Newcomers to the Galactic Stage

Published 25 September 2025 | Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition Newcomers to the Galactic Stage Previewing the New Factions Introduced in Thunder’s Edge The galaxy is a tremendous place, with billions of stars and countless planets found in all corners of space. As the various factions continue to explore (or conquer) the interstellar frontier, it’s only natural that some newcomers would rise to stake their claim on the galactic stage. This summer, we previewed Thunder’s Edge, the latest expansion for Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition. In addition to a plethora of new planets, mechanics, and upgrades to explore, we also revealed that there would be five brand-new factions introduced in this expansion. Today, it’s time to finally take a look at these new groups vying for the imperial throne. Last Bastion Starting us off, we have Last Bastion, a faction born from what was supposed to be a temporary joint military expedition between the Xxcha Kingdom and the Federation of Sol. We briefly previewed these valiant fighters during our first look at Thunder’s Edge, and now, let’s take a deeper look at what they bring to the game. As we said during our initial preview, the Bastion’s gameplan revolves around getting the most value out of limited resources. This is reflected in their innate abilities, especially their ability to “galvanize” their units, which allows those units to roll an extra die for both combat rolls and unit abilities. This represents the Bastion’s tenacity and their tendency to dig in their heels and fight until the bitter end, and it also means their opponents can’t afford to discount any of the Bastion’s units, no matter how badly they’re outnumbered.   This trend continues into the rest of their kit. In addition to their inherent Phoenix Standard ability, Last Bastion can galvanize their units via the abilities of their mech, the A3 Valiance $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#3BED').colorbox(opts); }); , or their agent, Dame Briar $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#560').colorbox(opts); }); . Dame Briar can also allow another player to galvanize one of their units, a feature she shares with the Bastion’s promissory note, Raise the Standard $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#1403E').colorbox(opts); }); . Their faction technology, Proxima Targeting VI $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#5CDA').colorbox(opts); }); , grants another use to galvanized units by allowing them to cancel hits from Bombardment attacks. That technology also allows the Bastion to resolve a free Bombardment against both sides during ground combat, but since they can cancel the hits dealt to their own units, their enemies are more likely to come out of it much worse for wear! Since Last Bastion lends itself to a “few but fierce” playstyle heavily reliant on optimizing their resources, they can be a bit vulnerable to disruption from other players. Thankfully, their commander card, Nip and Tuck $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#13AEC').colorbox(opts); }); , provides some much-needed protection by preventing the Bastion’s action cards from being canceled. Not only that, but they also stop the Nekro Virus from copying the Bastion’s technology, preventing the Nekro from turning the Proxima Targeting VI against them. Their breakthrough card, The Icon $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#127BB').colorbox(opts); }); , allows the Bastion to place their produced ships in remote systems, taking pressure off their space dock systems while also helping to spread their influence quicker. And finally, when it comes time for a blaze of glory, the Bastion can call upon their hero card ability, Entity 4X41A “Apollo” $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#13E6').colorbox(opts); }); , to allow a destroyed, galvanized unit to attack every enemy in its system on the way out. With such tools at their disposal, one thing is abundantly clear: no one should ever underestimate Last Bastion! The Deepwrought Scholarate In the wake of dangerous threats emerging across the galaxy, some of the great powers sought to work together, hoping to foster better relations between all. One such faction was the Universities of Jol-Nar, who were seeking a way to break the Mahact’s domination of their most dangerous thralls, the Crimson Legionnaires—and, more importantly, prevent similar mind-control from affecting any Hylar victims. The Deepwrought Scholarate—a prominent school within the Jol-Nar’s universities—developed a device called the Waveform Arbitrator, which could (theoretically) break Mahact control of any beings within a million kilometers. The only problem was that University leadership wouldn’t allow them to test it, claiming it was “too dangerous.” So the Deepwrought hatched a plan, duped their superiors, and managed to somewhat-successfully deploy the Arbitrator in an event known as the “Ikatena Incident.” Facing treason at home, the Deepwrought declared independence from the Jol-Nar and set about establishing a new society, one that would prioritize the sharing of knowledge for the betterment of all. Just like the Universities of Jol-Nar in the Twilight Imperium base game, the Deepwrought Scholarate are a technology-focused faction, with several abilities tied to researching more effectively and efficiently. However, unlike the Jol-Nar, the Deepwrought are all about spreading their research and technology to the rest of the galaxy, and this is represented by their emphasis on a new mechanic: coexistence.   As the Deepwrought, whenever you commit ground forces to a planet, you can choose for your units to “coexist” peacefully with anyone else who might be on that planet. While this means that you give up on controlling that planet during that coexistence, you do get access to a suite of ocean cards unique to the Deepwrought, such as the Deep Abyss $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#1AFF').colorbox(opts); }); or the Brine Pool $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#2164').colorbox(opts); }); . These ocean cards can be exhausted for resources or influence just like planet cards, and—through the use of the Deepwrought’s Hydrothermal Mining $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#FFD5').colorbox(opts); }); technology—they can even generate a steady stream of trade goods. Of course, in a galaxy as tumultuous as this one, coexistence is often a fleeting fantasy; thankfully, you can utilize the Deepwrought’s mech, the Eanautic $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#AAB5').colorbox(opts); }); , to get your units off a planet if your neighbors ever decide to turn hostile. Coexisting with other factions allows the Deepwrought to establish friendly relations right off the bat, while their technology-related features allow them to reinforce those friendships. Their agent, Doctor Carrina $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#7CB5').colorbox(opts); }); , lets you assist another player in researching technology by removing a prerequisite (and also establishing coexistence on one of that player’s planets). In a similar vein, the Deepwrought commander Aello $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#F3C3').colorbox(opts); }); can grant a discount to other players when they spend resources to research technology, while you gain an extra trade good or commodity for your trouble. The Deepwrought breakthrough Visionaria Select $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#F816').colorbox(opts); }); can let the entire table research technology at once without the need for the Technology strategy card, while the Deepwrought promissory note Share Knowledge $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#15041').colorbox(opts); }); can let another faction “borrow” a technology temporarily. Of course, the Deepwrought don’t neglect their own technological needs, with Radical Advancement $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#2C29').colorbox(opts); }); allowing you to freely replace your existing technologies with higher-tier ones each round. Finally, if you decide that a particular technology is simply too problematic to allow other players to have, you can call upon the Deepwrought hero card ability Wave Function Collapse $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#2E05').colorbox(opts); }); and purge that technology from the entire galaxy. The Crimson Rebellion The Deepwrought Scholarate weren’t the only faction to be born from the Ikatena Incident. When the Waveform Arbitrator was deployed, a significant portion of the Crimson Legion unexpectedly found itself liberated from Mahact domination. Though they had been freed, the fundamental changes inflicted upon them remained, and now the former Legionnaires could sense just how wrong they felt. Denied the ability to return home by their untainted brethren, the former Legionnaires attempted to open a new wormhole into the Creuss dimension—and instead wound up somewhere…different. Though this new realm could sustain them, it was like a barren desert compared to the lush complexity of their original home, and they remained plagued with an overwhelming sense of wrongness. Now, the last hope of the despairing Crimson Rebellion lies in the marvelous power of Thunder’s Edge; maybe, just maybe, they could wield it to repair their broken people and finally feel the peace of a true home. Since they were originally Creuss, you might think that the Crimson Rebellion has a similar emphasis on wormholes to their blue brethren. However, while the Creuss make judicious use of existing alpha and beta wormholes (and can even create their own), the Rebellion can’t use wormholes at all (other than the epsilon wormhole that connects their home system to the rest of the galaxy). Instead, they have access to “breaches,” a unique component exclusive to them.   Breaches come in two states: “active” and “inactive.” Breaches are most commonly placed in systems on their inactive side through the ability of the Rebellion’s unique destroyer, the Exile. However, their Resonance Generator $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#11237').colorbox(opts); }); breakthrough—which the Rebellion starts the game with—can be exhausted to place an active breach instead, and the Rebellion’s innate Incursion ability lets you flip inactive breaches to active ones whenever you activate a system that contains one. Active breaches are central to the Rebellion’s whole game plan. Systems that contain active breaches are considered to be adjacent, granting the Rebellion a crucial alternative to wormholes to allow them to travel across the galaxy quickly. Their flagship, the Quietus, can turn off unit abilities for other players when they’re near an active breach, and their mech, the Revenant $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#15A93').colorbox(opts); }); , can warp itself into ground combat in a system with an active breach, even if you don’t have any units there to begin with. While playing as the Rebellion, since you’ll want to explore space as quickly as possible to set up breaches, you may occasionally overextend and lose a ship or two in the process. That’s where the Subatomic Splicer $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#11988').colorbox(opts); }); comes in, allowing you to immediately replace any lost ship back in the Rebellion’s home system. While the Rebellion has full control over where breaches are placed (and when they are flipped), the instability of these portals must be taken into consideration, since other players can remove an active breach at the end of the status phase. Fortunately, the Rebellion isn’t solely reliant on their breaches to leave their impact on the galaxy. Their agent, Ahk Ravin $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#17F59').colorbox(opts); }); , allows you to swap the position of any 2 of your ships in the game, which can help bring lower-mobility units across several systems in just a single action. Any time that any player engages in combat, the Rebellion’s commander, Ahk Siever $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#11829').colorbox(opts); }); , grants the Rebellion a bit of extra income, assisting you with replenishing any units lost during exploration. The Rebellion’s promissory note, Sever $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#C19E').colorbox(opts); }); , can allow another player to turn off a wormhole for a round, restricting the rest of the table’s navigation options while yours remain untouched. Finally, the Rebellion’s hero card ability Fragment Reality $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#185A4').colorbox(opts); }); allows you to stockpile a secret fleet, which you can deploy during any future space combat without warning. The Ral Nel Consortium As we stated before, the Crimson Rebellion were freed by the Deepwrought Scholarate’s Waveform Arbitrator. However, the Deepwrought would never have been able to build such a device without the assistance of the Ral Nel Consortium. As a society built entirely upon a complex system of contracts and obligations, the Ral Nel are known for their fast ships, their highly advanced microprocessor technology, and their stubborn refusal to share either with the galaxy at large—except on their own terms, for cash in hand. To the Ral Nel, honoring debts is everything, and until recently, they believed they couldn’t trust outsiders to uphold the standard of business integrity set by the Ral Nel’s massive consortium of mega-corporations. But then they met the Deepwrought, who surprised them by being motivated not by the typical short-sighted greed the Ral Nel had come to expect from outsiders, but rather by a keen awareness of the mutual debts that would reasonably exist between great powers if everyone was sane (that is to say, behaving like proper Ral Nel). Now tentatively making deals with other civilizations as well, the Ral Nel have turned their sights to Thunder’s Edge, believing that, if they can use their unrivaled microprocessors to take control of the mysterious world’s strange power, they can use that power to save the galaxy from the forces that threaten to destroy it. And that salvation would create the biggest debt of all. One of the most defining features of the Ral Nel Consortium’s playstyle is their mobility. Right off the bat, one of their inherent abilities, Survival Instinct, lets you move up to two of your ships in response to another player activating one of your systems. The Ral Nel commander, Watchful Ojz $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#595A').colorbox(opts); }); , can do the opposite, allowing you to move two of your ships out of an active system during a retreat. Meanwhile, their mech Alarum $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#1343F').colorbox(opts); }); can do the same thing with ground forces, providing a rare opportunity to move your infantry and mechs without the need of spaceships to transport them. The Ral Nel’s unique destroyer, the Linkship, has a blistering 3 movement value, which gets even higher when it is upgraded to the Linkship II $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#62BB').colorbox(opts); }); . These destroyers also highlight the Ral Nel’s second innate ability, Miniaturization, which allows you to feely transport your structures throughout space. You can even lend a weaker version of this ability to another player through the use of the Ral Nel promissory note, the Nano-Link Permit $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#145F2').colorbox(opts); }); . In addition to the flexibility that comes from being able to move their structures around, a Ral Nel Linkship can trigger the Space Cannon ability of a PDS it’s carrying, giving it a surprising extra punch when engaging enemies in space!   As you may have noticed by this point, the other defining feature of the Ral Nel is their flexibility and versatility. Their Nanomachines $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#ABD3').colorbox(opts); }); give you access to three different, useful actions, which you will undoubtedly want to take advantage of every round. Their agent, Kan Kip Rel $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#F822').colorbox(opts); }); , can give you an extra action card each round while also giving one to another player. Once that player uses that action card, it is placed on the Ral Nel’s breakthrough Data Skimmer $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#D8F5').colorbox(opts); }); instead of being discarded, giving you even more options to choose from when you decide to pass for the round. And speaking of passing, if you ever decide that, actually, you didn’t want to pass, the Ral Nel hero card ability Signal Intrusion $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#9BFE').colorbox(opts); }); can let you “unpass” at the end of the action phase, suddenly gaining two more command tokens and letting you continue to act while the other players can only it and watch! The Firmament / The Obsidian Finally, we have the Firmament. A completely normal faction with absolutely nothing shady going on, the founders of the Firmament are here merely to ask a simple question: “Why have rulers at all?” After all, the Lazax Imperium wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be, and the Twilight Wars that ended their reign resulted in trillions dead and a three-thousand-year-long dark age. Is the best plan really to just do Imperium again, but with someone else in charge? Thus, the Firmament works to promote a pangalactic society, without the divisions of the Great Civilizations or the rule of a singular Emperor. They’ve been largely ignored until now, which has forced them to conduct some unsanctioned projects on the side. After all, it’s better to show the galaxy how great the Firmament’s vision is rather than just tell them, right? Unfortunately, the response to their efforts has mostly been mass arrests and “peacekeepers” in riot gear, which has been less than ideal. Perhaps Sharsiss—an ambitious young Druaa and a member of the Firmament’s leadership—can provide some guidance for the organization in these troubling times. Sure, he’s been a little…different ever since he stumbled upon a mysterious black blade called the Obsidian, but he’s always had the Firmament’s best interests in mind. Although it is a little concerning how militaristic his actions have been as of late, and no one is certain why he has taken a new, almost obsessive interest in Thunder’s Edge, even reallocating assets from the Firmament’s planned populist uprising on Mecatol Rex in order to take the newly discovered world. He also never goes anywhere without that sword. Maybe…maybe something dark and unsettling is going on. Is it possible the Firmament’s vision has been corrupted by something sinister? …Nah, it’s probably fine. The last of the new factions in Thunder’s Edge is actually two factions in one! You begin the game as the Firmament, a fairly standard faction with no real standout abilities—or so it seems. At first glance, the Firmament’s most notable feature is the ability to score the secret objectives scored by other players; except that, rather than gaining victory points for doing so, the Firmament instead let you place one of their faction-unique “plot” cards into play facedown. The player whose secret objective you scored must place one of their control tokens on that plot. To what end, you ask? Why, to establish puppets for the Obsidian, of course! Once you have at least 1 facedown plot card in your play area, you can choose to purge the Firmament’s faction sheet, leaders, planet cards, and promissory note, replacing them all with those of the Obsidian. This hollowed-out, soulless reflection of the Firmament has its own version of each component, and what it lacks in inherent abilities, it makes up for with its plot cards, which flip faceup upon the Obsidian entering play. The player whose control token rests on a plot card becomes the “puppeted” player for that card, allowing you to reap significant gains from them. For example, the Enervate $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#14CC5').colorbox(opts); }); plot allows you to perform the secondary abilities of the puppeted player’s strategy cards without needing to spend command tokens, Seethe $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#E92C').colorbox(opts); }); allows the you to slowly and methodically destroy the ground forces of the puppeted player, and Extract $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#31D5').colorbox(opts); }); lets you copy the puppeted player’s technology.   Knowing which players to puppet for which plots is key to the Firmament/Obsidian’s strategy, but plots aren’t the only source of abilities they have. Both factions have their own version of each component, and they function differently depending on if they are the Firmament or the Obsidian. For example, the Firmament’s agent is Myru Vos $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#4D63').colorbox(opts); }); , a handy leader that can shield ships from Space Cannon attacks and allow unburdened ships to move through other player’s blockades. After changing to the Obsidian, Vos becomes Vos Hollow $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#57EC').colorbox(opts); }); , and his ability changes to something a bit more destructive. Similarly, Captain Aroz $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#DECA').colorbox(opts); }); of the Firmament can make it easier for you to score secret objectives, which works wonders when trying to set up plots. Once he becomes Aroz Hollow $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#C6E8').colorbox(opts); }); , he instead boosts the combat rolls of your units in The Fracture, the special area of “extra space” that we talked about in our first look at Thunder’s Edge. This plays well off the Firmament’s Planesplitter $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#124A3').colorbox(opts); }); technology, which lets you force The Fracture into play, as well as its Obsidian counterpart $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#ACE2').colorbox(opts); }); , which lets you move the location of ingress tokens (and therefore control the entry points into The Fracture). The Firmament’s Neural Parasite $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#824E').colorbox(opts); }); lets you slowly build up infantry over time, while the Obsidian’s version $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#8F00').colorbox(opts); }); lets you slowly destroy the infantry of your opponents. The Firmament’s Viper EX-23 $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#13ACC').colorbox(opts); }); mech allows you to borrow the Deepwrought’s ability to coexist on a planet, while the Obsidian’s Viper Hollow $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#9BB9').colorbox(opts); }); flips the control of those planets on their heads. The Firmament’s breakthrough, The Sowing $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#A522').colorbox(opts); }); , allows you to invest trade goods for the future, gaining back double the amount after it gets flipped to The Reaping $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#13F09').colorbox(opts); }); for the Obsidian. Each faction even has its own promissory note, with the Firmament’s Black Ops $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#14D28').colorbox(opts); }); being a single-use, guaranteed plot card placement (in exchange for a solid boost to the other player’s command token and trade good economy) while the Obsidian’s Malevolency $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#1270A').colorbox(opts); }); functions like a recurring time bomb that all players will want to pass around, lest it drain their command tokens and neuter their ability to respond to future threats. All of this culminates in the hero cards, which—like everything else—each faction has their own version of. The Firmament’s hero ability, The Blade Beckons $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#151CE').colorbox(opts); }); , lets you set up the exact plot for the exact player that you want, while the Obsidian’s hero ability, The Blade Revealed $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#12C03').colorbox(opts); }); , lets you instantly ready all of your planets. You get access to the Obsidian’s hero card even if you use the Firmament’s hero before the change, but remember: changing to the Obsidian is a one-way trip, so make sure you’ve gotten all the use out of the Firmament that you can before you go hollow! A Crowded Galaxy With the addition of these five new playable factions in Thunder’s Edge, the grand total of factions in Twilight Imperium has risen to 30. Even in just a three-player game, that amounts to over 24,000 possible combinations of factions in a game, and the number only grows as the galaxy expands to higher player counts. What sort of new stories will be told with all these new groups vying for the galactic throne? Look forward to more previews of Thunder’s Edge as we speed toward its release this October!   Written by Peter Schumacher Discuss this article in our forums!