Faction

	The subject of this article or section is undergoing testing and may be changed before implementation.
	Please see discussion on the talk page, follow the discussion on the forum thread, or check out the testing on the Obsidian Ocean.

	Dark Seas only
	This article applies only to the Obsidian Ocean.

For the concept of factions participating in a blockade, see Blockade#Factions.

A faction is a player organization on the Dark Seas. Each crew and flag belongs to one of the two that exist, which on the Obsidian Ocean are Shadow Fleet and Defiant Armada. The factions are bitter enemies and a state of perpetual war exists between them. Ships of the opposing faction are subject to island embargo when porting, and at sea, all battles between the two factions is sinking.

Each faction has a recruitment board at Port Venture as well as rowboats available for a free whisk to their stronghold islands, which serve as their base of operations. Likewise, players can whisk freely to their own faction's stronghold at any time. The stronghold for Shadow Fleet is Night Harbour and the Defiant Armada stronghold is Lionhaven.

Players may use the /faction chat channel to communicate amongst themselves globally.

The color of the ocean will change when one of the two factions controls at least 60% of the blockadeable islands. However, the water around the two stronghold islands will continue to match the faction.

The "War" tab on the notice board allows players to see an overview of the ongoing battle and which side is winning.