Why the Light Omens Factions Exist: Inheritance, Identity, and Generational Trauma
One of the core ideas behind Light Omens factions is that no generation starts from zero. The world, factions, and conflicts of Light Omens were built around a simple belief: every generation inherits something from the people who came before it.
Every generation inherits something.
Sometimes that inheritance is wealth, stability, opportunity, and knowledge.
Sometimes it is grief, responsibility, trauma, expectations, and unfinished struggles.
Usually it is some combination of both.
Growing up as a Black man in America, this was something I became aware of long before I had the language to describe it.
Not because someone sat me down and explained it.
Because I could feel it.
I could see the sacrifices my mother made.
I could hear the stories about my grandmother navigating a world that demanded constant adaptation just to create opportunities for her family.
I could see the weight carried by generations of people who endured circumstances far more difficult than anything I personally experienced.
And with that awareness came a particular kind of pressure.
The feeling that failure was not entirely my own.
The feeling that success was not entirely my own either.
The understanding that people before me had sacrificed, struggled, adapted, and endured so that I could have opportunities they never had.
Many people from marginalized communities know this feeling intimately.
But I don’t think it belongs exclusively to us.
I think every culture, every family, and every community carries some version of it.
Immigrant families often carry it.
Indigenous communities carry it.
Religious communities carry it.
Families recovering from poverty carry it.
Entire nations carry it.
People inherit victories they did not earn.
People inherit wounds they did not create.
People inherit responsibilities they did not choose.
And eventually they have to decide what to do with all of it.
That question sits at the heart of Light Omens. The Light Omens factions were created to explore how different societies respond to inherited burdens, generational trauma, and the responsibilities inherited from previous generations.
The Future Is An Argument: Why the Light Omens Factions Exist
When people first look at the factions of Hiraeth, they sometimes assume they are simply different political organizations competing for power.
In reality, they represent something much deeper.
While each of the Light Omens factions offers a different vision for the future, they all begin from the same reality: no society escapes the weight of its history.
What do we owe the generations that came before us?
Because every faction inherits the same wounded world.
Every faction remembers the collapse.
Every faction carries the consequences of history.
But they reach very different conclusions about what should happen next.
Some believe humanity lost its connection to meaning, tradition, and the stories that once united people.
Some believe humanity became stagnant and fearful, refusing to embrace the progress necessary to survive.
Some believe freedom itself is the most important thing worth protecting.
Others believe preservation and continuity matter more than constant reinvention.
None of them are responding to an ideal world.
They are responding to inherited circumstances.
Just like we do.
The Weight Of Expectations
One of the most difficult parts of inheritance is that gratitude and pressure often arrive together.
Many people grow up hearing some version of the same message:
“We suffered so you wouldn’t have to.”
That message comes from love.
It comes from sacrifice.
It comes from people wanting their children and grandchildren to live better lives than they did.
But it can also create impossible expectations.
Because if previous generations sacrificed so much, failure can begin to feel larger than failure.
A missed opportunity can feel like a betrayal.
A setback can feel like wasted sacrifice.
An uncertain future can feel like letting people down.
I think a lot of people carry that feeling.
The sense that they are responsible not only for themselves, but for the hopes, dreams, and sacrifices of people who came before them.
The people of Hiraeth carry similar burdens.
This idea is central to the Light Omens factions, which were designed around different responses to inherited responsibility, sacrifice, and cultural memory.
Entire civilizations survived catastrophe.
Entire cultures fought to preserve pieces of themselves.
Entire communities sacrificed so future generations could inherit something instead of nothing.
Now those future generations have to decide what comes next.
And those decisions are not easy.
What Deserves Preservation?
One of the questions I constantly return to while writing Light Omens is this:
What deserves to survive?
Not everything from the past is worth preserving. Each of the Light Omens factions believes something different deserves preservation.
Some systems create suffering.
Some traditions become harmful.
Some institutions outlive their usefulness.
But not everything deserves to be discarded either.
Memory matters.
Culture matters.
Stories matter.
Community matters.
The people who came before us matter.
The Light Omens factions exist because they answer this question differently.
They disagree about what should be protected.
They disagree about what should be changed.
They disagree about what humanity must become in order to survive.
And honestly, I think that makes them feel more human.
Because that is exactly what people argue about in the real world.
Why I Wanted To Explore These Themes
Light Omens was never created to tell players what to think.
It was created to explore questions that rarely have simple answers.
How much of ourselves belongs to the past?
How much belongs to the future?
What responsibilities do we owe the people who came before us?
What responsibilities do we owe the people who will come after us?
How do we honor sacrifice without becoming trapped by it?
How do we build something new without forgetting what made us who we are?
Those questions shape every part of Hiraeth. They also shape the philosophy behind the Light Omens factions, which serve as competing visions for how humanity should navigate inheritance, change, and survival.
The factions.
The conflicts.
The histories.
Even the people players choose to become.
Because beneath all the monsters, ruins, strange technologies, and cosmic mysteries, Light Omens is ultimately about inheritance.
Not just inherited trauma.
Inherited resilience.
Inherited hope.
Inherited responsibility.
The future is never built by people starting from nothing.
It is built by people deciding what to do with everything they have been given.
And that decision is rarely easy. Understanding the Light Omens factions means understanding the questions that inspired them. What do we preserve? What do we leave behind? What responsibilities do we owe to the people who came before us, and to those who will come after us?
That is the story I wanted Light Omens to explore.
Further Reading
While Light Omens is a work of fiction, many of its themes were inspired by real conversations surrounding collective memory, inherited responsibility, cultural identity, and generational trauma.
For readers interested in exploring these ideas further, I found this systematic review on intergenerational trauma particularly insightful:
Impact of Intergenerational Trauma on Second-Generation Descendants: A Systematic Review
The review examines how collective experiences such as war, genocide, displacement, apartheid, and systemic oppression can shape later generations psychologically, socially, and culturally. While Light Omens is not intended as a direct representation of any specific historical experience, many of the questions explored through the Light Omens factions and worldbuilding were informed by these broader discussions surrounding inheritance, memory, resilience, and identity.