Difference between revisions of "Faction Lore Overview ErisEn"

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'''Church Structure and Notable Departments''':
 
'''Church Structure and Notable Departments''':
   
* '''Conclave of Archwiitnesses and ranks''': Only those who can claim and verify that God himself had spoken to them can claim the title of becoming an Archwitness. Witness is the second highest ranking position within the church of Neothelogy and exerts absolute authority over his subordinate Archon. Archon is the second in the hierarchy, often overseeing stellar constellations. After Archon, a Hierarch oversees whole planets or fleets, then a Bishop oversees regions on the planet or group of ships, and finally, a Preacher oversees a designated community.
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* '''Conclave of Archwiitnesses and ranks''': Only those who can claim and verify that God himself had spoken to them can claim the title of becoming an Archwitness. Witness is the second highest ranking position within the church of Neotheology and exerts absolute authority over his subordinate Archon. Archon is the second in the hierarchy, often overseeing stellar constellations. After Archon, a Hierarch oversees whole planets or fleets, then a Bishop oversees regions on the planet or group of ships, and finally, a Preacher oversees a designated community.
 
* '''Manufactorium''': Branch of Neotheology entirely responsible for producing the holy machinery. Entry into those massive and heavily fortified factory complexes is completely forbidden for outsiders and fellow Neotheology followers besides those very few that get an invitation and are never seen again. It is assumed by many, even those in Neotheology, that Manufactoriums are managed solely by the mysterious Angels alone. Only resources and heavily defended transports with finished machines enter and leave those church-like monumental structures.
 
* '''Manufactorium''': Branch of Neotheology entirely responsible for producing the holy machinery. Entry into those massive and heavily fortified factory complexes is completely forbidden for outsiders and fellow Neotheology followers besides those very few that get an invitation and are never seen again. It is assumed by many, even those in Neotheology, that Manufactoriums are managed solely by the mysterious Angels alone. Only resources and heavily defended transports with finished machines enter and leave those church-like monumental structures.
 
* '''Dome Choirs''': Monastic order responsible for the construction of Neotheology structures such as paradise domes, manufactoriums, or angel listening stations. All monks must take on vows of silence that prohibit them from communicating with the rest of humanity. Instead, they chant litanies and sing prayers directing the enigmatic construction machines and angels.
 
* '''Dome Choirs''': Monastic order responsible for the construction of Neotheology structures such as paradise domes, manufactoriums, or angel listening stations. All monks must take on vows of silence that prohibit them from communicating with the rest of humanity. Instead, they chant litanies and sing prayers directing the enigmatic construction machines and angels.
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'''Civil Rights''': Not much can be said about the rights of Excelsior that isn’t immediately obvious. Mind control implants are mandatory, and the levels of autonomy between Three Circles are unknown. From the New Mans Doctrine, it can be assumed that any kind of hedonistic and carnal desire is heavily suppressed within the minds of the implanted citizenry. Subsequently, according to the Technomancer, spiritual thought and development are suppressed.
 
'''Civil Rights''': Not much can be said about the rights of Excelsior that isn’t immediately obvious. Mind control implants are mandatory, and the levels of autonomy between Three Circles are unknown. From the New Mans Doctrine, it can be assumed that any kind of hedonistic and carnal desire is heavily suppressed within the minds of the implanted citizenry. Subsequently, according to the Technomancer, spiritual thought and development are suppressed.
   
'''The Three Circles''': From the various reports, it can be assumed that Excelsior is organized into three distinctive castes of society, each serving a specifically designated role. It has to be noted that the exact structure of Excelsior society is not yet known, even from Technomancer records, and as such, the so-called Frontier Circle and The Heaven are subjected to heavy speculation. Nevertheless, the circles are as follows:
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'''The Three Circles''': From the various reports, it can be assumed that Excelsior is organized into three distinctive castes of society, each serving a specifically designated role. It has to be noted that the exact structure of Excelsior society is not yet known, even from Technomancer records, and as such, the so-called Frontier Circle and The Haven are subjected to heavy speculation. Nevertheless, the circles are as follows:
   
 
* '''The Apex Circle''': Group of personnel with which almost all of the known Galaxy is accustomed and are the only part of the Excelsior most of the population will hear about. They are the infiltrators, saboteurs, “border guards” of the Gagarin Sector, combat vessel personnel, and occasionally traders and diplomats. They are equipped with Implants with quite broad autonomy.
 
* '''The Apex Circle''': Group of personnel with which almost all of the known Galaxy is accustomed and are the only part of the Excelsior most of the population will hear about. They are the infiltrators, saboteurs, “border guards” of the Gagarin Sector, combat vessel personnel, and occasionally traders and diplomats. They are equipped with Implants with quite broad autonomy.
 
* '''The Frontier Circle''': The supposed “core” of the Excelsior society. Those are the people that are considered civilians, or “Grey Mass,” as called by the Technomancers League, due to their uniform gray clothing. The Frontier Circle is responsible for all of the production, agriculture, science, and art. The civilian population inhabits mostly migratory stations and ships, all of which are painted with various artistic murals.
 
* '''The Frontier Circle''': The supposed “core” of the Excelsior society. Those are the people that are considered civilians, or “Grey Mass,” as called by the Technomancers League, due to their uniform gray clothing. The Frontier Circle is responsible for all of the production, agriculture, science, and art. The civilian population inhabits mostly migratory stations and ships, all of which are painted with various artistic murals.
* '''The Heaven''': Undisputably the most poorly understood group of the Excelsior that is known of. Part of their structures supposedly held in the utmost importance. It is only suspected whether Heaven is the leadership of Excelsior, a capital or a logistics hub connecting all of the Kursalin technology.
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* '''The Haven''': Undisputably the most poorly understood group of the Excelsior that is known of. Part of their structures supposedly held in the utmost importance. It is only suspected whether Haven is the leadership of Excelsior, a capital or a logistics hub connecting all of the Kursalin technology.
   
 
=== Danube Confederacy ===
 
=== Danube Confederacy ===
Danube Confederacy is a former federate state stretching most of the Danube Sector. Currently in a state of warlord anarchy due to government collapse during Corporate Wars and mass devastation inflicted by Nanotrasen, and currently being inflicted by Ironhammer Expeditionary Fleet Baltia performing pacification tasks. First settled by the colonists from Balkan Armada, who in 2300 had finished their journey, Danube Sector eventually rose to prominence as an interstellar superpower after the unification of planetary states by the Bulgarian government. Posing themselves as the primary international rival to Nanotrasen, they played an instrumental role in their collapse, providing crackdown-free haven and funding for many anti-Nanotrasen terrorist groups such as Excelsior or Founders, which eventually lead to its eventual collapse, as many planets with a strong influence of the Founders started succeeding when the situation in the Danube turned dire. The Colossus of Danube has been mauled and laid dormant, but the furnaces of Predestraza and Valna and the wrath born from its suffering will echo across the whole of Hansa.
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Danube Confederacy is a former federate state stretching most of the Danube Sector. Currently in a state of warlord anarchy due to government collapse during Corporate Wars and mass devastation inflicted by Nanotrasen, and currently being inflicted by Ironhammer Expeditionary Fleet Baltia performing pacification tasks. First settled by the colonists from Balkan Armada, who in 2300 had finished their journey, Danube Sector eventually rose to prominence as an interstellar superpower after the unification of planetary states by the Bulgarian government. Posing themselves as the primary international rival to Nanotrasen, they played an instrumental role in their collapse, providing crackdown-free haven and funding for many anti-Nanotrasen terrorist groups such as Excelsior or Founders, which eventually lead to its eventual collapse, as many planets with a strong influence of the Founders started secceeding when the situation in the Danube turned dire. The Colossus of Danube has been mauled and laid dormant, but the furnaces of Predestraza and Valna and the wrath born from its suffering will echo across the whole of Hansa.
   
 
'''Cultural Virtues''': Militarism, Asceticism, Authority, Comradery, Atheism, Wonderbuilding, Legacy, Federalism, Common Goal, Comradery, Statism, History, Ambition.
 
'''Cultural Virtues''': Militarism, Asceticism, Authority, Comradery, Atheism, Wonderbuilding, Legacy, Federalism, Common Goal, Comradery, Statism, History, Ambition.
   
'''Governing Ideology''': While there’s no more unified ideology within the Confederacy itself due to the lack of unified government, many of the planet states retain an ideological imprint of the Pan-Danubian manifesto still lingers within the collective minds of broken populations. The culture of the Confederacy has been shaped entirely by its proximity to and rivalry with Nanotrasen and an absolute desire to be an antithesis to Nanotrasen and one up all of their achievements. Where Nanotrasen promoted lavish lives full of ecstasy and mass expenditure, Danubians had imposed upon themselves ascetic life, free of compulsions and distractions that would muddle the mind. Religions were tossed to the side. To contradict corporate order fueled by greed and money, the Confederation adopted a strong nation-state fueled by people’s willpower and abandoned currency usage. Backstabbing, corruption, and indifference were scrutinized, and Loyalty with Companionship was lauded. Most of all, however, Danubians couldn’t cope with Nanotrasens utopian accelerationism. To constantly grasp new things, abandoning the old, abandoning any semblance of grandeur for future generations to remember humanity by. And as such, Danubians built and strived for monumentality in all things. Massive architectural and scientific wonders littered the Danubian space, solidifying the memory of the great civilization that was the Danube Confederation.
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'''Governing Ideology''': While there’s no more unified ideology within the Confederacy itself due to the lack of unified government, many of the planet states retain an ideological imprint of the Pan-Danubian manifesto that still lingers within the collective minds of broken populations. The culture of the Confederacy has been shaped entirely by its proximity to and rivalry with Nanotrasen and an absolute desire to be an antithesis to Nanotrasen and one up all of their achievements. Where Nanotrasen promoted lavish lives full of ecstasy and mass expenditure, Danubians had imposed upon themselves ascetic life, free of compulsions and distractions that would muddle the mind. Religions were tossed to the side. To contradict corporate order fueled by greed and money, the Confederation adopted a strong nation-state fueled by people’s willpower and abandoned currency usage. Backstabbing, corruption, and indifference were scrutinized, and Loyalty with Companionship was lauded. Most of all, however, Danubians couldn’t cope with Nanotrasens utopian accelerationism. To constantly grasp new things, abandoning the old, abandoning any semblance of grandeur for future generations to remember humanity by. And as such, Danubians built and strived for monumentality in all things. Massive architectural and scientific wonders littered the Danubian space, solidifying the memory of the great civilization that was the Danube Confederation.
   
 
'''Diplomacy''': No strict diplomacy policy exists anymore due to the lack of a central government. However, new and old animosities and loyalties remain in the consciousness of remaining. Technomancers, despite their proclaimed neutrality, are considered a friendly nation in the eyes of Danubians. Hansa is almost universally hated due to the actions of Ironhammer, but begrudgingly many planet states maintain trade relations with it. Neotheology and Galpolka are considered religious freaks and fanatics. Founders are still accepted among many Planet-states, although disliked by Serbian and Bulgarian governments. Excelsior is universally considered a terrorist organization. There are no relations with Dai Social Mandate nor Oberth.
 
'''Diplomacy''': No strict diplomacy policy exists anymore due to the lack of a central government. However, new and old animosities and loyalties remain in the consciousness of remaining. Technomancers, despite their proclaimed neutrality, are considered a friendly nation in the eyes of Danubians. Hansa is almost universally hated due to the actions of Ironhammer, but begrudgingly many planet states maintain trade relations with it. Neotheology and Galpolka are considered religious freaks and fanatics. Founders are still accepted among many Planet-states, although disliked by Serbian and Bulgarian governments. Excelsior is universally considered a terrorist organization. There are no relations with Dai Social Mandate nor Oberth.

Latest revision as of 19:39, 9 August 2023

Factions Present in Null Sector

Hansa Trade Union

The largest and most powerful state-like organization within the known Galaxy. Serving as a coalition of nine Megacorporations, HTU is the only interstellar state that, despite technological stagnation and corporate oppression, manages to develop at a rapid pace and expand beyond its home sector. As such, it is no surprise that HTU was the only organization capable of laying claim of ownership on the whole of Null Sector when it emerged back into reality, and subsequently organized minimal oversight over the traffic in and out of the transfer of equipment, goods, and discoveries from within the Sector into Hansa Sector proper.

  • Ironhammer Security: Megacorporation that deals primarily in general security services within HTU. Tasked with annexation and pacification of the freshly emerged Null Sector, Ironhammer had established a Central Command governing body overseeing and protecting various expeditions within the Null Sector. With the Ironhammer Expedition Fleet Poltergeist at their disposal, their primary line of duty is the elimination of unaffiliated hostile vessels, suppression of numerous anomalies, termination of mutants, and hostile alien fauna, oversight over synthetics, and border cell control, preventing any kind of illegal goods smuggling. Every HTU vessel entering the Null Sector is required to either employ Ironhammer mercenary personnel or submit a full list of the onboard crew with detailed backgrounds and occupation duties.
  • Asters Guild: HTU Megacorp which holds a monopoly over logistic services, mining, and small-scale manufacturing. Widespread across Null Sector, with many trade stations scattered around the wild space, ensuring exchange fluidity of the various goods found in the Null Sector, refueling, repair services, and safe havens for various HTU vessels that happen by them. Many of their trade stations are also often leased to other Organizations for standard fees as well as a small cut of any monetary transfers.
  • Moebius Laboratories: HTU Megacorp that holds a monopoly on a majority of the research initiatives and medical services within Hansa Space. Due to anomalous and uncharted properties of the Null Space holding great potential for the scientific development of the human race, Moebius Laboratories are the primary sponsor and investor behind the majority of various private expeditions of HTU prospectors, universally forcing them to sign a clause that any and all scientific discovery and strange artifacts found during their expeditions will be considered Moebius property; however, authorized personnel may trade those away if the situation makes it necessary.

Technomancers League

Due to the massive crisis of homelessness that emerged from the ashes of Corporate Wars, many of the Technomancer clans have become stranded on various planets within Hansa Space. With the resurgence of Null Sector, many private prospectors in possession of a ship and desire to explore that accursed regions seek cheap, skilled, and desperate engineering labor with connections to a technologically advanced empire, and stranded technomancer clans fall into that category perfectly, as a mere promise of their own personal space on board of ship is enough to convince them to partake in suicidal voyages. However, technomancer clans had proven to be quite unreliable when it came to abiding by their contracts. For ambition to own a ship and acquire freedom which Technomancers League promises so much, is stronger than any agreement, and as such many exploration vessels are prone to coup attempts committed by rowdy technomancer clans.

Church of Neotheology

No one really knows the true nature of the Church of Neotheology’s interest in the Null Sector. For many, it would seem heretical to explore the remains of an atheist fallen empire in a zone filled with bluespace anomalies, rogue synthetics, and alien creatures. By the definition of their doctrine, it would be a place of absolute evil, yet along with Moebius Laboratories, they remain the largest funders of various expeditions into the old Solar Cloud. Many could interpret this as a form of a crusade against the evils or an effort to ward off unsuspecting crews that would have traveled there no matter what from evils. The most accepted conclusion, however, is that Null Space is full of secrets and people, and if Neothology were a moth, then secrets and people would be the largest lamps you could find in Hansa Space.

Danube Confederacy

While the failed federation state is barely even existing and is in no position to organise any kind of activity within the Null Sector, the more stable statelets that rose from its decaying corpse and many of the refugee entrepreneurs find plenty of work and potential within this rogue sector, that would either help them set their lives straight or find ways to restore the glory of their nation from ruins.

  • Serbian Government: The Official military force of the Serbian Government of Predestraza is in high demand for their mercenary work within Null Sector. For as much as the Null Sector offers potential for profit and discovery, it also offers a safe haven for any debt evaders, corporate enemies, and many other undesirables trying to hide from the repercussions of their life choices. Serbian Mercenaries, however, take contracts that can’t be solved via the slow bureaucracy of an Ironhammer termination or silent contractors. They are hard hitters, their goal is to blow the target sky-high, and everyone trying to protect them. As such, the encounter with any of their mercenary ships results in either quick disengage or violent hostility. Ironhammer Central Command warns against any attempt of contact with SAM, and as such, within Null Sector, they are considered enemies of the HTU.

OneStar - Extinct

Prosperous and Technologically sophisticated Empire once inhabiting the region of space now known as Null Sector. Along with the re-emergence of the Null Sector into the common reality, so came back various ruins, research complexes, treasures, and shades of this once Hyperpower. Their legacy makes for the primary target of any prospector wishing to acquire riches and power beyond comprehension for themselves or their respective organisations.  

Excelsior

Terrorist Organisation bent on integrating humanity into one shared machine hivemind under the guise of old Earth communist ideals. While it is unknown if such an organization would have any unique scientific interest within the Null Sector, it is beyond doubt that with the lack of larger Ironhammer oversight, isolated exploration vessels lost within the wild space frontier make for ideal targets of various infiltration cells bent on hijacking ships, acquiring intel and subjugating crews to their monolithic cause.

The Oberth Republic:

  • MakroRobotiks: Primary Megacorporation of the Oberth Republic mired in the civil with Republican and Criminal Underground forces on their home planet. That, however, does not stop them from offering contractor services of many robotic and cybernetic platforms adept at infiltrating the environment of the space vessels and causing havoc, the most notorious example of the such platform being the infamous Blitzshells.

Full List of Factions in the Setting

Hansa Trade Union

The Hansa Trade Union (Hansa) is a territorial unity of megacorporations holding control over the entirety of the most populated and developed sector within the explored regions of the Milky Way Galaxy. Formed from reshaped Syndicate, nine main megacorporations have divided and monopolized the most crucial and most profitable markets between each other. Maintaining the illusion of free market capitalism, they leave smaller enterprises alone while suppressing or taking over any ambitious forms and companies wanting to become a significant part of the market. CEV "Eris" is registered as one of Hansa's Free Vessels.

Cultural Virtues: Stability, Profit, Individual Freedom, Nihilism, Consumerism, Opportunism

Governing Ideology: After the cataclysmic event that was Corporate Wars triggered by the overreaching tendrils of NanoTrasen trying to monopolize every aspect of the market, the Hanseatic Megacorporations had enacted a preventive measure to ensure that no corporation will ever hold such power. Such measure was called Hydras Interdependence, a partitioning of the market between major corporations in such a way that none are self-sufficient, and every single one relies on the industries and services of eight others.

Diplomacy: While HTU might pose itself as a pragmatic, open-to-trade and dealings entity, which keeps peaceful and neutral relations with the likes of Technomancers League or Predestraza Government, it doesn't shy away from interventionism and usage of force against groups and nations, bent on shattering their order and way of life. Organizations like the Founders or Excelsior are branded as terrorists, Galpolkan Tribunal is considered a rogue state, Dai Social Mandate is kept under Hansa occupation until systemic reforms are deemed appropriate, space of former Danubian Federation is considered volatile and put under indefinite order of pacification. Church of Neotheology, despite no direct armed conflict between the two, is regarded as the primary rival due to its enormous sprawl and influence within HTU space itself.

Stance on Technology: HTU is very restrictive regarding intellectual development and conducts constant propaganda campaigns and repressions against all independent research, relying wholly on the scientific monopoly of Moebius Laboratories. Only simple, law-approved AIs are allowed for the non-corporate citizenry. Several inventions, such as Boros Engine or Excelsior implants, are forbidden. All psykers are required to be registered and subjected to constant surveillance.

Civil rights: There are no restrictions on the usage of drugs or weapons beyond individual regulations, though local governments of planets and stations are allowed to impose some form of restrictions. Indentured Servitude exists. While people inhabiting Hansa space consider themselves Hansa citizens, no official citizenship, passports, or documents of such nature exist. Instead, Hansa regulates and sanctions passports and citizenship documents belonging to corporations or planets.

[HTU] Ironhammer Security

Hydra Aspect: Military and Security.

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Comradery, Rank Veneration, Autonomy, Militarism

Private Military Corporation was founded and still led by Leopold Dauphin "Dolphin" Ironhammer, which serves as the primary military and internal security arm of Hansa. Formed from the mercenary company employed by the Syndicate about fifty years ago, they provide many services, from hunting criminals, escorting convoys, policing the streets to mercenary work and military campaigns. Ironhammer Security has several departments which fulfill different tasks. Here are the five most essential divisions:

  • Expeditionary Fleet: The primary division in charge of protecting and advancing the military interests of Hansa, acting effectively as a standing army of all the megacorporations. Making up the most sizeable and potent military force in the known Milky Way Galaxy, they are divided between eight Expeditionary Fleets, each with a specific assignment, and each responding directly to the "Dolphin" himself.
  • Marshals: Organisation of sanctioned bounty hunters. They capture and eliminate targets by order of their contractor, an organization, or a state, outside the contractor's area of influence. They report directly to the Grand Marshal himself and his closest subordinates, which grants them a pretty significant level of autonomy in their missions. Despite all the diplomatic efforts of the upper Ironhammer administration, Marshals often conflict with the local Ironhammer forces for obvious reasons.
  • Special Anomalistic Unit (SAU): Department responsible for seeking, securing, suppressing, and destroying anomalistic objects. SAU. are specialists within Hansa for neutralizing any kind of hostile alien fauna, mutants, and anomalies plaguing the Hansa sector and beyond.
  • Corporate Security: Division with the lion's share of IHS manpower. They are responsible for offering various security services to the Civilian and Administrative sector of Hansa. From police work, mall protection, purges of violent gangs, or civilian spacefaring vessel protection, everybody had the opportunity to see a member of Corporate Security at least once.
  • Turing Police: Division responsible for neutralizing various synthetics, cyborgs, rogue Artificial Intelligence. They are also provided with oversight over cyberspace and providing it with appropriate security measures. Their crucial role in the security of the whole Hansa makes them quite autonomous, often reporting directly to the Hansa administration itself, giving them additional funding.

[HTU] Asters Guild

Hydra Aspect: Logistics, Trade, Raw Resources, Small Manufacturing

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Avarice, Hierarchy, Authority, Elitism

Founded by Kian "Patriarch" MacAndra, and ruled currently by his offspring only known by their nicknames of "Platinum Brother" and "Golden Sister," Asters guild is a privately owned alliance of various transport firms, resource extraction companies, and small businesses. It is an organization with restricted membership, with only those holding a company and their direct associates receiving full privileges and duties of being a member, regardless of the nature of the company they own. Many flock to their side, wishing to study under them as paid workers, interns, or even indentured servants, all of them being called Technicians.

Due to hostility and increasing tensions between both siblings, Asters Guild had fallen into unspoken factionalism, with three prominent groups emerging from the turmoil. While this conflict is still in its infancy and primarily within the boundaries of heated debates, many fear it eventually turning hot, which would plunge Hansa into apocalyptic chaos. Those groups are:

  • Mercantilists: Merchants supporting the seizure of ownership under the Golden Sister and pursuing a policy of consolidating Hansa into a market bound to a single Corporation - Which would be Asters Guild, breaking the Hydras Interdependence.
  • Platinum Lords: Merchants supporting the seizure of ownership under the Platinum Brother, pursuing the policy of consolidating Asters subordinate companies into a few more powerful ones, and keeping up with the Hydras Interdependence.
  • Sanitators: Merchants who support neither of the siblings and actively want to depose them, actively calling them "The Rot," after which they wish to establish a conclave of all merchants who collectively rule over the Asters Guild.

[HTU] Moebius Laboratories

Hydra Aspect: Science, Health

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Ambition, Technophilia, Indifference, Order, Materialism

Megacorporation Founded by Ronan "Nebulan" O'Malone, currently absent due to the expedition into the supermassive black hole in the End Point, and a council of board members governing in his stead. Moebius Laboratories has been granted absolute authority and monopoly over the scientific research within HTU, with a green light to suppress any would-be independent researcher or flat-out abduct them into one of the domed blacksites where they will churn out inventions and patents to be sold to the rest of Hansa. In addition to that, they have complete control over pharmaceutical and medical services. The most notable Moebius divisions are:

  • R&D Blacksites: The core division of Moebius Laboratories responsible for all of the technological advancements within the HTU. It consists of various stationery and deep space research complexes and serves as an academy for Moebius Personnel. Regardless of the division and career aspirations, all Moebius personnel must undergo years of education and training within Blacksites.
  • Moebius Biolaboratories: Pharmaceutics and Medical Services division is responsible for most of the ML's income. Every larger hospital and clinic belongs to them, and all known and officially recognized reagents are also trademarked. A major producer of cloned organs and organoids. Known for the controversy of housing genetic laboratories under the pretense of reversible DNA treatment, despite all genetic research within HTU being widely shunned due to Corporate Wars trauma.
  • Discovery League: Division responsible for mapping, exploration, excavations, artifact recovery, and research of the territories of uncharted deep space territories. The most sought-after position within the ML due to the level of autonomy and authority it offers. It is because, during the expedition, every other division of ML falls under the command of the leading Expedition Overseer.
  • Enigmatics: Division of trained psykers responsible for discovering, tracking, and handling any occurrence of unsanctioned psykers, as well as the use of psionics. In addition to that, they are also tasked with monitoring sanctioned psykers and undertaking efforts of their recruitment into the Enigmatic ranks. Also dubbed as "Founder Busters," due to the universal fear of psykers present everywhere, they are the only Hansa organization universally accepted and welcomed by every nation within the known Galaxy, including the overwhelmingly xenophobic Galpolkan Tribunal.
  • Blackstar Company: Private corporate militia of ML responsible for tracking, terminating, and abducting independent researchers and acquiring unregistered blueprints and technology within Hansa and outside of its borders. They are infamous for the amount of collateral damage caused by their operations.

[HTU] Frozen Star

Hydra Aspect: Military-Industrial Complex

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Deceit, Militarism, Autonomy, Loyalty, Hedonism

Megacorporation founded and still controlled by Ishiguro "Demon" Willems and a board of Japanese investors and businessmen. Largest and the most expansive producer and seller of military hardware, from small civilian, issued pistols like Paco, military automated battle tanks Sarnix to planet-cracking Kami canons fitted for the largest Dreadnought spacecraft. Due to existing in the market with the most significant international competition, Frozen Star had become infamous for their excessive corporate espionage, sabotage, and coercion operations on both rivals and allies to maintain their tight grip on the market. Due to their straining work culture, Frozen Star had developed a crisis of rampant alcoholism and drug intake within both worker and corporate circles, leading to a spiraling decrease in quality and, thus, the rise of the competitors such as Serbian Arms into a wider market. The most important divisions of Frozen Star are:

  • Frozen Star Armaments: Primary network of all weaponry manufacturing facilities. Known for their deplorable working conditions and conflicts between overseeing corporate divisions that occasionally turn into open warfare.
  • Ashigaru: Private Corporate Militia of Frozen Star, and the second largest formation of this type within Hansa after Ironhammer itself. Their primary role is protecting any Frozen Star Convoys, as well as quick response and pacifying internal outbursts of corporate conflicts before they cause any significant damage to the facilities they oversee.
  • Gunsmiths Guild: Inner Frozen Star R&D division responsible for iterating and improving on patents and blueprints acquired from Moebius Laboratories and providing maintenance to damaged military equipment. Various firms often employ individual gunsmiths for their gun crafting and maintenance expertise.

[HTU] Valhallan Foundation

Hydra Aspect: Construction and Shipyards

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Charity, Cynicism, Feigned Kindness, Avarice

Founded by Véný "Mirage" Dofradóttir and now ruled by a board of shipyard admirals, this megacorporation is responsible for all major construction projects within HTU and the production of the spacecraft. Reforged from the Valhallan Shipyards, who betrayed and turned against NanoTrasen by the end of Corporate Wars, they still hold the taint of their history, and much of the Hansa population still considers them treacherous and double-dealing. Due to that, Valhallans had tasked themselves to be instruments of building goodwill between Hansa inhabitants and corporations by being the main organizer of various charities; however, each had turned out to have its darker side. Public kitchens are often exposed for serving food laced with prototype reagents and GMO-sequences from Moebius and Braadhanata; Orphanages turn to facilities grooming future indentured servitors for various corporations, and disaster relief victims get railroaded into taking on crippling debts with Lucent Crescent. Still, for many, crooked help is better than no help. Valhallan Foundation is similar to Asters Guild in the sense that it's highly decentralized and is not split between divisions; however, there are still notable groups under its banner, such as:

  • Esteemed Barons: VF admirals possess various training facilities and migrating orphanages, responsible for most indentured servant business within HTU. Their marines and businessmen do not shy away from abduction and tricking civilians into their contracts, as such caution is always advised in their presence.
  • Kind Giants: Group of corporate saboteurs for hire. They are all almost universally operating light, demolition-class "Hospitality" exosuits. Due to access to the internal database of VF structural blueprints and easy access to all weak points, they are notorious for their effectiveness in building demolition and ship damage work.

[HTU] Bradhaanata Agroponics

Hydra Aspect: Agrarianism, Food Industry

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Ethnosupremacy, Spirituality, Pride, Cybernetics

Founded and still controlled by Aaliya "Demiurge" Chadda is an Indian megacorporation that holds a complete monopoly over Hansa's agriculture production and processing industry, as well as food distribution services such as restaurants and food markets. They control exclusive rights to all self-produced genetically modified seeds, tree saplings, and modified species of farm animals and insects. BA is well known for its extreme cultural exclusivity and isolationism, only allowing people of Indian origins and culture to work within megacorporation structures. BA had self-proclaimed itself to be the primary enemy of Neotheology, not only due to being a rival in the food industry but also due to spiritual reasons, as they believe that the Cruciform technology seeks to trap the human soul in an endless cycle of reincarnation. As a result of a reactionary mindset against NT's doctrine, they had developed an overwhelming fascination with implants and cybernetics, claiming that body is a mere vessel that doesn't impact the soul itself. Their most notable divisions are:

  • Bradhaanata Hydro-facilities: The Heart and Spine that supports the entire HTU with food, silk fibers, exotic wood, and so on. Everybody but the Bradhaanata personnel are prohibited from entering the territory of hydro-facilities under the threat of instant termination. As a result, little is known about the actual composition of the more complex food products.
  • Bradhaanata Fungo-laboratories: Internal R&D division, often closely working with Moebius Laboratories, responsible for cultivating various strains of mushrooms, gene modding them, and using their spores to modify the properties of various plants and farm animals.
  • Big Game Brotherhood: BA's division is responsible for hunting down, capturing, and studying properties of various alien fauna and flora across the galaxy for the purpose of integrating them in some way into the Braadhanatas industry. Doubling as BA's guard personnel, those hyperaugmented men barely resemble humans, each fielding groups of personal multipurpose drones.

[HTU] Lucent Crescent

Hydra Aspect: Finance, Administration, Education, Colonization

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Asceticism, Honesty, Stoicism, Corruption

Founded and still controlled by Umair "Charball" El-Yassin and his council of sheiks is a megacorporation that holds control over the entire financial, education, and administrative sectors within HTU, as well as being responsible for the majority of the colonization programs funding and organization. Lucent Crescent makes up for everything that could be considered a skeleton of a megacorporation-run state, and according to many, there couldn't be any worse group to do so. The heartwrenching phrase "It is the only way Hansa can run" had been burned into the mind of any would-be personality forced to use their services. Lucent Crescent is corrupt; it knows about it, is honest about it, and has established it as its tenet. Unqualified families are invited to work into the ranks, and payments in bribes to bypass procedures and education are rampant. There's no established rule they are unwilling to bend or flat-out ignore to get their way. Their reasoning is pretty simple; It's not for their own personal gain, as most of its personnel live rather humble lives, but only the most determined, the most clever, the most impactful, and the most prosperous should have priority in all affairs within HTU to ensure that it's a well-oiled machine. Notable divisions of Lucent Crescent are:

  • Lucent Administrative Complex: Division of Lucent Crescent that serves as the main administrative body of the HTU. Be it international diplomatic relations, handing out corporate passports, registering a place of living, international tariffs, regulations, corporate courts, or simply organizing meetings between corporate leaders, it all goes through the bureaucratic veins of the Lucent Administrative Complex.
  • Greenlight Operations: Division of Lucent Crescent is directly responsible for most of the colonization efforts of HTU. Known for setting impossible standards and quotas over their contractors meant to either blackmail them into complacency and long-term favoritism towards LC or impose high fines for not keeping up with standards set up by contracts.
  • Glittering Corsairs: Armed arm of the Lucent Crescent responsible for debt collection and termination of any emerging competition within HTU. Ruthless in their means, capable of even blockading whole outgoing planetary traffic, they are welcoming (and encouraged by the parent company) of any bribes that postpone debt retrieval.

[HTU] Corporate Syndicates of Tartarus

Hydra Aspect: Maintenance, Energy Provider, Heavy Industry

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Pride, Free-Market, Entrepreneurship, Ideology  

Formed and still ruled by the noble house of Vassallou, this megacorporation is the primary supplier of power, heavy machinery, and conservatory services within the HTU. Commonly called a "Middle dumping ground" by the rest of Hansa megacorporations, it is the most ideologically active, taking great pride in its role during the Corporate Wars of a middle class rising against the monopoly of Nanotrasen; they call themselves the true inheritors of the Syndicate and its free market ideas of fair, balanced capitalism, and consider CST as the beating heart of Hansa's entrepreneurship and middle class. All those idealists lured in with promises of high wages, "acquisition of their own small business workshop," and their company shares, sooner or later realize that those wages have nothing in comparison to those of Asters Guild or Lucent Crescent, small business workshop translates to place at conveyor belt, console at a nuclear reactor or mop bucket, and those shares are trivial in comparison to those owned by House of Vassallou, and any ideological movements get mired in workplace politics. Still, many of them remain proud and consider themselves crucial, for, without their effort, there would not be any apartment heating, no glowing neons, nor auto lathes printing the tiniest of meaningless items.

[HTU] Santana Entertainment

Hydra Aspect: Information, Social Media, Entertainment, Culture, Hard Drug production, History.

Divergent Cultural Virtues: Hedonism, Utopism, Reconstructionism, Cult of Personality

Brazilian Megacorporation founded and still controlled by Cristiano "Amazonian" Dias, in charge of the Entertainment and Hard Drug industries. Every famous celebrity, vid show, news network, holo circus, art installation, hotel, and monuments trace their contracts and ownership back to Santana. For Santana is the soul of Hansa. Whatever forms Hansas citizens' opinions and views were constructed from the will and intentions of Santana. One can learn history thanks to Santana's efforts to preserve it, and from Santana's will to recreate it across many of its isolated paradise complexes, where only the chosen, the most artistically gifted of Hansa citizenry would be allowed entrance and indulge in a perfection-seeking drug haze. The lives of those chosen are short but vibrant and fulfilling. Each one of them is a sacrifice for humanity’s greater whole, as each and every single one of their lives feeds Santana's research that will one day lead to the creation of a true Utopia. Their most notable departments are:

  • Santana Opera: The primary media conglomerate of Hansa and the largest one in the known galaxy, where only the Galpolkan Tribunal actively blocks its transmission. Fame awaits those willing to sell their soul to Santana and eager to hook up on their various ultra-addictive narcotics.
  • Deep History Society: The department responsible for gathering and stashing all the historical research in the archives and museums. Their other responsibility is assembling various paradise living complexes resembling specific historical periods and cultures, both real and made up.
  • Santana Ascendence Foundries: Heavy Drug production facilities, often working closely with Moebius Laboratories. Santana signature narcotics usually serve only two functions, a high addiction rate to develop the loyalty of various celebrities and maximize the effects of hallucinogenic haze.
  • Santana Reclamation League: Private corporate militia of the Santana serving as personal bodyguards of various essential corporate personnel and relic reclamation duty. Those henchmen, often integrating the style of diverse historical cultures into their apparel and cybernetics, scour the Hansa trying to locate bought or stolen cultural artifacts and acquire them for Santana.

Technomancers League

Technomancers League is a federation of anarchistic nomad clans occupying resource-rich asteroid systems within the fringes of the Danube Sector. Under the command of the enigmatic Empress, Technomancers League is a direct continuation of the now collapsed Alpha Centauri Technocracy - a superpower formed by the Russian government fleeing the Earth, which was established on principles of strict meritocracy and scientific advancement, which in its prime could rival Onestar itself. Secluded, far away from the conventional centers of civilization like Hansa or Galpolka, they had become known for their high technological level, studying intricacies of Simulacrum manipulation (Also called The Machine by them), with the most famous and iconic practice being the Technomancy - Manipulation of the outcome via the usage of Simulacrum. Due to the severe devastation caused by Corporate Wars, Technomancers League has been confronted with a mass shortage of ships to house their population, causing many clans to be stranded on the surface of planets within Hansa and Danube sectors, a fate many consider worse than death.

Cultural Virtues: Freedom, Self-sufficiency, Clan and Family bonds, Spirituality, Technological Advancement, Anarchy, Hero Veneration, Esotericism, Ascendance.

Governing Ideology: There shall be no masters over humanity, and everything that exists beyond that, exists solely to serve said humanity. If any force were to infringe upon the human right to be his own master, even if it were to be existence itself, then humans need to push the limits of personal growth and dominate existence. Only the close kin and friends forming the sacred clan structures can protect each other’s right to be free, and through a combined effort, they can figure out ways to bypass the various obstacles in front of them. Such is the New Technomancers Clans doctrine. Through the federation of freemen, humanity can subdue nature, science, and The Machine itself and secure their right to achieve common Godhood.

Diplomacy: Due to their relatively secluded location, Technomancers League opts out for a neutral stance towards the rest of the explored Galaxy, although such neutrality is often broken when the geopolitical situation makes it convenient or required for the League to intervene, with the most recent example being Corporate Wars, where along with Syndicate and Danubian Confederation it tried and succeeded in defeating Nanotrasen although at a significant loss. Trade relations with the Hansa and the remaining Danubian planet states remain open. They maintain a non-interference neutral status with NeoTheology, Dai Social Mandate, and Oberth. Founders are considered inconsequential. Galpolkan Tribunal is viewed as a hive of backward primitivism, and Technomancers remain openly hostile towards them. Finally, Excelsior is branded as a hostile terrorist due to a pact known as the “Sirius Agreement” both Excelsior and the League stay out of each other’s way and often don’t interfere with each other operations beyond the borders of their respective territories.

Stance on Technology: Technomancers League remains the Galaxy’s sole active propagator of scientific research. With only regulations being present against Psykers and science meant to control minds, almost every tech is considered legal, with advancements in the science of Simulacrum and Technomancy being actively encouraged. Highly autonomous AI intelligence is legal. However, due to the highly decentralized nature of the League’s society, many inventions jury-rigged and produced by clans have trouble getting around. As such, a lot of general technological advancement of the whole League relies heavily on close cooperation between The Court and the Clan of the Primal Beat. Bearing this in mind, it’s also worth noting that unregulated research is considered alarming and dangerous by many scientific circles within the known galaxy.

Notable Unique Technologies: Technomancers technology is the direct opposite of the one that could be found in Neotheology. Very streamlined, easy-to-understand construction, which, given time, anyone could learn to operate, but they could only use it to its fullest potential with an innate understatement of the Technomancy field. Without it, some devices will appear jury-rigged, broken, and arcane in their very nature. It’s also worth noting that many inventions strictly complement the Technomancers League lifestyle and its society and don’t find much viability outside of the League’s territory.

Given that, the two most crucial parts of their current society are:

  • Compressed Matter: Be all end all construction and crafting material acquired from compressing any metallic resource, changing its density and composition into a universal alloy of durable quality, which can then be quickly molded and shaped into the desired form.
  • Technomancy: Not necessarily a technology but a field of Simulacrum science, allowing users to project an outcome of an action and manifest it in the real world. Widely applied in most technology and personal crafts.

Civil Rights: There’s no set code of rules considering the general society of the League. Freedom and Anarchy are promoted, and technically every single clan, no matter the size or influence, has the same level of freedom to exist, possess property, dictate its own community laws, and operate as they see fit. Still, due to some clans’ blatant inability to peacefully coexist with the rest or refusal to work towards the common good, it remains a common practice for the Court to make use of its intelligence and peacekeeping forces.

Clans: While there are an uncountable amount of clans within the Technomancers League, all unique to themselves, there are several that have distinguished themselves and are widely known, revered, or hated. They are commonly referred to as “Famous Clans.” Those Clans are:

  • The Court: The De-Facto leader clan of the Technomancers League makes up the close circle of the Empress herself. They are widely considered the best in using Technomancy and function as the mediatory, bureaucratic, military, internal, and international diplomacy organ of the League. Their main fleet of ships reminiscent of Russian fairy tales often keeps itself submerged in the Simulacrum itself, and thus it’s only possible to find The Court when it wants to be found.
  • The Chronologists: Famous clan founded by legendary Kvetoslav Vladimirov, one of the Empress’s companions. It prides itself as the central archive of the Technomancers League. They are the primary producers of League’s Propaganda and have undertaken a mission to glorify, spread, and maintain general Technomancer culture. They retain the selection of special forces meant to combat the infiltration of Excelsior and combat the influence of such organizations like NeoTheology.
  • Eternal Engine: Ancient clan from the times of Technocracy founding, currently considered rogue and enemies by the Technomancers League. Scattered around the isolated fringes of Leagues’ territories, they maintain the original Clan Doctrine, where they preach subjugation and becoming one with The Machine to transcend human consciousness. While openly hostile toward everybody else, they try to keep out of the conflict’s way, isolating themselves within their reality-bending monastery ships, lazily traversing the galaxy.
  • Primal Beat: Famous Clan fiercely loyal to the Court, making up for what one would consider the closest to the “Academia” and “R&D” of the Technomancers League. Any technomancer wishing to further their intellectual prospects daydreams about making a pilgrimage to the Primal Beat territory. When it happens, Primal Beat is not that eager to give the trained intellectuals back to their clans, building quite the amount of Ill will in the League’s society.
  • Streltsy: Famous Clan of mercenaries fiercely loyal to the Technomancers League. Unofficially considered rogue by most of the League due to their ideological hatred towards Hansa and all they think enemies of Technomancers, which, combined with their destructive ruthlessness of operations, constantly generate diplomatic strain. They are known for their Shock Bardiches and insectoid-looking ships. They are commonly called “Doom Knights.” due to maintaining positive, kind-hearted, and chivalrous attitudes between each other while performing the worst acts of mercenary work in the known galaxy ranging from dropping asteroids on top of the planetary cities, heating up the insides of trading freighters, or encasing enemy combatants in cages of scrap metal during their frontline advancement.
  • Future Path: One of the latest major clans to gain prominence, forming just after the end of the Corporate Wars. Hated by many and loved by many more, the Future Path is a product of many disgruntled radicals who consider the inefficiency of technological spread across the League to be a primary problem inhibiting all of the technomancers’ potential. As a result, they have taken upon themselves a monumental task to catalog all inventions and their blueprints, no matter how insignificant, into a freely available application, no matter the cost and means to achieve it.

Church of NeoTheology

The Church of Neotheology is the largest and most influential religious organization within the territories of the Hansa Trade Union. Originally a small Abrahamic sect within the inner NanoTrasens R&D division, they had eventually gathered enough of the following to orchestrate an eight-hour lasting full-scale coup against NT’s leadership after the catastrophic defeat in Corporate wars, seizing most of its remaining assets and rebranding the corporation as a whole. With the change came not only a new doctrine, but a mysterious set of never before seen technologies, seemingly beneficial, yet only those wielding the Cruciform could use it. Their charity, purpose, and community-building policies are earning them a rampant base of worshipers due to them parasiting on every shortcoming created by the rule of HTU. With its rapid growth, advanced yet incomprehensible technology, shared space, and conflicting ideology, the Church of Neotheology is currently considered the most significant existential threat to Hansa.

Cultural Virtues: Spirituality, Church Loyalty, Community Building, Prostelyzing, Purity of Body and Soul, Antimaterialism, Robophobia, Expansionism, Autonomy, Control

Governing Ideology: First and foremost, the will of God overrides any and all kinds of ideological pursuits. God is everywhere, and within everything they consider holy, and only the land they consider sacred, they shall manifest themselves at the end of all times and perform divine judgment expelling those sinners and unbelievers to the depths of hell and taking those he holds dear and worthy into the eternal Eden. For any follower of the church of NeoTheology, the primary objective is to prepare and consecrate the land so that God may see it as worthy and seek out new converts, so the potential for expansion ever increases. Self-improvement and adherence to the grander sets of laws come second, for there’s always time in immortality, while the hostile forces always seek to work against the interest of the Church.

Diplomacy: Due to the expansionist nature of Neotheology, most factions in the explored galaxy treat the Church and its followers with unease or outright hostility. This mainly applies to Hansa because Neotheology is an organization existing almost exclusively within the borders of the HTU. Due to the accumulated power of the Church, the Megacorporations can no longer make use of controlled suppression without entering into a direct large-scale conflict. As such, both superpowers exist in a state of Cold War, with many fearing it will one day turn hot. Founders, Excelsior, Dai Social Mandate, and Galpolkan Tribunal are respectively considered Lunatics, Degenerates, Pagans, and Heretics, and NT is openly hostile towards them. At the same time, Technomancers League and Oberth have neutral relations, with the former taking actions to reduce Neotheology's influence on clans.

Stance on Technology: All research advances done by members of Neotheology are considered heretical and therefore banned. AI, no matter the complexity, Mutation, Cybernetics, Psykers, and Synthetics are strictly prohibited. All the necessary tech is invented and provided to humanity by God himself, and only Manufactorium has the privilege to replicate it for the needs of the Neotheology followers. Respectively all gifted machines are to be venerated and cherished. Human only requires the form gifted to them by God at birth, he only needs the sacred Cruciform protecting believers’ soul, and only God’s holy angels should perform more automated tasks.

Notable Unique Technologies: There are several important factors regarding understanding the technology of Neotheology.

  1. Unlike the technology of Technomancers, where one can understand the mechanical construction of their tech but not fully comprehend its functionality unless one is a technomancer himself, all of the Neotheology devices and machinery are inherently alien in their inner construction, with no rime and logic. Even the materials used to build them appear unknown, and none of the Neotheology personnel has any scientific understanding of the inner workings of their machines.
  2. All of the Neotheology produce, construction, and personal seem to bear some kind of “Mark” imprinted on them, which Neotheology seem to find ways to interact with via their Cruciforms. Hansa warns its citizens against accepting any charity or purchasing goods from Neotheology.
  3. all Neotheologys technology is interacted with via the usage of the Cruciform and cannot be operated without it.

Out of all the machines, the following ones are the most important to Neotheology:

  • Cruciform: A Tau Cross-like implant, which embeds into one’s chest, said to contain the “soul” of whoever is wearing them. It allows Neotheology members to interact with various devices via litanies, including other cruciforms, be reincarnated into a completely sapient clone upon death, or be inserted into an Angel and subsequently animate it. Cruciform, on its own, rejects any other implants and mutations and blocks the usage of psionics. All members of Neotheology are implanted with a cruciform
  • Biomatter: Mysterious multipurpose, highly toxic material produced from all kinds of organic matter, used for power generation, fertilizing plants, or manufacturing in its hardened state and is sometimes used by foreign powers as a cheap and quality replacement material for many organic crafts such as wood and fabric.
  • Angels: Energetic constructs powered by cruciforms existing within cyberspace and inhabiting various material forms of diverse purposes. Beyond serving as various types of works such as Gilded Golems and maintaining cyberspace for Neotheology, they also serve an additional unexplained purpose within so-called Angel Stations spread around the galaxy.

Civil rights: While specified sets of laws, dogmas, and words of wisdom, such as the proverbs, do exist within the Church liturgy, only the specifics, such as the prohibition of AI, are correctly enforced. Usage of alcohol, drugs, and other are discouraged but not prohibited. Abiding by rules, rituals, and laws is often left entirely in the hands of Preachers overseeing their respective flocks and even giving them somewhat restricted freedom to shape their own liturgy. As such, the level of civil rights remains varied from preacher to preacher, and many are encouraged and equipped to exert totalitarian control over their respective populace.

Church Structure and Notable Departments:

  • Conclave of Archwiitnesses and ranks: Only those who can claim and verify that God himself had spoken to them can claim the title of becoming an Archwitness. Witness is the second highest ranking position within the church of Neotheology and exerts absolute authority over his subordinate Archon. Archon is the second in the hierarchy, often overseeing stellar constellations. After Archon, a Hierarch oversees whole planets or fleets, then a Bishop oversees regions on the planet or group of ships, and finally, a Preacher oversees a designated community.
  • Manufactorium: Branch of Neotheology entirely responsible for producing the holy machinery. Entry into those massive and heavily fortified factory complexes is completely forbidden for outsiders and fellow Neotheology followers besides those very few that get an invitation and are never seen again. It is assumed by many, even those in Neotheology, that Manufactoriums are managed solely by the mysterious Angels alone. Only resources and heavily defended transports with finished machines enter and leave those church-like monumental structures.
  • Dome Choirs: Monastic order responsible for the construction of Neotheology structures such as paradise domes, manufactoriums, or angel listening stations. All monks must take on vows of silence that prohibit them from communicating with the rest of humanity. Instead, they chant litanies and sing prayers directing the enigmatic construction machines and angels.
  • Angelkin: Monastic Order of solitary monks, given charge of maintaining and constructing Angels, operating Angel cyberspace connections, as well as mapping the web of angel stations and finding out perfect sites for the construction of new ones.
  • The Inquisition: A high-ranking order of the Neotheology clergy, which monitor the flock of various Preachers and keep the faith sacred. Their duty is to ensure that the church and its members remain pure, cleanse any corruption and foreign heresy, and combat other factions’ influence.

Excelsior

Human Machine Hive cult basing its doctrine on the old tenets of Communism. Originating from the collapsed Alpha Centauri Technocracy, just like their cousins from Technomancers League, they base their society on the void dwelling. Preferring to inhabit mobile ships and stations over lush and habitable planets, they inhabit the territory of the Gagarin Sector. Their true size is unknown to the general populace, but they are suspected of controlling an empire that very rapidly could contest Hansa itself in a couple of decades. Their frequent sabotage, aggressive recruitments, and infiltration had earned them the brand of a Terrorist Organisation from across the entire galaxy, and the actions of their Apex Circle are a source of many daily news reports in Hansa. Like Technomancers League, Excelsior prides itself in using advanced technology, even more so due to its organized nature. However, little is known about the Excelsior society itself, and what is known comes from muddled Technomancers League propaganda.

Cultural Virtues: Unity, Egalitarianism, Work Supremacy, Materialism, Pride, Technological Uplifting, Prostelyzing, Supremacy of Machine over Body, Robophilia, Cultural Dogmatism, Anti-Primal

Governing Ideology: “The New Man Doctrine” is an Excelsior manifesto that, despite Hansa’s best efforts, still litters most of the unregulated depths of the dark web. It’s a manifesto that preaches the rejection of the primitivist carnal human nature, abolishment of family ties, selfishness, the concept of gender, and personal property. It seeks to defy the urges of earthly indulgences such as alcohol, drugs, or sex. When the degeneracy of the human mind is finally put aside, humans, in the unity of shared thoughts and talents, can dedicate themselves solely to creative crafts and, through extensive application of technology and robotics, elevate humanity as a whole.

Diplomacy: Not much to say about Excelsior here. Due to the hostile actions and proselytization of the Apex Circle, they are widely considered terrorists by every single faction in the explored galaxy, even with Dai Social Mandate, which one could consider communist brethren. Due to shared history and pact known as the Sirius Agreement, Excelsior and Technomancers League stay out of each other way outside of their respective territories. However, trade does happen between Excelsior and unaffiliated entities despite all that, but Excelsior technology is widely considered illegal.

Stance on Technology: Technological development is put as a virtue above everything else in Excelsior society, and for self-apparent reasons, any kind of development is undertaken on the collective level. However, from what can be understood from Technomancer’s records, despite the collective effort, the whole of the Excelsior hivemind is desperate to attribute their scientific development to the selected individual to elevate and reinforce the importance of an individual in a collective effort. Excelsior doesn’t shy away from other factions’ technology and often concludes operations to acquire it.

Notable Technologies - Kursalin Teleportation: A hyper-advanced Bluespace manipulation technology dating back to the times of Technocracy considered lost after its downfall. Somehow recovered and put into wide-scale production by Excelsior. It’s a device that maximizes the capabilities of Bluespace’s capabilities, allowing near-instantaneous teleportation from even thousands of lights years away.

Civil Rights: Not much can be said about the rights of Excelsior that isn’t immediately obvious. Mind control implants are mandatory, and the levels of autonomy between Three Circles are unknown. From the New Mans Doctrine, it can be assumed that any kind of hedonistic and carnal desire is heavily suppressed within the minds of the implanted citizenry. Subsequently, according to the Technomancer, spiritual thought and development are suppressed.

The Three Circles: From the various reports, it can be assumed that Excelsior is organized into three distinctive castes of society, each serving a specifically designated role. It has to be noted that the exact structure of Excelsior society is not yet known, even from Technomancer records, and as such, the so-called Frontier Circle and The Haven are subjected to heavy speculation. Nevertheless, the circles are as follows:

  • The Apex Circle: Group of personnel with which almost all of the known Galaxy is accustomed and are the only part of the Excelsior most of the population will hear about. They are the infiltrators, saboteurs, “border guards” of the Gagarin Sector, combat vessel personnel, and occasionally traders and diplomats. They are equipped with Implants with quite broad autonomy.
  • The Frontier Circle: The supposed “core” of the Excelsior society. Those are the people that are considered civilians, or “Grey Mass,” as called by the Technomancers League, due to their uniform gray clothing. The Frontier Circle is responsible for all of the production, agriculture, science, and art. The civilian population inhabits mostly migratory stations and ships, all of which are painted with various artistic murals.
  • The Haven: Undisputably the most poorly understood group of the Excelsior that is known of. Part of their structures supposedly held in the utmost importance. It is only suspected whether Haven is the leadership of Excelsior, a capital or a logistics hub connecting all of the Kursalin technology.

Danube Confederacy

Danube Confederacy is a former federate state stretching most of the Danube Sector. Currently in a state of warlord anarchy due to government collapse during Corporate Wars and mass devastation inflicted by Nanotrasen, and currently being inflicted by Ironhammer Expeditionary Fleet Baltia performing pacification tasks. First settled by the colonists from Balkan Armada, who in 2300 had finished their journey, Danube Sector eventually rose to prominence as an interstellar superpower after the unification of planetary states by the Bulgarian government. Posing themselves as the primary international rival to Nanotrasen, they played an instrumental role in their collapse, providing crackdown-free haven and funding for many anti-Nanotrasen terrorist groups such as Excelsior or Founders, which eventually lead to its eventual collapse, as many planets with a strong influence of the Founders started secceeding when the situation in the Danube turned dire. The Colossus of Danube has been mauled and laid dormant, but the furnaces of Predestraza and Valna and the wrath born from its suffering will echo across the whole of Hansa.

Cultural Virtues: Militarism, Asceticism, Authority, Comradery, Atheism, Wonderbuilding, Legacy, Federalism, Common Goal, Comradery, Statism, History, Ambition.

Governing Ideology: While there’s no more unified ideology within the Confederacy itself due to the lack of unified government, many of the planet states retain an ideological imprint of the Pan-Danubian manifesto that still lingers within the collective minds of broken populations. The culture of the Confederacy has been shaped entirely by its proximity to and rivalry with Nanotrasen and an absolute desire to be an antithesis to Nanotrasen and one up all of their achievements. Where Nanotrasen promoted lavish lives full of ecstasy and mass expenditure, Danubians had imposed upon themselves ascetic life, free of compulsions and distractions that would muddle the mind. Religions were tossed to the side. To contradict corporate order fueled by greed and money, the Confederation adopted a strong nation-state fueled by people’s willpower and abandoned currency usage. Backstabbing, corruption, and indifference were scrutinized, and Loyalty with Companionship was lauded. Most of all, however, Danubians couldn’t cope with Nanotrasens utopian accelerationism. To constantly grasp new things, abandoning the old, abandoning any semblance of grandeur for future generations to remember humanity by. And as such, Danubians built and strived for monumentality in all things. Massive architectural and scientific wonders littered the Danubian space, solidifying the memory of the great civilization that was the Danube Confederation.

Diplomacy: No strict diplomacy policy exists anymore due to the lack of a central government. However, new and old animosities and loyalties remain in the consciousness of remaining. Technomancers, despite their proclaimed neutrality, are considered a friendly nation in the eyes of Danubians. Hansa is almost universally hated due to the actions of Ironhammer, but begrudgingly many planet states maintain trade relations with it. Neotheology and Galpolka are considered religious freaks and fanatics. Founders are still accepted among many Planet-states, although disliked by Serbian and Bulgarian governments. Excelsior is universally considered a terrorist organization. There are no relations with Dai Social Mandate nor Oberth.

Stance on Technology: Before the collapse, Danube Confederation actively promoted a restrained and careful approach to scientific pursuits. Preferring to master research fields before moving on and pushing what is known to perfection. There are no strict regulations on the legality of technologies, and in fact, one can find the only planet-states where being an unlicensed psyker is allowed. However, after the Corporate Wars, all but one planet-state had completely forbidden mutants and mutations.

Civil Rights: Vary from world to world, but due to famines and chaos across the Danube Sector, the civil liberties across the planet states are quite restrained. Curfews and police hours are quite common. Due to many of the Planet-States still holding on to their no-currency policy, much of the population deals with strict rationing of various goods, keeping it in critical poverty even within the widespread ascetic culture.  

Important Planet States: From among the hundreds of planetary states, Five of them stand out from various reasons:

  • Serbian Government: Also called the Predestraza Government or simply Predestraza is a planetary state currently rising into the largest prominence in Danubian Sector. Housing the galaxy’s largest fortification complex, this bunker of a planet is known for its massive military-industrial complex and autonomous military acting as mercenaries for hire. It is one of the few planets that adopted currency back and banned any presence of the Founders organization. Combined with an impenetrable fortification complex, this makes Predestraza the most stable and politically neutral among all the planetary states, attracting many refugees and giving it a good shot to one day unify the Danube into one.
  • Bulgarian Government: Also called Valna Government or simply Valna, a planetary state remnant of the original Confederation leadership that escaped the destruction of Neo Sofia. Operating from the desert planet ravaged by desert storms and extreme heat, old Despot loyalists dwell within monumental seven kilometers tall ziggurat habitats and lick their wounds, trying desperately to hold on to their power as the starving populace frequently riots through the streets. They are not idle, however, as they still hold pan-Danubian ambitions and maintain the largest infiltration and sabotage network within the Danube. Slowly but surely, with promises, diverting resources, and political assassination, they sway more and more planetary states to their cause.
  • Craiovan Anti-Piracy Coalition: Mysteriously inheriting most of the Danubian fleet, this Romanian planetary state prides itself not only in the most powerful fleet in the Danube, overshadowing even the Baltia itself, but also ammunition and weapons for it supposedly being produced from the alloys of the planetary core itself, due to owning deepest and most expansive mining complex in the known galaxy. Whether true or not, fleet equipment is certainly of high quality, and the Fleet itself serves as the closest thing that can be considered Peacekeeping forces as the Danube can get. While claiming absolute neutrality in affairs of the Danubian Confederacy, they have a habit of prioritizing those planets that donate the most tribute.
  • Ryborsk Governorate: Frequent target of the Ironhammer Expedition Fleet Baltia pacification missions, as this planetary state is also known to be the largest haven for Founder activity in the known galaxy. Sprawling crystal caverns and underground botanical complexes hidden kilometers below the planetary crust make for the perfect nests for outlaws and terrorist organizations, sheltering against overwhelming Dreadnought canons.
  • Bielica Autonomous Zone: While this anarchocapitalist Serbian planetary state is quite unremarkable on its own due to their massive genetic labs being defunct, the tropical planet itself is quite famous due to the one Inhabitant those laboratories had produced in conjunction with Technomancer researchers. Across the whole of the southern continent stretches the territory of an entity called by many names and nicknames. Zreb, Walking Mountain, or Wronged God are some of the most popular for this almost two-kilometer-tall human giant. Its existence baffles the entirety of the galaxy, as this mutant defies any established rules of biology and physics, which leads many to speculate that Simulacrum fields such as Bluespace and Phantasmography might be heavily involved in this creature’s ability to live, which is reinforced by the blue hue slowly overtaking the color of his skin complexion. Those specialists who managed to interview Zreb for a mental disposition report of a highly intelligent yet troubled personality with early symptoms of Schizophrenia. Due to the inability to decide what to do with the creature, BAZ officials consistently invite Ironhammer forces to use Zreb as a target practice. However, this business practice is in regress due to the creature managing to destroy Ironhammer Dreadnought and repurpose its Kami Canon as a personal weapon of pistol type.

The Oberth Republic

The Oberth Republic also referred to as the Synthetic Republic and Undead Republic, located on the eastern edge of the Chunach sector, is the only Parliamentary Republican state that has emerged since the exodus from the earth. Founded by german ark ships, Oberth is known for its excessive use of synthetics in every aspect of its society, a reactionary idolization of outdated republican values among its citizenry, and arch-rivalry with the neighboring Dai Social Mandate. Due to the recent megacorporate coup against the republican government, Oberth has fallen into a three-way civil war between MakroRobotiks, the leader in galactic synthetic production and research attempting to maintain control, Civilian Liberation Front seeking to restore the Republican system, and pushing MakroRobotiks, and Neue Welt, an opportunistic Crime Syndicate trying to usurp and maintain power under the guise of stability and modern values. This has put Oberth in a critical situation where even the Hansa peacekeeping forces cannot restore control. With constant sabotage, assassinations, food shortages creeping in, a mass rise of independent companies exploiting desperate citizenry, and army its army refusing to intervene due to their policy of absolute nonintervention in domestic issues, Oberth can no longer be called a functioning state, and the fate of the Undead Republic seems to be written in stone.

Cultural Virtues: Robophilia, Republicanism, Order, Bureaucracy, Federalism, Individualism, Reactionary Veneration, Guaranteed Liberty, Cyberspace Democracy, Anti Militarism.

Governing Ideology: According to the German settlers, contrary to the conclusion that the rest of the galaxy had come to, the old system of nation-state republics had never really become outdated. People enjoyed their rights, wealth circulated in a healthy economy, and multi-party systems ensured a fresh intake of new perspectives. It wasn’t the failure of the system itself but the expansionism and militarisation of the Onestar that forced nation-states to abandon the Earth. Republic has to be preserved, and technology shall pave the way to ensure its long-term existence and remove its systemic failures. Robots and Implants are the future. Remove the military and its corrupting influence. Bureaucratic inefficiency trashed. Needless chores and complex tasks are outsourced to robotic servants. Even voting processes are streamlined via Implants, allowing citizens to participate in elections without entering a booth.

Diplomacy: There’s no unified stance on diplomacy to speak of, as all three sides in civil war aspire towards their own type of Diplomacy. The most significant part of their international relations is their long-lasting rivalry with the Dai Social Mandate, which significantly shaped both of the nation's cultures. Generally, Oberth, for most of its history, had remained cordial towards Hansa and NanoTrasen before it. They remain acceptive of religious organizations like NeoTheology. Oberth doesn’t interact much with Danube and Technomancers, and the relations are rather cold between them. Excelsior, Founders, and Galpolkan Tribunal are considered terrorist organizations.

Stance on Technology: Oberthian love for Robotics and Cyberware is well-known across the galaxy. All levels of AI complexity are legalized without much regulation on its research, and any kind of R&D venture in robotics would be quick to gain tax-payers funding in the past. The usage of cyberspace is heavily regulated to combat any incursion of Dai’s cybershamans, and as such, any synthetics or machinery relying on cyberspace must be connected and linked to the state-mandated terminals, which eventually led to the government abuse and subsequently a coup by Makrorobotiks. Psykers are considered illegal, and all simulacrum research except for Bluespace is considered illegal.

Notable Unique Technologies: As is the usual course of action with cultures and their obsessions, Oberth dominated the market with high-quality robots and cyberware and inventions that make full use of them. Out of them, all the most famous are:

  • Gestaltshell: An unique type of MMI that allows multiple AI programs to coexist with the human mind inside of a full-body prosthetic, allowing for quick and seamless replacement and addition of prosthetic limbs and organs and quick integration with the rest of the FBP
  • Gesamtterminal: A robotic terminal linking a set amount of synthetics with an inbuilt cyberspace firewall randomizing its code every ten minutes to protect against repeated hacking effects. As an additional function, it allows everyone with a specific set of implants to possess and directly control a personal robot from anywhere within the vicinity of a couple of kilometers.
  • Erddroid: A biomechanical synthetics produced and used by Neue Welt surpassing the effectiveness of other commercially available robots and drones. They are suspected to be products of Mekacryptonic research. A field of Simulacrum that forces positronic brains to evolve into a specific form and shape by trapping it in Simulacrum.

Civil rights: Before the civil war, personal freedoms were guaranteed, and the government pursued the policy of non-violence, creating elaborate bureaucratic judicial systems where a citizen could pursue compensation for any infringement upon their well-being, be it physical, verbal, or economic. The usage of drugs was regulated via prohibition taxes rather than complete bans themselves. Synthetics gained a full set of rights resembling those of animals on old Earth, with physical abuse being prohibited and comfort being mandatory whenever said synthetic had advanced enough emotion receptors programmed in.

Undead Republic - Civil War: The three-way civil war caused the collapse of the elaborate government institutions, moral values, and economic prowess that once characterized the old Robotopia of Oberth and turned the Republic into a silent battleground where groups of robots, cyborgs, and foreign mercenaries skirmish on the streets daily. The three sides in the civil war are:

  • MakroRobotiks: A Megacorporation that has risen to power as the primary producer of all sorts of Synthetics and synth-related products in explored galaxy. Orchestrators of the coup against the Republican Government in a bid to join Hansa Trade Union as the tenth head of the Hydra. However, they had been refused recognition as the legitimate government from HTU. Instead, they had been met with a large set of sanctions and tariff increases due to being perceived as a corporate competitor. MakroRobotisk employs brutal tactics in pacifying its enemies, relying on sabotage and the superior corporate quality of its robots to defeat them in an open field.
  • Civilian Liberation Government: Provisional Government founded by outraged civilian militias seeking to depose the MakroRobotiks and re-establish Republican Government. Shunned by Hansa due to representing a popular uprising against corporate overlords and by the rest of the galaxy for trying to establish an obsolete system, CLG is almost completely cut from foreign aid, trade, and access to industrial-made robots. As such, they must rely on manufacturing makeshift robots and drones from household appliances and depend on guerilla tactics to oppose MakroRobotiks and Neue Welt.
  • Neue Welt: Criminal Organization seizing an opportunity to establish itself at the top of Oberth Society, promising a modernized system of governance under the rule of their Crime Barons and stability within Oberth, bringing a new fresh perspective and reset of all the relations and history. The most diplomatically active and appealing of the options for most of the galactic organizations. Not only have Neue Welt diplomats secured the support of Hansa, but also that of Founders, Technomancers, Excelsior, and even some sects of Cybershamans from Dai Social Mandate. Each of those organizations strives to leave its own imprint and influence over the newly shaped order. Neue Welt produces and uses their own brand of mysterious biomechanical robots and drones, suspected by many to be created via Mekacryptoniks.’
  • Oberth Self-Defense Force: The official military force of the Oberth Republic. Not an actual side in the civil war due to their policy of absolute neutrality towards internal affairs. Created, despite Oberths anti-militarist ideology, to fend off foreign invasions. Due to the civil war and the collapse of the government, ORG has been completely cut from funds and budget. Now stuck on board their space vessels, watching hopelessly as their homeland descends into chaos, most of those robot-handling military had turned to gun manufacturing and mercenary work to sustain their existence.

Dai Social Mandate

Vietnamese communist monarchy formerly ruled over most of the Chunach Sector, known for its wide usage of the Astrology field of Simulacrum among its shamans and centuries-long rivalry with the Oberth Republic. Currently, under occupation by HTU as a result of failed Dai invasion a year after the end of the Corporate Wars, the people of Dai are in a difficult situation. The Ironhammer Expedition Fleet Kana grows more desperate, trying to enforce the corporate order of Hansa and prepare Dai for eventual annexation as the various cliques of partisans led by cybershamans grow more fierce in its guerilla warfare, leading to the ever-increasing severity of political repressions and turning many of the Ironhammer to banditry as supply networks progressively get worse. People’s assembly led by the Young Bull Emperor himself promised to cooperate with Hansa’s ambitions, but it's becoming more and more obvious that they have their own ambitions for Dai’s independence, and they had woven a spider web around Ironhammer, secretly funding and organizing various communist militia across the sector. Only time will tell when this web will be sprung, but the political game between Bull and Dolphin continues, and the people of Dai suffer as a result.

Cultural Virtues: Egalitarianism, Monarchism, Unity, Spiritualism, Mysticism, Robophobia, Nationalism, Patriotism, Order, Common Burden, Community Bonds.

Governing Ideology: The Best of the Monarchism for the Best of the Communism. That is Dai Social Mandate. A royal dynasty of esteemed individuals cultivated and grown to possess supreme knowledge of the statecraft, and a People’s party, composed of the People's best servants to advise and exact the will of the Emperor in accordance with the tenets of old Communism. Command Economy, equal distribution of income, guaranteed housing and jobs, and oversight of peace and order by the divine commissars. All of that was tied together in spiritual unity by the various cybershaman covens that had risen to prominence from mere folklore servants to national heroes due to their contribution to wars against Oberth, Industry, Cultural and Independence efforts. It's through the power of Astrology, wielded by cybershamans who had manifested this once sneered field of science into a reality through the usage of Simulacrum.

Diplomacy: On an official level, Dai maintains a cordial attitude towards Hansa Trade Union, promising to gradually implement regime changes so that the Invasion doesn’t repeat. Unofficially Dai considers HTU the primary enemy, which all efforts should be focused on defeating to regain independence. Dai is hostile towards Oberth due to their long-going rivalry, although there are signs of reconciliation by aiding Neu Welt in their civil war. Hostile relations with Excelsior due to incompatible materialism and mind control measures. Hostile towards NeoTheology due to NeoTheology being hostile to Dai. Neutral with Founders, Danube, and cordial towards Technomancers. Per usual, Galpolka Tribunal is considered a terrorist zealot state and thus considered hostile.

Stance on Technology: Due to the shared neighborhood with the Robophilic Oberth Republic, Dai Social Mandate had developed animosity towards synthetics, and thus wide usage of them is banned, although certain groups like emergency forces are allowed the use of specific drones and robots. Regardless, Dai imports many deactivated robots and AI programs to test and develop malware to combat them. Dai prides itself in its legendary hacking culture, training every single person from cradle to manipulate the environment of Cyberspace. Also deeply intertwined with Dai’s society is the Sumlacrum field of Astrology practiced by their cybershamans. Almost every Dai citizen undergoes ritualized heavy body modification by being imprinted with astrological zodiac sign tattoos augmenting their bodily functions in some way. Huge chunks of the population are ready and eager to assist Starscryers in search for new constellations and applications of Astrology whenever an opportunity arises, to such degree that Dais People Assembly often issues warnings and bans regarding some hazardous activities.

Notable Unique Technologies: Dai Social Mandate hosts the best Cyberspace Hackers in the known galaxy, especially among their cybershamans, who, thanks to their proficiency in Astrology, manage to create augmented malware that no firewall can stand against. Much of Dai’s unique technology revolves around the application of Astrology. As such, it should be talked about:

  • Astrology: Not a technology per se but a field of Simulacrum Exploitation science native to the Dai Social Mandate. It revolves around the manipulation of celestial radiation, which uses sophisticated lenses meant to tap into Simulacrum to reverse engineer the solar radiation decay of various or even augment or change it. One can then combine them with various stellar sources to achieve various transmutation effects on a target. It is heavily reliant on trial and error, and even the angle of the lens itself can provide different unpredictable results, resulting in experiments sometimes turning very volatile.
  • Tuyet Spectre: Scanning device equipped with many miniature astrological lenses employed by the Cybershamans and Starscryers, allowing users to decipher the estimated effects of particular constellations quickly without going through a long process of experimenting with every material and the human body to be shown results. While it's less accurate than direct experimentation, it also cuts down the time of constellation scans tremendously.

Civil rights: Hansa's Occupation hasn’t exactly changed the situation of civil rights for the better. Extreme rationing of resources, food, and water done by commissars has been replaced by the currency to purchase products often vastly overpriced for the general population. The moral norms had lessened, allowing greater personal freedom in drug intake and the acquisition of previously banned synthetics. However, this came at a price, as repression and control over the population were much more severe due to paranoid Ironhammer EF forces. Large private businesses are once again allowed to blossom, although suppressed by tight market control of already established Hansa Megacorporations. Collaboration and suspicion of collaboration with the Daikong or Kana are heavily punishable by the opposite group.

Den of the Bull: In this landscape riddled with diplomatic intrigue, blackmail, and treading the line of direct conflict with Kana, there are multiple prominent groups all working in some form of conjoined effort meant to reclaim the independence of the Dai Social Mandate. These groups are:

  • Bull’s People Assembly: Commanded by the Bull Emperor, Lu Cong Hau, Bull’s People Assembly is the main governing organ of the Dai Social Mandate. Sometimes accused by the more naive citizenry of being a collaborative puppet regime set up by the Ironhammer. By now, it is widely known, especially among the Ironhammer, that such is not the case, at least not anymore. Bull Emperor plays a game of cat and mouse with the Grand Marshal, organizing Daikong while trying not to provoke Hansa into a full-scale war with Dai. The ultimate price of that game? Independence, or at the very least broad autonomy. Heavenly Commissars are their elite task force responsible for diplomatic, military, economic, and intrigue operations.
  • Daikong: State within a state. An underground partisan organization fighting off and crippling Ironhammer efforts to stabilize the region, often led by Heavenly Commissars or Cybershamans. Their brutal methods are feared by both the Ironhammer and Civilians alike, for they show no mercy to any collaborators and often are the target of much harsher executions.
  • Cybershaman Coves: Venerated as heroes of the people, there’s no exact organized structure directing Cybershaman's actions. Instead, they all organize into smaller independent coves, often dedicated to certain zodiac animals. Fabled for their masterful astrology skills, they serve as the primary R&D force within Dai, leaders of the people communes. They have a reputation as the best cyberspace hackers within the known galaxy due to integrating Astrology into that craft and transmuting and enhancing their various malware. Their services are heavily sought after by all of the Hansa Megacorporations, and they are often invited as insightful guests by many of the Technomancer clans.
  • Starscryers: Often considered apprentices undertaking training to be proper Cybershamans, this group of people is instrumental in the development of the craft of Astrology as their main task is surveying the skies of planets and open space to find new constellations and their applications.
  • Astroengineering Conclave: The Largest of the Cybershaman Coves and the most famous, as they produce one the highest quality ballistic and close combat weaponry in the known galaxy. Integrating Astrology into smithing techniques to produce enhanced alloys and custom properties, those weapons hold almost an artifact status. They are highly sought after by elites of all societies, as the process of making such can take up to a couple of weeks, if not months. However, the lifespan and bodily integrity of its members are at a low level due to ever-present Astrological entropy.

Founders

A millenarian, ultranationalistic organization of planet-bounding psykers seeking the collapse of Hansa and return to the independent Planet States. Considered dangerous terrorists by most of the known Galaxy, it's an organization which, according to Hansa, had instrumental influence in escalating the Corporate Wars as the asylum provided by the Danube Confederation to Founders from where they freely terrorized Nanotrasen had inevitably dragged the Danube and Technomancers into the war. However, their terrorist status was earned long before that, as in 2500, they led a coup on the french mining colony of Courluçon and deployed the first and last ever recorded planetary-scale Boros Reactor, which mutated the population, the planetary ecosystem, and even laws of physics in accordance to hiveminds like common desires and optimization of the trapped population. As a result, after the year of functioning planetary-scale Boros Reactor, most of the organization had put in motion legislative measures meant never to let another planetary-scale Boros Reactor be activated, which in turn, over time, attracted the more extreme and militant elements of the interstellar society such as disgruntled nationalists and hunted down psykers. This has since pushed the Founders into the further radicalization of views.

Cultural Virtues: Transcendence, Isolationism, Millenarianism, Mysticism, Nationalism, Veneration of Psionics, Exploration, Planet Veneration, Antiglobalism, Affinity for Cybernetics.

Governing Ideology: Founders were originally enthusiasts of the Boros-Reactor invention, seeing it as the next evolutionary in human development, which opposed the total ban placed on it by Nanotrasen and later everybody else. Overtime, seeing as there’s no possibility of realizing the utopia of living national utopias under the yoke of corporate and ideological overlords, they had gravitated towards more radical, millenarian beliefs, seeking complete abolishment of intergalactic order and collapse of established governments. They don’t follow any pre-determined stance on the economy and societal order. While they prefer to establish ethnically or culturally unitary states, it is not their primary agenda. The ecosystem, physical laws, atmosphere, the composition of the soil, and the planetary core itself is enough to morph people on its surface into one-of-the-kind unitary culture and ethnos, after which new type of humans shall emerge and shape system and economics to their whim.

Diplomacy: Founders are hostile towards HTU and all Ideological organizations within the explored galaxy, such as Neotheology, Excelsior, or Galpolka. All of them are considered primary enemies in the way of progress, and as such, those states also consider them to be terrorists. They have lukewarm relations with most Danubian planetary states and are neutral with the Technomancers League, Dai Social Mandate, and Oberth.

Stance on Technology: It can’t be said that Founders are liberal regarding technological advancement, as they simply pay little attention to it to regulate it. Finding ways to interface with the planetary core using Boros Reactor and empower themselves is their priority in scientific advances. However, due to the psionic affinity of Boros Reactor, it is the only organization within the known galaxy to accept psykers into its ranks openly. Not only that but being a psyker usually results in the high standing of the Founder's hierarchy. Interfacing with Boros Reactor also provides knowledge to a set person with implant and prosthetic schematics, which can vastly outperform their commercial counterparts due to directly interfacing with an innate person's psionic energy.

Notable Technologies - Boros Reactor: Psionic device that establishes a connection with the planetary core and imbues all its electromagnetic force with a psionic tether, linking every single organism, atom, particle, and the core itself in an interconnected web, essentially bringing the planet itself to “life.”. In itself, it does not do much because particles don’t think, and animals lack higher brain functions to steer the psionic force, yet of course, some things, like the color of the animal's skin, or natural nest being formed for them, might change. Real changes start appearing when you introduce humans into the ecosystem, as human minds are much more complex and filled with various abstract concepts. The effect is still subconscious and does not offer direct control. Still, due to the domineering power of the human mind, the environment, human bodies, technological capabilities, chemistry, and everything else present on the planet starts slowly morphing to reflect the real collective desires of present humankind to create their unique planet-bound utopia. Boros reactors come in different sizes, but only the large monolithic ones placed on both poles of the planet start creating the effect mentioned above, with smaller sizes being able to be placed anywhere and affecting individuals or groups of them. Blueprints for Boros Reactor are openly available on deep web Founder sites. Their psionic signature is impossible to hide from trained psykers, and usage of this device is considered absolutely illegal across the known galaxy, except Technomancers League, for obvious reasons.

Civil Rights: There are no organized Founder societies to speak of, as they are an organization purely composed of infiltrators, explorers, and saboteurs that take no part in organizing domestic communities. Within the organization, there seems to be an obvious three-part caste hierarchy, with Ascended being the most powerful psykers occupying the highest rank, Templars being run-of-the-mill psykers serving as officers of sorts to the Ascended, and Thralls which are non-psionic members serving the Templars.

Notable Founder Groups: Founder operatives are highly trained and versatile, and it's ultimately difficult to identify which specific group they belong to. Regardless Ironhammer security and Moebius Enigmatic officials have managed to scramble the descriptions of three primary task forces:

  • Prospectors: Type of Founders operatives responsible for scouring the known Galaxy, cataloging uninhabited planets, researching their properties, and hijacking potential colony ships along with their crews, no matter their professional designation, and forcefully colonize uninhabited planets with them. The most commonly found branch of Founders.
  • Cyphers: The Overseer type of Founder operative arriving to govern and guide the freshly established colony by the Prospectors. There hasn’t been any occurrence of a successful colony under the guidance of Cyphers, as they always end up being targets of many social experiments and eventually resettled to an unknown location.
  • Explorers: Primary type of Founder operative responsible for all kinds of infiltration, sabotage and assassination.  

Galpolkan Tribunal

Founded after the unification of Polish petty kingdoms in the Warminia Sector by a nuclear sect, Galpolkan Tribunal, by many simply called Luddites, is a fundamentalist theocratic state stretching across Warminia maintaining aggressive, isolationist policy towards the rest of the known Galaxy. They keep a strict religious policy of iterating on proven, old technologies such as Nuclear power while altogether banning any kind of modern-age technologies such as AI, Simulacrum Research, or cybernetics. Under the guidance of the Atomic Tribunal, a Christian splinter sect integrating Polish myth and nuclear technology into its belief system, the ruling priesthood maintains a tight totalitarian grip over its populace meant to combat even a sliver of foreign cultural influence and the spread of criminalized technology. Mainly left to themselves across history and out of participation in Corporate Wars, Polish kingdoms in Warminia and later Galpolka grew fat in economic and military prowess. With hostile diplomacy, its terrorist fleets sowing profitless destruction in Hansa Sector, contesting colonization of the Ophanim sector, and a huge build-up of the military fleet starting to rival Ironhammer itself, Gapolkan Tribunal poses as the primary foreign existential threat towards HTU, and a direct military confrontation seems unavoidable in the future.

Cultural Virtues: Technological and Cultural Dogmatism, Power of the Atom, Centralization, Statism, Veneration of old Technology, Isolationism, Fundamentalism,  Luddism, Hero Worship, Myth Worship, Pastoralism, Order

Governing Ideology: The Humanity of old must be preserved, such is the Atomic Tribunals will. In a rush to create and discover new worlds, humanity sought and adopted degrading technologies, tearing down human skill and soul and tossing God’s gift of the atom to the side. There are no longer farmers leading simple lives and praising nature which God has created for us. No artisans perfecting their skill for the filth of auto lathes replaced them, nor any opportunity for a human to show off his intellectual prowess, for everything he does, a cybernetic demon will do better. There were no demons of cyberspace nor the so-called “simulacrum” invading and changing our minds in the centuries-old Contemporary Age. Our religious duty is to preserve that old society and protect it against the brainwashed influence of a corrupted, drunk-with-progress world. Charlatans must be kept at bay, their technology destroyed whenever possible, and the ordinary human lifestyle protected from their horrible influence.

Diplomacy: There’s not a single faction or organization that doesn’t despise Galpolkan Tribunal, and they are officially considered a terrorist state galaxywide. And the Galpolkans would not have it any other way. They enjoy being a pariah, and in fact, it is their leading diplomatic stance to enforce Isolationism and not even provide any space for the enemy nations even to attempt diplomacy and give a sliver of opportunity for the enemy nation to introduce its culture. The only accepted outsiders are ordinary people seeking citizenship who go through several months of re-education and Moebius Enigmatics specializing in combating the Psykers.

Stance on Technology: Every piece of technology associated with the Corporate Age is absolutely prohibited, and acquisition of such can be met with death punishment. This includes AI, Robots, Drones, Mutation, Cybernetics, Autolathes, Simulacrum research, and thousands of other technologies. The only exception is Bluespace propulsion drives for interstellar travel, as an empire can only exist with them. Those few who work on them are not shunned and are instead considered holy martyrs sacrificing their souls for the betterment of Galpolka. However, what sets the Galpolka apart and puts them on a somewhat equal military footing with the rest of the galaxy is their obsession with Nuclear Power and Uranium, which applications they had perfected and are still perfecting through the labor of multiple centuries. Where one can integrate it into the social, economic, and military sectors, Galpolkan priests will try their hardest to incorporate it.

Notable Technologies - Dmowski Beacon: Mysterious technology devised by fabled hero Norbert Dmowski a couple of centuries ago. Spread around the borders of Galpolkan space and almost all ships outfitted, it can completely block the flow of the Simulacrum when activated. Preventing the use of psionics, bluespace, or even technomancy, it supposedly achieves it by generating abnormal radiation levels via pure radium cores. It is, however, unconfirmed as multiple researchers tried to reverse engineer and imitate the device but failed to succeed, and the device itself is guaranteed to self-destruct upon capture.

Civil Rights: Citizens of the Galpolka are kept under strict moral bans. Alcohol and drug usage are banned, and sexual relations outside the marriage are prohibited. Additionally, each and every citizen's household must undergo routine quarterly inspections done by one of the Church of the Fission Spirit chaplains. If banned tech is spotted due to the examination, the citizen and his family are often sentenced to hard labor or even death, depending on the significance of such technology. When it comes to the religious liturgy itself, citizens are not required to obey it. However, doing so earns many benefits like coupons for free cinema attendance and free meals at 5-star restaurants.

Nuclear Tribunal: Galpolkan priesthood is divided into three allied cults, all based on an aspect of the “Christian” holy trinity, each overseeing critical parts of the society and each led by a Triarch. From these three Triarchs, a Galpolkan Primarch is elected every ten years, who controls all the cults and directs their efforts. Elected Primarch usually indicates the direction of the Galpolka to its population. Those three cults are::

  • Church of the Nuclear Christ: Following the cult of Jesus Christ God himself, this priesthood oversees the development of the Nuclear gift itself and its distribution across society. Formally considered the R&D and economy planning branch of the Galpolka. Their Primarch, Radoslawa Grymas, has been continuing her rule over Galpolka for three terms now.
  • Church of the Atomic Lech: Following the cult of the Prophet Lech, an ancient hero who gave birth to the primordial cradle state of Poland, his priesthood venerates the raw burning power of the Atom, harnessing it into radiating rage and weapon to crush their foes and preserve the sacred land. Atomic militants are the army, the special forces, the fleet, territorial defense, and the atomic priesthood, their leaders. All united in their absolute religious zeal and indiscriminate loyalty toward their beloved Triarch - Magdalena “Rana” Sofanowska.
  • Church of the Fusion Spirit: Following the cult of the ever-present, all-seeing Holy Spirit, the Fusion priesthood led by Triarch Zofiia Piorun, is the breathing heart of culture, the ever-flowing river of bureaucracy, and the ever-watchful eye looking out for the loyal folk, controlling those who seem misguided, and punishing the treasonous blasphemers.

White Eagles: One specific group that deserves mention is White Eagles. While technically being part of the Atomic militants, they have the absolute operational autonomy to traverse all of the known galaxy outside the Galpolkan borders and cause absolute havoc everywhere they go. There is no reasoning with them; no negotiations will take place, no bribes will be accepted, no prisoners will be taken, and no resources or technology will be seized. Their sole directive is to burn everyone in holy nuclear fires, destroy all machinery and the ship, and irradiate everything around in a situation of certain death so that no living being can escape with unscathed health or a habitable ship, all the while loud screaming propaganda of their patron Norbert Dmowski is being played from their shoulder speakers.

Extinct Factions

Onestar

Once a large empire sprawling from humanity’s cradle of Sol Itself across huge stretches of the known galaxy. Rising from the ancient state of China, which rise to power triggered a mass wave of migration from the Sol known as the Exodus from the Earth, Onestar was famous for their hyper-advanced technological prowess, sporting reality-breaking weapons, advanced AI, and robots. Much has been forgotten as to what their exact system was, and only generalized knowledge remained that it was some form of Communist state led by the Party and Great Chairman at the helm of it. At the end of its history, turmoil broke out for unknown reasons. After merely ten years, the whole of the Onestar and territory beyond its borders had been locked from the rest of the galaxy by an obfuscating cloud of some form of psi field, leaving a massive swath of impossible-to-travel galactic space known as the Null Sector, from which, only recently, start systems started re-emerging again, and the denizens of once great empire nowhere to be found.

Nanotrasen

Huge Corporate state that once controlled sector of space currently known as the Hansa Sector. The reign of Nanotrasen was considered by many who still remember it the golden era, with technological race knowing no bounds, pushing the research of various Simulacrum fields like Bluespace and Phantasmography, and striving to create the ideal bioengineered human, creating mutated organisms left and right. Much of today’s tech is owed to the ingenuity of the Nanotrasen. That, however, hasn’t saved them from the enemies they had created with tightening, totalitarian market control, alienating all sorts of surrounding independent states, and being plagued by various terrorist organizations. Corporate wars had brought Nanotrasens end. The Cult of Neotheology had rebelled and wrestled control from fallen Nanotrasens leadership, and the Syndicate seized the territory and assets, rebranding itself to the Hansa Trade Union.

Alpha Centauri Technocracy

Alpha Centauri Technocracy was a technologically advanced empire formed from the Russian ark ships settling in the rings of Saturn. With the government selecting only those it considered best, it pioneered a wave of massive technological advancements and achievements, such as creating the first-ever functional, fully sentient AI named  Zvyezdnyi Oplot, which possessed their largest dreadnought and survived up until the Corporate Wars. At its peak, it rivaled and actively waged wars against Onestar itself, being the only known Nation that could ever oppose them. However, Alpha Centauri Technocracy eventually fell into civil war due to the Saturn Wars and ultimately collapsed, giving birth to the remnant nations of Excelsior and Technomancers League.

Northern Constellation

Northern Constellation was a federative republic warlord state founded on Pluto by migrating alliance of Scandinavians, Scotts, and Canadians. Known for its extensive underground cities, overreliance on geothermal power, and pioneering armor class of Power Suits, an in-between between a Rig Suit and Exosuit. It was eventually overrun and subsequently destroyed by the expanding Onestar. Remnants who fled the Sol system eventually arrived in the Hansa Sector, where they re-established themselves as an authoritarian corporate state of Northern Primarchy, which was later bought out by Nanotrasen and assimilated into it as Valhallan Shipyards.