Building Joinable Factions!
I know, can I pick riveting topics or what?
I shall explain. No, there is too much, I shall sum up. When worldbuilding, you’re going to need to create factions, whether psuedo-medieval kingdoms in your fantasy world, that rebellion against the oppressive corporate in your dystopian near future world, or the other rebellion against the tyrannical galactic government in your space opera - you’re gonna need people to have some sides.
There’s a much older post on here someplace about Grey Powers somebody wrote on this place a while back that goes on and on (and on) about making interesting, morally grey factions so that your worldbuilding avoids Mary Sue/Gary Stu factions (factions that always win, because they’re clearly the author’s favorite). That’s all well and good for making balance and tension between your powers, but at some point - like after HBO has turned your novel series into a long running series and Milton Bradley sends their goons to your house - somebody is going to ask the question ‘what makes this faction likable?’
That’s when you’re going to be glad you did all this worldbuilding, because you’ll have build multiple factions in your world to be joinable: that is, to have some combination of traits that make them appeal to different readers or fans.
On some level, humans really like tribes. Don’t believe me? I’ll bet you a dollar that you or many of your friends and family have a tribe, and that tribe has totems, colors, songs, and regularly gathers for symbolic ritual combat against their rival tribe. We sometimes call these tribes sports franchises. You’re effectively creating good ‘tribes’ for your readers/players to develop an affinity for - and the better you can manage this, the stronger the bond with that faction will be, and the better they’ll enjoy your worldbuilding and the stories that grow out of it.
My favorite example of this is the Corvus Belli sci-fi skirmish game Infinity. They do a great job of not only establishing grey powers, but giving each of their big factions compelling reasons why a reader/gamer/rpg player might want to belong to those factions. They are eminently joinable.
What makes this happen? Different things appeal to different people, and if possible, try to make all of your factions vary slightly in their appeal. In all the nation posts I’ve scattered around, there are reasons a given reader or player might want to join Tigraen (harsh but noble stand against the dark powers), Sarmatti (on the side of the angels, literally), Aruthien (the tough underdogs), Pileus (old glory not yet faded), Gazea-Gozon (rebels with a cause!), or the Vigabrock (hey, it’s chaos, but we’re free!). These powers will draw different personalities to them - and that’s good. We want to give different people - idealists, pragmatists, the rebellious, the dedicated, and so forth - a place that feels like home for them and what they believe.
Try to understand what people like about the things they join voluntarily. Why do they join a given game’s Discord community? What about their hobby drew them in? Why do they like playing half-orcs? Take those impulses, boil them down into key motivations, and try to build those traits into your factions. If possible, try not to have six factions who are all law abiding meritocracies where arcane spellcasters are entrusted with absolute power - because there are some people who will LOVE that beyond all reason, but you’ll leave a lot of readers/players out in the cold, looking for their home.
Try to choose a key virtue for each faction. What is it that they do really well? Are they really honest? Good with money? Hard workers? Idealists? Poets?
Try to choose a key fault for each faction (many times, this is caused by their virtue) - where are they weak, or do they fail? Does their love of strength cause them to lack mercy for the week? Does their honesty make them easy to spy on? Does their insistence on writing everything in iambic pentameter embroil them in countless wars?
When naming, try to make sure each faction starts with a unique letter. You can have a Star Empire of Galas and the Star Empire of Zalas, and readers will be able to tell them apart much easier than Golon and Ganal.
Finally, remember to choose colors, iconography, and symbols for your faction. It’s a good idea not to share colors and symbols between them; you can have a red, blue, and green factions, but having three blue factions is probably a bad idea.