New faction theories?

[Leo]

So since we know now another faction is coming...does anyone have any idea what it could be? It feels like all the powers are here already! Unless...the spacing guild becomes a full blown involved faction, or...the Bene Tleilax? I'm very curious

[Anapoda]

Thinking machines.

We are back, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!

[Robineus]

Boris the sandworm, starts out as a baby worm and gets bigger as they eat harvesters.

[imSubtle]

Originally posted by Blitzwing:

House Ix

you mean Ix or Ixians... They are not a Landsraad house. Though the 2 main houses on IX are Richese and Vernius.

hoping for Ix or Tleilaxu... need more Lasguns and Axolotl tanks :)

[Anapoda]

Tleilaxu would be quite appropriate for a spying, assasination, infiltration heavy gameplay.

That could be cool.

[Sikko]

The concept art of the latest news was for new NPC units, which were introduced with the conquest update.

[Will]

Originally posted by imSubtle:

Originally posted by Blitzwing:

House Ix

you mean Ix or Ixians... They are not a Landsraad house. Though the 2 main houses on IX are Richese and Vernius.

hoping for Ix or Tleilaxu... need more Lasguns and Axolotl tanks :)

Pretty sure house Richese are on Richese and house Vernius are on IX

[Cybot]

Whoever it is, I just hope it's an actual royal house. I'm tired of factions such as the fremen, smugglers etc.

[FDR'sThinkTank]

I am thinking House Fenring is possible. I didn't see anyone mention it. They are close to House Corrino, but that situation may be less friendly than it appears. House Fenring doesn't have an official Homeworld, for one. Count Fenring wrote the Imperial Handbook for Assassins... so he's quite important at this time in Dune. In the books, the Emperor commands Fenring to kill Paul Atreides, but Count Fenring has his own connection to Paul and refuses to kill him because he see's himself in the boy. Count Fenring also has secret knowledge of Project Amal. This was a plot by Shaddam Corrino's predecessor to replace Spice Production with a synthetic version of Spice, Ajidamal. When Duke Leto invaded Ix and reinstated Rhombur as Earl of Ix, Fenring supposedly destroyed the records. It would be interesting if he secretly continued work on Synthetic Spice for his own purposes.

The Iduali really make a lot of sense... even if you say "They are a minority of a minority of Fremen" they probably work pretty well with Sand Pirates and other Desert Malcontents. Ecaz has also shown us things in this game are clearly different. It appears in this "Timeline" Duke Leto lives and Paul remains with them. This means there could easily be a rift inside the Fremen Culture since they don't have a Savior to unite them.

Poritrin is still a main planet of the Dune Universe at this time, although it's certainly fallen far from the center of culture that it once was. It's an Agricultural World and also very involved in Maula Trade (Slave Trade). Technically, House Bludd is the Historical Ruler of this planet (currently represented in Harkonnen's Councillor choices.) so you could argue it's already in game... but I could see this faction having mechanics and playstyle rather unique and distinct from Harkonnen. This wouldn't necessarily be a House... in a Universe that permits slavery, wars are an excellent way to enslave people. A Slaver Guild might have a presence on Arrakis, not just to get a dig at spice, but also to capture unwitting civilians, soldiers, and more. Any place where people are desperate is a place where those who prey on the desperate will go.

House Moritani is a very interesting possibility: It's an Assassin House, similar to House Fenring, but it's about as far from loyal to the Emperor as you can possibly be without getting killed. In fact, they are Secretly decendants of House Tantor, who used Atomics against House Corrino in a previous conflict and was supposed to have been wiped out entirely. So there are lots of fun angles to play with them as a House that might be more willing to try getting away with the use of Atomics against Humans. Certainly, House Moritani might have a good relationship with Faufreluche Renegades, as they aren't exactly keen on the current Emperor.

House Richese would be great... a sort of pampered foil to House Ix. They would have a better relationship with the Tleiaxu and the Lansraad. In the boardgame they have their own Nohships, which means they aren't entirely dependant on the Spacing Guild the way other Factions are. I could also see this faction having a better relationship with Mentats, whose existence is greatly supported by the ban on thinking machines. Of course, Mentats, at this point, have many different schools of thought and are decentralized enough to serve nearly anyone.

Obviously, people are going to want to see more Bene Gesserit and Bene Tlieaxu in the game, but these two factions would need to function considerably different from Houses AND current Non-House Factions. They are constantly weaving plot and intrigue, offering Faustian Bargains to many while they push their agenda at nearly any cost. I could see both of these Factions not participating in Spice Harvesting (thus going untaxed) but needing to buy spice in order to deploy their troops, use abilities, perform certain actions in game. This could possibly have an impact on Spice exchange rate and CHOAM shares over time. Their methods of influencing the Lansraad could also be different, as they might have a list of Minor Houses they can manipulate, protect, destroy, etc. and while they start with very little influence on the Lansraad, they are largely immune to what happens there and late game they can really foil many plots. They would need their own Victory conditions to replace CHOAM and Governorship... both likely seeking to create the Quizat Haderach to their own benefit.

There is very little precedent for it in the books, but I would like to see a Bounty Hunter Guild of some sort. Arrakis is a magnet for troublemakers and it stands to follow there would be some sort of Imperial Reward System for tracking these Renegades and such down. This might function similar to what I suggested for Bene Gesserit and Bene Tlieaxu... rather than harvesting spice and paying a tax, they have to buy spice to activate certain abilities. This Bounty Hunter Guild might be an independant organization of Mentats who calculate where criminals will go to hunt them down.... for instance. They have an Imperial Charter to build a presence on Arrakis and can't pursue Conquest, but can fight for territory and might have their own interest in the Quizat Haderach.