Factions
Factions
Optimization DirectorateThe city office that runs stabilization, language guidance and public-safety briefs; Dr. Mills is its Director. It keeps a list of citizen anomalies, data scavengers and streamers, and prefers quiet correction to lockdowns, sweeps and enforcers.First: Part 1, Chapter 5: Public Safety, p. 91The planning boardA board R.S. presented his correction protocols to seven years before Part 1; it also failed to model the South Concourse zoning rebalance for emotional load.First: Part 1, Chapter 3: Calibration Drift, p. 61Fluencer platform / FluencersThe influencer-class platform that staged the Civic Harmony Activation on the pier; Simone works through it, and the Directorate's sponsor liaison (Kemi) is its interface.First: Part 1, Chapter 8: Influence Geometry, p. 174Tuners / Echo TunersPeople who sync with places (walls, bridges, rooms) through Neural Orbit nodes at the temple. The rule is never to tune a person directly. Renee calls herself an Echo Tuner.First: Part 1, Chapter 9: Don't Pull Too Hard, p. 198Glitch hunters and streamersMekhi's trade: people who treat glitches as entertainment (the Directorate's phrase) or as proof (Mekhi's).First: Part 1, Chapter 6: The First Thread, p. 128OcritesCitizens who chose stillness over story: they hold that memory causes conflict and that a memory wipe is civic health. Markers are a teal strip of fabric on the wrist and a white ceramic bead at the throat. The book presents them as a philosophy, not a gang. Marrow is their spokesman in the basement circle; 'Tired Ocrites' are people drawn to rest, not ideology.First: Part 1, Chapter 11: Ocrite Split, p. 248The Dens / the Story Den circle / the KeepersCommunities of survivors and resisters who rely on testimony, ritual and copper. Grace's circle in the Story Den has seventy members in Part 2, called Keepers.First: Part 1, Chapter 7: The Sixth Chair, p. 165The sixRenee, Mekhi, R.S., Simone, Grace and Patrice: 'people who can hear the other hum'.First: Part 2, Prologue: What the Frequency Sounds Like Now, p. 4The Null ChoirHuman fail-safes: people who volunteered so completely for the optimization layer that they became part of the architecture. Three of them (two women and one man in slate and white wrap-shells) approach Renee on the lower promenade, blinking and breathing in unison.First: Part 2, Chapter 17: The Choir Arrives, p. 114The Quiet BranchIn Part 1 Mekhi's private name for what a Null Pocket is a miniature of. In Part 2 it is both a 'neighboring outcome' (a white, simplified skyline that spreads by comfort) and the name of the absolute rollout of the Failsafe that Dr. Mills authorises.First: Part 1, Chapter 12: Null Pockets, p. 277Enforcers and correction crewsPhysical enforcement the Directorate prefers to avoid; correction crews who 'correct' people after incidents appear in a testimony in Part 2.First: Part 1, Chapter 5: Public Safety, p. 109Neural Orbit usersPeople who wear violet-blue micro-node rings at the temple, sold as helping the body process the city's frequency.First: Part 2, Chapter 21: The Failsafe, p. 251