Influence is set in a grounded, near-future sci-fi world. The result is a universe that feels real, with stories of the humans within Adalia that are relatable, but with the added difficulty and excitement of a setting in outer space.
Origin story
Influence Website
Influence places a strong emphasis on futuristic realism. One of its most defining traits as a game operating in the science-fiction genre is its lack of more commonplace genre conventions, such as: faster-than-light travel, suspended animation hibernation, alien species, or exoplanet terraforming. Instead of incorporating these concepts, Influence focuses on near-future realism as much as possible.
The characters are the descendents of pioneers that left Earth and the Solar System, took the slow way to another star system, lived out whole generations within their large self-contained ship, and discovered on arrival that they could not make any of the potential colony sites habitable with the technology available to them. This leads them to look to the Asteroid belt, in hopes that they will be able to survive and one day thrive among these harsh landscapes. Fortunately, after initial scanning was performed, the raw components to sustain life were found to exist there but, of course, doing the work to sustain their lives was an entirely different story.
Influence strives to stay between 4.5 and 5 on the Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness. It assumes that humans will reach the level of space travel, space-based industrial capacity, sustainability, and planning required to launch and sustain a population of about 10,000 people in complete isolation for 150 years and extrapolates out the delta-vee capabilities to make an interstellar voyage within those 150 years (which are bold predictions, to be sure), but otherwise attempts to stay grounded in modern science in all other things. Basically, the Arvad (the ship that housed all 11,100 passengers) herself is “magic”, but everything else is very real. Additionally, the Arvad is gone by the start of Exploitation, due to the colonists of Adalia breaking it down to build their first colony on Adalia Prime, so the magic is gone and the realism begins.
Influence is overwhelmingly based around Human versus Nature survival conflicts, with a secondary focus on Human versus Society, or Human versus Self, conflicts driven by living in such an isolated but also communal environment.
A small number of Human versus Human conflicts can arise, especially as we approach the release of the Conflict expansion later in the game’s roadmap, but Influence is generally a heated-but-not-quite-violent setting. These characters all grew up together in what is essentially a small community completely alone in the universe, and there isn’t much of a sense of “other” within the resulting society. There is certainly prejudice and a very real class structure that leads to class strife, but the people of the Arvad are not usually aggressive by nature. Additionally, please remember that there was a fixed number of only 11,100 people aboard the Arvad in the worldbuilding lore, so please try not to kill too many of them.
The total population, societal nature, and attitudes towards open violence of the younger Native Adalians that did not grow up in the much more communal environment of the Arvad is left as an exercise for the writers, however.
The story of the Adalians is one of unlikely survival in the face of a series of enormous setbacks. It is a generally optimistic story, although they believe that they can never go back to the Solar System that their ancestors came from nor join the rest of the generational ships at the original planned destination.
The Adalians are completely isolated from the rest of humanity by the lack of any kind of faster than light travel, fated to live out their lives in the Adalia asteroid belt for untold generations. No one is coming for them and they have no means of leaving again. However, they are also a small, tight-knit group of people that all essentially grow up together in the equivalent of a small isolated community, and started off with a high degree of dedication to the common good (although this may begin to wane as humanity spreads out in the asteroid belt).
The Adalians are clever and industrious, and able to overcome a series of problems threatening their survival by building new things from the resources of the belt. But they are also a very nostalgic group that grew up with most of the creative legacy of humanity in the Ship’s Archives. There are a small (and decreasing) number of things from Earth in Adalia, but many of them ended up being melted down during shipbreaking, including the only home they had ever known: the Arvad herself.
Adalia is a true frontier, with incredible material wealth but also completely devoid of humanity before the arrival of the Arvad. The original plan was to arrive at an already explored and partly developed habitable world with all the other generational ships of the fleet. Instead, the Adalians will be bootstrapping an entire industrial economy from scratch. But this empty frontier also gives Adalians a level of self-determination almost unprecedented in history: the ability to be the absolute ruler of a tiny rock floating by itself in space.
Onboard the Arvad, there was a class divide between Specialists with important duties, and Citizens that had less critical duties. There were further levels to this, with the Subject Matter Experts (SME) of the Prime Council being more important than the average Specialist by virtue of being the one-and-only top expert aboard the ship on their specific topic, and then the Department Heads (and their handful of appointed direct reports) in a leadership role over even the SMEs, with the ability to overrule, dismiss, and replace SMEs at will.
Remember, the game is called Influence, and the primary currency is the amount of SWAY you have. This is intentional.
During the voyage, the Prime Council had an incredible amount of power in the enforcement of “the book” on the rest of the ship. “The book” was an extremely detailed, step-by-step guide on how to maintain a ship and a society for 140 years (the intended voyage duration, rather than the actual 150 years) in isolation, prepared by the top minds of the Generational Ship Program back in the Solar System.
However, “the book” did not cover what to do in the situation that the colonists found themselves in, and the situation only became more uncertain in the lead up to the shipbreaking period. The Prime Council (now leaderless with the resignation of the High Commander) still holds a lot of sway on the Adalia Prime Colony itself, and can still have economic impacts via their influence over the SWAY currency system.
Independence and self-determination are at an all-time high for the scattered colonists, almost even approaching the levels once enjoyed in the Solar System long ago. Huge amounts of colonist goodwill and support were burned in the frantic and uncertain shipbreaking period, leaving fewer Council Loyalists than at any point in the entire voyage.
A few examples of the general feeling that we are going for in Influence. These are more intended as convenient shorthands for larger ideas explained above; Influence is not trying to do things exactly the same as any of them.
A great example of futuristic realism and what day-to-day life in an asteroid belt might feel like, although Influence does not include conflict between entire planets or some of the more traditional sci-fi elements that arise later in the story.
A story so committed to futuristic realism, it happens essentially in the present. Great for its elements of survival in the face of overwhelming odds through applied science.
Influence’s creators have certainly been inspired by the grand strategic feeling of Eve. Conflict is planned for a future release and with it clashes of large groups of people, whether they call themselves alliances, corporations, or something new.
A sci-fi show that throughout its one season certainly focused on the individual stories of the crew, how they all came to respect each other, and their loyalty to the group.
The Arvad is the multi-generational ship on which the pioneers arrived in Adalia. Built to house thousands, the Arvad traveled for 150 years from Earth to reach Adalia at an average of roughly 10% the speed of light. The passenger living spaces are spun at between 2 and 3 RPM to achieve artificial gravity of 0.5g, which matched the gravity at the Arvad’s original destination. The Arvad is the only non-playable ship in Influence.
Statistics
The Adalia star system is comprised of the star Adalia, five planets, and an asteroid belt.
Adalia is both the name of the star Adalia and also the name of the whole Adalia star system. The humans living in the asteroid belt of Adalia are known as Adalians.
Also known as “Adalia Star”, “the star”, or sometimes inaccurately as “the sun”, Adalia is a main sequence star slightly smaller than Sol (the Earth’s Sun). Its exact specifications are:
Upon Arrival, the five planets were designated as A, B, C, D, and E by order of distance from the star Adalia. They were subsequently given names by the Coastin Cartographic Society.
The Adalian asteroid belt consists of 250,000 asteroids and within it there are varying size groups, spectral types, and all have unique orbital mechanics.
The belt is realistic, both in the resource variation and composition of each individual asteroid compared to others, and the massive distances between each of these asteroids. Most asteroids are between hundreds of thousands to millions of kilometers apart from each other.
Flying ships takes time, planning, and LOTS of fuel.
Adalia Prime is the very first of the colonies set up within the Adalian asteroid belt. It is where everything starts and the colonists learn the harsh realities of living in an inhospitable environment.
Colonists work together to form alliances, corporations, and supply chains that can support the ongoing efforts to expand further into the belt.
Over time Adalia Prime will continue to serve as a central hub for all new and existing crews across the belt.
Additionally, Adalia Prime is the largest asteroid in the entire belt. However, it is a C-type asteroid which only contains some of the raw components to sustain their life in Adalia and therefore the need to expand quickly and provide materials to the markets is essential, if the colony intended to thrive in the future.
Crew Assignments Storyline (only accessible in-game for players who own crewmates who were Arvad Department Heads, Specialists, or Citizens.)
These were the last Department Heads of the Arvad, before the ship was disassembled upon the arrival at Adalia Prime.
Head of the Prime Council and Captain of the Arvad
“Young, but decisive, High Commander Natus was appointed to her position both for her background (a former Senior Navigator) and her open disdain for political maneuvering. She had a history of listening attentively and speaking rarely while she sat in the Council Chambers, first as the assistant to the former Chief Navigator, then as his representative when his declining health prevented him from attending.”
Head of the Hospitality Department and the Maintenance Department
“The Chief Steward is an interesting position, because it covers a deceptively large portfolio of responsibilities across the ship. The Chief Steward works closely with the Food Production, Food Preparation, and Logistics Departments, is in charge of all public spaces and the Hospitality Department, any Internal Maintenance that does not explicitly fall under Engineering or Technology, and all External Maintenance.”
Head of the Security Department and Commander of all Security and Public Safety Officers
“While he is committed to the survival of the mission, the ship, and all the crew aboard in general, he is particularly focused on the survival of the mission, the ship, and the members of the Prime Council in particular. The mutiny taught him this lesson early on: keeping everyone alive is desirable, but keeping the Council in control is worth a few lives if that’s what it costs.”
Head of the Medical Department and Practicing Oncologist
“Low population, limited genetic diversity, and the extreme remoteness of the tiny society aboard the Arvad are the primary challenges that worry her. Doctors tend to value human life quite highly and fight against mortality fiercely, but this drive borders on an obsession for her.”
Head of the Reactor, Propulsion, Life Support, and Structural Engineering Departments
“He staunchly believes that every problem has a solution, and that with the right application of mathematics, physics, chemistry (and the occasional bit of biology), any problem that can be identified by humans can be solved by humans. He has an almost boyish sense of wonder and curiosity, and never seems to get overwhelmed or frustrated no matter how complex his work challenges get.”
Head of the Food Production, the Lifeplant Department, and all of the Ag Decks
“Despite all of humanity’s vaunted technology, there’s still nothing better at turning sunlight into food or converting carbon dioxide into breathable air than plants. The Arvad’s many Lifeplants only looks like technology on the outside; inside it’s mostly algae and water teeming with microscopic life, with just the odd electric pump and tiny sensor.”
Head of Technology, and Head of the Shipnet Department and the Muse Department
“He has listened in on a lot of philosophical arguments over the years between the Chief Archivist, the Chief Cook, and the Entertainment Director about what quality makes humans human but, ultimately, humans are tool users. The sharpened rock to the iron blade to the scalpel to the electron microscope. The wheel to the wing to the rocket to the torch drive. Tools. Applied technology.”
Head of the Logistics Department and all Storage Areas
“A long career working in variable gravity has made Jean Henri very graceful anywhere from full gravity on the outer edge of the Arvad’s spinning sections all the way down to the null gee inside the ship’s vast keel. He has a rare combination of hobbies to match: he’s an agile AstroBall player and also a skilled dancer.”
Head of the Food Preparation Department and In-House Chef to the Prime Council
“Within the climate-controlled ship, far from any wilderness or weather, there is very little to remind the crew of the Arvad of their fundamental humanity. Food, the Chief Cook feels, is the best way to reawaken that dull ember into a spark.”
Head of the Education Department and former Geology Professor
“While he is a dedicated advocate for a solid foundation of the “hard” natural sciences, he is also committed to all students having at least a minor degree in a “soft” social science or one of the arts. He supports this policy with the question, “What is the point of bringing humans on this voyage if we end up leaving behind their humanity?"
Head of the Knowledge Department and responsible for the six libraries aboard the Arvad
“Audrey had a reputation as a bit of a troublemaker earlier in life, and some of her high school friends still shake their heads at how she “went straight”. But sometimes, you can still see that familiar mischievous smile.”
Head of the Arts & Entertainment Department
“It’s not enough, in his opinion, to merely bring all the libraries of Earth along on the voyage if no one takes the time to experience them. Art is not a static thing. It’s not as simple as data, text, or the visual and the audio. Art is a thing alive.”
Head of the Navigation Department and the Communications Department
“The kind of person you’d want steering a kilometer-long ship with you and eleven thousand of your family, friends, and neighbors. A mathematical prodigy, she was drawn to physics early in life, and that love of pure and practical math has been her compass ever since.”
Beginning at the launch of the Exploitation release, logs of each crewmate’s actions will be kept and visualized. These stories can be further embellished by the player. Any individual event can have additional context added which will be visible to all players when viewing the crewmate’s profile. The content may be edited until such time the crewmate is transferred to another player, at which point all previously created content becomes immutable.
Many of the posts on the Influence (@influenceth) Official Twitter Account
There is a single Fusion Powerplant at the heart of the Arvad which has ended up at the heart of the Adalia Prime Colony. Adalia does not currently possess anywhere near the industrial capacity to build another one, so this is an irreplaceable gift from the Solar System. We do, however, have complete blueprints for this and other advanced fusion reactors in the Ship’s Archive.
There are also many Fission Powerplants in ships and other colonies around the belt. This is a comparatively ancient and commonplace means of generating power, although the fissile material needed is much rarer than the hydrogen that the one fusion reactor uses.
(sometimes inaccurately called “solar” power panels, although Sol is now much too far away to get meaningful amounts of starlight from). Some of these were pulled off the Arvad during shipbreaking, but there are now also increasingly large amounts of locally produced Adalian ones, too. They work somewhat better the closer you are to Adalia Star.
It looks like a big machine, with a lot of metal pipes going in one end and a lot of metal pipes coming out the other end, but inside the big metal cylinders of a lifeplant is actually mostly algae. It removes carbon dioxide, produces oxygen, filters water, and even produces a steady supply of sustaining if unpalatable food. All it needs is a powerplant to provide heat and bright light inside, and humans to provide the carbon dioxide, wastewater, and…organic solid waste material. The Arvad had numerous active lifeplants (plus many more spares) onboard, and their disassembled parts have been used in many of the habitable buildings.
Crew life support and habitation modules designed to attach to each ship. They are only used in case of emergency and can use their integrated engine and minimal propellant reserves to reach nearby asteroids with available Habitats. Hab Modules are capable of providing life support for Crewmates for up to one Adalian year, therefore placing an upper limit on the range of all ships.
A small handheld personal data device issued to all people aboard the Arvad starting in early childhood. A ubiquitous device with a long history on Earth before the Generational Ship Program began, the Muse brand was specifically selected for its simplicity, ruggedness, resistance to freak radiation damage in interstellar space, ability to be manufactured with a low level of industry, and approachable user interface. Connects everyone together by the Ship’s Network, and later the Colony Network of Adalia Prime. Instantly docks to workstations, public terminals, displays, control panels, and a variety of accessories. Battery generally lasts two days, in the event you forget to charge it overnight.
The search for a Colony Site (The “Crew Assignment” Storyline)
Shipbreaking the Arvad and establishing the Adalia Prime Colony (The “Crew Assignment” Storyline continued)
Aft Ag Deck 16 (To be featured in the forthcoming “The Incident in Sixteen”)
Crewforming (See the story “Oversaturated”)
To be released
Existing Lore - Community Created
Note on Community Published Lore
All community lore is maintained and written by the community. The Influence team does not edit this content. However, some of the community lore can become “official” (aka “canon”) if the Influence team decides to adopt it.
If you would like your story on the wiki in the Community Lore section please reach out to Eetherway in the Discord.
All community writers are encouraged to share their lore pieces, and if you would like the Influence team to promote/share it on the official medium and twitter, please contact Eetherway on the Discord.
For a link to all currently published community lore please visit HERE
The Scrubber Rebellion (See “Prodigious Alignment” and the “Ray Moncoga” stories)
COTAs (To be featured in forthcoming chapters of “The Last Children Of The Arvad”)
Prototyping and Testing the Asteroid Smelter and Light Transport (See “The Test Run”)
Some characters from Korivak’s and strwrsfrk’s lore as examples of how to fit in your own characters just below the Department Heads (DH). Just pick a specific part of a DH’s mandate that aligns with your crewmate’s former job trait. Only the canon DHs can have the top jobs on the Arvad, but you can add characters with high levels of very niche importance.
These can be used as inspiration when crafting your own characters. A recommendation for those who own crewmates is to take a look at them and envision their background and class and what role they will play within the game.
One of several Direct Reports of Chief Steward Harriet Auburn
Formerly responsible for all external maintenance on the outer hull of the Arvad, she was court martialed for disobeying the High Commander’s order to lead Arvad shipbreaking because she could not bring herself to cut the ship apart. Spared from her sentence of death by spacing, she spent the shipbreaking period under house arrest instead.
One of several Direct Reports of Chief Steward Harriet Auburn
The former Head of a specialized branch of EVA Technicians that did not fall under Head of External Maintenance Murcheson’s command, Allen was supposed to manage the small team left in orbit to maintain satellite coverage over a settled planet. Since this didn’t end up happening, Allen was reassigned to by the Prime Council’s Subject Matter Expert on Asteroid Mining, replacing Chief Hydrologist Titania Keil on the Council. Founder of the Allen Mining Company. Grandfather of Natalie Allen.
One of many Direct Reports of Chief Archivist Audrey Newberry
A child prodigy at the time of Arrival. The youngest, and last, designated Arvad Specialist prior to the completion shipbreaking. Daughter of Gareth Clovar, friend of Natalie Allen. “We’re in a new star system, surviving by the skin of our teeth and the ingenuity of our engineers. I don’t have the time or the luxury to not know things. Let the bureaucrats, the politicians, the philosophers, or whoever figure out the ‘why’s’ of morality and the ‘what’s’ of ethics; I’ll figure out how to keep us all alive.”
One of several Direct Reports of Head Of Engineering Vikram Jay Stephenson
Reassigned to Chief Miner Scott Allen during shipbreaking. Co-inventor of a prototype smelter able to work on the atmosphere-less surface of asteroids. Father of Areanna Clovar. Brilliant but damaged.
One piece of recommended reading is: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. Many of the community’s writers view Influence, at its core, as part of The Life Story. The Arvad as bottle. The Light Transport as carrier bag. The asteroid as womb.