Note: Character Pages will cover both entire factions and their leadership.

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ADVENT

Leader: Kras "Tetrarch" Rokkos

Played By: Tactical Ablative Armor

A portion of an alien organization currently in control of an alternate Earth.

Aliens Are Bastards: Hardly any scene with ADVENT goes by without them either having a Kick the Dog moment, being condescending to others, or attempting to manipulate another faction.
Big Bad Duumvirate: ADVENT and Flashpoint are the primary villain factions among the RP players, but the two have seperate goals they want achieved.
Chicken Walker: The Sectopod is an ADVENT heavy Walker, and Kras has one in his possession.
Clone Army: Most of ADVENT's forces are clones, Kras included. They eventually build a cloning facility to ensure that they don't run out of troops.
Comedic Sociopathy: While Kras's treatment of natives of the Zone isn't Played for Laughs, his abuse of his subordinates is. Said treatment has him come off as a Pointy-Haired Boss with Never My Fault tendencies who tends to be incredibly condescending toward his minions and shouts at them a lot.
Crippling Overspecialization: Kras was designed to be a perfect military leader. He wasn't designed to be perfect at anything else. Additionally, ADVENT forces are meant to be in psychic contact with the Elders at all times. Without their advice, Kras makes several mistakes in fields that don't relate to combat, and it gradually wears down his temper such that he ends up wrecking his office while failing to learn anything from his failures.
Eviler than Thou: Between themselves and Flashpoint, it's clear that ADVENT is the greater danger, on account of Kras being more competant than Mitchell and their forces being more loyal. Their Villain Team-Up is notably skewed in ADVENT's favor. Additionally, Kras is shown to be even prettier than Mitchell, as it's made clear that part of the reason he started enforcing curfew was because he didn't like ADVENT's human members having poker night.
Evil Is Petty: Shuts off the power and enforces a curfew (ending ADVENT's poker night in the process) seemingly just because he found poker night annoying.
The Evils of Free Will: Part of the reason that Kras thinks so poorly of humanity is that he dislikes how their individual opinions create so much strife among their populace. Notably, Kras avoids the hypocrisy of why he should be the one in charge, as his own thoughts make it clear he wants the Elders to be the ones to decide the destiny of mankind. As for why he thinks he would be a better ruler than everyone else in the immediate area? He was bred to be a perfect leader.
Evil Will Fail: While they aren't out of the running yet, ADVENT is currently the worst off resource wise of the player factions, mostly due to Kras making numerous stupid decisions due to his sociopathy. They barely even have enough munitions to act in the zone.
Fantastic Racism: Kras doesn't think highly of normal humans. At all. Tellingly, any civilians he finds and "rescues" are used solely as labor forces (namely construction), with the implication he considers them too useless to serve any other role — even as cannon fodder.
Fatal Flaw: Sociopathy - Kras' willingness to resort to violence over other options effectively hamstring him from being able to form alliances or manipulate others, because no one is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, with the exception of Mitchell.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Kras is a loose cannon waiting to fire. Even minor inconveniences make him go into a rage.
Hate Sink: Kras is a villain through and through, and his actions are never portrayed as being sympathetic, reasonable, or even cool. His casual slaughter of civilians and utter Lack of Empathy hammer home that, in a world of Grey-and-Gray Morality, Kras is evil.
It's All About Me: While Kras does care about the goals of the Elders above himself, most of the scenes at ADVENT's base have him abusing and tormenting his subordinates because it makes him feel better.
Lack of Empathy: Kras hadn't demonstrated a single instance of empathy in the story, viewing the losses he takes not as tragedies, but nuisances.
Manipulative Bastard: Attempted - Kras tries to trick a New America Coalition settlement into trading with him after ADVENT destroys a different NAC settlement, but they eventually figure this out and wipe out ADVENT's delegation. He has more success with manipulating Mitchelle and Flashpoint, in part because Mitchell is motivated by revenge against Gordon and would outright allow ADVENT to take over the Earth if it brought him closer to achieving said revenge.
Mook Depletion: ADVENT's numbers deplete the most over the course of the RP (relative to other factions), primarily because Kras tends to favor aggression over other options (and tends to botch more peaceful options due to being a sociopath).
Never My Fault: Kras never seems to consider the possibility that the problems his group has to deal with might be at least partially his fault, instead blaming everyone else.
Not Brainwashed: Unlike the majority of ADVENT troops, it is clear Kras legitimately enjoys being an evil, oppressive bastard.
Powered Armor: The absolute king of it in the RP - all of their current military forces are outfitted with it.
Pragmatic Villainy: Kras is evil, not stupid. He won't get into fights he knows he cannot win, unlike, say, Mitchell.
The Sociopath: Kras cares about no one but himself and the elders. Killing people is stress relief for him.
Tested on Humans: Kras uses an unfortunate human as target practice for a Sectopod.
Vichy Earth: It's ADVENT. This is to be expected. Kras plans to conquer the other factions, and then the entire world, for the glory of the Elders.
Villain Team-Up: Start working with Flashpoint later on in the RP.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Kras is an interesting example, as while he is capable of diplomacy, he generally prefers to solve problems via violence. While this starts out being fairly effective, he's eventually worn down fighting the other factions of the Zone, some of whom match or exceed his ability to repel.
Worf Had the Flu: ADVENT takes a large amount of losses early on after getting into a fight with Race X, crippling them for a fair portion of the RP.

Clear Skies

Leader: N.A. Lebedev

Played By: Zargothrax

A collection of researchers, scavengers, and squatters from the Zone of Alienation.

Anarchy Is Chaos: Defied - Clear Skies is effectively an anarchic organization due to fear of how the government would abuse the Zone of Alienation, but they are still a very well organized group. They get along fairly well with the similarly anarchic Survivalists for this reason.
Chromosome Casting: Clear Skies is composed solely of men on account of there being no men in the Zone.^note However, Zargothrax has indicated later on that he's going to give Hush the Gender Flip treatment and have no one realize she was female because she never spoke.
Chummy Commies: Downplayed - Clear Skies is composed of the researchers who originally studied/created the Zone of Alienation, so they're more like ex-Chummy Commies. It's also made clear they don't really believe in the Union anymore (they've existed for years after it fell and have no intetion of trying to restore it).
Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Clear Skies is opposed to governments as a whole, on account of how the Soviet Union handled the Zone of Alienation. The post after Touchdown makes it clear that they intend to support the Survivalist now that the military is back in town.
Drowning My Sorrows: They drink so much because they come from a place where reality is breaking down, and so want something to wash away the pain.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Equipment wise, as while they come from an alternate universe going through The New '10s, most of the equipment is Soviet-era.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Do not even try to get involved in the battle for the Fitzgerald, knowing they don't stand a chance of winning.
Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Even compared to the other factions, Clear Skies is this - they're not even a formal military outfit. Even Flashpoint (used to) be a formal military force.
Retired Badass: Lebedev is an Old Soldier, to the point of losing all his hair from age, but he can still kick tons of ass.
Rogue Agent: They abandoned the Sovient Union's military authority so that they could focus on researching the Zone of Alienation. They are effectively a whole group of rogue agents.
Science Hero: Clear Skies is composed of former researcher of the group that eventually became the C-Consciousness. Because of this, they take a far more analytical approach to solving problems in the Exclusion Zone than other factions.
Spared by the Adaptation: Their sudden transportation into the Zone spares them from their canonical fate of being converted into Monolith forces after a massive emission from the Zone.
Vodka Drunkenski: Clear Skies is composed of people from all over Eastern Europe, most of whom drink a lot. Justified in that they come from a Death World that is utterly miserable and want to drown out the worst of it in their memories.
What Were You Thinking?: Lebedev says as much when talking to Claude when talking about the latter's decisions regarding the Fitzgerald. He also admits to being impressed by the boy's decision to take responsibility for the carnage that followed.

The Cygnus Fleet

Leader: Claude Wallace

Played by: gaiachild

The remnants of a fleet tasked with a war-ending operation in an alternate version of Earth, now stranded in the Half Life world.

Adaptational Heroism: Since due to the nature of the Ice Cruisers' reactors being changed, which excised the moral issue of the Federation using Valkyria children as suicide bombers, the Cygnus Fleet comes off as slightly more morally upstanding than they were in canon.
Adapted Out: gaiachild brought the Cygnus Fleet in from an AU where the Ice Cruisers use normal but highly advanced Ragnite reactors, instead of Valkyria-powered ones. This has the side effect of excising Angie from the Squad.
Base on Wheels: They are based aboard the Centurion, a specialized ship capable of traversing land. The ship is probably the strongest vehicle in the area, but it is also heavily specialized for using ragnite, which is now in very short supply. Also counts as a Cool Ship.
The Chains of Commanding: It's made clear that Claude is really struggling with these, especially after being promoted to captain of the Centurion. He outright snaps at Ledebev after the latter calls him out over the losses the Cygnus Fleet took during the destroyer battle, and makes it clear he cares a lot for his subordinates.
Crippling Overspecialization: Most of the Cygnus Fleet's technology is based upon a special ore known as Ragnite. Said ore is native to their home universe, and the displacement now leaves them without an way to replenish it.
Elite Army: Due to attrition forcing the members of the fleet to shape up, most of their forces are now elite units or higher.
Fatal Flaw: Naivety — the Cygnus Fleet, while having their own fair share of Dark Secrets (their ship was meant to be used as a Fantastic Nuke, for example), come from a relatively more fluffy universe than all of the other factions in the RP. This ends up causing the destroyer battle, as Claude's announcement of possession of the Fitzgerald causes everyone to assume that his claims that he won't use said ship are lies, even when they aren't.
Fish out of Water: The most pronounced example so far - the Cygnus Fleet come from an alternate Earth that is currently going through its version of World War II, and thus are the most technology and culturally outdated faction in the RP. They're shocked by all of the human technology around them, to say nothing of the aliens.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Beyond the aliens, the Cygnus Fleet comes from the 1930s of their timeline, and thus is blown away by some of the things that the Half Life humans have achieved. This includes computers, modern tanks, and the Xbox.
Jerkass Has a Point: Minnerva, the most cynical member of the group, explicitly warns Claude that trying to be neutral in the conflicts across the Zone will just make him an enemy to everyone. She's vindicated when Claude reveals that the fleet has access to the Fitzgerald but does not intend to use its missiles, resulting in a five way battle to gain control fo said missiles by various other factions, with the Fleet trying to defend it.
Mirroring Factions: With GDI - both are military forces that were forced to retreat from a battle they could not win, only to end up trapped in the Zone of Alienation by the portal storms with no way to get home. Both also align themselves with the Rangers, and raid the Aperture Science Offsite Storage Facility. The major differences between the two amount to ones of idealism over cynicism - GDI comes from a more cynical world and thus is willing to cross lines that the Cygnus Fleet won't.
Non-Indicative Name: The "Fleet" is actually just a single ship carrying the crews of two of the three snowcruisers intended to carry out Operation Cygnus. Becomes less non-indicatvie after the Cygnus Fleet acquires a mouthballed destroyer for their own use.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's been confirmed that many members of the fleet still have bad memories from when they encountered Crymaria, and that these could be trigger if they meet someone like her.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Claude and the fleet as a whole are the most idealistic faction in the RP, and it has resulted in them actively being targeted by the more cynical factions.

The Decepticons

Leader: Megatron

Played By: Ashling Waltz

A group of robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron.

Composite Character: Their roster is taken from the film series, but also includes Shatter and Dropkick.
Elite Army: Excluding the minicons, all of the Decepticons are on the small end of Humongous Mecha with technology that puts them head and shoulders above the normal humans of the zone. This is a given.
From a Certain Point of View: As pointed out by their player, the Decepticons claiming the Autobots were the "bad guys" in their conflict isn't exactly unfounded, as the Autobots not only sent the Allspark away from Cybertron (essentially killing off all life there, or at least making it go dormant), but have continously prevented the Decepticons from acquiring any method of restoring Cybertron, which has resulted in the Cybertronian race teetering closer to extinction. The only reason this isn't exactly an accurate statement is that it omits the fact that Megatron is a power hungry dictator who started the war and has consistently proven himself to be a genocidal monster, meaning that the reason Optimus has refused to ally with Megatron is that Megatron will gladly push other species toward extinction for the benefit of Cyberton.
Oddly Small Organization: Due to the fact that most Cybertronians are massive compared to humans, the Decepticons are much smaller in numbers than the other player factions - they don't even break 100 members.

Flashpoint

Leader: Adrian Mitchell

Played By: halosammy

A group of renegade US military personnel, lead by former HECU member Adrian Mitchell.

Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: As is confirmed by his full name, Mitchell is not the brother of Adrian Shepard.
Adaptational Villainy: Since the US Government is still intact in this timeline due to the Combine never invading, the organization as a whole comes off as less sympathetic than in their native universe. And then there is their new plan to wipe out the (non-hostile) Vortigaunts of The Shrine.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Mitchell ends up repeatedly sending forces to try and raid the Aperture Science Offsite Storage Facility, despire every mission to access the area ending in failure. As his player has pointed out, he's doing this because everyone is trying to get into the facility, and doesn't want to lose out.
Bit Character: Every so often, Flashpoint's rank and file mooks get a segment showing the day to day runnings of the organization. One of the more prominent ones is Sarah, a member of the militia. She ends up deserting after it becomes apparent that trying to be an Internal Reformist will not work, since Mitchell is solely focused on revenge.
The Chains of Commanding: While he doesn't show it too much, Mitchell clearly cares for his fellow HECU troops and is bothered quite a bit by their deaths. Note, however, that this only extends to the HECU - due to Adam being a rather shady figure, Mitchell doesn't care much about the Adam's Apples. He also has little concern for the militia, regarding them all as expendable.
Child Soldiers: Mitchell eventually starts training these to develop troops solely loyal to himself.
Cloudcuckoolander: The faction as a whole has shades of this, with one example being how the Black Ops under Adam refers to themselves as Adam's Apples.
Dysfunction Junction: Oh boy - the HECU and Black Ops elements in Flashpoint hate each other, while the rest of the organization lives in fear of both. Fear is the only thing holding them together. And since halosammy confirmed that Adam is the one who ruined Mitchelle's face, there's an inevitable betrayal brewing.
Evil Counterpart: Gradually becomes one to the Cygnus Fleet. Both are military groups stranded in the exclusion zone, but while the Cygnus Fleet retains most of its morals and is perhaps one of the most elite forces in the area, Flashpoint is essentially a mob of crazed fighters under Mitchell and has been reduced to using conscripted goons to achieve their goals. Later on, the Cygnus Fleet adopts a group of children while Mitchell takes on children to turn into Child Soldiers.
Evil Is Petty: Mitchell has gotten a lot of his men killed over trivial reasons. Heck, he takes enormous losses trying to assault the Fitzgerald just to use its missiles to blow up the Shrine, mostly due to blind hatred.
Fatal Flaw: Revenge Before Reason — Mitchell is so deadset on getting revenge on Gordon Freeman that he frequently makes bizarre and stupid decisions to obtain said vengeance.
It's All About Me: Mitchell seems to view Flashpoint as a means to achieve his goal, with everything else being a secondary concern.
Misplaced Retribution: Actually Downplayed here — while Mitchell's facial scars are solely Adam's fault, the GM has stated that Michell's squad took part in the lobby ambush at Black Mesa's Advanced Biological Research Lab, meaning that Gordon is indeed responsible for their deaths.
Mook Depletion: While they had plenty of elite units at the start of the RP, Mitchell's decisions gradually see Flashpoint deplete most of its advanced forces, to the point that by the time they team up with ADVENT, most of their forces are now irregular units — e.g. conscripts. And then Mitchell disbands the militia because being conscripts, they surrender very swiftly when things go bad.
Moral Myopia: As in his home game, Mitchell wants revenge on Gordon Freeman for killing his men, despite the fact that the HECU was tasked to massacre the staff of Black Mesa, which is a blantantly illegal order.
Named by the Adaptation: Adam and Nick have Only One Name in their home game. Here, their full names are, respectively, Adam Cyr and Nick Horton — which they share with their voice actors.
Never My Fault: Mitchell generally does not accept blame for anything, even when he is very much in the wrong.
Pet the Dog: Part of what keeps Flashpoint more sympathetic than ADVENT is that they are shown to care for their own dead, as well as having moments of sympathy toward civilians. They're not heroes, but ADVENT is worse.
Revenge: Mitchell is driven by the desire to get revenge on Gordon Freeman.
Revenge Before Reason: No sacrifice is too great for Mitchell if the result is one dead Gordon Freeman.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Flashpoint's various component factions are basically at each other's throats, with only Mitchell holding them together through a mix of fear and fanatical devotion from his men.
Token Evil Teammate: Of all the human factions, Flashpoint is the least sympathetic, die to their tendency to manipulate others solely for their own benefit. Their instigation of the Destroyer conflict cements this. Further cemented when they begin to ally with ADVENT.
Wild Card:
- The organization as a whole can go multiple directions depending on Mitchell's mood and how he wants to get revenge on Gordon.
- Within Flashpoint, there's Adam - while he's part of the organization's inner circle, Adam has a tendency to go off and do things on his own, which can help or hinder Flashpoint. He outright vanishes during one of missions to the Aperture lab, but not before killing off Phantom Squad from the Phoenix Project.

GDI

GDI Combined Force Cydonia

Leader: Captain James Bowden

A military force created by the United Nations that focuses on controlling the spread of the crystalline substance known as Tiberium.

Base on Wheels: The MCV, as always. Additionally, they can mobilize their other structures, making their entire base this trope.
Bigger Stick: GDI has the largest amount of armor available to them, though they lack aircraft at the moment. They lose this somewhat following the battle for the Fitzgerald, as four of their vehicles are destroyed over the course of the fight, in part because their opposition includes the Grey Death Detachment, who have Battlemechs.
The Cynic:
- GDI tends to lean toward the more cynical end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, in part due to how bad things have gotten in their home universe.
- They assume that Claude is lying about being unwilling to use the missiles aboard the Fitzgerald, on account of how absurd it sounds to both say that you have weapons of mass destruction and do not plan to use them. Claude was being honest.
He Who Fights Monsters: GDI veers into this during their interactions with the Cygnus Fleet, where they essentially demand that the Fleet give up the Fitzgerald or be destroyed. Keep in mind that the Cygnus Fleet has not only done nothing morally questionable since their arrival, but was perfectly open to negotiation up until this point.
He's Back!: After initially going through a dark phase following the fight for the destroyer, GDI makes a comeback when Touchdwon commences, and even aids the first waveform marines.
Humongous Mecha: GDI has several Mammoth Mk 2 walkers, in addition to tons of tanks and other equipment to work with.
Hope Spot: Their translation into the Half Life universe meant that they actually reached a world untouched by Tiberium... except that several of the civilians with them had severe enough Tiberium poisoning that their corpses created a new Tiberium field.
Invincible Hero: Downplayed example, but while GDI occasionally loses, they're the only player faction in the Zone who are in a position where it is virtually impossible they will be destroyed outright - the have massive technological advantages compared to other factions (and have production advantages over those who might match/exceed them technologically), they have effectively infinite reserves due to their alliance with the military, and since their base is located near a military staging area, they're effectively impossible to attack. Short of a Game Changer popping up (which, given the nature of the Zone, could easily happen), GDI is guranteed to survive the duration of the RP.
Knight Templar: This is GDI's Fatal Flaw - GDI wants things done their way, and pointedly wants to deal with any threat to them with violence. While they do tend to focus on those who are Asshole Victims, this leads them into conflict with the Cygnus Fleet over how to deal with the missiles in the Fitzgerald. Additionally, Word of God confirmed they'd be in a perpetual state of war once they meet the Expedition due to their issues with the Scrin.
Laser-Guided Karma: GDI enters the fray in the battle for the Fitzgerald with the intent of capturing the ship and wiping out the Cygnus Fleet if necessary, only allying with them after Flashpoint and the Conclave get involved. GDI ends up suffering the highest losses in the battle after Flashpoint.
A Lesson Learned Too Well: GDI has learned from Nod that you should not allow parties that are not allied with you to possess Weapons of Mass Destruction and takes action against the Cygnus Fleet when they learn about the Fitzgerald. The only problem is that the Fleet was completely honest about not wanting to use the missiles on that ship, which means that GDI lost a fair amount of armor and troops in a completely unnecessary battle (well, against the Cygnus Fleet - there were other parties that had less benevolent intentions for the missiles).
Powered Armor: GDI has ZONE armor, meant to protect the user against Tiberium contamination and the insane environments Tiberium creates.
Tank Goodness: GDI has access to Predator tanks, as well as the virtually unstoppable Mammoth Tank, though at the moment they have no way of replacing any vehicles they lose.
Trauma Conga Line: First Nod launched the Third Tiberium War and undid decades of work controlling Tiberium when the Third Tiberium War commenced. Then the Scrin showed up and made things worse. And now Cydonia is cut off from the rest of GDI, likely permantently, leaving them with no help in this new world.

Grey Death Detachment

Leader: Captain Tony Deckard

A group of mercenaries who use a variety of weapons, among them battle mechs.

Absent Aliens: One of the few factions to come from a universe with no native sentient alien species. Ironically, they're the first faction the Expedition (who include the Insectoid Aliens known as the Kir'Ko) end up meeting, on directions from the NAC.
Bigger Stick: Their battlemechs are hands down the most powerful vehicles in the Zone - even GDI is no match for them.
Chicken Walker: At least one of their Mecha has this leg configuration.
Heroic Neutral: They don't have any ties to the other "good-guy" factions, but they are still aligned with mankind and haven't done anything that would get them classified as Nominal Heroes.
Humongous Mecha: They have four different battle mechs at their disposal.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Their battlemechs aren't necessarily game-changers in their home universe, but the sheer disparity in technology between said mechs and the local threats (they're functionally analogous to gargantuas) makes them able to stomp through anything the enemy throws at them. The only reason they don't stomp everyone is because their mechs go through fuel like crazy.
Punch-Clock Hero: Downplayed - they are primarily mercenaries, but they will forgo pay if the mission is too important.
Private Military Contractors: They're Mechwarriors, mercenaries who use Humongous Mecha to do battle.
This Is Gonna Suck: Dean's reaction to Claude announcing possession of the Fitzgerald - he knows that something is gonna go down soon.

Phoenix Project

Leader: Dean Clarkson

A covert group currently working to oppose the Pandoravirus.

Elaborate Underground Base: Somewhat - their base is built into a mountain.
Elite Army: Every single squad that the Phoenix Project fields is considered Elite or better by the game mechanics.
Energy Weapons: The Project has access to laser weapons, but for the most part use gauss weaponry instead.
Experienced Protagonist: The Project is one of the few factions not native to the Half Life Earth to be from a world where aliens have more or less taken over the planet.
Like a Duck Takes to Water: They integrate quite well into the Zone, on account of the general situation being very similar to their home franchise.
Magnetic Weapons: Researched Gauss weaponry a short while after their arrival and now use gauss weapons to fight.
Meaningful Name: Just like the Phoenix, they've been destroyed many times, only to be reformed later. And they're working to help mankind rise from the ashes.
Missed the Call: Their communcations were blown out just before the transmission regarding the Cygnus Fleet's occupation of the Fitzgerald was broadcasted, resulting in them missing the battle that followed.
Multinational Team: As an organization created to defend the world from alien threats, they have members with all sorts of nationalities.
Powered Armor: They employ numerous pieces of powered armor to protect against the pandoravirus.
Power Outage Plot: An offscreen one, but one of their prototypes accidentally blew out their power systems, which meant the missed the entire battle for the Fitzgerald.
Schizo Tech: Relative to their home game - the Phoenix Project has access to the mutation lab but still needs to research data for the Berserker class, even though the former is unlocked earlier in the Disciples of Anu tech tree than the latter (the Berserker class is literally available from the get-go for Anu in Phoenix Point).
So What Do We Do Now?: The project has this reaction when they realize that the Pandoravirus is not present in the Half Life version of Earth. Their player has explicitly stated that they still have no long term goal to work toward.
Total Party Kill: Phantom Squad is totally wiped out after an encounter with Adam at the Aperture Science Offsite Storage Facility.

Star Union Expedition

Kir'Ko-Vanguard Star Union Expedition

Leader: Ank'Ris Ahl

Played By: Flameal15k

A joint expedition of humans and Kir'Ko from The Egalitarian League of Planets.

Amazon Brigade: The Hidden Brood of Kir'Ko that act as special forces for the Expedition are actually an all female caste of Kir'Ko.
Brought Down to Badass: Due to the scale of the RP, the Expedition can't use any of their special operations or doomsday devices. They still have many ways to make their enemies' lives miserable.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Part of the Celestian powerset that the Expedition brought is the ability to inflict Soulburn on a target, which not only sends morale down the toilet, but makes them take more damage from "Enlightened" units (read:almost anything a Celestian has access to, due to either innate properties or mods). If this power is carried over into the game and how it works is still up in the air, though.
Denser and Wackier: Backstory wise, the Expedition comes from one of the craziest universes in the RP - most factions have to worry about bandits, evil empires, mutant monsters, other aliens, terrorists, and their own superiors being evil. While all of these exist in the Planetfall universe, some of the more common threats are berserk sex bots and killer penguins. Somewhat tellingly, the line in their character sheet treats them moving past the desire to eat their wounded as both a serious point and a joke.
Dramatic Irony: As noted by their player, while the Expedition is, backstory wise, one of the nicest factions, due to the majority of their numbers being comprised of Kir'Ko, they have traits that would invite fear and loathing from roughly every other player faction they could have met when they joined the RP:
- GDI: The Kir'Ko being Insectoid Aliens would enrage GDI due to the fact that GDI just left Earth when the Scrin invaded. GDI's player has clarified this goes to genocidal levels.
- ADVENT: Kras abhors democracy, something the Expedition espouses.
- Clear Skies: The Psychic Powers used by the Expedition brings to mind multiple mutants from the Zone of Alienation, as well as Monolith.
- The Cygnus Fleet: The above mentioned psychic powers include pyrokinesis, which could bring back bad memories regarding Crymaria.
- Flashpoint: Their nature as Starfish Aliens that use Organic Technology would remind Mitchell and his men of the Xen aliens and Race X too much.
- Phoenix Project: The aesthetics of the Kir'Ko is more than a little reminescent of the Pandoravirus infected.
- Grey Death Detachment: ...Actually, the GDD has no reason from their home universe to fear the Expedition. Very fortunately for the Expedition, they're the first player faction the group is likely to meet.
Energy Weapons: The Vanguard has a things for laser guns, and already has a few on hand.
Explosive Breeder: It's mentioned that the Kir'Ko have a queen with them, indicating that they are fully capable of being this trope, but for balancing reasons, the GM forbid them from being able to create new Kir'Ko without building an additional structure to justify this (which their player named the Brood Chamber).
Foil:
- Ank'Ris is one to Kras. Both are leaders of a faction comprised of both humans and aliens, but their motivations, personalities, origins, and actions are diametrically opposite.
  - Kras is an ADVENT hybrid designed to be a military leader, but struggles everywhere except in combat. Ank'Ris was originally bred to be a reproductive member of the Kir'Ko, but instead carved out her own path in battle and adminstration.
  - Kras and Ank'Ris are both bred to fulfil certain roles, but Kras was artificially engineered via genetic engineering while Ank'Ris is part of a Hive Caste System that evolved naturally.
  - Kras is a Bad Boss to his subordinates and is at most angry when they die. Ank'Ris cares for her subordinates and feels saddened by their losses.
  - Kras massively favors aggression against others, while Ank'Ris prefers diplomacy.
  - Kras leads on his authority alone, while Ank'Ris listens to her subordinates and delegates accordingly.
  - Kras attempts to manipulate the New America Coalition in a fairly heavy handed manner and ends up losing his only trade shift because of it. Ank'Ris manages to reach an accord with the NAC (at the same outpost Kras lost his traders to, no less) by being blunt about her intentions, and makes plans to win them over by offering them free supplies in the form of excess food.
- On a factional level, the Expedition is this to ADVENT, beyond being the latter's Good Counterpart.
  - ADVENT is a world conquering alien empire where member races are defined by their usefulness to The Elders. The Egalitarian League of Planets that the Expedition originates from is, well, egalitarian and gives all members equal standing with no manipulation.
  - Both sides use soldiers that are purpose bred to fulfil certain needs in combat, but while ADVENT achieves this through modifying species via genetic manipulation (presumably via M.E.L.D.), the Expedition uses forms that were achieved via generations of selective breeding and natural evolution.
  - While both sides use units that can produce more of themselves by killing enemies, how they do so is diametrically opposite - ADVENT uses Chryssalids (which Kras thankfully does not have) to kill enemies and use their corpses to create new Chryssalids, while the Kir'Ko use the Ravenous, enormous combat forms that eat their enemies and then use the biomass to lay eggs that hatch into new Kir'Ko. Additionally, while the Kir'Ko don't have a Ravenous right now, they are still capable of creating some further down the line.
  - ADVENT is reliant on both military force and manipulation, while the Expedition focuses on diplomacy.
  - Most of ADVENT's technology (at least at the Blacksite) is designed for usage in battle. Most of the technology used by the Expedition has much broader applications.
  - Both sides use Insectoid Aliens, but while ADVENT would use any Chryssalids they had as Bioweapon Beasts, the Kir'Ko of the Expedition are fully sapient and can do anything a human can do.
Gender-Restricted Ability: Subverted - according to the lore from their home franchise, Kir'Ko Psychic Powers are restricted to females, but the leader of the Expedition's Psynumbra research department is a male Kir'Ko. However, given that male Kir'Ko characters can use psionics in Planetfall (assuming they have the right Secret Tech), it's more likely that psychic powers are guranteed among females, but less likely to spawn in males.
Genre Savvy: Once they get an understanding of what is going on in the area, the Kir'Ko discuss with their human compatriots how best to appear friendly because the local Alien Invasion will make any sentient aliens obvious targets.
Good Counterpart:
- Backstory-wise, to ADVENT - both are unions between mankind and aliens, but while ADVENT is clearly exploiting mankind for the Elder's benefit, the League is a mutually beneficial organization for all involved. Whether this holds true to the RP has yet to be seen. On a lesser note, Ank'ris is one to Kras, as while Kras is shown to only tolerate his human followers, Ank'ris actively seeks out their opinions when making decisions. Eventually played a bit straighter when they find the location of Outpost Libertalia - while the Kir'Ko do send a trading expedition there, just as ADVENT did, the Kir'Ko intend for that expedition to actually be for peaceful purposes, while ADVENT was doing so in order to manipulate the NAC. Tellingly, while the NAC is still wary of the Expedition and refuses to open up trade with them, they do reach an agreement to avoid hostilities.
- Though it took a while for their player to notice this, the Kir'Ko are one to Race X - both are extra-universal Starfish Aliens who use Organic Technology, with many of their forces actually being modified versions of their own species, and a preference toward using Living Weapons. However, Race X is an Always Chaotic Evil group who want to either enslave or wipeout mankind seemingly For the Evulz and are incapable of being reasoned with. By contrast, the Kir'Ko have legitimate reasons to hate mankind, but ultimately moved past this and have become friends with humanity, and are open to negotiation with the other parties in the Zone. Additionally, while both have Weaponized Offspring, Race X uses their young as Living Weapons, while the Kir'Ko use their young as Attack Animals due to the latter actually being fairly intelligent from birth.
Hidden Elf Village: Their base, the nest, is hidden under a forest somewhere in the Zone, and they've only just started exploring.
Hive Caste System: The Kir'Ko of the Expedition possess numerous warriors and drones, as well as a queen, with most of their "vehicles" actually being specialized strains of Kir'Ko.
The Idealist: The Expedition is one of the more idealistic factions in the RP, owning to their home universe being A World Half Full. Unlike the Cygnus Fleet, though, they have experience with some truly dark entities and technologies, and aren't so blind as to the possibility that others might distrust them simply for having aliens in their ranks.
Jack of All Trades: The Expedition, due to its massive research data bank, has access to abilities and technologies that allow them to utilize equipment analogous to almost all of the other factions, with the tradeoff being that most of these are in storage and need dedicated facilities to bring to bare. This forces them to specialize in what they already have.
Later-Installment Weirdness: The Kir'Ko are one of the more overpowered factions in the RP, on account of having a few broken technologies that slipped through acceptance by the GM. They're balanced by being unpopular with the NPC factions and having something roaming around their base that managed to wipe out a group of Race X forces, which has provoked an unknown third party (implied to be the Damned Brigade) to jam communications in the area around them. Additionally, it's highly likely that they will have extreme issues getting survivors to join up with them, both due to Touchdown and being aliens.
Lighter and Softer: Backstory-wise, to the other factions as a whole — while the Kir'Ko and the Vanguard do come from a universe with its own share of horrors, it's still possible to defeat said horrors without taking titanic losses. Notably, they’re the only faction which comes from a universe where humans have made peace with sapient aliens. That being said, their world isn't a stranger to extreme adversity, but they managed to fight off that adversity on their own power.
Metamorphosis Monster: Kir'Ko irregular forces are their larval forms, the Emergent, which eventually morph into an adult from, the Frenzied, if they survive long enough.
Monstrous Cannibalism: Defied and Lampshaded - their sheet explicitly mentions that the Kir'Ko have mostly moved away from eating their wounded.
Non-Indicative Name: Two-fold — they're called the Star Union Expedition, even though the true name of the organization they belong to is the Egalitarian League of Planets. Additionally, while the Kir'Ko and Vanguard make up the largest portions of their group, they also contain members of The Growth, the Autonom, and The Psi-Fish among their ranks.
Organic Technology: The Kir'Ko as a whole default to this - even their guns appear to be organic.
Powered Armor: Echo-Walker armor is available to them via their Voidtech. It not only makes them faster, but allows for the creation of an Alternate Self via quantum mechanics - which lets them essentially be immortal if they aren't killed fast enough, since the clone will replace the original.
Psychic Powers: Kir'Ko are innately psychic, while the Vanguard has the equipment on hand to teach mastery of psychic powers to humans who join them.
Properly Paranoid: They're extremely cautious of who they interact with, because they are well aware that humans might not like them, especially after the Xen Invasion. At least one player faction, GDI, would gladly wipe out the Expedition because of their experiences with aliens and people working with said aliens.
Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: The Voidtech specialization taken by the Vanguard and Kir'Ko allows them to do things like phase through solid objects, teleport, and open black holes. At the moment, though, they haven't used it yet in battle.
Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Applied on a racial level - the group consists of humans from the far future, psychic Insectoid Aliens who used to be the human's slaves, sapient artificial intelligence machines, Plant Aliens that also control giant Insectoid Aliens and eat sewage, and dimension traveling aliens that consider it a compliment to tell another group that they taste delicious.
Remember the New Guy?: Somewhat - the Vanguard are a human organization, but Flameal15k, their player, forgot to mention this and only included a throwaway line that there were humans with the Expedition, so the sudden presence of so many humans came off as this trope.
The Smurfette Principle: Ank'Ris is the only female character who outright leads her faction among the player characters.
Starfish Aliens: The Kir'Ko would seem like a race of Insectoid Aliens, but several of their forms (in particular some of their aquatic ones) are so bizarre that they fit better under this trope as a whole. Despite this, they have a mindset that, while alien in many ways, is similar enough to humans to allow for cooperation. The Expedition also includes the Psi-Fish among its ranks, who have truly bizarre forms (some do not match any life forms on Earth) and an equally alien mindset (they think telling someone that they smell and taste delicious is a compliment).
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Intentionally designed as one to the Conclave, the faction they replaced. Both are made up of aliens who are stuck in the Zone, us Psychic Powers, and have a sort of Hive Caste System, but while its implied that most of the Conclave's member species are genetically engineered, the Expedition's aliens evolved naturally. Additionally, the Conclave was initially hostile to the humans of the Zone, but gradually became friendly to the Survivalists after meeting the Shrine, while the Expedition already had humans among its members.
Underground City: Their base, the Nest, is an underground Kir'Ko colony that also has a number of humans among its residents.
You Remind Me of X: Negative example - as stated on the game’s Discord channel, a lot of the traits the Kir'Ko have would make them very similar to the Scrin, at least according to GDI. Given just how much Task Force Cydonia has suffered at the hands of the Scrin, this means that GDI will never view the Kir'Ko as friendly.

Retired

The Conclave

Leader: Epsilon-413

Played By: Dragonjackel

Remnants of the original forces sent by the Nihilanth to conquer Earth, now left to carve out their own path.

Psychic Powers: Epsilon and the alien controllers have lesser versions of the Nihilanth's powers, which allow them to mind control vortigaunts and shoot psychic projectiles.
The Remnant: Their character sheet explicitly calls them the Xen Remnants - they're one of the last organized bands of Xen forces active in the California area that follow the Nihilanth's original goals.
Slave Liberation: Type 2 - after some time conversing with the Shrine, Epsilon releases all of the Conclave's Vortigaunts from their shackles. Surprisingly, most of them decide to stick with the Conclave of their own free will.
So What Do We Do Now?: Epsilon's forces are hit hard with this, as they realize they now have to find their own path without the Nihilanth's guidance.
What Happened to the Mouse?: As with all retired players, it is unknown what happened to them within the confines of the story. The two most likely outcomes suggested by their player is that they either just left the area entirely or joined the Shrine.

Neutral NPC Factions

75th Ranger Regiment

The remains of the loyal United States military forces in the area, they do their best to protect the locals from harm, but have gradually resorted to Draconian methods to keep the peace.

Elite Army: Being remnants of the actual United States military that were abandoned after the evacuation of the Exclusion Zone, they are held to a much higher standard than the rest of the neutral factions.
Fantastic Racism: Spending over a year fighting aliens has made them very xenophobic. They're outright enemies of the Shrine for this reason, despite the latter group being made of aliens who don't want to fight except in self defense.
Knight Templar: Due to desperation, they've gotten increasingly more brutal toward perceived "treason" toward the United States, and tend to respond with draconian measures, up to and including execution.
A Lighter Shade of Grey: They're one of the more heroic factions native to the Zone, but their own xenophobia keeps them from being fully heroic, especially since they are hostile toward the Shrine.
The Remnant: They're the last remaining loyalist forces of the US Military still active in the exclusion zone. At least until Touchdown commences.

The Damned Brigade

The Damned Brigrade

Another group of abandoned military personnel, the Damned Brigade has become increasingly hostile and extreme in an effort to "restore order" to the Zone.

Elite Army: Their forces aren't up to the standards of the Rangers, but they have access to enough supply depots to keep their force supplied with weapons, munitions, and personal armor, making them a cut above the other natives of the zone.
Fantastic Racism: They still don't like any aliens. They're at war with the Shrine because the Shrine contains aliens within its ranks.
Renegade Splinter Faction: They've broken off from the US Government and now rule their territory within the Zone as their personal fiefdom.

The Survivalists

A group of civilian resistance fighters who fight to preserve their existence.

Crazy Survivalist: A whole faction of them. They've gotten so aggressive and paranoid that they are outright hostile to the Damned Brigade (understandable given the latter's brutality and selfishness) and hte 75th Rangers (less understandable, but the Rangers have started to become a Knight Templar force).
Everyone Has Standards: While they still hate the alien invaders, they trade with the Shrine because they recognize that the Shrine isn't hostile and wants to avoid conflict.
Warhawk: Why they split off from the New America Coalition - the Survivalists actively try to attack their foes and remove them as threats, while the NAC just wants to bunker down and defend themselves from invaders.

New America Coalition

A group of civilian survivors in the Zone who simply wish to be left alone.

The Paranoiac: The NAC make a point of trusting no-one, especially anyone wearing a military uniform. That being said, they do trade with the Shrine on occasion.
Properly Paranoid: Their forces at Libertalia figure out that the ADVENT trade shift sent to meet with them is trying to manipulate them and respond accordingly.
Start My Own: Since the U.S. Government abandoned them to aliens, these survivors have decided to form their own nation.

The Shrine

A group of free Vortigaunts and their human allies who just want to be left in peace.

Martial Pacifist: They don't want to fight anyone else, but when they do, they hit hard.
Token Good Teammate: Among the NPC minor factions in the Zone, they're the only ones who don't have any negative traits to their backstory, and genuinely appear to be "good guys".
Token Non-Human: The only minor faction to have aliens in its ranks.

Hostile NPC Factions

Xen Wildlife

Non-sentient wildlife from the borderworld, these creatures now run amuck across the Exclusion Zone.

Introduced Species Calamity: The Resonance Cascade and subsequent Portal Storms resulted in an extreme example of this trope, as it transplanted an entire ecosystem onto Earth - and said ecosystem is now wrecking Earth's biosphere. Somewhat tellingly, few examples of Earth's native fauna are mentioned in the story, implying that the Xen Wildlife hunted them to extinction.
Mooks: They exist to provide conflict with the players but still die easily. This is something of a given.
More Predators Than Prey: The only Xen animals to show up so far that aren't obligate carnivores are the headcrabs (which are omnivores) and Chumtoads (which have yet to be mentioned, but exist per Word of God). How the ecosystem sustained itself on Xen is a mystery, though the RP makes it clear that they aren't sustaining themselves on Earth, since it appears they've hunted most of the native life to extinction.
Non-Malicious Monster: They're animals trying to live their lives. They don't bare any malice toward humans, but they do see them as either enemies or prey.
The Usual Adversaries: Due to being incredibly common and aggressive animals from various species, they fulfil this role within the Exclusion Zone. The only fations who haven't encountered them yet are those that have just shown up.

Xen Remnants

Xen Invasion Remnants

Survivors the Nihilanth's invasion force, now trying to eek out a living in the Zone.

Elite Mooks: Tougher than the Xen Wildlife, but still fairly easy to kill.
Not Always Evil: While they did try to invade Earth, right now they are just trying to survive, and some can be negotiated with. Not all, but some.
Organic Technology: They still use Hivehands (well, the Alien Grunts do, at any rate).
The Remnant: They're the survivors of the force the Nihilanth sent to conquer Earth. Now, they just want to survive.

Race X

A second alien force that attempted to invade Earth, their armies are now stranded across the Zone, where they try their best to Kill All Humans.

Always a Bigger Fish: However tough Race X is, something killed off their forces in an abandoned biolab that was examined by the Kir'Ko. [Said something is still on the loose.
Always Chaotic Evil: Negotiation is not possible with Race X - they will attempt to kill on sight anyone they encounter.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Per their bio on the factions page, all of the creatures that Race X deploys are actually genetically engineered variants of the same species. Scientists have no idea what an unmodified member of Race X looks like.
Hero Killer: Race X has a habit of killing characters from the player factions literally every time they show up alive. They inflict the first casualties suffered by ADVENT and Clear Skies.
Knight of Cerebus: Race X, due to being a Hero Killer faction and being comprised of Incredibly Durable Enemies, have a tendency to make the segments they appear in significantly darker than other ones.
Planet Looters: Race X invaded Earth with the intent of eventually colonizing the planet. Even after the loss of the Gene Worm, their remnants still want to complete this mission.
Starfish Aliens: Their forms, abilities, and motivations are almost completely alien to humans - even the humanoind Shock Trooper has no equivalent on Earth.

Others

United States of America (Unmarked Spoilers)

The United States of America

The nation where the portal storms originated. Originally inactive, but after Touchdown commenced, they moved in to retake the zone.

Elite Army: The best among the native factions in the game - not only is the US Military extremely well equipped, they are also absolutely massive compared to everyone else.
He's Back!: They begin returning to the Zone following Operation Touchdown.
Unwanted Rescue: The ones giving the rescue - while the unaffiliated civilians in the Zone are glad the government is back, the Survivalists and New America Coalition still resent the US for abandoning them in the first place, with the former becoming actively hostile toward the military when they return.
Zerg Rush: Part of why their initial efforts to land in the Zone go so well is because they deploy a truly massive expeditionary force - the initial force totals to 6600 marines, larger than most of the native factions in the Zone, and much larger than all of the player factions.

Characters / Wake Up And Smell The Ashes

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