Rebel Faction Bible

If the world is a dark mystery, let us build a fire. This article (Rebel Faction Bible), is part of the Faction Bible series, and shows the inner workings of the faction so writers can better understand it. It is not to be changed in any way, as it is from the ample genius of one Open Sketchbook. By its nature, it's also one large spoiler to the lore behind the Paradox universe. Read no further if you prefer the mystery.

Map of the Confederate reach.

Who Are They

Logo of the Confederates : Stars of the thirteen colonies on yellow.

• The Confederates are a rag-tag assortment of Americans who are mad as hell about Allied interventions into American politics and just won't take it anymore.
• If the Allies are the Establishment, the Confederates are the Anti-Establishment. They define themselves by resistance and revolution, by what they aren't rather than by what they are. And what they aren't is the Allies.
• The Confederates do not have a single identity. They are a collection of different groups with widely different goals temporarily united by a mutual intolerance of Allied meddling. Even their name cannot decide between rebellion and revolution.
• Generally, everyone who was angry about something or other in the late 60s in America would be a part of the Confederates; hippies to militia, pro-war to anti-war, democrats and republicans.

What They Want

• Confederate Morality is, at it's core, based around Truthiness; a whole lot of people going with their guts and kicking reason to the curb, for better or worse.
• The Confederates as an organization aren't really sure what they want, beyond immediate victory. A few would be content giving the Allies a bloody nose so they'll enact some reforms. Some want to see the Allies driven out of America. Some want the Allies destroyed as an organisation, perhaps even replaced with an American empire. Some want merely to reestablish the American government properly so they can rejoin the Allies as proper members. Some want world peace and blame the Allies for starting and prolonging wars. A few of the crazier ones plan to backstab the rest of the revolution the moment they win and impose an objectivist government/matriarchy/theocracy. They don't know where they are going or when they want to stop. They are just going!
• This lack of forward thinking is the biggest character flaw in the Confederates.
• However, in the positive, the movement is uniting people in unexpected ways. In real life, the 1960s ended up being dividing, creating a massive rift between right and left, young and old, pro-war and anti-war that still hasn't healed and is, in fact, widening. By contrast, the Confederates may end up doing the opposite.

Are They Good Guys?

• Probably. They have real greivences against the Allies and most of them are good people, but it's up in the air as to whether or not they are actually making anything better with their actions.
• The way I see it, they are definately heroes, but that doesn't nessesarily mean the same thing as being morally right. That's for the reader to decide.
• Like the Allies, however, they are "Good Guys" in that they never act out of malice, especially as a group. They may have some bastard-y members, but overall they are good dudes.

Was the Revolution Manipulated into Existance?

• No. It's a real movement created by genuine emotions within the American populance. Nobody was "behind" it in a deliberate way.
• However, that doesn't mean that the sneakier factions aren't jumping on the chance to steer the revolution where they want. Thanks to the general disorder in the revolution's goals in the first place, this won't detract from their character as a faction.
  • The Syndicate has their player (the Objectivist Coalition) in the game, though it's operating independently as one would expect.
  • Some of the members of the Order of the Talon have taken a shining to the Dominionists, and are covertly funding/supporting these elements. Some Dominionist Confederates are also low-level members of the Order, mostly the sort that don't actually know they are working for the order in the first place.
  • Members of the Cult probably do some dastardly acts in the name of the Confederacy in order to divide public opinion and make things more chaotic.

Timeline

• Prior to June 1969, the Confederates were a homegrown, low-level bunch, treated more like bandits, terrorists, rioters and criminal gangs. They didn't really strike in any great numbers; it was low-intensity warfare at best. The movement is several months old, but the action is more recent.
  • However, the Confederates were quickly transistioning from a cell-based resistance movement to a proper army. Many sympathizers gathered in areas were rebel presence was strong, effectively evicting local control there, rather than stick around as a resistance group.
• At the beginning of June, a large force broke into the Boneyard and got the first tanks rolling. This sparked off similar actions of stealing military equipment and raiding bases, as well as the start of Reservist defections. The Allies promptly realized they needed to get their stuff together and started deploying for war rather than a police action, while the Confederates started fixing up the rustbuckets they'd aquired.
• Basically, while some elements of the Confederates fought the Allies, everyone else flocked to the Boneyard and geared up a massive mechanised force, which then took off up Route 66. Along the way they've been picking up supporters and capturing bases and equipment. As of July 3rd, they are closing in on Washington DC, and the Allies are ready to meet them. The convoy is so long and the advance so disorganized, however, that Confederate elements have wound up everywhere.
• There are roughly two hundred thousand very angry people in organized Confederate armies and as many again in various other resistance forces.

How Much they Know

• The Confederates as an organisation is blissfully ignorant of most things outside their current conflict; they have no organized intelligence service and are too single-minded to look outside at the moment.
  • That said, there are a lot of conspiracy theorists in their ranks who might know more than any secretive organisation would be okay with.
• They are completely unaware of the Order of the Talon or Cult of the Black Hand.
• They are vaguely aware that the Syndicate have some unpleasent ties, but they have a Somebody Else's Problem approach to it.
• They know something bad and explode-y went down in China, and they are aware of the existance of Green China, but it doesn't concern them beyond that.
• They are unaware of the Electrical Protectorate, or the ramifications of the PAWI fields/mirror universe.
• They believe all sorts of wacky stuff about psychics, like that they are a next step in human evolution, an unlocking of the sheer power of the human psyche, or various quantum woo.

Confederate Technology

• Confederate technology is usually just refinements of stuff they've straight-up stolen from everyone else. They haven't got a unified tech base, as they use what they can get; a Sidewinder operator might have a colt single action strapped to her hip, for example.
• The one technological thing the Confederates are seriously notable for is their mechanical engineering skills, which borders on the supernatural. They can jury rig anything into working shape, McGuyver solutions to any problem, and improve even the crappiest vehicle to something competitive.