The Tristar Hegemony

Traditional colors and Costuming:

   Green and Gold or Iron Gray. Citizens of the Tristar Hegemony often wear the dresses, petticoats, corset, frock coats,        vests, and long tailed suits of Victorian era garb.

 

Governmental System:

   Corporate Rule

 

Founding Species:

   Tyndarians

 

Capital World:

   Power split between three corporate headquarters plus the Homeworld of Attergate

 

Primary Religion:

   Children of Dragons
 

Archetypes:  Interview with a Vampire, Ford Motor Company, Deadwood, Gangs of New York, Sherlock Holmes, East India Company

Pinterest: Hegemony

 

History

   The Tristar Hegemony has existed since before the Fracture.  As such, the founding and early history of the nation is mostly rumor and legend.  When the Fracture occurred, the Hegemony was already on the path to corporate rule.  Endylion already existed as a powerful corporation and the people were chafing under the restrictive nature of their dominance.  Shortly after the Fracture, that discontent led some of the Lowerbound to band together into unions in an attempt to mitigate the power of Endylion.  The corporations reacted violently to what they perceived as a national coup and the Union War erupted.

 

   Unfortunately, records were not well kept during this period, so many details are lost to time.  However, what is known is that the unions fared poorly and power was consolidated by Endylion and the other corporate entities.  Union survivors fled through Terminus Arcs to the far reaches of the Hegemony’s reach and found a way to temporarily cut off access.

 

   As time passed, the corporations within the main Hegemony structure consolidated and shrank in number.  Eventually, all corporations were owned either by Endylion or by newly formed General Elements. When the Terminus Arcs to the Union worlds suddenly reopened 400 years later, it revealed a third corporate power that had been building behind the veil of silence: New Arc Pathways.

 

   Since that time, the Hegemony has been known as the Tristar Hegemony and the vast majority of power has been wielded by these three corporations.

 

Culture

   As the majority of the Hegemony Citizenry are Tyndarians, the culture of the Tristar Hegemony is split into castes that mirror the Highbound and Lowbound nature of that species.  The Executive Class is made up entirely of Highbound. Meanwhile, the Workers Class is made up of Lowbound Tyndarians as well as any citizens of another species. While it is technically possible for a member of the Workers Class to become an Executive, there are traditions and covenants in place that have prevented this from happening thus far.

 

   Hegemonic culture is riddled with contradictions.  A citizen’s word is worth more to them than their life.  As such, directly calling another citizen a liar is tantamount to demanding a dual, however to elicit this response the accusation must be explicit.  Insinuation of lies is common sport in Hegemony politics. Similarly, keeping true to one’s word is vitally important to one’s social standing, but so is knowing how to guard against abuse of one’s word.  The ultimate politician is one who has never broken their word and yet always seems to get out of having to actually do anything that they’ve promised.

 

   The degree to which members of the Workers Class have any sort of leisure time varies greatly across the Hegemony.  It depends on the company to which one belongs as well as the particular world and department one calls home.

Government

   The Tristar Hegemony is ruled over by three primary corporations.  Any given world is wholly owned and operated by one of them. The only exception to this is the homeworld of Attergate, which has traditionally been held as a “neutral ground.”  Attergate itself is governed by a planetary Chamber of Commerce. Various companies of sufficient size have earned representation in the Chamber.

 

   Attergate is also the seat of power of the Guild of Contractual Obligations.  This is a non-partisan group of barristers and scribes who are empowered to act in very narrow circumstances, usually centered around inter-company conflict.  Each world has a Justicar assigned who is the main Guild authority for that world. Justicars administer all Guild operations on the world and will personally handle matters of planetary significance.  

 

Endylion Technologies and Investments

   The first big corporation, it epitomizes the “profits over all else” attitude.  Aside from being the oldest ruling corporation, Endylion maintains its supremacy partly through the political clout it gains by being the holder of one of the Hegemony’s two resurrection stones.

 

General Elements

   General Elements was formed by several mid-sized corporations combining as a way to fight off the imminent monopoly that Endylion represented.  Due to their origin, the corporation has a slightly more “competition friendly” attitude.

 

New Arc Pathways

   Coop (Worker Owned).  Formed by survivors of the Union War who fled to outer colonies and then cut themselves off from the rest of the empire.  They eventually rejoined the Hegemony after they were powerful enough to rival the other conglomerates.

 

Attergate Chamber of Commerce

   The governing body on Attergate.  No corporation “controls” the home world, instead the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for governance.  Attergate’s Chamber of Commerce remains somewhat more influential than it otherwise might because it holds one of the Hegemony’s two Resurrection Stones.

 

Guild of Contractual Obligations

   A guild of lawyers, heralds, and politicians.  They exist as a ‘neutral’ entity that can be called on to arbitrate disputes between companies, although its charter only allows for this to happen in very specific circumstances.  Oftentimes, a colony will have a “Justicar” assigned by the Guild who is the ranking member of the Guild in charge of all disputes on the colony. All of the guild members on the world ultimately report to this individual.

 

TIMELINE OF THE TRISTAR HEGEMONY

 

--Unknown Past--

??? years ago – Codification of the first Corporate State (Endylion Technologies)

??? years ago – Colonization of other worlds begins

??? years ago – Establishment of the Governing Chamber of Commerce on Attergate

 

-Fracture Happens -

 

900 years ago – The Union War begins - A bloody conflict between organized labor and the corporate Executive Class.

850 years ago – Establishment of the Guild of Contractual Obligations

825 years ago – The Union War comes to a bloody end after Endylion Technologies and Arrestra Investments work together to put down the workers’ revolt.  Shortly thereafter, the two entities combine into one dominant corporation (Endylion Technologies and Investments). Survivors from the union side flee through Terminus Arcs to a far corner of the Hegemony.

824 years ago – Terminus Arcs connecting to the union survivors’ area cut off with no explanation and cannot be restored by Hegemony Thaumaturges.

800 years ago – Codification of the Guild of Contractual Obligations as the neutral arbiter for inter-corporate conflicts in select scenarios.

600 years ago – Sixteen corporations merge to create “General Elements” which offers the first real competition to Endylion since its merger with Arrestra.

500 years ago – The previously closed Terminus Arcs re-open, behind them a new corporation has been consolidating power.  New Arc Pathways is an entity on par with Endylion and General Elements, but it is a “worker-owned” cooperative venture.

 

Influential worlds

 

Attergate

The homeworld of the Tyndarians is by no means the seat of power for the nation.  In fact, many believe it wields the least amount of political influence. This is because of the Covenant of Origin which states that no inter-world corporate power may hold sway over Attergate.  In practice, each corporation does have minor business dealings on the world, but do not own property nor play any part in its governance.

 

As a result, Attergate is run by a chaotic mixture of small to medium sized businesses.  They participate in the Chamber of Commerce, a legislative body with an immensely complex set of rules which is administered by the nonpartisan Guild of Contractual Obligations.  This legislative body is actually modeled after Illara’s republic. Early on after the Radiant Pact, Illara and the Tristar Hegemony participated in a cultural exchange wherein citizens went to live in the other’s nation for an extended period.  When the Tyndarians returned to the Hegemony, they brought back with them the idea of a legislature. That idea, seen through the lens of the corpocratic Tyndarians, is what became the Chamber of Commerce.

 

Executive powers such as law enforcement are handled by a complex bureaucracy that reports to the Chamber of Commerce, as a result, law enforcement ethics and efficacy can vary wildly from one area to the next.

 

Lastrid

Lastrid is the Corporate Headquarters of Endylion Technologies and Investments.  The corporation holds an iron grasp over the economy of the world, carefully regulating all local trade to service the needs of the business.  Although life can seem a bit oppressive to an outside eye, it is also extremely prosperous. Poverty and homelessness do not exist and people have enough to survive comfortably… still, to those not raised in this environment, the intrusiveness of corporate interests on all aspects of the citizenry can rankle.

 

Ogalkin

The Corporate Headquarters of General Elements is Ogalkin.  It is an arid world that has had sections of it terraformed with complex runic enchantments.  Executives live in idyllic cities in these terraformed areas but remain in touch with middle-management who run mining operations in the less hospitable areas.  People of all walks of life are welcome in most places with only the “controlled neighborhoods” of the elites being off-limits.

 

To some extent, Ogalkin serves as propaganda for General Elements.  They attempt to project an image of an Executive Suite that remains in touch with all levels of their organization.  While its true that they quarantine off their living space, executives are often seen in other areas for their shopping and recreation.  There’s actually some rumors that their Executive contracts require a certain amount of such appearances.

 

DH-710 (New Attergate)

New Arc Pathways is an entity that the other two corporations would be glad to be rid of.  As a work-owned corporation, it represents not only competition, but also (in their eyes) an unsustainable model that is sure to sew chaos.  The attempt by New Arc Pathways to officially name colony DH-710 as “New Attergate” is a flash point of this animosity. Neither Endylion nor General Elements will recognize that name and instead refer to it by its original scouting designation.

 

New Attergate (DH-710) is a world of shifting climates.  The equator of the world seems to tilt with each rotation around the sun, thus slowly inverting the climate zones of the world over time.  What is tropical today will surely be one of the ice caps in about 1,000 years.

 

Life on New Attergate is advertised as peaceful and easy.  As the epicenter of a corporation built on employee-contribution and happiness, they feel the need to project their corporate headquarters as the embodiment of these ideals.  The reality is that there is a persistent problem of poverty and homelessness, a problem caused more by a lack of ability to track citizens and deliver services than any real shortage of food or supplies.  Still, most citizens of New Attergate value the fact that the corporation is minimally intrusive on their personal lives. Although life can be harder, they are afforded a great deal of personal freedom in exchange.

 

Other Species  

Humans and Golems are the most populous alternate species within the Hegemony, but all species are welcome as long as they can find employment and have proven themselves capable of keeping their word.

 

Golems

In the Hegemony, a Golem who becomes self-aware remains the property of their owner. However, each of the corporations also has a clear path for such golems to be able to purchase their freedom.  Once it becomes clear that a golem is self-aware, they must be given a salary and their price of freedom is set at market rates.

 

Views of Other Nations

 

Republic of Illara

Fickle allies, they cannot be trusted because a new senate could be elected at any time and established deals will not be honored.

 

Khezeratt of the Sun and Stars

They generally keep their word and they often desire things that we do not ourselves require.  They are good customers.

 

Sovereignty of Riavan

If you can sit through their sermonizing and pomp, then you will find a reliable sort who honors their word.

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Hotanga Alliance

I imagine they look as we did prior to the emergence of true corporations.  That said, until they achieve our level of social evolution, they will remain disruptive and untrustworthy. They recently reneged on all trade deals and so we will have no further dealings with them and their inability to keep their word.

 

Calid Circle

Dangerous hypocrites who value decrepitude and violence.  They are a curious lot, but I recommend avoiding them. They also have wished us ill ever since we got them involved in that dreadful situation with the Alliance.

 

Notable Figures

 

Florence Alveston

   Chair of the Attergate Chamber of Commerce.  She has been calling for greater unity between the corporate factions for most of her political career.

 

Emmanuel Rihkt

   First Councilor of the Guild of Contractual Obligations.  He has a reputation as being a careful and disciplined speaker.  As the highest authority within the only truly neutral organization within the Hegemony, he seems to take his role as figurehead of that neutrality quite seriously.

 

Desmond Talvin

   Desmond Talvin is the current Chief Executive Office and Chairman of the Board for Endylion Technologies and Investments.  He has a reputation for being a bit of a hot-head when confronted. He is, however, clearly a man of great political influence and skill given his position.

 

Jiovid Oleander

   Jiovid is the Executive Speaker of General Elements.  It is a title bestowed for life and thus not one given lightly.  Jiovid is a woman of great vision who strongly believes that balance between the three major corporations is the only path to a prosperous society.  She is known for being a great orator.

 

Sassarra Meache

   Sassarra is the Chair of the Shareholders Organization for New Arc Pathways.  This role functions much like a Chairman of the Board and CEO but bestows less direct power.  Most of her decisions must still route through the Executive Board for approval and technically the shareholders could veto any decisions approved by the board.  Sassarra achieved her position by fierce dedication to the concepts upon which New Arc Pathways was founded: Worker Empowerment above all.