New NPC factions...

[fwolf]

I know a little bit about pre-Sirius fluff... it was basically Latinos, Americans, Germans (one assumes the French were annexed into "Rheinland"), and the Japanese against the Chinese, Russians and other Far Eastern powers.

The vanilla FL fluff says that only the Alliance sent sleeper ships and the four Houses that exist are the ones who survived. (Kusari is JAPANESE ONLY!)

What if the Coalition, bitter that they had not managed to wipe out the enemy and had let them escape, sent Chinese sleeper ships after them with a mission to dominate and the Chinese became Border Worlds pirates?

Also, on the Xiongnu: You're close on the "Mongolians" guess; they were both nomadic foreigners who threatened and encroached on China's borders. However, the Xiongnu originated not from modern Mongolia but from the Caucus mountains (they were known by the Romans as the Huns and by the Indians as the Hunas). The regional names that they were known by differ, but the idea is the same.

China and Japan have been (relatively) bitter enemies ever since Japan invaded in the early 20th century, especially in the Rape of Nanking. Thus it would be most reasonable if the Xiongnu faction finds its roots in the Barrier systems (very similar to the mountains from which they originated on Earth.)

Phew, ^long^.

The huns were also known as hsiung-nu.

I have my doubts if they were really from the Caucasus, as they spoke a turanic language, similar to the one used by turks, avars and magyars.

To bring some ideas, check this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsiung-nu

They were enemies of China, so its better to assume they were a terrorist organization acting against the Coalition, and then after a war managed to flee to Sirius.