Other factions of Command & Conquer

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This page lists the other factions of the real-time strategy and first person shooter games of the Command & Conquer: Tiberian series universe.

[edit] Civilians

A captured civilian resistance member in Renegade

Civilian populace in Command & Conquer makes up for a majority of the world population. They are usually unarmed and keep to themselves, trying not to get in the way of military conflicts, however, they are more often than not dragged into the conflict.

Civilians are often conscripted into Nod forces or taken into captivity for Tiberium experimentation. Often, when a settlement is supporting GDI, the Brotherhood would pacify the village, most often by razing it to the ground.

GDI on the other hand often works to protect and evacuate the endangered civilians, however, GDI has slaughtered civilians, one graphic example being the Mao civil war in Africa, when GDI forces attacked and killed unarmed civilians.

[edit] The Forgotten

The Forgotten are a loose-knit faction of people whose exposure to Tiberium has resulted in genetic mutation, either by freak accident or intentionally via the Brotherhood of Nod eugenics program "Project ReGenesis" during the First Tiberium War, or its successor project of "Divination" prior to, and during, the Second Tiberium War. They are also commonly known as "Mutants" or "Shiners", the latter a reference to the various Tiberium crystals that grow on and through their bodies. The Forgotten are the last remaining biological life forms in the world's temperate zones, and have learned to fight to survive. All members of The Forgotten can heal themselves through exposure to Tiberium radiation as it triggers highly rapid cellular regeneration in their bodies, and they also have shown to be capable of domesticating a number of Tiberium-based life forms. Rejected by Nod as corrupted abominations that dwell somewhere in between humanity and its alleged Tiberium future, yet forcefully stupied upon by them to have Nod enhance their own "Divination" project, The Forgotten are usually considered to be GDI friendly. In Firestorm they are revealed to have struck an alliance with GDI to help stop the global spread of Tiberium.

Their technology consists of mainly scavenged weaponry, including old GDI Mammoth Tanks and civilian vehicles outfitted with armor plating and weapons (such as machine guns for pick-ups or large cannons housed in modified busses).

The bases they operate from are composed of old military buildings (Obelisks of Light, Helipads or War Factories) and converted civilian ones (for instance, observation towers converted into sentry turrets).

• Prominent members
  • Tratos (leader until his assassination)
  • Umagon (rendered insane by Tiberium treatment, assumed to be dead)
  • Ghost Stalker (fate undetermined)

• Known Forgotten Infantry Units
  • Mutant
  • Mutant Soldier
  • Mutant Sergeant
  • Rocket Soldier
  • Mutant Hijacker

[edit] The Scrin

The Scrin spacecraft from Tiberian Sun

The Scrin are an extra-terrestrial as of yet unintroduced faction/race of the Command & Conquer: Tiberian series. Little is known of them, save that they are believed to be responsible for the arrival of Tiberium on Earth. It is speculated within the storylines of the games that Tiberium may in fact be a terraforming agent used by them to colonize the Earth, however nothing in the games ever directly points to this. Known clues to their identity are found in the Tiberian Sun game files and in the storyline of Command & Conquer: Renegade. The name of "Scrin" is never directly mentioned in the games, but is instead found on official concept art of the game developers and in the games their configuration files. The one exception to this, however, was in both the GDI and Nod campaign missions in Tiberian Sun, which involved a crashed Scrin ship. When the player holds the cursor over this ship, the identity tag reads: "Scrin ship".

The specific items ingame that would be related to the Scrin in one way or another are a number of spacecraft:

• The Banshee, the Brotherhood of Nod's bombing aircraft in Tiberian Sun.
• The crashed spacecraft, found in early missions of Tiberian Sun, as stated above. A few FMV cutscenes mention it and show the interior of the craft. This craft is one of the largest, if not the largest to appear in the entire series.
• A crashlanded flying saucer, found in Renegade, surrounded by Nod personnel.
• A alien object located on a plateau in Command & Conquer in the final GDI Mission.

This could imply that, since Renegade takes place before Tiberian Sun, Nod disassembled the saucer and used its technology to design the Banshee and the large spacecraft. This can be assumed from the statement of one of Kane's generals, Vega, that Kane did not steal the spacecraft, but made it. Worth of mentioning is that the various debris found in the first C&C game thought to be space crafts scattered across battlefields, are not Scrin, but crashed GDI Orca aircraft.

It is speculated that Kane is seeking an alliance with, or is allied with the Scrin. Aside from the borrowed technology, there is no proof of this however. Another possible explanation is that Kane believes Tiberium is the answer because it would allow humans to evolve faster, allowing them to become strong enough to oppose the aliens. This would explain all the mutant experiments and his repeated claims that Tiberium is the answer. Another theory is that Kane could have been sent by the Scrin as the 'first wave' of an invasion, weakening Earths forces and helping spread Tiberium.

In the Tiberian Sun GDI campaign Nod forces tried to raze the ship to prevent it from being captured. The attempted razing of the craft did not succeed (assuming the player won the mission). Another piece of assumed extraterrestrial origin is the Tacitus, a crystal-like orb that is said to contain vast information on Tiberium. Two pieces of the Tacitus exist, but the second piece is not mentioned until Tiberian Sun: Firestorm campaigns. Kane's Tiberium experiments are supposedly based on knowledge gained from the tacitus. In the Firestorm expansion campaign, GDI regards the Tacitus as their last chance at reversing Tiberium mutation. CABAL, Nod's AI computer seems to have decoded at least part of the Tacitus. The final cutscene in the GDI campaign in Firestorm shows that when they placed the two pieces of the Tacitus together, they merged and the Tacitus was then easily decoded, spitting out enormous amounts of data and mathematical formulae.

During her interrogation by Nod forces, Umagon yells at Slavik: "Divination is a lie. It's killing us! Kane is using you!" This quote, though perhaps without much significance, would bear much more if Kane indeed was a Scrin alien.

In the finale of Tiberian Sun on the Nod side a missile is launched, "The missile that will bring us into the next age." The missile has a Tiberium warhead and causes massive terraforming on Earth. Moments after the rocket's launch Kane seems to teleport out allowing for a theory that he is in fact a Scrin alien or at least already aligned with them.

Images like this suggest the Scrin may be formally introduced in Tiberium Wars -- however they were released some time ago and may have no relevance to the new plot. This image is named 'Scrin Primal' by the developers of the C&C Franchise

Prior to the announcement of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, early screenshots and artwork suggested that the Scrin would displace the Brotherhood of Nod as the number one threat to GDI, however this has not been confirmed (and, indeed, confirmed information about the game suggests otherwise). Several pictures and various concept artwork available online seemed to hint that the game would focus on the Scrin and their invasion of Earth.

[edit] Tiberium Lifeforms

Main article: Tiberium and Tiberium Fauna

Tiberium based lifeforms have been around ever since Tiberian Dawn. The first type of lifeform encountered is Tiberium itself, manifesting as crystal or ordinary plants that promote Tiberium growth in the area.

Tiberium also induces mutations in plantlife and animals, reshaping them drastically.