I think that assuming it will be another sectorial or faction split is thinking too small. I think it'll be more along the lines of a faction leaving the Sphere, possibly aligning with CA (or Tohaa, but that seems unlikely). My bet is on Ariadna as a whole joining CA.
And then CA has like 8 Sectorials? Naaaaaah. Especially because while a minor power, Ariadna seems to get some preferential treatment by O-12 since they have a bone to pick with the Hyperpowers.
Based on what was originally leaked back in the waybacks (~2008ish, very early on in the game), there was a plan for a trilogy-of-trilogies, with the Core book, Human Sphere, and Campaign Paradiso making up the three books of the first trilogy, to establish the setting and set up the middle of the story arc. The middle of the story arc was supposed to be three books of the CA kicking all the ass, and finally to have Ariadna come back as the saviors of the Human Sphere in the final three books. So Ariadna would be possibly the least likely to join the CA, not least because they don't have enough tech to be interesting to the EI (no chance of Ascending themselves), and have basically no Cubes for the EI to Sepsitorize, either. Exrah showing up in the Human Sphere as mercs or even joining the Nomads would be interesting.
And how mad would you be if I was right? I mean, we are talking about CB here. Tigers in IA, right? Maybe the next book is the invasion of Earth though.
Touche! That was certainly implied at the end of Campaign Paradiso, the EI Aspect is holding what is clearly a hologlobe of Earth.
Given a trilogy of trilogies, where are we now with the N3 rewrites of Core and Human Sphere, but not Paradiso? 1. Core, HS, Paradiso; Uprising, 3rd Off, (3rd book). 2. Core, HS, Uprising; 3rd Off, (2nd book), (3rd book).
Bostria was pretty clear in the latest video that Uprising, 3rdO, and AYUTPTBRAA (As Yet Unnamed Third Part To Be Released At Adepticon) made up a trilogy. HSN3 also included most of the plot points from C:P, including the Tohaa.
That's why I was confused. They included all that stuff, skipped rewriting Paradiso, and went on to Uprising, which seems like it would fit better in the first trilogy because it establishes the setting. And if the CA are supposed to be kicking ass in the second act, there wasn't a lot of CA in Uprising.
My understanding was Core, HSN3, Uprising, 3O, (2nd book), (3rd book), but it appears I was mistaken. If Uprising, 3O, and the next book form the end of the 'first trilogy', that makes a bit more sense, though Uprising could easily have been part of the post-Paradiso arc (at least if we're blaming the Uprising on a bajillion Speculo).
Normally I am one of the first to call you crazy, but you might be on to something here. I could see O-12 being released as a faction, and co-opting Military Orders as a sectorial. I think there is already some fluff, that the Santiagos are under O-12 supervision to help police the circulars. Military Orders as an O-12 sectorial could still loan out key knight factions to PanO sectorials, but they might disapear from Vanilla PanO. And then to spread the rage, (especially Kan's) Knights my find themselves seeded into other sectorials, maybe even Yu-Jing. As to the bigger than uprising shake up of Infinity, don your tinfoil hats, and follow me down the rabbit hole. CA sepestorizes Aleph. Because of their deep integration, PanO and YuJing go down with Aleph. All those plucky heroes who resist the assimilation of Aleph, get to be shoved out to NA2 armies This divides the game into two main factions: CA / Aleph / PanO / Yu Jing vs Ariadna / Nomads / Haqqislam / NA2 The creators' sympathetic factions (Ariadna and Nomads) get to be the hero factions. Fluff wise individual players could still claim that their division of PanO or YuJing troops have resisted the assimilation and are fighting the CA take over. CA finally looks like the bad-ass they are supposed to be, but never managed because they are outnumbered 8 factions to 1. Fans loose their minds over the massive shakeup. The forums burn down in flame wars.
Tohaa gate is closed. Tohaa will no longer be a faction. Tohaa spirit lives on as Spiral Corp, conveniently shoved into NA2. Four factions per side. Symmetry is obtained. Full Disclosure, I have made wild predictions before, and haven't been right once so far, never-the-less, I am bound to get it right one of these times!
No way! What we need is the Morats and Shivastramipastaboys to rebel! CA vs CA! Seriously though, I don't want half the human factions to get mind controlled. It feels wrong. And lets, be honest, with ALEPH, PanO and Yu Jing, the CA basically take over 75% of the Human Sphere, most of it's resources, the best tech and the rest really barely stands a chance when it comes to fighting back. This only creates a "Resistance to alien occupation going on" scenario. Or X-COM. It's a no win scenario for humanity. But if the various aliens in the CA split, it can create a much larger world, similar to Mass Effect where various species coexist, if with difficulties. Basically that brings the game back to shadow ops rather than all out war that the CA brings.
I could totally see either a Shas rebellion from the EI; or another one of the Shas worldships, one that didn't run into the EI, meeting up with humanity and allying against the EI. Before the idiot humans bombed that absurdly-well-defended facility that we thought was a command and control node but was actually a DNA repository/creche, I honestly thought humans and Shas had a chance of working together. Shas can inhabit planets that humans can't, so it's relatively simple to come to an agreement about "OK, Shas can have most of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, plus Venus and the planetoid Pluto, Humanity gets the rest of that solar system. Shas can have any inner or outer planets not currently claimed by humans in any of the other systems of the Human Sphere, and we will just trade for what we need. Shas can be first-in scouts for new wormholes if they want, humans and Shas will work together on all exploration missions."
@Section9: This story was written so long ago, that I can see the idea changed. Shas are the ultimate pragmatists - race survival comes first, all other considerations are secondary. They might come to hate humans after that attack, but I doubt they'd go fully into fanatic mode. Especially after some cooler heads would argue: "Hey, in a way we brought this on ourselves, it was kinda stupid to build a kindergarten in an active warzone". I'd say that if at some point the pros of allying with humans would outweight the cons (again, survival-wise), Shas would do it in a heartbeat. Of course EI would do everything to prevent that, and keep Shasvastii firmly in the anti-human camp. Hell, I wouldn't put it past it to be the silent instigator of the whole incident, first by influencing Shas to create the facility before the planet was secured, and then by leaving some gap in the security arrangements for humans to spot and capitalize upon. And then there's the possibility of other Shas ships existing out there, those which never came under the EI's influence.
