Factions

Factions are groups or guilds of NPCs that perform certain duties for their allies.

Every faction has a certain amount of respect for you, which can influence their willingness to sell you their best equipment (Quartermasters are the merchants that are responsible for this), or provide unique services (such as a permit for a second profession).

Reputation[]

You can see your status for each faction on your character screen. There are three notable levels of reputation that you can achieve with every faction:

Friendly
Default reputation level, the Quartermasters will sell you food (which restores more health/mana per second than regular food of the same level range).

Trusted
At 10000 reputation, you can buy the faction's mediocre items (green-quality).

Respected
At 25000 reputation, the Quartermasters will sell you their rarest equipment (blue-quality items or epic and legendary items for certain factions).

Factions that are aligned with the opposing side will appear Hostile. It is possible to gain a small amount of reputation with some of them, though it currently has no significant impact on the gameplay.

Reputation is mostly rewarded for completing quests, and sometimes for killing certain enemies of a faction. Most factions provide at least one repeatable quest that can increase your status to Respected, with some effort.