Please note:The factions have been adapted for EOC Online, and are similar but not identical to those in the Edge Of Chaos computer game.

Ninety-four years have passed since the Commonwealth and the Indies signed a treaty that ended the Independence War and created the New Alliance, a system of democracy designed to allow everyone a vote and a voice, regardless of creed, wealth and homeworld.

The foundation of the Alliance spurred a golden age of expansion and prosperity, mankind explored and colonised hundreds of new systems, assisted by incredible feats of civil engineering such as the massive jump accelerators - capable of jumping ships up to seventy five light years across the galaxy.

However, as the borders of known space were pushed back so the Alliance grew into a massive lumbering bureaucratic machine. Combined with the spectacular financial failure of the jump accelerators and the incredible cost of terra-forming worlds, this effectively bankrupted the government, who were forced to make extreme cuts and sell many of their interests to predatory mega-corporations.

As known space sank into recession, these corporations rose to their ascendancy, taking control of much of the frontier, greedy for raw materials to feed the demands of the overpopulated and still prosperous inner systems.

Today we find the badlands cluster - rich in minerals but with few habitable planets -isolated from the rest of known space by the Corporate controlled Jump Accelerators.

With the cluster government fragmented and ineffective, six factions compete with each other for control over the entire cluster.