carry the Encyclopedist's Seal for authority and identification
- • Equipped with specialized tools for data collection, specimen preservation, and sample extraction
- • Direct intervention: culling, reintroduction, habitat modification, species relocation
Hidden Objectives: The Expeditions also work to activate domain symbols— awakening the inherent power of domains so they can manage their own inhabitants. Additionally, they retrieve "specimens" of all kinds—including humans and sentient creatures—for experiments conducted within the Castle.
Player Interaction: Expeditions trade information for information of equivalent value, or for work. They know more about Nowhere Land's ecology and lore than almost anyone—but that knowledge has a price. Disposition starts at 0 (Neutral) and is unaffected by other faction standing.
The Encyclopedist
The Encyclopedist herself is rarely seen outside her Castle—a domain she created rather than claimed, spanning roughly a quarter the size of Partiz. She does not settle other domains, viewing such expansion as the very imbalance she fights against. Her relationship with the Partizan is complicated: their goals sometimes align, but she despises how Partiz's growth disrupts domain equilibria.
Her Nature
The Encyclopedist does not succumb to morality. She operates on principles of balance, equilibrium, and long-term ecosystem health. A species' extinction matters only if it threatens domain stability; a species' flourishing matters only if it serves the whole.
Her Methods
She is always ahead of the curve, issuing orders for situations that may take years to manifest. Field teams often carry sealed orders the Encyclopedist has forgotten she wrote— still valid, still urgent, addressing threats she foresaw decades ago.
"The Encyclopedist doesn't care if you live or die. She cares if your living or dying serves the balance. That's not cruelty—it's something worse. It's consistency."
— A former expedition herbalist
Expedition Teams
Field teams are the Encyclopedist's hands in the world. Each team typically consists of 4–8 specialists, at least one Guardian Beast, and a Team Lead who carries the Seal.
🌿 Scientists
- • Botanists & Herbalists
- • Zoologists & Ethologists
- • Archivists & Cartographers
- • Ecologists & Naturalists
🐺 Guardian Beasts
Each team bonds with one creature captured and trained by the Encyclopedist. These range from domain wolves to stranger things—gryphons, shadow-cats, sentinel golems. The beast protects the team and serves as a symbol of the Castle's authority.
📜 The Seal
The Encyclopedist's Seal—the serpent-rose-owl sigil pressed into wax or metal—grants authority to speak for the Castle. Most domains recognize it and grant passage. Those who don't learn to.
Team Composition Types:
True Believers
Native-born Settlers or longtime residents who genuinely serve the Encyclopedist's vision. They understand her methods and accept the moral costs. Often the most reliable—and most dangerous—team members.
Contracted Workers
Travelers and Settlers doing bidding for payment—coin, information, or favors. They may not understand the larger mission, just their immediate task. More likely to question orders or refuse morally troubling work.
Knowledge Seekers
Scholars who joined for access to the Castle's archives—the greatest repository of Nowhere Land lore in existence. They trade years of service for answers. Some find what they seek. Some discover they prefer not knowing.
Encounter Situations
🔬 Research Camp
Situation: PCs encounter an expedition team studying a dangerous environment— toxic swamp, reality-warped forest, domain boundary. They need help or offer employment.
Complications: The team's "research" may involve capturing sentient creatures. Their data could be invaluable—or dangerous in the wrong hands.
☠️ Extermination Mission
Situation: An expedition is en route to eliminate a species or variant that threatens domain balance. PCs might be asked to help—or to stop them.
Complications: The target species may be beloved by local settlers, sacred to a cult, or the last of its kind. The Encyclopedist's orders don't account for sentiment.
🌱 Reintroduction Effort
Situation: An expedition is releasing a species into a domain to restore balance. They need protection during the delicate process.
Complications: The introduced species may be predators, competitors, or simply unknown. Local inhabitants fear change. The expedition can't explain whythis is necessary—only that it is.
⚡ Symbol Activation
Situation: An expedition is attempting to awaken a domain's latent power— its "symbol"—so the domain can manage itself. This requires rituals, sacrifices, or artifacts.
Complications: An awakened domain may expel current inhabitants, change its nature, or become hostile. The expedition sees this as acceptable. Others don't.
📦 Specimen Retrieval
Situation: An expedition is capturing creatures—or people—for transport to the Castle. PCs may be asked to assist, or may encounter captives seeking rescue.
Complications: "Specimens" include willing volunteers seeking Castle sanctuary, unwilling prisoners, and things that shouldn't be moved. The Seal grants legal authority. Morality is another matter.
📚 Information Trade
Situation: PCs need information only the Encyclopedist's people possess— domain lore, creature weaknesses, historical records, portal locations.
Complications: The price is always information of equivalent value—or work. What the expedition wants in return may be harmless data collection, morally questionable assistance, or something the PCs can't afford to give.
🌑 DOMAIN CULTS
The Chosen of the Void
Domain: The Null Expanse
Death cult worshipping the entropy of dying domains. Believe Nowhere Land should return to primordial void. Actively sabotage domain Willpower.
Threat Level: High. Will attack travelers perceived as "prolonging false existence."
The Verdant Circle
Domain: The Verdant Tangle
Druids who've merged with the forest Genius. Protect natural domains, hostile to "civilized" travelers. Can command plants and beasts.
Threat Level: Moderate. Territorial but won't chase beyond their forest.
The Ember Covenant
Domain: The Ashen Wastes
Fire-worshippers seeking to forge a "perfect domain" through destruction and rebirth. Believe suffering purifies. Practice ritual scarification.
Threat Level: Low. More interested in self-harm than harming others.
The Temporal Monks
Domain: The Clockwork Citadel
Obsessed with time manipulation. Study chronomancy, Exaltation rituals involving temporal loops. Peaceful but eerie.
Threat Level: Minimal. Will trade time-related knowledge for artifacts.
👁️ SECRET ORGANIZATIONS
The Hidden Powers
THE ARCHIVE
A network of information brokers led by The Collector. They trade in memories, secrets, and forbidden knowledge. Neutral to all factions—they'll sell to anyone. No known headquarters.
Services Offered:
- • Memory extraction/implantation
- • Information on any topic (for a price)
- • Espionage and intelligence gathering
Known Members:
- • The Collector (leader)
- • Memory Thieves (field agents)
- • Anonymous archivists
THE THIRTEEN
Conspiracy theorists believe there's a shadow council of thirteen travelers who secretly control major events in Nowhere Land. No proof exists—but coincidences keep stacking up.
Trickster Note: The Thirteen can be real or red herring in your campaign. If real, they might include: an Exalted being, a Genius in disguise, The Count's agent, or even a PC ancestor.
⚔️ FACTION RELATIONS
Faction Disposition Matrix
| Faction | Ledger Keepers | Portal Breakers | Sanctuaries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ledger Keepers | — | -4 (Hostile) | 0 (Neutral) |
| Portal Breakers | -4 (Hostile) | — | +2 (Helpful) |
| Sanctuaries | 0 (Neutral) | +2 (Helpful) | — |
Note: Domain cults have varied relations. The Archive is neutral (+0) to everyone.
🎯 Faction Quests & Hooks
Ledger Keepers: "The Debt Collector"
Magister Thorne hires the party to track down a defaulter hiding in The Drowned Quarter. The twist: the "defaulter" is a child who unknowingly inherited their parent's debt. Do the players enforce the debt or help the child?
Portal Breakers: "Sabotage the Gate"
Kira asks the party to destroy a Count-controlled portal that's being used to exile dissidents. The catch: destroying it might trap innocent people in a dying domain. Moral dilemma guaranteed.
Sanctuary Keepers: "The Refugee Escort"
Father Dmitri needs the party to escort a group of refugees through hostile territory to a new Sanctuary. The refugees include a wanted criminal—will the party honor Sanctuary neutrality or turn them in for a bounty?
Domain Cult: "The Ritual of Unmaking"
The Chosen of the Void are performing a ritual to collapse a domain. The party must stop them—but the domain is tyrannical and oppressive. Is destroying it actually the right choice?
"In Nowhere Land, everyone wants something. The trick is figuring out what—before they take it from you."
— Kira "Shatter" Yuan, Portal Breakers