The Society

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Siege
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The Society

Post by Siege »

In this galaxy, societies come in many forms: peerage clubs and patrician associations, secret orders and assassin guilds, lodges and trade unions, sodalities, cliques, clans and coteries, small and large, public and hidden, astoundingly influential or utterly irrelevant and everything inbetween. But when one speaks of 'the' Society, one can mean only one thing. It calls itself the Illustre Societé der Marchand Aventurier por Actien Comercial auf Noir, the galaxy simply calls it The Society, and it is the largest and oldest trade syndicate in human space.

The Society traces its history back to the forgotten early days of early interstellar travel when small bands of adventurous merchants plied their trade between far-flung settlements across the gulf of space. Some of these intrepid star-tycoons made fortunes; many others were simply lost between stars, because space travel was (and to some extent still is) a hazardous occupation full of danger. In order to mitigate these risks early enterpreneurs created companies to bundle their strength; companies with famous names like the House of Merchant Adventurers, or the Dark Stars Company. Some went bust, others thrived, but over decades and centuries spent in relative isolation between nations and between stars the starmongers who owned these companies developed their own unique outlook on life. They shunned the politics of the great developing empires in order to ply their trade; they frequently intermarried, and eventually their disparate companies blended together into a single cohesive syndicate: the Society was born.

Today, the Society is a huge network of ships and navigators, merchant houses, trade stations and millions upon millions of bonded employees who identify with it more than with any nation. It is controlled by the Lords Seventeen, its seventeen oldest, richest and most influential dynasties and the inheritors of the original companies that formed the Society. The Seventeen are rich beyond human measure, beyond even Croesus' wildest dreams. They own moons and planets worth of resources, they measure their wealth in the output of stars, and though rarely acknowledged each individual dynasty has the power to single-handedly bring economic ruin to entire imperial sectors. That ability however is mainly theoretical, as in recent history no-one of influence has been insane enough to risk the ire of the Lords. The Society does not play favourites and will sell very nearly anything to very nearly anyone, so there is little reason to seek quarrel with them.

The day to day business of the Society is run by the Privy Council of One Hundred Associates, most of whose members are part of the retinue one of the Seventeen, although the occasional representative of a lesser company is allowed to sit on the Council too. The Associates keep check of the Regents, who are in charge of individual stations or ships. Regents are captains, traders and governors all in one, and because they operate across the width of know space and sometimes beyond it they are granted great autonomy as long as they remain profitable. Most Regents control at least a small number of armed forces, and many will elect to rent out those troops to whomever wishes to pay for them.

In terms of culture the Society is an erratic mish-mash of styles and elements as befits a culture that identifies with no state but takes or at least mirrors aspects from each one. The Seventeen in particular are considered highly eccentric by most everyone: their obscene wealth and the spaceborne nature of their culture has allowed them to shape every aspect of their environment to suit heir whims, and as such their private domiciles - which are frequently the size of small moons at the very least - resemble nothing earthly whatsoever.
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Re: The Society

Post by Mobius 1 »

It would seem that [SPACE EXCHANGE] would lend itself to a long of cyberpunk themes for street-level stories, as opposed to the WWI in space macro-level stuff (especially when combined with the Shogunate's zaibatsus). Was this deliberate, or just a natural extension of a lot of street-level space opera on the OZ? I fall back on cyberpunk like it's nobody's business, so don't take this as a criticism.
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Re: The Society

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I suppose it does lend itself to that, but it's not specifically meant to: I myself was thinking more of grand intrigue at the masked ball of the Space Doge of Venice and of daring regent-captains swashbucklingly going where no man has gone before in order to steal the fabled dimensional crystals from the Lost City of Baracree XIV. Ultimately things like mind-links and such can crop up, but I don't really imagine anything involving the Society as dealing primarily with cyberpunk-y themes of personal freedom vs. corporate control etc. I don't imagine the Society is particularly repressive anyway; frankly I think of the nations we've framed so far it's probably the least overbearing (and possibly the most decadent).
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Re: The Society

Post by Invictus »

From the new pulp feel of the whole universe, I do get the impression that the Society is sort of that analogue to the international society of wealthy eccentrics who funds scientific expeditions and trade missions into the great black unknown. They don't need armies - who needs them when you can always commission Dr. Space Indiana Jones to deal with it?
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Siege
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Re: The Society

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Pretty much. Their strength isn't in military force, it's in commerce. There are armies that fly the banner of the Society, but they exist for defense just as much as to be rented out to the highest bidder. There might be border worlds where two or more feuding colonist factions settle their conflicts with mercenary divisions to a point where the Society is each side's main fighting strength. Then the Associates manipulate the conflict so that it drags on forever to minimize casualties and maximize their fees, so in the end everyone ends up broke and so deep in depth with the Society that they have no choice but to cede a lease on the planet's most valuable mineral deposits for a century or more.

The Lords Seventeen meanwhile really appreciate and value uniquely talented individuals and will readily snap them up whenever possible. Doesn't really matter if they're artists, mercenaries, diplomats, thieves or space archaeologists: if they're interesting and useful somebody probably wants to pay for their services and has the money to make it happen. Which probably annoys the imperials to no end, too.
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Re: The Society

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

It is still very reminiscent of the old STC, except now we've got more character and zany feel and nobility and opulence and fancy titles rather than the plain corporate intrigue technothriller feel of the old. They're still rich trading basterds with heighliners plying the space lanes getting rich on commerce, but now they've got fancy ass titles and each rich basterd has got more characterization (by being rich and deranged and evil) than previously.
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