Firaxis has, ahead of E3, revealed a ton of information regarding the recently announced Civilization: Beyond Earth. The images pertains to the faction leaders and the colony sponsers that'll be appearing in the game, which places players in charge of a fledgling civ as it struggles to get a foothold on a strange foreign planet. To avoid confusion we've added the text for each leader directly to the pictures below.

Suzanne Fielding was the eldest of three siblings, all daughters, born on the Texas Gulf Coast to a Mexican-born mother and an African-American father. Her father was the owner of three hardware stores in the region; Suzanne joined her father in running the business as a teenager. Accepting a scholarship to Louisiana State University, she graduated with honors and a double-major in economics and accounting. Driven by a desire to help reclaim coastal lands lost to the rising sea level in her home states, she was hired by the relatively new American Reclamation Corporation (ARC) to an entry-level position. Both meticulous and daring, and surprisingly adept at corporate politics, Fielding rose steadily through the ARC accounting division until, within 15 years, she was heading several operations simultaneously as operations manager. When ARC CEO Michael Modersky signed the Trans-Mississippi Recovery Initiative, he personally asked Fielding to oversee the governmental resource coordination, to which she turned her considerable acumen. It was Fielding who caught the accounting chicanery which led to the FBI's Operation Riverboat and subsequent political fallout. Guiding the government to continue funding during the roiling controversy that followed, Fielding also kept the Initiative on track and on time, such that when Modersky stepped down as CEO, Fielding (who had since been elevated to CFO) was the logical choice for CEO. Sidestepping the Board of Directors, Fielding's appeal to the shareholders enabled her to hold both the CEO and CFO positions for ARC, making her the most powerful woman in the most powerful corporation in the world. With Fielding at the helm, ARC turned from retail and manufacturing to financial and other services. She used the balance sheet and financial weight of ARC as a massive lever, engineering a series of shifts on Old Wall Street to unseat banks and exchanges. As ARC's capital reserves blossomed, many wondered what Fielding would do next. Few expected that she would announce ARC pursuing its own private Seeding venture, drawing on its vast engineering and manufacturing resources, and gaining a waiver from the government to conduct private space operations. The biggest surprise was when Fielding announced she would personally lead the first such expedition. With enough money to buy the world, the woman who led ARC found more meaning in starting over with a new planet.

The given name means "doer of good" in Somali; the family name is a line of historical Somali diplomats. Avuncular, genial, affable, affecting an air of bonhomie, Samatar Jama Barre wished to be addressed as Kubwa Mjomba ("great uncle" in Swahili) by those he both commanded and protected. Despite his seeming benevolence and absent-minded demeanor, he was nonetheless an efficient and effective administrator, an able diplomat, and ruthless when necessary. Barre was amused and likely pleased when detractors likened him to the traditional African village chieftains of the past, claiming him to be a throwback and out-of-step with the new world in the wake of the Great Mistake. But the Peoples' African Union made a wise choice when he was selected as one of their colony governors. Rising from the poverty and violence of the inundated streets of Hargeisa, Samatar joined the African Union's resurgent military forces, eventually rising to the rank of Major. For three decades he served in a variety of increasingly important posts, military and civilian, rising steadily in both ability and influence. He was able to overcome lingering tribal tensions, dealing with the polyglot cultures of Africa with both reverence and common sense. Barre displayed those same diplomatic skills when negotiating with those outside the African Union, and brought to culmination several international agreements that helped propel the Union's colonization effort before he was selected to command one of those colonies. Barre proved to be just as efficient against any perceived threat to the well-being and safety of those under his protection. In dealing with nascent warlords, religious fanatics, and local dictators, he either brought about an equitable peace, or bludgeoned them into submission. Although never known as a military genius, his troops were extremely loyal to their "great uncle" and fought with abandon for his approval. Samatar Barre never lost a battle, although he took no credit for his victories and viewed them as lamentable necessities. Though not religious himself, he was tolerant and accepting, of others' religious traditions. In the end, it was this tolerance, coupled with his intellect and personality that would shape the African Union's colony on the new planet.

Although western scholars are almost uniformly incredulous, the followers of Kavitha Thakur hold fast to the claim that she was born on the first day of June, 17 years before the events of the Great Mistake, making her well over 200 years old. More reliable estimates concede she may be considerably older than the average life expectancy. As the daughter of revered northern mystic Raj Thakur, Kavitha had a strong spiritual connection at a young age. She often experienced near-catatonic states of "disembodied concentration," during which she was said to have had visions of the far future. To the devotees of her father, this only served to solidify their belief that she would one day supplant him in his role, as he himself had declared upon her birth. Nearly 80 years after Raj Thakur's journey to the Kush, Kavitha's followers numbered in the hundreds of millions as the stories of her and her father become legend among desperate and forgotten peoples. Despite a number of political and military candidates tailored for the position, when it came time to elect a leader for the now geographically diverse region under their control, none saw a means to overcome Kavitha's popularity. Swept up in a nearly uncontested vote and thrust into a position of political authority she neither desired nor prepared for, Kavitha focused her early efforts on what she knew best - humanitarian campaigns. She focused her vast resources on repairing the damage done by her predecessors to the people of the Indian subcontinent.

Born to a Chinese mother and Cambodian father, Daoming Sochua was raised in the traditions of both cultures. She tested at genius levels at a very young age and progressed rapidly through the state-sponsored school systems for gifted children. She quickly surpassed her parents - who were both university professors in the sciences- and her bright siblings in her studies. Entering university in her early teens, she proved focused and motivated to dominate her olderpeers. By the age of thirty, she held four PhDs in electrical engineering, nano-electronics, nuclear physics, and bubble fusion. Pioneering ground-breaking methods for extracting energy from sources heretofore thought exhausted, as well as deep-sea and off-world resources, Daoming Sochua was presented with numerous international awards before joining the Pan-Asian Cooperative's Bureau of Scientific Revolution. She was specifically recruited by the Cooperative Space Agency for her experience with energy research and unconventional power systems. Daoming was brilliant, driven, and single-minded in her roles, whether as a researcher or administrator. When she was appointed to head a number of innovative (and perhaps dangerous) projects undertaken by the Cooperative, she revealed a talent for administration. Motivated by the Seeding, she volunteered to head one of the missions to colonize other planets for Pan-Asia. At the time, she was in charge of research studies aimed at overcoming the Inflection Point, knowledge that would serve her in good stead in her new role. Throwing herself into her role as mission leader, Sochua brought her characteristic single-mindedness to decisions on the outfitting and launch of "her" colony, driving her crew and staff unrelentingly. Although not beloved by the colonists on the one-way trip, she was highly respected - which was all that Daoming Sochua expected or demanded.

From Left to Right: Pan-Asian Cooperative, The Peoples' African Union, Kavithan Protectorate, ARC (American Reclamation Corporation)

And now, from left to right, here's the descriptions of the colony sponsors:

Although badly affected by the Great Mistake and the upheaval that followed, the Pan-Asian Cooperative emerged as a strong, transnational entity. Centered around the old People's Republic of China, the Cooperative spans Asia from the Mongolian steppe to the megalopolis of Bangkok, with even former regional rivals South Korea and Japan laying aside their differences to work in the framework of the PAC. It is a powerhouse of industry, home to world-class R&D and high-tech corporations, and boasts a skilled population living in Earth's most populous cities. Although relatively new to spaceflight and space colonization, the PAC has quickly caught up to or passed the old Space Bloc as it embraces the Seeding.

The third-largest economy in the world is the American Reclamation Corporation: the world's first and most powerful megacorporation. Beginning as a geo-engineering firm specializing in environmental risk mitigation, the ARC is credited with designing and carrying out the recovery plan that saved the United States from dissolving after the Great Mistake. Now ARC is involved in almost every nation's Seeding project and recovery plan. From crop sciences to tidal power generation to security contracting, the ARC has a project or product for every problem. Unique among Seeding projects in that they are entirely private, many other Seeding programs rely on ARC financing.

After its population was displaced by the Great Mistake and rising sea levels, many commentators were quick to dismiss the Indian Protectorate - to their great loss. Where other countries might have been content to wallow in despair, the Indian Protectorate underwent one of the greatest cultural transformations that a civilization has undertaken, becoming culturally dynamic, indomitably optimistic, and cleverly resourceful. With one-sixth of the world's population within its borders, and under the charismatic, enlightened guidance of syncretic religious mystic and prophet Raj Thakur, the Protectorate has launched a space program that is the pride of its people, celebrated in song and movie, with every boy and girl from Punjab to Tamil aspiring to work on "our Prophet's Dream." Now Raj Thakur's only daughter, Kavitha, has assumed her father's mantle. Work continues on the Prophet's Dream and life on new worlds.

You're watching Advertisements

The chartering of the People's African Union is the culmination of what has been called the sub-Saharan renaissance. A new generation of political thinkers and cultural organizers used the chaos of the years following the Great Mistake to build pockets of good governance and stability, then gradually expanded and combined, focusing on continental self-reliance, traditional values of communalism, and a newly-developed sense of shared destiny. These states were able to create strong stewardship of Africa's ample mineral and biological resources and rebuild ecological damage within their borders. The People's African Union was one of the earliest backers of the Seeding, and has profited greatly by its equatorial positioning in serving as a launch base for many expeditions.