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 '' universe.

Contents

1 Civilians
2 The Forgotten
3 The Scrin
4 Tiberium Based Lifeforms

4.1 Tiberium Crystals
4.2 The Visceroid
4.3 Tiberium Fiend
4.4 Tiberium Floater
4.5 Tiberium Veins
4.6 Tiberium Plantlife

Civilians

Civilians are frequently present in the Command & Conquer series and often targeted by Nod forces for use in experiments involving Tiberium. GDI frequently has to evacuate civilians from combat zone to help protect them from combat, but occasionally they (civilians) will take up arms and resist incursions by either side’s forces. In Tiberian Sun and Firestorm civilians are sometimes referred to as "blunts" by the mutants; this is believed to be in refernce to the fact that normal civilians have no Tiberium crystals growing on their bodies.

The Forgotten

The Forgotten are a loose-knit faction of people whose exposure to Tiberium has resulted in genetic mutation either intentionally via Divination, the eugenics program "Project ReGenesis", or by freak accident. They are also known as Mutants or Shiners, the latter referring to the various tiberium crystals that grow on 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 in Tiberium, and The Forgotten also seem to be able to domesticate certain types of Tiberium life forms. Although rejected by Nod, The Forgotten are usually considered to be GDI friendly, and in Firestorm they are revealed to have struck an alliance with GDI to help stop the spread of tiberium.

Prominent members
*Tratos (leader until his assassination)
*Ghost Stalker (probably still alive)
*Umagon (gone insane due to latest Tiberium mutation -Firestorm GDI introduction movie-).

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

In-game
*All Forgotten units recover health in tiberium fields.
*In the campaigns, The Forgotten often use the now-defunct Mammoth Tank, which were sold off after the First Tiberium War by GDI, and also civilian vehicles modified with armor-plating and weapons such as rocket launchers.

The Scrin

The Scrin are an as of yet unintroduced race/faction in Command & Conquer. Little is known of them, save that they are believed to be responsible for the arrival of Tiberium on Earth. It is possible that Tiberium is used as a terraforming agent by them. However, nothing in the games directly points to this. Known clues to their identity are found in the Tiberian Sun game files and in . For example the name is never mentioned in the games themselves (except for the example given below), rather found on concept art and in configuration files. However, in missions involving the crashed Scrin ship in Tiberian Sun, if the player holds the cursor over the ship the idenity 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 main flying unit 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 , surrounded by Nod personnel.
A alien object located on a platue 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 formulas.

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.

Prior to the announcement of , 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.

Tiberium Based Lifeforms

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 Crystals

The first type of Tiberium lifeform ever found on Earth, on the banks of the Tiber River, from which it derives its name. Tiberium crystal plants dig deep into the earth with their roots and extract valuable minerals and forming some unknown substances in the process.

There are two kinds of Tiberium crystals: green and blue. The green crystals are the plain type, being the main source of income for GDI and NOD. When a small patch of green crystals is left alone, it will slowly grow to a bigger field. When a Tiberium Spore tree is in the area, Tiberium will grow more rapidly there.

The second kind of Tiberium, the blue crystals, grow slower, but are a lot more valuable. This is because it has a higher percentage of more exotic minerals. Because of the different composition of this Tiberium crystal, it is inherently very explosive, and when a crystal ignites, it usually takes the whole field of blue crystals with it. Entire squads of infantry have been known to have vanished while traversing a blue Tiberium field, leaving merely a few scorched bones left.

Tratos appears to be examining an orange Tiberium crystal in one Firestorm mission, though orange Tiberium is unlikely to return.

The Visceroid

The Visceroid is a mutant species.

A Baby Visceroid is formed when a human dies of exposure to Tiberium. It is essentially the combination of dead flesh into a single, shapeless entity. When two Baby Visceroids combine, an Adult Visceroid, with attack capability, is formed. The Adult Visceroid is a shape-shifting mass of biological matter. It captures and attacks prey with large pseudopodia. Baby Visceroids are smaller and harmless. In Renegade only one form of Visceroid appears and it attacks by spraying a cloud of toxic Tiberium gas at an enemy.

Both types of Visceroid recover health extremely quickly when traversing a Tiberium field. Adults are effective against all ground units and their unpredictable, jerky movements make it difficult for slow moving units to aim at or escape a Visceroid assault. Because Adult Visceroids are so resilient when near Tiberium fields and so physically powerful, Brotherhood of Nod commanders endeavour to use chemical missiles in a way that will cause mass mutation of infantry units within the enemy base, near a Tiberium field - this will create a major distraction and give the attackers a strategic advantage.

Tiberium Fiend

First seen in Tiberian Sun, these dog like creatures mutated by Tiberium are very aggressive, and often attack out of the blue. Fiends are very dangerous against infantry and lightly armoured vehicles, reducing them to scrap by firing high velocity tiberium shards from their beaks. Many troops overlook the Fiend, because it has the ability to dig into a patch of Tiberium and hide itself, proving even more lethal. There are documented cases of fiends responding to perceived acts of kindness, and some members of The Forgotten have had success domesticating the fiend rather like a canine.

Tiberium Floater

Floaters are less aggressive then Fiends, but make up for it in destructive ability. As the name suggests, these mutated lifeforms float above the battlefield, letting long tentacles hang from their main bodies. These tentacles are used to electrically shock objects and electrocute nearby life forms, though it is unknown if Floaters are in fact predatory or merely territorial. They also release toxic Tiberium gas, making it even harder for infantry to defeat it.

Tiberium Veins

Tiberium veins are a very different type of lifeform. The veins exhibit the behaviour of a plantlike mutation and can grow to a tremendous size if not stopped, attacking heavier vehicles that try to pass over them (light vehicles such as Nod Attack Buggies or GDI Wolverines are not affected). The Brotherhood uses these veins as a basis for their chemical missiles, converting the veins into a form of Tiberium gas. At the center of the lifeform is a 'hole' that can generate deadly clouds of Tiberium gas, though it is vulnerable to attack.

Tiberium Plantlife

Especially in Tiberian Sun-Firestorm a lot of new Tiberium Plants appear, most of them harmless. It seems that besides the regular green Tiberium crystals, and the more rare blue crystals, some non toxic plants have begun to emerge. Possibily because Tiberium crystals have paved the way, and altered the atmosphere. Among these plants, there are trees, moss and algae. All of these are believed to be harmless, except for a more specific tree designated 'Tiberium Fauna' which seems to make the area more prone to encounter Ion Storms because of a chemical it releases into the air.

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