Quick note before we dive in: I know it's been a week since the last update. Life got in the way – between work, playtests, and just trying to stay ahead of the dust storms, time slipped by faster than a river smuggler dodging a patrol. Thanks for sticking around!

"Power ain’t always about badges and armies. Some folks work in the open. Others? They whisper in the dark, shaping the world in ways you’ll never see until it’s too late."
— Eliza Kane, Commonwealth Ranger

Perseverance is shaped by more than just the Commonwealth, corporate overlords, and outlaw warlords. Lurking in the shadows are secretive groups that operate outside the usual power structures – some seeking freedom, others chasing forbidden knowledge, and a few with motives no one truly understands. Some call them cults, rebels, or madmen. Others say they’re the only ones who see the truth.

This post explores the hidden factions working in the margins of Perseverance’s society – groups that can serve as allies, enemies, or mysteries to unravel in any campaign.

Doomsday Cults and the End of Perseverance

Some groups on Perseverance don’t just believe in surviving the frontier – they believe in its inevitable destruction. Doomsday cults have long found fertile ground in the harsh landscapes of Perseverance, preaching that the world is doomed, that an ancient reckoning is coming, or that only the chosen few will survive what’s ahead. Some claim divine visions, others claim to have uncovered hidden truths.

Among these movements, the most infamous is the Dustborn Prophets.

The Dustborn Prophets

"The land remembers, and it will rise again."
— Preacher Solomon Rho, leader of the Dustborn Prophets

The Dustborn Prophets are a radical sect that believes Perseverance is a living entity – a force of nature that will soon purge the weak and reclaim itself. They claim the planet was never meant to be settled and that every calamity – sandstorms, sinkholes, earthquakes – is part of the world fighting back. Some see them as harmless mystics. Others fear they might be more dangerous than they seem.

Their followers are scattered across mining camps, scavenger towns, and even hidden within Commonwealth settlements. Some members are peaceful preachers, warning of the coming reckoning. Others take a more direct approach, sabotaging technology, collapsing mines, and attacking settlements they see as violations of the planet’s will. Their leader, Solomon Rho, was once a respected scientist who vanished into the desert decades ago, only to return claiming he had "heard the planet speak."

Many dismiss the Dustborn Prophets as mere zealots, but those who underestimate them often regret it. Their numbers are growing, and in the deepest wastes of Perseverance, their influence is stronger than anyone realizes.

Trade Unions and Workers' Movements

While the corporations that control Perseverance extract immense wealth from its depths, not everyone is willing to accept their rule. Across mining towns and industrial settlements, workers have banded together in secret unions, underground resistance groups, and smuggler networks to push back against corporate control. Some fight for better wages, others for the right to own the land they work. Some are willing to negotiate. Others have no patience for diplomacy.

The most well-known and feared of these groups is the Free Miners’ League.

Free Miners’ League

"A man who owns the land should own what he digs out of it."
— Mila Cartwright, FML leader

The Free Miners’ League (FML) is an underground resistance movement fighting against the stranglehold that corporate interests have over Perseverance’s resources. To the Commonwealth, they are criminals. To miners and laborers, they are heroes fighting for a fair share. Their network spans safe houses, hidden smuggling routes, and illicit refineries that bypass corporate control.

Their leader, Mila Cartwright, was once a Commonwealth engineer who believed in the promise of lawful governance – until she saw firsthand how the corporations treated workers. Disillusioned, she vanished into the underground and emerged as one of the most formidable opponents of corporate dominance.

The League’s biggest goal is to expose and dismantle the most corrupt mining operations on Perseverance. This has made them enemies not only of the corporations but also of the Commonwealth officials who profit from the status quo. Some members advocate for a strategic approach – smuggling resources, forging documents, and negotiating for worker rights. Others believe that true change will only come through force, turning to sabotage and armed resistance. Regardless of their methods, every Free Miner knows one truth: once you take a stand against the corporations, you can never go back., bypassing corporate control.

Survivalist Movements

The wilderness of Perseverance does not forgive weakness. In the farthest reaches – beyond the last settlements, beyond the last known trade routes – live those who have chosen to abandon civilization entirely. Some are lone wanderers, eking out an existence in the tundra or the high mountains. Others form tight-knit survivalist communities, rejecting the rule of the Commonwealth, corporations, or any outside power.

For most of these groups, survival is the only ideology. They live off the land, trade only when necessary, and trust no one beyond their own kind. But among them, one stands apart – larger, more organized, and far more secretive.

The most feared of these enclaves is the Icebound Covenant.

The Icebound Covenant

"There is peace beyond the cold. You need only pay the price."
— High Speaker Avarin Kesh

The Icebound Covenant is an enigmatic and highly disciplined community that has taken root in the coldest, most inhospitable regions of Perseverance. To outsiders, they are a mystery – some say a cult, others a rogue society of scientists, warriors, and exiles who found something in the ice worth protecting.

Their leader, High Speaker Avarin Kesh, was once a Ranger, though records of his past have all but disappeared. Under his rule, the Covenant offers shelter, food, and security to those willing to embrace their doctrine – one that demands loyalty, secrecy, and absolute obedience. Those who join are rarely seen again, and those who betray them do not live to tell of it.

Rumors persist that the Covenant has uncovered lost Commonwealth technology buried deep within the ice, remnants of an era long before Perseverance was settled. Some believe they are using it to create an independent stronghold, cut off from the rest of the planet. Others whisper of experiments – alterations to the body, mind, or even the climate itself. The only certainty is that those who venture too close rarely return.. The Icebound Covenant rules over them with an iron grip, offering protection, food, and technology – but at a cost. Outsiders whisper that those who join never leave.

Truth Seekers

The frontier breeds its fair share of wild theories and whispered conspiracies. Some claim the Commonwealth is conducting secret experiments beneath the surface. Others insist that Perseverance was inhabited long before the first settlers arrived. From lone crackpots shouting in back-alley saloons to well-organized networks of information brokers, truth seekers span the spectrum from paranoid outcasts to those who genuinely hold dangerous knowledge.

Most are harmless – people trying to piece together the patterns of a chaotic world. Some, however, take it further, working in secret to uncover (or hide) the truths they believe in. Among these, none are more enigmatic than the Black Veil Society.

The Black Veil Society

"The past is a puzzle, and we hold the missing pieces."
— Cipher Lyris, Black Veil Operative

The Black Veil Society operates in the shadows, a secretive network of rogue scholars, hackers, and deep-space archaeologists who believe the Commonwealth is hiding something buried in Perseverance’s past. Unlike doomsday cults or political rebels, their cause is knowledge itself – or rather, the pursuit of what they call the "True History."

Members of the Black Veil claim that Perseverance was not the empty world the Commonwealth made it out to be. Their encrypted files, stolen from government archives and corporate vaults, hint at pre-settlement ruins, unexplained energy readings, and entire expeditions that vanished without a trace. While some dismiss them as paranoid theorists, others have seen the lengths to which the Commonwealth will go to silence their discoveries.

The Society works in cells, each unaware of the full scope of their own organization. Their operatives use coded signals, dead drops, and hidden message networks to share findings. Their leader, if one even exists, is a mystery. The only known figure linked to the Black Veil is Cipher Lyris, a former Commonwealth intelligence officer turned whistleblower. Whether she is their founder, a rogue agent, or simply another pawn in the greater game remains unknown.

Many seek to eliminate the Black Veil – corporations, the Commonwealth, even criminal syndicates who see them as a threat. But the Society persists, moving through the dark, piecing together the puzzle of Perseverance’s past. Because to them, the real danger isn’t just what they know – it’s what they have yet to uncover.

Conclusion: The Unseen Hands of Perseverance

"The Commonwealth, the warlords, the merchants – you see them. But it’s the ones you don’t see that shape your fate."
— Captain Jerro Quinn, trader

These hidden factions shape the world in ways most people never realize – until they do. Whether they act in the name of survival, revolution, or something far stranger, they ensure that Perseverance’s future remains unwritten.

Who do your characters trust? Who do they fear? And, most importantly, when the dust settles, will they stand in the light – or vanish into the shadows?