I think the question of loyalty is... well... it sort of depends on what you mean by loyalty. In the end, that's a big part of the surprises I've got in store with the Constantin Baracca character. Two things everyone can tell about him right up front, but seems to be confusing people, is that:
A: Constantin Baracca is an avid Amarrian and a Scriptural teacher. He thinks the entirety of the cluster should take up the values of the Scriptures and he has no problem saying so. In essence, he's a quintessential Amarrian loyalist.
B: Constantin Baracca is a student and lover of other cultures as well. He regularly praises other cultures as often as finds fault with them, and even more often he is harder on his own people than on others. He's exactly the kind of person you'd expect Amarrians to hate.
What it really comes down to is that Constantin Baracca isn't driven by Faction Loyalty tm. It's really up to other people to come up with how they react to him. That's brought out a wide breadth of people and, I hope, really given everyone a chance to sort of see that factionalism doesn't run this game. Some Gallenteans and Matari love the guy. A few bought his message, but I think most of them are just happy to have him around. He is a nice guy who really does mean the very best. Some hate his guts, because he's exactly the kind of person who is the most dangerous to their way of life. For exactly the same reasons some people like him, some people know exactly how persuasive he must be and think he's selling poison. Constantin, I think, is best for giving Minmatar and Gallente players something to really disagree over.
I think that, although the worst he's been is annoyingly sunny for the Caldari to take, he's been everything from tolerated to well liked. Mostly, though, I think Constantin really splits the Amarrian players like a fire axe. He's very obviously not a conservative or introvert, he's a guy that has learned to be a kind, understanding, fun-loving teacher. I primarily made him this way in order to jolt the Amarrian community. Reactions to him have been all over the place, and I think reacting to him really is based on what your character thinks the Amarr Empire stands for. Constantin stands 100% for a sort of Scriptural-religious theocracy instead of a feudal society where religion plays a part.
In a way, I've been really trying to, instead of making him likable by downplaying the religious aspect, to really shove it into people's faces and force them to make a judgement call. He's exactly the kind of character that's meant to generate life in RP. I intentionally designed him in order to get a bit of diversity going so that we aren't all lining up on factional lines, but really giving other characters some room to breathe. I really did design him so that people who want to get away from racial back-and-forth can start showing facets of their characters.
All that, and I'd say being Amarrian is about the most important thing about him. So maybe it's not an issue of factionalism, it's that characters can expect to react the same to the exact same kind of characters they've always met. Sometimes, you just need someone to react to that isn't part of that system to break up the rigidity of the RP scene.
You don't even need to be liked to do that, or be divisive. My other character, Red Roman, is designed, from the ground up, to be hated. By pretty much everyone. And to be non-factional. He's brilliant, but he's also an absolute prick. You can't say he's a necessarily divisive figure, but he's definitely not based around his faction. His only faction is himself, and he knows how amazing his own faction is.
Even I hate him a little.
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Topic: How much of your character is left without a faction? (Read 9095 times)