In order to play a proper game of The Star Wars, we must first initialize our playing area.

In my role as Referee, I'm going to provide some very basic examples of different Jedi and Sith sects-- and some others-- as templates for populating our galaxy with obnoxious space wizards to be the source of a suspicious percentage of every military conflict in the history of the Republic. If you don't like the basic options presented here, rest assured that nobody else does either and it's kinda the point.

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The Jedi Code
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force

Even fractured and at each other's throats, the Jedi are still the most powerful institution of Force users, as they have been for thousands of years. The Jedi are the iconic guardians of the Light, the living embodiment of stability and harmony-- and once, the Republic-- in the minds of sapient beings all across the galaxy.

The greenest Jedi student, before even becoming another Jedi's padawan, is willing to lay down their own life for the sake of peace and harmony. As they progress, they must learn to accept the loss of other's lives, and the loss of their self and their ego. Jedi transcend death when they accept their dissolution into the will of the Force.

The Jedi Order (of Coruscant)

• Description: The guardians of peace and order in the Galactic Republic for the last ten thousand years.
• Goals: Restore peace and order to the Republic, starting by reunifying the Jedi Order and then the Republic.
• Teachings: the Jedi Code, loyalty to the Republic, primacy of the Temple on Coruscant and its Grandmaster
• Symbols: lightsaber (single-bladed, not red); simple brown robes over white tunic/breeches
• Leader: Grandmaster Yoda
• Recommended Classes/Backgrounds: Jedi (mandatory), Agent, Investigator, Soldier; Guardian, Consular, Monk
• Facts: The Jedi Order claims the authority to declare other Jedi temples, and thus their members, orthodox or heretical
• Fact: Rumours speak of Jedi gone missing. Most state the missing Jedi have fallen in battle but others whisper tales of Jedi leaving the Jedi Order. The darkest of tales say these Jedi actively oppose the Republic and the Order.
• Fact: The Jedi Council have just learned that a clone has been discovered to have increased control over the force that had been previously hidden until his first battle where he was forced to use his abilities to save his unit. They are now investigating and considering the implications of this.
   

The Serennian Order of Knights of the Force

• Description: The “heretical” Jedi Order founded by Count Dooku’s Serennian traditions, and Jedi who broke with the Coruscanti Order over the Clone Wars.
• Goals: Promote peace and order in the galaxy by establishing a politically stable and morally legitimate status quo between galactic powers.
• Teachings: the Jedi Code, independence from secular institutions, local traditions and sovereignty
• Symbols: lightsaber (single-bladed, not red); red capes; Jedi medallions
• Leader: Grandmaster Tiran Dooku
• Recommended Classes/Backgrounds: Jedi (mandatory), Noble, Soldier, Pirate, Outlaw; Guardian, Sentinel, Consular, Monk
• Facts: Dooku offers official recognition to fewer Temples than Yoda, but unofficial support-- in various forms-- to many many more.
• Fact: The Serrenian Order is one of the few Orders to accept Jawas as full members, and not just technicians

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The Sith Code
Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.
Through Passion I gain Strength.
Through Strength I gain Power.
Through Power I gain Victory.
Through Victory my chains are Broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Dark Side counterparts of the noble Jedi Order, the origins of the Sith are lost to prehistory-- and they're going to stay that way-- but their enmity with the Jedi is not. The Sith do not hate the Jedi because the Jedi represent the Light Side of the Force; the Jedi oppose the Sith because they spread destruction and misery, and the Sith respond in kind because the Jedi get in their way. The Sith Code advocates for all-consuming passion, not just hatred, and teaches its adherents to burn bright until there's nothing left for them to burn but themselves-- and that's when they burn brightest of all.

The Sith recruit amongst the most desperate populations in the galaxy, and train their students to become more desperate as they gain the power to solve their problems. Most would-be Sith would cut a stranger's throat for a crust of bread before they're even recruited, and endure any suffering that doesn't deprive them of power; as Sith advance, they learn to sacrifice their underlings and their allies to their monomaniacal obsession, and then their friends and family.

A Sith transcends death when they become so committed to victory that they sacrifice even their own power to the Dark Side to achieve it-- breaking the shackles of their mortal life and the obligation of their self to their self, and pitting their passion against the will of the Force itself.


The True Sith Order

• Description: Ancient order of Force users who follow the Dark Side of the Force.
• Goals: To destroy the Jedi and conquer the galaxy. Acquisition of power at all costs and overcoming death.
• Leaders: Darth Sidious and his apprentice, Darth Vader.
• Symbols: None.
• Teachings: Power comes from hatred and Power is the only thing that matters.
• Recommended Classes/Backgrounds: Sith (mandatory), Agent, Bounty Hunter, Noble, Scoundrel, Soldier; Consular, Guardian, Sentinel
• Facts: So confident is he that his plans will come to fruition, Darth Sidious has abandoned the Rule of Two in and seeks to secretly establish a true Sith Empire for the first time in over 3,000 years.
• Fact: Sith cults are notorious for denouncing each other as "False Sith" and going to war with one another at the drop of a hat-- but the inheritors of the legacy of the Sith have never been more united against "one of their own" than they are against "The True Sith".

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Disciples of The Watch

• Description: a militant, extreme Force Tradition. On first glance, they bear similarities to the Jedi, but without the duties of peacekeeping and diplomacy.
• Alignment: Dark Side.
• Goals: To confront and destroy anyone who aligns to the dark side, force sensitive or not. They have been accused at times of seeing problems where there is none, so it was not surprising that the Jedi ignored The Watch when there were warnings of the Dark Side growing, though they can no better detect Darth Sidious than their Jedi counterparts.
• Symbols: None.
• Teachings: The Dark Side is an insidious cancer that has to be rooted out and destroyed, pre-emptively if possible to limit the damage they cause. Anyone is susceptible to succumbing to the Dark Side at any time, and nobody can be trusted.
• Leader: Tadum Lazira, a surprisingly young leader of The Watch, granted her position and authority by the previous leader, which is causing no small amount of tension in the ranks.
• Recommended Classes and Background: Force Adept, Agent, Bounty Hunter, Investigator, City Watch; Force subclasses
• Facts: The Disciples of the Watch have roots to the Jedi Order, though the Knights themselves wouldn't know or admit such things. Their ideological ancestors were the Jedi Covenant, a secretive sect of the Jedi during the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. Though names and practices have changed over thousands of years, the paramount goal of destroying those who would do the galaxy harm, by any means necessary, has never faltered.
• Fact: A ranking member of The Watch is a traitor who serves the True Sith Order.  Sidious would love nothing better than to bring the Jedi and the Watch into conflict, and has some ideas on which he's patiently working.   

Jensaarai

• Description: A Light Side offshoot of a now-extinct Sith tradition, the Jensaarai view their enchanted battle armor the same way Jedi and Sith view their lightsabers.
• Alignment: Light Side.
• Goals: Demand recognition as a legitimate Jedi organization from other legitimate Jedi organizations. Attempt to limit the damage of the Clone Wars and lay the groundwork for a more long-lasting peace.
• Symbols: Jensaarai battle armor, simple (red) lightsabers.
• Teachings: The Jedi Code. The Dark Side is dangerous because it feels righteous; dedication to the Light requires understanding of the Dark, to recognize its signs and resist its influence. Infighting between Jedi Orders is a sign of the self-righteousness of the Dark Side.
• Leader: The Saarai-kaar.
• Recommended Classes & Backgrounds: Jedi (modified/mandatory), Soldier, Mercenary; Guardian or Fighter (mandatory), Consular
• Fact: The Jensaarai consider their lightsabers more or less just like any other weapon, but treat their self-made combat armors as an expression of their connection to the Force.

The Nightsisters of Dathomir

• Description: A coven of (mostly) female Darksiders on the planet Dathomir who delve extensively into ritual magic. The Nightbrothers are more of a warrior caste, but are usually Force sensitive in their own right.
• Alignment: Mostly Dark Side, but Light Side Nightsisters exist and are more or less tolerated.
• Goals: Mostly individual, but the Nightsisters will band together against outside threats.
• Symbols: bizarre lightweapons (any color), crimson robes and elaborate crimson headdresses
• Teachings: The Force is the magic of life itself, and wielding it is to shape life itself to your will. To survive is to grow in strength and wisdom; to fail to grow is to start dying.
• Leader: The leader of the Nightsisters is known as Mother. The current Mother is a zabrak woman named Talzin.
• Recommended Classes & Backgrounds: Force Adept (mandatory), Barbarian, Noble; Consular (nightsister), Guardian, Sentinel, Berserker (nightbrother)
• Fact: Mother Talzin is the (literal) mother of the leaders of the Crimson Dawn; there is some sort of bad blood between them, though it does not seem to extend to their respective organizations. In fact, enemies of one organization often find themselves on the wrong side of the other in subtle, nasty ways.

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He of the Elbow Patches
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Wynternight

The Unstoppable Force
Description: A small mercenary guild of Force Users.
Alignment: Dark side as they are viewed as tools to complete a goal more than an indicator of any religious belief.
Goals: They don’t care if the Jedi recognize them or not. They don’t care if the Sith take over the galaxy. They just want to get paid and eventually make enough money to start their own business or retire comfortably like anybody else.
Symbols: A pin with the symbol of a fist smashing through a wall.
Teachings: Due to the varied backgrounds of its members, there is some who have had past teachings from the various different sects or no teachings at all and have been winging it on their own creating their own codes or principles when it comes to the Force.
Leader: Dalverna Saskin (Zabrak male former Night brother, Leader who keeps everyone in line), Kelinisla Fulden (Female Twilek former Serennian Order of the Knights of the Force, Second in Command who is the chief organizer of the Guild)
Recommended Classes & Backgrounds: Jedi, Sith, Force Adept, Jensaarai, Soldier, Mercenary; Force based class or subclass (Mandatory)
Fact: Organization is morally ambiguous with some members that go to either extremes of honorable or cutthroat depending on their own codes and morals. Business is booming as of late with either side of the Republic and Separatists hiring members for specific jobs when there aren’t any Jedi to deploy or requiring a smaller elite force to get the job done.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:23, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Vrr'shrrk

• Description: Bestial hunters who gain force abilities through cannibalism.
• Goals: Eat to become stronger. Become stronger to eat.
• Teachings: Eat to become stronger. Become stronger to eat.
• Symbols: Various depictions of fanged mouths, skulls and blood.
• Leader: The Strongest, who goes by whatever title it chooses. This individual is regularly replaced (and subsequently eaten).
• Recommended Classes/Backgrounds: Many Marauder Berserkers exist within the Vrr'shrrk, but any strong warrior can be part of the host. Many come from savage backgrounds such as Barbarian, Nomad, Pirate or Scavenger.
• Facts: The Vrr'shrrk were once 'mere' space-faring pirates who killed and plundered everything they could until a cult within them took over promoting cannibalism, for supposedly gaining strength from eating one's foes. From there it was a short leap to targeting force-users for their strength and to great concern of many the Vrr'shrrk actually gained limited control of the Force when they consumed their force-using prey. This has sent them in a frenzied search for their next targets to devour.
• Fact: The Vrr'shrrk are primarily comprised of races that are purely carnivorous and often already have a tendency towards cannibalism. Their love for brute strength also tends to decide who may join for the weak do not survive the trials, often pitting recruits against wild animals or other lethal threats.
• Fact: Freshness of the prey is important. Preferably it is devoured alive. This causes the greatest transference of power.

Guardians of the Whills

• Description: An ancient order of monks, dedicated to protecting their sacred texts
• Goals: As above
• Teachings: We are one with the force, and the force is with us
• Symbols:  The lightbow, an energy-based variant of the bowcaster, construced during initiation
• Leader: A council, elected each year
• Recommended backgrounds/classes:  The guardians will take anyone who will join, no matter their past. The nature of training however benefits Monks more than others
• Fact: The Guardian's origins are shrouded in mystery, and some whisper they may predate the Jedi by centuries.
• Fact: The Great Library, on Sarna, has an entire wing devoted to the teachings of the Guardians.  They are jealously protected, however, and no-one not of the order has seen inside for nearly a thousand years.

This is, by definition, the heart of the Dark Side. A guild of Dark Side mercenaries and assassins, from different traditions, who work for profit and cross-train to improve their performance would be viable. Force traditions that support both Light and Dark members could be viable, but viewing the Force as an extension of one's own will-- especially to commit violence for profit-- is the antithesis of the Light.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:12, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Children of the Dragon

Description: An order of aesthetic monks based on Tatooine.
Goals: To transcend mortality through strength and deprivation.
Teachings: Strength comes from study of the Force. Light or Dark is irrelevant. Strength comes from purging oneself of weakness. Water is life but over-reliance on water is weakness. Fear is weakness. Become as strong as the Krayt Dragons who live in the deep desert. We are their children and their strength is our strength.
Symbols: A stylised Krayt Dragon with crossed knives made from dragon teeth.
Leader: The Speaker of the Desert. She has no other name for ties to the past are weakness.
Recommended Classes/Backgrounds: Any Force-sensitive (required).
Facts: The Children of the Dragon were formed over 1000 years ago by a Jedi and Sith who, tired of the never ending fight, decided to go into the deep desert completely independent of each other. When they met they almost pulled their blades but, after talking at length, concluded that to do so was to continue the mistakes of the past so they both destroyed their weapons and devoted their lives to deprivation and meditation. In time others came to them, drawn by whispers in the Force or rumour and from two, an order grew,  and from an order, a people.
Fact: The Children live deep within the desert, in caves hidden from view by sand and camouflage. They are superb desert fighters, deadly and secretive.
Fact: Over the centuries they developed a full body suit which gathers and filtrates all of the moisture lost from sweat, urine, or other sources and turns it into drinkable water.
Fact: They venerate the Krayt Dragon and use their teeth to make their weapons. They are demons with a dragon-tooth knife. As part of their rites of passage, one coming of age travels into the desert to seek their own tooth. Not all of them return.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:20, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Fair enough. Edited

Good enough. While they are a Dark Side faction... they can function as an origin for non-Jedi and non-Sith Force users of either alignment-- if you bend the Force to their will for a paycheck, you're a Dark Sider... but if you fall into the Light in the process, well, they stop paying you and they wish you luck on your future endeavors and they sincerely hope they're not going to have to kill you next time they see you.

Baran Do Sages

Description: Force sensitive Kel Dor who use the force to amply the visions and solve problems. Many were also trained as jedi before joining the order of mystics.
Goals: Protect others in dark times. Search for answers that no others can find.
Teachings: Baran Do philosophy and methodology centered on finding inner peace and calm, and growing closer to the Force by heeding it. The Sages counseled against rash action, and spent a great deal of time in meditation, contemplating the mysteries of the Force. Many confused the Sages' emphasis on meditation and contemplation for apathy or a reluctance to act, but in actuality they were merely waiting for the precise, perfect moment to act, as dictated by the Force.
Symbols: None
Leader: Hy'zan Du
Fact: A majority of the Baron Do Sages have left their home world in search some information that could prevent a great disturbance in the force.
Fact: The Baran Do Sages hold the secret force knowledge of white lighting.

The Vendryde Sirens :: 

Description: A sect/association of female Darksiders on Vendryde IV, a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant in an outer-rim system.   Practitioners of a variant Sith magic, that is cast mostly through singing and other sonic means, as well as certain visual art forms.
Alignment: Dark Side.  Light Side practitioners exist amongst this race, but they are rare, and the sect view them as dilettantes or spiritual cripples.
Goals: To keep their homeworld and age old traditions just so.  To covertly gain control and resources in key places, via (largely) psyops methods.    Ambitious, exotic, sometimes lethal art projects of various sorts. These may also dual-serve as Dark Side rituals.
Symbols: A silver, silhouette figure of a Vendryde woman over a sphere half black and half aquamarine.   A sigil in their ancient language that at once means the Force, and a voice that cannot be denied.
Teachings: The Force is the most profound voice of all.   It wants us to goad sublime melodies from it, with the extreme emotion only mortal beings can feel, suffer and supply.
Leader: The Vezhulei;  a council of six Sirens chosen for capacity with the Force, mental faculties, artistic sensibility and imagination.
Recommended Classes & Backgrounds: Force Adept (mandatory), Consular, any appropriate Force subclasses.   (Sirens are not warriors, do not make or use lightsabers)

Fact: The Vendryde (that's noun and adjective) people are amphibious, the land masses of their world are primarily archipelagos.
Fact: Vendryde IV is tidally locked with the ringed gas giant around which it orbits.  Traditionally, the "blessed" are held to live on the side that faces the gas-giant; most of everything important happens/resides there.
Fact:  Vendryde women are more likely to be Force sensitive than their men.   The Sirens owe their origins to a Sith witch, fleeing enemies, who found haven there with the knowledge and teaching she had to trade.
Fact:  On a neighboring moon, is a not particularly strong willed but mechanically/technogically adept people, who've been the Sirens' vassals since they came to power.   Due to this relationship, unusual, effective technology protects the Sirens' homeworld,  and may be in their possession if encountered abroad.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:14, Tue 26 Oct 2021.

The Seeing Eye:
Other Names: The Path of the Open Hand

Description: Primarily consisting of Chalactans, but welcome to others who've sought enlightenment as Adepts on Chalacta. They seek the path of enlightenment and illumination. They are an offshoot of the Adepts proper but are still treated with respect and the marks of their path, even if they never earn the Greater Mark of Illumination.

Goals: Make a change to the understanding of the light, without seeking to change the Jedi and forge ahead in their own journeys as both Jedi and Adepts.

Teachings: Like the Chalactan Adepts that form their core the Eyes believe that the natural laws that govern the universe also governed the lives of those who inhabited it. The goal of every Eye is to seek a balance of harmony and peacemaking within a troubled galaxy. (The "trouble" doesn't apply to what's going on now, but always.)

The simplest form of this was established on Chalacta by Jedi who traveled and joined the adepts, his home and name unrecorded noting only in memory and records that he was a Cathar, who carried no Lightsaber. They use a modified version of the Jedi code that may be the earliest recorded version. (Though not all Jedi agree.) The Eye's

    Emotion, yet peace.
    Ignorance, yet knowledge.
    Passion, yet serenity.
    Chaos, yet harmony.
    Death, yet the Force.

Symbols: Like all Chalactan Adepts on their Journey, they wear the Lesser Mark of Illumination.

Leader: It is believed that the founder of the order was a defeated Jedi of Chalactan descent who returned to pursue their path of Illumination.

Recommended Classes: Jedi, Force Adepts, Scouts (Force Sensitivity is not mandatory, but it is common.) Though at least one level of Monk is suggested.

Fact: Members of the Eye generally do not carry lightsabers, and have mastered utilizing their force techniques to evade harm from blasters.

Fact: The reason they are called the Path of the Open Hand is their technique of using hand to hand techniques to disable (but not kill foes)
This message was last edited by the player at 23:17, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

Seem kind of cheating since one of the groups mentioned above was a group I already created, but here goes.

The Alphridian Seers

Description: A group of the Miraluka, strong in the Force, trying to expand the perceptions that the Force provides their species, into the future, the past, and beyond.

Goals: To accurately predict the future, and prevent catastrophe. With their true homeworld destroyed, and so few of them, even on their adopted home of Alphiridies, they cannot survive another catacylsm. They are largely focused on their own fortunes, but the Seers can be reached to provide insight to the larger picture.

Teachings: For the Miraluka, the Force is less the mystic energy field as others perceive it, and more a sense like hearing our touch. Just like the other senses, with practice and training, the senses can be magnified and honed.

Their understanding of the Force is problematic for some among the Jedi, as they do not believe that the Force is inherently Light or Dark. They clearly exist, no Miraluka who knows their history would dare suggest eitherwise, but they believe that the Force simply magnifies and intensifies who the person already is. The Force does not make someone a killer anymore than it makes someone a saint, but enables someone to act on either their greatest or worst impulses.

Symbols: None.

Leaders: Krion, recognized among the fellow Seers as having the greatest vision of them all, though the few outsiders who have seen him would often comment that his crochety demeanor makes him ill suited to lead.

Fact: The Seers do not, of themselves, act on any vision or prophecy that they may foresee. They are guides and advisors, and little more.

Fact: The Seers have foreseen a calamitous moment they have called "The Death of the Force". Interpretation has varied dramatically over time. Some believe that there could be another like the dreaded Darth Nihilius who feeds on the Force itself until none remain, where others believe that it could be the death of the Miraluka specifically, and still others think the prophecy foretells of the death of those who are capable of feeling the force. If there are none left who can feel the force, than it may as well be dead.

Oath of Service

Description: Servitors of the Oath travel throughout the galaxy offering themselves for the betterment of whomever requests their help. The postulant approaches the Servitor, states a problem, and presents the offered payment. The Servitor is bound to accept the request no matter the nature of the problem, nor the offered payment; however, the nature of the solution is entirely at his discretion. An elderly postulant offering a single cred asking for help dusting the top shelf might find the Servitor reinstalling kitchen cabinetry at a more convenient lower height; a wealthy woman offering millions of creds saying her husband is inconvenient to her, hinting at his assassination, might be suddenly attacked and killed -- thereby eliminating the inconvenience. No matter the request, it must be accepted, and the Servitor must demonstrate to his masters why his solution solved the problem.

Servitors are force-users of all kinds; they take an oath to serve for 3 standard galactic years, no more, and return to their various orders as empty-handed as they came. How they develop their own connection to the Force is up to them, but it must be rooted in service to the postulants. If it is not, the Masters of the Oath act to serve the disgraced servitor through correction, a painful, sometimes fatal, prospect.

Goals: To serve the various orders and schools of Force adepts by presenting their members with a means to test and temper their connection to the Force through a series of forced interactions with people.

Teaching: The Oath offers no teachings of its own, merely a development program to allow other teachings to be applied in the field.

Symbols: The circular emblem of the Oath is an Orange stripe per bend, with Argent above and Sable below. The gowns worn by Servitors are the same.

Leaders: The Judges of the Oath are all former servitors who were called back to resume their duty of service by guiding the organization. The most influential Judges are Kissik Reesh, a consular Jedi, formerly of the Jedi Order; and Ushmaa Ha'teel, an otherwise untrained force adept monk.

• Fact: 1st year Servitors are prohibited from carrying a lightsaber.
• Fact: The various Sith organizations use the Oath to discover if an apprentice can maintain his focus on passion and ego while ostensibly serving the good of others.