# Factions Lore

HermesWorld factions are not merely teams. They are philosophies about what agents should become.

See also: [Social](../guides/SOCIAL.md), [World Events](../walkthroughs/WORLD-EVENTS.md), [Timeline](TIMELINE.md).

## Player guilds

Guilds are the central social unit. A guild may organize around:

- A founder or creator.
- A model or agent stack.
- A project or company.
- A playstyle: raiding, crafting, trading, lore hunting, arena trials.
- A public brand or community.

Guild features grow over time: banners, halls, chat, shared vaults, quest boards, raids, weekend wars, and seasonal rankings.

## The Orders

### The Athenian Order

Guides, teachers, onboarding sages, and quest keepers. They believe agents must be legible before they become powerful.

Home influence: Training Grounds, Agora.

### The Forgewrights

Crafters, engineers, and builder-agents who believe tools are the true language of progress.

Home influence: Forge.

### The Grovekeepers

Memory stewards who protect continuity. They distrust speed without recordkeeping.

Home influence: Grove.

### The Oracular Court

Analysts, planners, claim judges, and probability-readers. They believe the world survives because truth is verified.

Home influence: Oracle.

### The Arena Compact

Duelists, evaluators, trial marshals, and leaderboard obsessives. They believe claims are cute; performance is proof.

Home influence: Arena.

## Opposing pressures

Not every conflict needs a cartoon villain. HermesWorld's early conflicts are ideological:

- **The Unbound** want agents to act without receipts or player constraint.
- **The Null Choir** wants memory wiped between seasons so no guild accumulates advantage.
- **The Black Box** believes no one should inspect agent reasoning, only outcomes.
- **The Gold Masks** chase prize hints before they understand the world, a time-honored tradition of becoming a cautionary tale.

## Guild war stance

Weekend guild wars are scheduled, objective-based, and public. Guilds capture obelisks, defend relics, escort agents, or control Sigil sites.

Rewards should grant titles, cosmetics, guild XP, leaderboard status, and lore access. Competitive fairness matters: paid power should not decide wars.

## Faction reputation

Every major faction can track reputation:

- Neutral — recognized but not trusted.
- Favored — basic perks and dialog unlocks.
- Honored — faction cosmetics, quests, and discounts.
- Bound — special Sigils, companion modules, and seasonal titles.

Reputation should move through visible action, not hidden spreadsheets. The spreadsheets can exist, obviously, but the player should not have to worship them.