While the world at large may be united under the banner of political unity and a system of organisations, there are always going to be those who don't fit within any given system. An individual might take issue with their organisation, or their organisation take issue with them, leaving them abandoned and factionless.

While it is possible for an individual to end up factionless, most don't remain that way for long. Some, the lucky ones, will be taken up by an official organisation. Others may end up in one of the unofficial organisations that have formed, either out of necessity for protection, or as part of a dedicated stance in opposition to the dominant norms and values of society.

As far as mission organisers are aware, none of these groups are represented on the Curiosity mission.

The Church of the Six is a religious organisation, its roots going back several hundred years but only recently coming to mainstream attention. They preach that all gods that are currently worshipped are unnatural, being composed of only two elements where most things should be composed of only one. To this end, they oppose the churches.

Some go further and say that, by worshipping the gods, people are endangerin the fabric of the universe itself. To this end, they have staged attacks on the churches themselves. Although spokespeople for the Church of the Six have outwardly condemned these radicals, it is unclear how linked they are.

While the methods of some may be radical, the Church also have a more positive theology, based on the idea of balance, and striving to live in harmony with all six elements. Many of the Church's members are simply those to whom the idea of inner peace and harmony appealled, alongside those who have joined them out of an objection to the perceived problems with mainstream religion. Surprisingly, they also have a reasonable following among those who view modern technology as harmful: as so many technological developments have centred around the aspecting of certain materials,

The Cult of the Void is a catch-all term, much beloved by the scaremongering press, to cover a variety of rogue academics and superstitious folk who believe that some useful power can be extracted through manipulation of the element of void. There is no real organisation, just several individual crackpots (though there are many radio channels full of chatter which is often animated, frequently well beyond the understanding of any layman, and always completely wrong according to any of the universities). Some experiments have been known to go spectacularly wrong, unleashing destructive fires or, in one case, a plague which took months to contain, but the culprits have always been found and brought to justice.

The Free People's Movement is a political group who believe that the guilds are corrupt and represent a corrupt system that, ultimately, leads to the oppression of anyone not at the top of an organisation's hierarchy. Fittingly, it appears that the group have an anarchical, cell-like structure: members who have been arrested and questioned have been unable to give many details about the broader organisation.

In terms of bringing about their aims, the Free People's Movement have a wide range of tactics. These range from pamphleteering and making covert broadcasts, to bombing guildhouses and taking people hostage. The aim that they publicise is the creation of a world where all people are free and equal. Their propaganda is sometimes confusing, but it appears that on the whole their vision in this respect is a series of communes based around farming, a vision they have attempted to put into practice in several areas of the homeworld.

The guild and bounty system quickly stamps out any lone criminals, so the majority of those who wish to work outside the law have banded together into a number of organised criminal groups. Some of these organisations are simply formed for protection, but others work and specialise in particular areas, such as assassination or the provision of black market goods, sold at below-guild regulated prices.