# Faction lookbook — revised direction The creator rejected roster v1 and its uniform faction palettes on 2026-09-27. The current written replacement is [roster v3](character-roster-v3.md), with [explicit iconic-character coverage](character-reference-coverage.md). Its names, stories, weapons and individual designs are proposals; the direction below records the creator's correction. Rendering remains [the locked angular CGI style](art-direction.md). ## Recognition without identical outfits A faction expresses a relationship to power. Its people need different ages, bodies, species, occupations, clothes and personal colors. Recognition comes from construction, posture, equipment and behavior together. A costume does not become a faction costume merely by being recolored. No mandatory purple Veil, green Syndicate, or ivory/crimson Custodian uniform across the entire roster. | Faction | Creator-required emphasis | Visual language | Range within the faction | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Custodians | Firm, unforgiving idealists; institutional order carried to its extreme | Authoritative posture, deliberate geometry, maintained state equipment, restraint in expression, rank and duty visibly carried | Ochre greatcoat, petrol investigator jacket, burgundy alien armor, celadon medical uniform, cobalt flight suit, navy state machine. Officers, soldiers, judges and technocrats have different silhouettes. | | Freeholds | A chaotic abandoned society: hatred, ideals, invention, survival, greed, and genuinely evil barons | Equipment tells a personal and local history; no shared uniform, morality, body type, or level of wealth | Angry insurgent, inventive neighborhood captain, dependent arena fighter, extravagant air monopolist, corporate limb landlord, demolition punk, desert knife fighter, armored claimant, unethical surgeon, augmented collectivist. | | Syndicate | Brutal and evil; ownership backed by intimate criminal violence | Threatening personal bearing, custom weapons, expensive materials used for intimidation, business and violence integrated | Ivory-coated don, orange-shirted gun cyborg, broad quiet enforcer, satin-jacket hothead, alien patron, velvet fixer, red-coated family executioner, gaunt collector, dock thug, casino assassin machine. | | Veil | Dark, cultish, coercive, truly supernatural; devotion with consequences | Ritual treatment of bodies and equipment, burial materials, wax, iron, cord, unsettling gestures, eerie conviction | Black burial witch, brown confessor, brick-red infiltrator, saffron-wrapped ascetic, ash-blue choir medium, harnessed blade fanatic, sea-green machine saint, ochre pilgrim hunter, bone-cloth ritual rifleman, grey-and-red living reliquary. | Colors above belong to individual proposed characters, not to faction palette rules. Bone cloth on the Veil must look funerary, aged, bound or resin-stiffened; it must not read as clean imperial ceramic armor. Darkness means a disturbing religious presence, not underlighting every character until it is unreadable. Syndicate wealth does not make every criminal suave or handsome. Freehold anger should appear in face and posture, not only in biography. ## Concrete reference method Start with the iconic leads and principal cast of the creator’s cited sources. The prior roster overused supporting characters and missed Han Solo, Vader, Obi-Wan, Kirk, R2-D2 and a proper stormtrooper slot. All explicitly requested icons now have primary roles in v3. Keep the [coverage map](character-reference-coverage.md) visible rather than burying references in long biographies. Name the source character and the ingredient taken from them. Combine specific psychological, performance and combat references. For example: Saw Gerrera's militancy plus Johnny Silverhand's fury; Mother Talzin's witchcraft plus Mohiam's coercive authority. Do not substitute “a veteran,” “space mysticism,” or a broad franchise name for an actual character reference. A blend is a starting point. Each Project H character must also have a concrete personal objective, a reason to hold it, a destructive belief or weakness, and a visual and combat identity grounded in this setting. Do not give every villain a secretly compassionate core or every loyalist a dissident redemption hook. Original names alone are insufficient creative differentiation. Develop original faces, species, costumes, weapon construction, symbols, relationships and events. Reference names are internal creative provenance, not in-universe terminology. This document is a creative design brief, not a legal clearance. ## Familiar weapons, distinct designs - **Energy-sword combat:** legible parries, blocks, lunges and cutting arcs. Current proposal uses physical blades with localized luminous cutting edges, visible heat management and character-specific guards. Avoid making every blade fighter carry one identical glowing cylinder. - **Directed-energy firearms:** pulse pistols, rifles and disabling beams evoke familiar space-opera gunplay. Give each weapon a clear grip, barrel and firing direction without duplicating a franchise prop. - **Mafia firearms:** drum-fed coil submachine guns retain the Tommy-gun rhythm, forward grip, sweeping bursts and weight. Keep the silhouette readable while inventing its manufacturing details and firing technology. - **Improvised ordnance:** large scrap cannons, mining impact arms, ricochet devices and mechanical mines carry the energy of Arcane's weapons. They belong to particular people, not every Freehold. - **Cybernetics:** integrated limbs, organs, sensors and body machinery across factions. Different access, motives and personal choices; not universal chrome. - **Occult combat:** bells, cords, reliquaries, ritual blades and ritual firearms channel actual supernatural effects. The Veil is not a group of purple staff users, and its magic is not explained away as concealed technology. ## Freehold enhancer and augmentation The strength enhancer is addictive and exacts a real cost. The working name **Grit**, amber cartridges, delivery hardware and specific consequences remain proposals. Dependence is part of some lives, not a membership requirement. Brenka is the active user in this replacement roster; the other nine Freeholds have their own sources of power, conflict and vulnerability. Cybernetic implants do not imply enhancer use. Neither wealth nor evil automatically changes a Freehold baron's faction to Syndicate. ## Art and review requirements Keep angular sculpted CGI forms, matte painted surfaces, broad tonal planes and dimensional lighting. Reference Cyberpunk for bodily technology, Arcane for character and weapon ideas, and films for performance; do not switch rendering styles between characters. Character-specific anatomy remains mandatory: lean, heavy, short, tall, old, young adult, alien and artificial bodies must differ. Read silhouettes, faces and weapons at phone size. Use whole-body framing and padding. Each new image is a concept for review, not an approved animation master. Verify transparency, framing and animation suitability before Seedance use. ## Current and historical assets - [Current written roster, stories, references and combat](character-roster-v3.md). - [Iconic reference coverage](character-reference-coverage.md). - [Current v3 visual gallery](../artwork/characters/roster-v3/index.html): forty separately generated character images, with 38 transparent sprites and two pending background cleanup. - [Prior v2 visual gallery](../artwork/characters/roster-v2/index.html): earlier designs only. - [Rejected uniform-palette brief](history/faction-lookbook-v2-rejected.md). - [Rejected roster v1](character-roster-v1.md) and its images remain historical evidence only; do not use them as the current generation baseline. - The original eight-character board in `artwork/factions/lookbook-v1/` is also superseded. Faction relationships and combat counters remain deferred. Character motives are proposals for personal stories, not a new faction-counter cycle.