Playable Factions

The Wayfarer Program, by its very nature, attracts a diverse array of individuals and groups. While many Wayfarers operate in small, ad-hoc teams or even as licensed solo operatives, several more organized factions have emerged, each with its own charter, goals, and methods. Choosing an allegiance can provide initial resources, contacts, and a clearer starting direction in the vast Parallax.

Here are some of the key factions you can join:

1. Infinity Patrol – Wayfarer Corps (IPWC)

"The Frontier is Our Watch."

• Description: The Wayfarer Corps is the most direct extension of the Infinity Patrol within this new initiative. Members are officially inducted (though often through less conventional channels than typical Patrol recruitment) and operate with the formal backing of Infinity Command, albeit with significantly more autonomy and operational flexibility than standard ISWAT teams or Survey units. The IPWC focuses on missions that extend the reach of Infinity, explore hazardous or uncharted territories, and act as Homeline's eyes and ears where full Patrol deployment isn't feasible or desirable. They uphold the general ideals of the Infinity Patrol – protecting Homeline, maintaining the secrecy of parachronics, and cautiously managing interactions with other timelines.
• Typical Missions: First contact with newly discovered civilizations, deep reconnaissance into unstable quantums, investigation of potential Centrum or Reich-5 incursions in fringe sectors, recovery of sensitive Infinity technology, establishing preliminary survey posts, and serving as a rapid response force for Wayfarer-affiliated groups in distress.
• Who Joins?: Individuals with a sense of duty, ex-military or intelligence personnel from Homeline or compatible parallels, explorers driven by a desire to chart the unknown for a greater good, and those who believe in Infinity's mission but prefer a less regimented approach.
• Benefits: Access to reliable (though perhaps not cutting-edge) Infinity equipment and transportation, established protocols, a clear chain of command (however loose), and the general authority (and sometimes suspicion) that comes with being an Infinity agent. You'll have a support network, however distant.
• Considerations: You are still bound by Infinity directives and the Parachronic Accords. Your actions reflect directly on Homeline, and failure can have significant diplomatic or security repercussions. You might be called upon for missions you'd rather not take.

2. The Xeno-Seekers Guild

"Truth Lies Beyond the Veil of Worlds."

• Description: The Xeno-Seekers Guild is a consortium of scientists, academics, researchers, and field scholars from various Homeline institutions and occasionally, carefully vetted out-time specialists. Granted a broad charter under the Wayfarer Program, their primary goal is the pursuit of knowledge. They seek to understand the myriad life forms, cultures, historical divergences, and unique physical laws that the Parallax offers. While officially non-interventionist, the Guild's members are often passionately curious, sometimes to the point of taking significant risks for a breakthrough discovery.
• Typical Missions: Xenobiological sample collection on high-hazard worlds, archaeological digs in timelines with extinct advanced civilizations (like Hydragaia's Precursors), linguistic decipherment of alien languages, study of unique parachronic phenomena, establishing discreet research outposts, and recovering lost scientific data or artifacts.
• Who Joins?: Scientists of all stripes (biologists, physicists, historians, sociologists, archaeologists, linguists), explorers driven by insatiable curiosity, academics looking for the ultimate fieldwork, and those who believe knowledge is the greatest treasure the multiverse holds.
• Benefits: Access to specialized research equipment, a network of scholarly contacts across Homeline, potential funding for expeditions, and the prestige associated with major discoveries. Guild members often have more leeway in choosing their research paths.
• Considerations: The Guild is often underfunded compared to more security-focused branches of Infinity. "Publish or perish" can take on a literal meaning. Your pursuit of knowledge might clash with Infinity's secrecy directives or local taboos, and ethical dilemmas regarding research on sentient beings or dangerous phenomena are common.

3. Parallax Prospectors & Salvage Consortium (PPSC)

"Fortune Favors the Bold Jumper."

• Description: More a loose confederation of independent outfits than a monolithic organization, the PPSC operates under Wayfarer charters that permit resource exploration, salvage operations, and limited trade in designated zones of the Parallax. These are the rugged pioneers, the resourceful scrappers, and the canny traders of the infinite frontier. They are less concerned with grand ideals and more focused on survival, profit, and uncovering the tangible riches – rare minerals, lost technologies, unique biological resources – that other timelines might offer.
• Typical Missions: Mining exotic materials on uninhabited worlds, salvaging derelict spacecraft or ancient ruins (where permitted), establishing trade relations with amenable out-time cultures, scouting for resource-rich parallels, and occasionally, "discreet acquisition" of items that have fallen through the cracks of interdimensional law.
• Who Joins?: Veteran spacers, engineers, survivalists, entrepreneurs, grizzled explorers with a knack for finding trouble and treasure, and anyone looking to make their fortune on the fringes of known space-time. Characters with strong negotiation, technical, and combat/survival skills thrive here.
• Benefits: Greater operational freedom, a direct share in the profits of their ventures, access to a network of traders and information brokers, and the thrill of striking it rich. PPSC members often become experts in out-time technology and resourcefulness.
• Considerations: This is a high-risk, high-reward lifestyle. Competition can be fierce and sometimes deadly. Infinity keeps a wary eye on PPSC activities to ensure they don't violate major accords or destabilize timelines. Legal gray areas are frequently navigated, and an encounter with claim jumpers, hostile locals, or predatory mega-corps from other parallels is always a possibility. Equipment is often what you can afford, build, or "find."

4. The Continuum Custodians

"All Worlds Are Connected; We Tend the Threads."

• Description: A more esoteric and less understood faction operating within the Wayfarer framework, the Continuum Custodians are drawn to worlds exhibiting unusual properties – high mana levels, active psionic populations, bizarre local physics, or evidence of powerful, non-humanoid intelligences. Their motivations are varied; some seek to understand these unique aspects of the multiverse, others to protect them from exploitation, and a few believe they have a duty to maintain a sort of metaphysical "balance" across the quantums. They often operate in the shadows, their methods subtle and their goals long-term.
• Typical Missions: Investigating worlds with active magic or powerful psionics, mediating disputes involving beings or forces beyond conventional understanding, protecting nascent civilizations with unique potential, containing dangerous memetic or psychic hazards, and studying the deep structure of the Parallax itself.
• Who Joins?: Individuals with psionic talents, scholars of the occult or esoteric sciences, mystics, philosophers, out-time individuals from high-mana or psychic worlds, and those who feel a deep connection to the underlying fabric of reality. Characters with unusual backgrounds, advantages (like Magic or Psionics, if permitted in the campaign), and a penchant for the strange will fit in.
• Benefits: Access to rare knowledge and esoteric lore, contact with unique beings and cultures, and the potential to wield or interact with powers beyond conventional science. Custodians often develop a profound understanding of the Parallax's deeper secrets.
• Considerations: Often viewed with suspicion by more conventional Infinity personnel. Their resources can be limited and their methods unorthodox. Dealing with powerful, unpredictable forces is inherently dangerous, and the line between understanding and corruption can be thin. Their definition of "balance" might not align with Homeline's immediate strategic interests.

5. Independent Wayfarers (Licensed Free Agents)

"My Path, My Parallax."

• Description: Not a formal faction, but a recognized status within the Wayfarer Program. Independent Wayfarers are individuals (or very small, tight-knit groups) who have been granted a license to operate parachronically, often due to unique skills, valuable contacts, or by proving their resourcefulness and trustworthiness (or at least, their utility). They pursue their own goals, take on contracts from various sources (including other Wayfarer factions or even Infinity itself), or simply explore the multiverse on their own terms.
• Typical Missions: Entirely player-defined. This could range from personal quests (finding a lost loved one from a divergent timeline, seeking a cure for a unique ailment) to freelance security work, exploration for personal discovery, or acting as troubleshooters-for-hire.
• Who Joins?: Highly self-reliant individuals, iconoclasts, those with very specific personal goals that don't fit neatly into other factions, or characters who simply value their freedom above all else. This path is for those who want to define their own role in the Infinite Worlds.
• Benefits: Maximum freedom of choice in missions and associations. The potential for unique rewards tailored to personal objectives. The ability to build a reputation based entirely on one's own merits.
• Considerations: You're largely on your own. Resources, support, and backup are what you can secure for yourself. Without the backing of a larger faction, you're more vulnerable to the dangers of the Parallax and the machinations of larger powers. Maintaining your license may require periodic check-ins or demonstrating continued value to the Wayfarer Program administrators.