“lore firendly” surely is not the right word, but I think it describes what I’m thinking about. There some merc bacKgrounds in the game that let us suppose the existence of certain factions – which are not yet in the game.
Monasteries (and amulets ?)
There are monks in game but there is nothing too specific about them. I also noticed there is some amulet equipping planned for the future. I think the monks (and warriors monks) could be an interesting faction that could also sell blessed amulets and charms. Fighting monks would be very good at resolve (maybe with specific recolve powers?) and fight only with crushing weapons. They could also wear specific robes. They would send away pilgrims (towards holy sites or other places?) that you could have to protect.
Former monks would of wourse not be monks anymore, so nothing new for them.
Witch hunters (and silver weapons ?)
There are witch hunters, several undeads and werewolves in the game, but no bands of witch hunters. They should not be too common but I’d like to see somewhere else taking care of these abominations. There is no specific weapon against the undeads in the game, and I’m ok with that (I mean, we don’t need “white magic” or things like that) but we could have silver bolts, as the witch hunters seem to prefer crossbows.
“Potions” and cataplasms
I’m not sure about that, but I guess the mercs could use some items during battles, especially when they are wounded (wounds should not go away like it’s currently the case, I think).
Human Nomads
There are refugees and vagabonds in game, which are not rich enough to buy weapons for themselves. There are also hermits. I have no specific idea for them but instead of a new faction, some new quests could depend on them: save the refugees, help the hermit, lead the vagabonds the the nearest castle / monastery…
I also think we could see a lot more human (and wild beasts when they are implemented) enemies and less orcs and undeads, at least in the early game.
Maybe also some sort of “realm politics“, with emergent human factions in the strongest towns, whose leaders or even richest merchants would try to pay mercenaries in order to kill people they don’t like and employ mercenaries. They could even make evil pacts with orc leaders (or even vampires), and the player could be given (by monks or witch hunters, for example) the quest to end their rule (speaking of that, it would be nice to have more urban battlegrounds, but I guess it’s already planned).
—————————– Other, less “lore friendly” ideas ————————————
I also saw there was an idea for a ratmen swamp faction. I think it is a good idea, even if I think they would be too much like gouls and werewolves.
Other terrain-specific factions without lairs could be giants in the mountains (1 giant would a formidable enemy able to throw rocks at your face and crush your shield with the back of its hand, but you would often encounter 1 giant at a time).
Combos: actually the different skills available are very individual. But if you have three men against one orc, you could be able to perform special attacks or parries: your men would all attack in the same time for a guaranteed strike, or could protect their friend. I can easily imagine one of the old founders of the company protecting the new recruit from the deadly strike of a berserker.
EDIT: I forgot something: recruitable renegade orcs. They would be very hard to get, possibly only when you raze a big orcish settlement. Then a young orc could join you for… reasons (likehaving nowhere to go and being impress by your strenght).
.