The major factions of Endless Sky and their associated tropes.
Beware of unmarked spoilers!
The Player
This is you. A textile worker from New Boston who purchases a small ship in which to travel the galaxy.
Tropes applying to the player:
- Featureless Protagonist: The protagonist is never described in any way, and no mention is made of their gender in dialogue. All that is known about them is that they worked in the textile industry before becoming a merchant, and in one conversation with Freya they can optionally mention that they are gay.
Human factions
Humanity in general
- Humans Are Average: While humanity is on the whole near the bottom of the technological food chain, with only the Gegno being less advanced, their technology is diverse where most other species have specialized their technology, such that even though alien outfits are more advanced, human outfits may be superior in ways outside of a particular other species' specialization. For example, most Wanderer tech is spectacularly heat efficient, but because of their general heat efficiency and traditional pacifism, their passive cooling systems are awful, while the best human cooling systems are only surpassed by the Korath whose outfits run incredibly hot and thus demand incredibly powerful heat management equipment.
- Humanity Is Young: Most species are from 40,000 years older than humanity to 10,000 years older, but the Hai are 120,000 years old, and the Wanderers, Quarg, Pug, and Drak are all implied to be older than that. The Drak are outright stated to have existed for millions of years. Only the Gegno are a more recent arrival on the galactic scene.
- Standard Human Spaceship: Present, but varies by manufacturer. In particular the Syndicate, Southbound Shipyards, and the Republic Navy Shipyards specialize in blocky, geometric ships. On the other hand, Lionheart Industries (aside from the Bactrian and Mule), Betelgeuse Shipyards, and especially Megaparsec and Tarazed generally prefer more sleeker and/or more graceful designs).
Merchants
The Republic
The central government of human space. Represented predominantly by the Navy.
The Syndicate
A powerful shipbuilding and manufacturing corporation that controls much of the northeast of human space. Though nominally part of the Republic, they maintain their own military fleets separate from the Navy.
Free Worlds
A new faction that emerges in the south of human space not long after the player buys their first ship. They are the main suspects in the terror attacks that lead to the civil war. Currently the only faction the player can join.
The Deep
The northwesternmost region of the Republic. While it maintains its own defense fleets, it is not as independant as the Syndicate.
Pirates
Anarchists and criminals encountered throughout human space.
- Ace Custom: Pirate "Marauders" have highly altered versions of standard civilian combat ships that push the fighting capabilities of the ships and human technology in general to the limits, albeit at the cost of their non-combat utility. These Marauder modifications come in a "standard" version, as well as one that emphasizes engines and one that emphasizes firepower above that "standard" version. These ships can only be obtained by capture and have a chance of self-destructing when boarded and again when attempting to capture.
The Alphas
An engineered species created by humanity for war.
Shipbuilders
Human ships are not built by a single centralised organisation. There are several companies that produce their own designs of spacecraft.
Tropes common to all shipbuilding companies
Betelgeuse Shipyards
Lionheart Industries
Megaparsec
Southbound Shipyards
Tarazed Corporation
Alien factions
The Quarg
An advanced alien species found in enclaves throughout the galaxy. Likely to be the first aliens the player encounters.
- Lightworlder: The Quarg homeworld has less gravity than Earth and their various space stations and ringworlds are configured to their lower gravity preferences.
The Hai
A rodent-like species living just north of human space. Many humans live among them.
The Pug
An extremely advanced extragalactic civilisation.
- I Let You Win: The Pug tune their capabilities to their opponents and deliberately only slightly overmatch them to give them a chance. They don't deliberately lose, but they do make it possible for their adversaries to win. Their full capabilities are unknown, but at least comparable to the Quarg.
The Korath
The Wanderers
The Drak
An extremely advanced and mysterious civilisation with some connection to the Quarg.
- Eldritch Starship: The Archons are... Strange. They resemble gigantic arthropods, communicate telepathically, and can attack using antimatter. If their hull strength is reduced to zero, they disappear and reappear later.
- The Ghost: The Drak are repeatedly mentioned by the Quarg and Hai throughout the game, but at no point do they themselves actually appear, only being represented by the Archons.
- Higher-Tech Species: The Drak are comfortably atop the technology pyramid of the setting to the point they can do more or less whatever they like and nobody can really do anything about it. Fortunately for everyone else, the Drak are generally hands off about anything less than stellar annihilation.
The Remnant
Not technically an alien faction, but rather a group of humans who fled human space during the Alpha Wars.
The Ka'het and Builders
The Coalition and Heliarchs
The Sheragi
The Gegno
The Bundorea
The Rulei
A seemingly extinct civilisation. Some remnants of them can be found in a remote part of the galaxy.
