Revision 2

Corporations and Factions

The city of Nivalis is defined by its power structures. Corporations rule. Governments are irrelevant. The gangs want to harvest your organs, and the Corps will fine you for breathing. This is not a city with a functioning democracy or a balanced set of institutions. It is a place where power belongs to whoever can seize it and hold it, and where ordinary people like you have to figure out who to trust, who to avoid, and who to work with in order to survive and get ahead.

Corps Sec

Corps Sec is the prevailing security authority in Nivalis. They are a corporate security force that enforces the rule of capitalism above all else. The police, in any traditional sense, barely exist. Corps Sec fills the gap, but their priorities are not about public safety. They are about protecting corporate interests and maintaining the economic hierarchy.

In practice, this means Corps Sec representatives will warn you against collaborating with local businesses in ways that might disrupt the established order. They see independent business owners as a potential threat to the corporate structures they serve. Working too openly against corporate interests can attract unwanted attention, while playing along with their rules provides a degree of protection and stability.

Corps Sec patrols thin out late at night, which is part of why the city becomes more dangerous in the hours leading up to the 2 AM curfew. During the day, their presence is more visible, especially in commercial areas and wealthier districts. The uneven coverage creates pockets of the city where other groups operate more freely.

Underground Syndicates

On the other end of the spectrum are the underground syndicates and gangs that operate in the shadows of the city. These groups are violent, opportunistic, and dangerous. The game's official description does not mince words: the gangs want to harvest your organs. That is not a metaphor. The lower levels of the city, where Corps Sec presence is thinnest, are where these groups hold the most power.

Aligning with underground syndicates offers access to black-market opportunities, including energy trading and other off-books deals that can be extremely profitable. The risk is real, though. Syndicate contacts can be unreliable, and getting too deep into their world can create complications that affect your businesses and your safety.

Grassroots Neighborhood Groups

Not everyone in Nivalis is either a corporate enforcer or a criminal. The third major faction category consists of grassroots neighborhood groups: ordinary citizens who have banded together to look out for each other. These groups represent community interests and often push back against both corporate overreach and gang violence.

Aligning with neighborhood groups offers a different set of benefits. Their connections tend to be more stable and trustworthy than syndicate contacts, and their support can help you build a reputation in the community that translates into loyal customers and local goodwill. The trade-off is that neighborhood groups operate within tighter ethical boundaries, which may limit some of the more lucrative but morally questionable opportunities available elsewhere.

CORA

CORA is the master AI that was built to oversee the city of Nivalis. Originally designed as an urban management system, CORA has grown beyond its original purpose over the years. In the shared universe established by Cloudpunk, CORA plays a significant role in city governance, though the nature of that role and its current state in the events of Nivalis adds layers to the lore.

While CORA is not a faction you interact with in the same way as Corps Sec or the syndicates, the AI's presence is woven into the background of the city. Systems, infrastructure, and certain city functions trace back to CORA's influence, and understanding the AI's role helps explain why the city operates the way it does.

Player Alignment Choices

The faction system in Nivalis is built around player choice. You are not locked into a single alliance. Your decisions about who to work with, who to help, and who to oppose reshape your gameplay opportunities across the entire experience. Siding with corporate enforcers provides certain advantages. Working with underground syndicates opens different doors. Supporting grassroots neighborhood groups creates yet another path.

These choices are not abstract. They affect which districts you have easy access to, which NPCs are willing to do business with you, what kinds of deals become available, and how the broader city reacts to your presence. Relationships with factions are tracked through the game's relationship system, which uses a dynamic Cartesian plane with four axes: enemy, friend, business, and romance. Your faction standing feeds into this system, shaping how individual NPCs within each group perceive you.

Faction Overview

The Bigger Picture

The faction system in Nivalis reflects the game's cyberpunk setting. Power is distributed unevenly, the institutions that are supposed to serve the public serve themselves instead, and ordinary people are caught between forces that see them as either resources to exploit or obstacles to remove. Your position as an independent business owner places you at the intersection of all these interests. Every faction wants something from you, and what you give them, or refuse to give them, defines the kind of life you build in the city.

The developers have described Nivalis as "cyberpunk not just as an aesthetic, but as a lived simulation." The faction system is a core part of what makes that description accurate. You are not watching the power struggles of the city from the outside. You are in the middle of them, making choices that tip the balance in ways large and small, every single day.