The Dimensional Rift
Everything starts, and ends within the rift
Within the intricate tapestry of the Rift series, the concept of sub-factions emerges as a profound reflection of the fractured realities and competing ideologies that shape the fate of every realm. These groups, both human and non-human, serve not merely as political or military entities but as embodiments of the deeper struggles, be they for power, freedom, faith, or survival, that drive the narrative forward. Each sub-faction possesses its own unique philosophy, history, and influence, often operating in the shadows or at the forefront of societal change. Their existence amplifies the complexity of the world, weaving together threads of allegiance, rebellion, tradition, and the pursuit of truth, all within the shadow of the Rift’s ever-unfolding story.
To understand these sub-factions is to peer beneath the surface of the realms, uncovering the motivations and destinies of those who stand apart from the main powers. Their roles are not limited to mere background; they are catalysts, challengers, and visionaries, shaping the course of events in ways both subtle and profound. Through their struggles and triumphs.
Below is a complete list of each sub-faction within the Rift:
Human Sub/Extra Factions
Lunar Industries: The leading manufacturer of armaments and cybernetics, and one of the only corporations that have a direct partnership with BlackRose Corp. This very corporation is responsible for all of BlackRose Corps weapons and vehicles, excluding naval ships.
(D.F.D) Department of Federal Defense: A subsidiary of BlackRose’s government sector and is part of the defense branch. This department is known to oversee global defense throughout the colonies, and is usually seen as an advanced police force, like a combination of SWAT and the FBI. As such the D.F.D is only ever sent in for issues that threaten the safety of the people, in the hope to resolve the issue before BlackRose must step in with military force.
(E.R.R.U) Emergency Rapid Response Unit: Another subsidiary within the BlackRose government sector and is responsible for disaster relief and major medical aid, in all systems and colonies that are within BlackRose’s jurisdiction. All medics and doctors that are a part of this medical branch are combat trained to the same level as any D.F.D soldier and combat agent, this allows them to provide aid in any situation, along with being able to defend themselves.
(C.I.U) Crime Investigation Unit: General government subsidiary of BlackRose’s public sector, responsible for maintaining the law along with enforcing it as its Police force. Each colony always has its own division that is funded by its own local government branch of the BlackRose general government sector.
Null: A shadowy collective rumoured to be comprised of hackers and infobrokers, Null is shrouded in secrecy, its true membership and motives elusive even to the most persistent investigators. Their reputation is built upon delivering information others cannot, or will not, obtain, often through methods that skirt, if not outright defy, legal and ethical boundaries. The particulars of their operations are closely guarded, but whispers suggest Null will stop at nothing to unearth secrets, leveraging a blend of digital infiltration, social engineering, and the occasional manipulation of unwitting assets. Those who seek them out know to ask few questions, for in the world of Null, information is currency, and the cost is never straightforward.
Lamenting Ouroboros: A formidable rebellion and crime syndicate, Lamenting Ouroboros stands as the most direct and relentless adversary to BlackRose Corp’s government and military sectors. Rejecting the corporation’s grip on society, this organisation is unapologetic in breaking laws if it means advancing the cause of freedom from militaristic and governmental oppression. Lamenting Ouroboros serves as a refuge and rallying point for those overlooked or cast aside by the system—individuals branded as “societal waste”, outcasts, and those enduring hardship unite under its banner. Their rallying cry, “break the cycle”, encapsulates a collective yearning to shatter the endless loop of control and marginalisation, presenting a vision diametrically opposed to the self-consuming symbolism of the Ouroboros. Through coordinated resistance, resourceful criminal enterprises, and a fierce determination, the group strives to empower the disenfranchised and forge a new path outside the iron grasp of BlackRose Corp. The founder of Lamenting Ouroboros is a figure lost to legend, shrouded in enigma and secrecy, their true identity has become one of the most enduring mysteries among the colonies. No official records exist of their birth, background, or even appearance; any trace of their existence has seemingly been purged from every data archive, leaving a void where facts should be. No one can say whether the founder was male, female, or even a machine, and rumours swirl regarding their fate, alive and orchestrating operations from the shadows, imprisoned, long dead, or simply vanished without a trace. This uncertainty has fuelled endless conspiracy theories as to who, or what, the founder truly was, adding another layer of intrigue to the syndicate’s mythos.
Cerberus Dynamics: A leading corporation in robotics and autonomous support technology, Cerberus Dynamics has become one of the most influential manufacturers across the colonies, known especially for its widely deployed A.S.H and H.A.S.U models. These machines can be seen almost everywhere, from hospitals, news stations, civil laboratories, administration offices, and public transport hubs to the Crime Investigation Unit, the Emergency Rapid Response Unit, the BlackRose Corp military sector, and many other corporate or civil service branches. While officially presenting itself as a neutral provider of reliable robotic labour, technical assistance, and public support units, Cerberus Dynamics holds immense quiet power through the sheer scale of its technology’s presence in everyday life. Its machines guide civilians, assist medical staff, handle records, monitor facilities, support emergency teams, patrol restricted zones, and reinforce military operations, making the corporation nearly impossible to separate from modern colonial infrastructure. Though trusted by many for its innovation and efficiency, others view Cerberus Dynamics with unease, fearing that a company whose creations stand in every station, street, laboratory, hospital, battlefield, and government facility may possess more influence than any corporation should ever be allowed to hold. The A.S.H model line is Cerberus Dynamics’ most common light-service platform, designed less for warfare and more for the everyday civilian systems that keep the colonies functioning. A.S.H units are built with lightweight modular frames, soft-response servomotors, low-impact mobility systems, voice-recognition interfaces, biometric safety scanners, and adaptive task processors suited for hospitals, news stations, civil laboratories, education centres, reception offices, archives, transport terminals, and other public-facing sectors. In medical environments, they assist with patient guidance, equipment delivery, sanitation checks, medicine transport, basic triage support, and the monitoring of non-critical wards. In news and media facilities, they operate as camera assistants, archive handlers, lighting coordinators, translation aides, signal monitors, and automated floor staff. Within civil labs and administrative departments, A.S.H units manage samples, organise files, maintain clean-room procedures, support clerical workloads, and perform repetitive technical tasks too delicate or time-consuming for ordinary personnel. Their design emphasises safety, politeness, precision, and approachability, with rounded chassis plating, restricted strength output, non-threatening visual profiles, and behavioural protocols that prioritise cooperation over command authority. By contrast, the H.A.S.U line remains the heavier and more specialised branch of Cerberus robotics, designed for security, combat support, riot suppression, rescue extraction, hazardous containment, and battlefield logistics. H.A.S.U models can be refitted with reinforced armour plating, tactical optics, medical stabilisation equipment, forensic scanning arrays, non-lethal restraint systems, or military-grade weapon mounts depending on the client’s contract and legal clearance. The difference between the two lines is often described simply: A.S.H keeps society moving, while H.A.S.U protects it when order begins to fail. Cerberus Dynamics is credited with revolutionising colonial automation through the creation of affordable light-service robotics that could be safely integrated into civil society without causing public alarm or requiring heavily trained operators. Its A.S.H models became essential across hospitals, media networks, civil research facilities, municipal offices, and transport systems, where their reliability dramatically reduced workload strain and improved daily operational efficiency. The H.A.S.U line later earned a feared reputation after being adopted by high-security branches and BlackRose military forces, proving capable of maintaining defensive lines, extracting wounded personnel under fire, and operating in environments too unstable for human soldiers. Cerberus also pioneered modular robotics contracts, allowing clients to customise units for healthcare, broadcasting, laboratory assistance, clerical support, policing, rescue, construction, forensic analysis, or combat support, a practice that reshaped how colonies purchased and deployed machine labour. Perhaps its greatest achievement, however, is the near-total integration of its robotics into everyday infrastructure, making Cerberus Dynamics not simply a manufacturer, but one of the hidden pillars upon which modern colonial society now depends.
Non-Human Sub/Extra Factions
Paragons of the echo: Lead by Yuuki Moonvail within the demon realm. This faction focuses on the idea of free will, equality and peace in the demon realm. Following in the footsteps of certain Moonvail ancestor along with carrying on the legacy they left behind.
Divinity of Ruination: A religious group that follows the God of Destruction. this group seeks out to bring their god back to his full power, and bring about a calamity that would rend the realms back into nothingness. It is unknown if the group still exists or what the current status of the God of Destruction is.
Sentinels of Avalon: A group of powerful warriors and guardians within the Fairy Realm, that consist of mainly of Barghests. These guardians take it upon themselves to keep guard over the Garden of Destined Rest, Avalon. The sentinels have kept to this oath to protect this place ever since the realm came to be. The Fairy King and the Queen of Dragon Isle being the very ones that gave them this order.
The Twelve Heavenly Zodiacs: Known simply as the divine council within the Celestial realm, this council has a higher level of control and authority over the realm, second only to the Celestian Queen, the Goddess of Innocence and Truth herself. The responsibilities that the council oversees is to rule the realm in the stead of the Goddess of Innocence and Truth, and ensure the realm is both politically and economically stable. Each seat in the council is given a title and name, and the name they are given acts as a symbol of the seat they hold in the council. The highest seat and name within the Twelve Zodiacs, is that of the 1st seat, Leo, and the lowest being that of the 12th seat, Pisces.
The Seven Paladins of Virtue: A group valiant and virtuous paladins that directly serve both the Twelve Zodiacs and the Celestian Queen. Those paladins acting as the embodiment of the virtue they possess, these paladins are themselves equivalent to royal knights of the realm, holding the highest form of honour and esteem, and by being one is to uphold the peace of the realm and kingdom no matter what. Each paladin holds the name and title of one of the seven virtues, the virtue showing their rank within the seven, along with their strength. To become one, one must be both blessed and chosen by the Goddess of Virtues herself.
The Seven Knights of Sin: Similar to that of the Seven Paladins of Virtue in principle, only difference being that they serve directly under the Demon King and the Six Scales of Gehenna. Unlike their counterpart these knights are not of virtue, but instead are of Sin, each knight holding the title and name of one of the seven sins, showing their rank and strength within the seven. Even though these knights are of sin, they still hold considerable pride, honour, and esteem within the Demon realm.
The Six Scales of Gehenna: the exact counterpart of the Twelve Zodiacs, being that of a divine council within the Demon realm, much like the Twelve Zodiacs they themselves hold a higher level of control and authority over the realm, second only to the Demon King, the God of Strength and Battle himself. Their responsibilities are much the same as the Twelve, overseeing the rule of realm in the stead of the Demon King, and ensure the realm is both politically and economically stable. Unlike with their counterpart, this council only holds six seats of power within the council, those six in order of leader and highest power, to weakest and lowest of power: Scale of Unity, Scale of Treachery, Scale of Torture, Scale of Execution, Scale of Apathy, and lastly Scale of Thievery.
Whispering Veil: Of a boundless coalition of transcendental and divine unity, acting as a council of the Gods as well as serving as a pantheon of the Gods themselves. Lead by the Goddess of Creation as the matriarch and overseer of the ethereal council of divine authority. To be a God, is to be a part of the pantheon and council without question. Although they are considered a Divine council, they will more often than not, completely ignore general issues and calamities that would befall the mortal plane, with the sole exception if the issue or calamity is grand enough to threaten an entire realm that a sect of the Gods rules over.
Knights Hollow: In the Nihility Plane this knights order is similar to that of The Seven Paladins of Virtue, The Seven Knights of Sin, and the Sentinels of Avalon in nature. Serving as the realm's finest soldiers and guards, that protect and fight for the Queen of Terminus, to which the captain of the order serves directly under the Queens rule as both bodyguard and right-hand advisor. These knights are thought by many to be the embodiment of resolve, loyalty, and faith towards their kingdom and Queen.
Hands of the Tarot Creed: A small, independent creed born in the cracks between realms, the Hands of the Tarot Creed gather those cast out by law, blood, faith, or fate, outcasts, sinners, the forgotten, the hated, and all others marked as unworthy across the Demon, Fairy, Abyssal, and Celestial realms. They are not bound by kingdom, divine order, or lineage, but by exile and recognition, finding kinship among those whom the wider world has named monstrous, impure, or lost. Yet from that ruin they forge a grim identity of their own. The creed follows one sacred and unforgiving rule above all else: to follow in truth, in the form of the card one is called upon by and named after. To bear a card is to surrender to its meaning, walk in its omen, and become the living hand of its arcana, whether that path leads to salvation, judgment, ruin, or revelation.
Night Watchers Order (Fallen): A sacred and secretive knightly order of the Fairy Realm, the Night Watchers were founded by the Dunn family and led by Tristan Dunn, standing in spirit beside the Sentinels of Avalon while differing in purpose and method. Where the Sentinels are steadfast guardians of a holy place, the Night Watchers swore an unbreaking oath to protect the people and the kingdoms of the realm by any means necessary, though never at the cost of honour, discipline, or knightly ethics. Their members were divided into three separate groups and assigned across the realm as sworn bodyguards to its ruling families and kingdoms, making them not only hidden protectors, but living shields woven into the political heart of the Fairy Realm. Once counted among the realm’s most formidable and revered orders, they were all but destroyed during the attack on the Grand Palace of Tír na nÓg, when Catherine Vermillion descended upon the capital like a solitary storm of ember, smoke, and ruin. In that single calamity, the Night Watchers were nearly exterminated defending crown, court, and kingdom, and their legacy was left shattered beneath the ash of a burning age. Of that once-mighty Order, only Zoey Dunn is said to remain—the last survivor, and the final bearer of the Night Watchers’ forgotten oath.
Brotherhood of the Dreamless: A secretive and deeply hidden brotherhood that exists in the spaces between faith, dream, and fate, the Brotherhood of the Dreamless follows the teachings and omens attributed to the God of Dreams and Fate, though few among their ranks truly understand who, or what they worship. The god they venerate is remembered only through fragments of dreams, half-forgotten visions, and cryptic signs left behind in the waking world, making their faith one built upon mystery rather than certainty. Members of the brotherhood believe that fate reveals itself through subtle threads woven into mortal lives, and dedicate themselves to interpreting these signs and guiding others along the paths laid before them. Though regarded by many as little more than wandering mystics, prophets, or dream-readers, the order quietly influences events across the realms, ever seeking to follow the will of the unseen and unknowable being they call the Lord of the Dreamless Deep, trusting in a purpose they can neither fully comprehend nor truly remember. The Brotherhood's rituals are deliberately simple, for its followers believe that certainty obscures fate and that truth is found only within ambiguity. Members gather in secluded shrines, forgotten clearings, and silent chambers lit by dim violet candles, where they enter long periods of meditation and dream-sleep known as the Silent Descent. During these rites, individuals record fragments of dreams, emotions, symbols, and half-remembered conversations upon scrolls called Pages of the Unseen, believing that even the smallest detail may contain a thread of destiny. Prophecy within the brotherhood is never spoken as absolute fact; dreams are interpreted collectively, with multiple meanings accepted as equally valid. A common practice among initiates is the Rite of Forgetting, where one's own name, titles, or achievements are temporarily set aside in symbolic acknowledgement that all mortals are merely travelers upon paths woven by forces greater than themselves. Above all, the brotherhood teaches attentiveness, to dreams, coincidences, forgotten memories, and quiet acts of kindness, believing these subtle moments to be the truest messages left behind by the unknowable God of Dreams and Fate.
