The Technocracy-Vagrant Question

[Vendetta]

So I'm sure there's a few questions bouncing around right now about the state of affairs between the Vagrants and The Technocracy. Zephyranthes and I would like to clear up a few things, and address questions before assumptions are made and conclusions jumped to. So here's some clarification.

So what happened?

There's been some ongoing discussion between Auxo's HC and the Vagrants about the arrangement the two have had, and how it has been represented/handled in-game. Unfortunately it's of the mutual opinion that the relationship has been rather harmful to each group's ability to independently operate, and a loss of identity is being felt across the board.

This has led to instances in which playing as either hasn't been an enjoyable experience for some people, and leaving others feeling inescapably joined at the hip. We (the Technocracy people) have felt as though we've been pigeonholed into a role as a supportive cult, in lieu of a Vagrant-oriented Wild faction which has otherwise felt like robbing us of our actual identity. Something we worked hard to create since the beginning when we still had our silly little Freelancer IFF.

Why tho?

Simple - People have a rather generalized and standard reaction to seeing anyone or anything being remotely close or green repped with anything Nomad. Obviously that's a problem we can't address directly, so we have to take steps to draw clear lines between what exactly this relationship is supposed to be. The way it is now has resulted in a lot of negative interactions and made roleplay that doesn't involve both parties at the same time feel more or less impossible. This isn't a role the Technocracy wants, nor is it a role the Vagrants want to have us in.

So what now?

WELL - The roleplay aspect isn't dead. There was a time where Nomads once had a nodock relationship with the Outcasts, which gave them some semblance of a relationship and permitted all that funky cult stuff back in the day. The entire point of this relationship was an under-the-table attempt to get close to our enemies, explore an alternative approach to solving the Nomad threat and all that fun, spooky shady stuff. That arrangement still included some level of shooting The Vagrants, in the event they violated territory or put the relationship at risk. This actually happened a few times and led to a renegotiation of terms a few months ago.

That renegotiation however didn't change anything at all. We're still locked in a position as the Vagrant's only allies, and vice versa despite literally everything else the faction has done in its existence with other groups to an even greater effect than we've ever done for each other.

So we're changing things up. We're pursuing no-docks down the line and figuring out how to be less stuck at the hip. We're going back to the days of shooting each other.

@Zephyranthes take (Vagrant OF POV):

For our part, we've struggled a lot as Vagrants to define ourselves and create a faction that's compelling and breaks the mold. A lot of times, we've been pigeonholed into the traditionally adversarial role of humanity's archrival, despite our roleplay and insistence over the years on adopting a more adaptable, evolving, even diplomatic stance. There's a desire to push us closer into K'Hara to the point of practically reabsorbing the Vagrants, but no one in the faction nor its indies actually wants this to happen. On the flipside, being tied to Aux has made us rely upon them entirely for development and anything related to diplomacy for a while now. The benefit of the doubt is not extended to either faction from human parties, who seem intent on lumping us both in the category of traditional Nomad cultists and genocidal Nomads. And with our whole schtick being alliances and negotiations with humans, it's hampered by the fact that people won't do things (OORP and inRP) with a group that is actively trying to screw them over.

Honestly, I feel the only way forward is to break the alliance for the time being, give Vagrants their own dedicated Wild faction, even out the IDs of Vagrants and Nomads/K'Hara more, and allow Vagrants to engage in actions against the other Nomads. Ideally, this might finally allow for perception to change regarding us and finally give both factions room to breathe and develop. We resent that the playerbases of our faction have never had much say in our own identities, despite all the work and writing and effort that has been done over the years to develop that. We firmly believe there is a better way forward here.

----

Anywho I hope this clears up why things'll be different going forward, and I hope that any questions can be answered here.

tl;dr we're gonna try and make things fun again