As someone new to the game, what are the factions that have a lot of presence in the game. I can imagine choosing to be part of a faction means cool interactions with people, so just wondering what are good ones to join. I was considering the east india trading company, but as a demonologist which doesn’t fit the ‘stereotypical’ bill. Does this sound like it would fit?
Predominantly the Demonologists do find their way to the church of van helsing, but both the betterment of humanity and the east india company have use for these people.
Of the factions I think the church probably has the biggest influence, although there does seem to be many unaffiliated people in the game, or in their own groups so to speak. The East India trading company has about 4 people, and of course the coolest NPC in the game 
Really I think it is probably coming up with a backstory you like and tayloring it. Loosely speaking you can be looking at
East India Trading company - British traders. Seem to be pretty broad in terms of who they take. From the Rich merchants, to the scientists that work for them, to the lords and ladies that wealth inevitably attracts, tot he merc’s that work for them.
The Society for the betterment of Humanity. Mad scientists pure and simple. Not necessarily mad, but high science
The Union of the gear - Predominantly mechanics and techs. Where the scientists design it, it is the union that build it and keep it running
The Church of Van Helsing - Deamon specialists and hunters
Queens Bodyguard - What is says in the tin
The Royal Mail. Exorcists needed to make sure the letters aren’t possessed, or that the Robins haven’t been replaced by look-a-like demons. Trackers needed to hunt down the people the letters need to be sent to. Mad men and woman needed to traverse the wastes in order to make sure that people get their mail/pay /summons!
I mean yes there are only two of us… one of us last game…
Don’t forget us Mercenaries! (a.k.a Asgardians)
Although recruitment/acceptance is earned through loyalty and skill. We have almost every skill covered ranging from an upper-class doctor to a brutish fighter.
I would recommend not aligning yourself with anyone just yet and seeing what group takes your fancy
What Ants said 
With the power of my GM hat, I can offer some additional notes to what’s on the website: 
the Society make a lot of the automatons (the mass produced ones, anyway) and the homunculi (FullMetal Alchemist’s 1st anime meets frankenstein’s greatest work) in collaboration with the HEITC (homunculi are expensive to make, and the Company are the only ones who can reliably secure the resources to resurrect people in significant numbers)
the Union, while less involved in the business of making cool artificial people, is responsible for a lot of the jet-powered, hybrid helium/aetherically heated air airships that most people use, and the autovelocipedes of various shapes and sizes that roar across land at unsafe speeds. They’re also working on hydroponics and technology to vastly accelerate the restoration of demonfire-ravaged land to its former fertility and beauty. They also have plenty of mad science, but it’s less moustache twirling than the Society and more “well yes, the high-voltage energy discharges do arc around the room a bit, but we’ve all gotten really good at dodging them and nobody’s died when hit…thus far”
The Royal Mail are also the very best people to talk to about protective gear of nearly any kind. From demonfireproof mailbags and undergarments to most of the armour the Army issues to its troops to (as discovered last session) Inferno Suits that allow their wearer to survive trips to the demon realm and back.
The Church of Van Helsing, is more of an organizational umbrella for religious people of various stripes to collaborate underneath and coordinate their efforts to fight the demon menace than a religion in itself. The scenes with secret organization that the titular character works for in the Van Helsing movie are a good indication of what the CoVH gets up to inside its offices and strongholds .
The HEITC operate from various enormous and heavily fortified Citadels dotted over India and regions to the near north. Outside the Citadels varies between demonfire-ravaged wasteland and nearly-untouched-with-inhabitants, though the latter is dwindling pretty fast. Most travel between Citadels is by air, but each Citadel maintains the security of its hinterland (well, does the best it can) with ground patrols in autovelocipedes.
Her Majesty’s Bodyguard also includes Her Majesty’s Intelligence Network And Secret Service, though there hasn’t been PC with suspicious similarity to James Bond yet…
The boundaries are pretty permeable, there are plenty of characters who’re members of more than one faction, and people in each faction who do what might be considered the job of another faction (pretty much everyone’s got at least some demonologists, engineers and people with expertise in just hitting unfriendly things, for instance). Don’t feel like you’ve got to choose just one faction to work with/have worked with, and if you’ve got an idea for something new, by all means talk it over with us. We love talking about stuff that players want to bring to our world. 
And everyone forgets the Army of Allied Nations? The AAN is at the vanguard of the fight to push back the hell-spawn and would of course be in dire need of people with knowledge about their enemy. However they were forced to pull out of Skye at the end of the last session to reinforce the front lines after a massive defeat by the demonic horde and as such a good reason would now be needed to explain why a soldier is assigned here.
I’d also mention that certain factions carry baggage in the game due to the actions of characters and events on Skye in the first couple of sessions. So new characters may also find themselves tarred with the same brush.
[quote=“tog42”]And everyone forgets the Army of Allied Nations? The AAN is at the vanguard of the fight to push back the hell-spawn and would of course be in dire need of people with knowledge about their enemy. However they were forced to pull out of Skye at the end of the last session to reinforce the front lines after a massive defeat by the demonic horde and as such a good reason would now be needed to explain why a soldier is assigned here.
I’d also mention that certain factions carry baggage in the game due to the actions of characters and events on Skye in the first couple of sessions. So new characters may also find themselves tarred with the same brush.[/quote]
You mean how almost every person associated with the East India Company, the Society for the Betterment of Humanity and Union of the Gear seems to be utterly homicidal and insane?
Not all of us. But those who weren’t homicidally insane got a bit sick of having to deal with those who were. Or any of the other homicidally insane or screaming nutjobs.
I think I might wait till in game to officially join a faction… but these all sound very interesting, thanks!
what’s the best medium to contact the GMs? Email, through the website or PM?
If you want an in character connection, once you’ve worked out your character, let me know. I’ve been away from Skye and will be returning at the start of the next session.
The other part of this is that while the factions may develop a sort of reputation in-game, it’s never too late to help change that reputation. I’ve heard rumblings that there’s a bunch of new characters devised to try and make science respectable again, which’ll have a massive impact on the way everyone views the Order of the Gear. And if anyone decides to go amok, their faction will inevitably take that hit, too.
Not to mention the Society!
Not to mention the Society![/quote]
I think the Society might be beyond help. They seem to have dug themselves a hole, and then proposed to dig their way out.
what’s the best medium to contact the GMs? Email, through the website or PM?[/quote]
Emails are probably the best and can be sent to 33ar@tetrajak.com
Using the contact form on the website will send an email to our collective GM email, or if you already have the email address you can send one to us directly. The collective inbox is definitely the best way to contact us.
Sorry Jon for being homicidal nut job. But Sabina is dead now… Elise is rather refined, if slightly misunderstood. I look forward to seeing you in game again
Not to mention the Society![/quote]
I think the Society might be beyond help. They seem to have dug themselves a hole, and then proposed to dig their way out.[/quote]
Yeah, I can see the union of the gear potentially redeeming themselves. But the society for the betterment of humanity seem far beyond redemption. Except maybe for Aura…
I was having a discussion about this this evening, though, and maybe they’re not beyond redemption. The thing is, most people in the game don’t really know much about the factions - there’s a lot to keep track of in this game, even before you add the factions in. So it gets very easy to ‘pin’ a faction when you hear something about them for the first time… and that ‘something’ is usually bad news. What I know about the Society is that they’re responsible for the Zebulon series, which nobody seems to be very fond of, and all I know about the East India is that they’re rumoured to be untrustworthy, with a few special examples.
All it would take is for rumours to be about the good things that I’m sure the factions have done, or at the very least are completely capable of. A lot of people tend to be very quick to assume that the bad things are true. It might take some concerted effort, but that could be changed.