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« on: May 30, 2017, 12:10:39 AM »
Hmm. Rather than edit it into the strings of the mod, I figured I should put the faction description here.
> (to go into) nomads,FACTION,"",,, <
"Across the eons, only a small fraction of humanity have ever seriously contemplated trading an anchored life for an eternal journey. Regardless of whether the choice was between a house and the roads, or a planet and the stars, humanity has generally preferred the stability of a sedentary life over one spent wandering through the vastness of Creation. Home was a concept rooted on firm ground, and even the most adventurous of pirates would find tempting the prospect of retirement into some freeport cartel. After all, who would tell their stories if they died ignominiously in some forgotten corner of the sector?
To those bitten with wanderlust, however, hyperspace travel was the ultimate gateway drug. One group of these minorities came to be called the Nomads - simply named due to the sheer age of their distinct civilisation relative to all other nomadic splinters. The Nomads' origin stretches before even the Domain of Man, when according to legend hyperspace was pierced by bright and colorful trails - outpacing the rudimentary droneships exploring the neighborhood of fabled Earth. A fleet of ill-fitted ships departed the cradle of humanity for the unknown expanse, carrying explorers who were driven to see the galaxy for themselves and who could not endure being spoilered by blurred hypercomm images. Neither the destination of this first fleet nor the names of their crew are now knowable, and given the dangers of hyperspace to long-term health unknown to the initial explorers it is also likely that the present civilisation is mostly descended from later participants during the initial Domain epoch. Nevertheless, their indomitable spirit remains within all those who now call the Oasis fleet home.
Based on their current fleet technology, the initial Nomad fleet likely maintained sporadic contact with early Domain settlers, then broke off as the frontiers became increasingly militarized. The inexorable exploitation of both planet and people drove the Nomads away from colonized space, and were it not for the Collapse we may never hear of them again. However, it seems that the Nomads somehow become aware of the calamity - and then became curious of what had befallen humanity as each sector was left to fend for itself. At least, this is what the Oasis fleet claims after it emerged within hyperspace sensors and establishes contact with a shocked independent scavenger fleet. The fleet currently tours this sector, mining resources from unclaimed planets and conducting restricted trade with the major factions while maintaining some distance from population centers. A small outpost has even been established in a minor system, raising the suspicious eyebrows of many Hegemony and Tri-tachyon security officers.
Will they prove to be a painful reminder of ancient history, or a beacon to humanity's future?
"