The Terran Conglomerate

Eras: The war of the 3 kingdoms, The renewed Empire
Location: Sol and surrounding colonies
Capital: The City, Terra

Up to and during the Spice Renaissance, Tera was divided in hundreds of geopolitical units: Countries, states, cities. Hundreds of territorial, racial, religious (there is more than one interpretation of the words of the FSM…) and economical conflicts going on at any point in history. Many of them turning to all out war at some point. (Terran History was literally the logfile from a game of Sid Meyer’s Civilization V)

At the end of the Spice renaissance Era, Two Pangalactic entities revealed themselves to The City and to the world.

Terran governments all around the world gradually acknowledged that Pangalactic beings were actually a thing. Pastafarian authorities recognized The Emperor and Dominatrix as Eternal children of the FSM.

There were some pockets of resistance, namely in The City, where a group of BlooperHeroes tried fight for the status quo but ultimately only succeeded in activating a reboot device which created a parallel Spice Renaissance Era and allowed for the roles of the previously written history to be recast.

The Emperor and the Dominatrix went on to Expand the reach of simulated persons to the stars. Creating the first Empire. The Classic period of Imperial growth ended with The Emperor granting Terra its independence. But to gain independence, the Treaty of the 3 Kingdoms had many specifications, one of them being that the new government had to be decided without bloodshed.

Negotiations really started when one of the larger companies producing antimatter offered to “buy into” the new government by allocating a large part of its financial reserves to funding publicly traded government entity. The reaction across the Solar system was immediate. Space transportation magnate Tyrel D. Forester Promised to match the offer and in doing so, double the equity of the new government. He stated:

“It is my duty to do so because not ONE soulless corporation should have complete power over our star systems; there should always be at least two!”

More corporations not wanting to be silenced by the emerging conglomerate soon followed the strangely ethical immorality of the movement. Forester’s historical declaration became the mission statement of the new Terran Conglomerate. But how does a privatized government work exactly?

Citizenship

A citizen is defined as a consumer. The consumer votes with his wallet, by purchasing goods and services, the money spend is turned to profit for the supplier and then partially reallocated to buying shares of the government.

The Terran Conglomerate systems welcomes consumers of all origins.

Politics

The conglomerate publishes its quarterly results and all shareholders can cast their votes to elect the Board once a year. Board members can afterwards sponsor laws and projects within their allocated budget.

On the galactic front, Terra usually adopts a neutral stance in galactic affairs but is aggressively protective of its acquired colonies. The conglomerate prefers to buy-out Imperial settlements rather than conquer them.

Relations with The Hive are often tense and have, on a few occasions, turned to Naval confrontations over the centuries. Such battles have led to the creation of the neutral zone.

Technology and Warfare

The Terran Conglomerate is the Most creatively inclined of the 3 Kingdoms and because of that many scientific advancements have been realized making the Conglomerate a technology powerhouse considering its relative size to the Empire.

The Terran fleet is composed of Privately owned Ships and stations most of which are regularly updated to the latest software and hardware just to stay competitive in calls for tenders. These “privateers” sometimes use the moniker “Pirates” when operating outside of Charted Terran space or when working on non-government sponsored projects.

Terrans also have a unique technology: The Zapper. Thanks to this raygun, a squad leader can “augment” his soldiers to match or even exceed the physical strength and size of the Imperial Omegas and Space Amazon Clones.

Democracy vs Corporatocracy

With centuries of success as proof, Corporatocracy has been deemed the best Government system since the Fall of Monarchy. Just as a basic example the last Mayoral election in The City before the appearance of The Emperor had two parties vying for the elector’s support. The first party was led by a world-renowned Economist and ran their campaign on an environmental platform with strong engagements on fighting global warming. The second party was led by Ronald Drumph. The party’s Campaign slogan was not even two words… It was two onomatopes:

“Vroom! Vroom!”

Drumph won by a landslide.

With that in mind, taking the votes away from the easily manipulated masses does not look so bad. It turned out that for each corrupt, soulless corporation with deep pockets that would profit from destroying or over-spending a resource, there is usually one or more equally corrupt, soulless corporation with even deeper pockets that would profit from avoiding that same wasteful course of action. And in the absence of an easily corruptible legislative third party the most economically sound decision is often reached.

In a democratic world with state lines hindering the reach of foreign interests, the strongest internal lobby would have it their way; every time.