Core Factions

There are many factions and interest groups within Grand Convergence. From bonds of convenience to formalized guild structures, there are countless ways people gather together to accomplish their goals. A number of them exist already, with more being created or dissolving each day.

Registration is simple, usually done with the local authorities for those who wish something a bit more formal.

Sidebar: The Narrative Purpose of the Core Factions

The Core Factions are provided as additional flavor. They are the seasoning of the stew, which may be referenced for the purposes of player run plots or the reason why characters are attending a scene. They are generally intended to be used to play off the players and to organize NPC interests. Players are encouraged to create their own factions and it is not intended for players to join the Core Factions, though not impossible.

Player Factions can ICly ally with Core Factions and each other with proper roleplay and behavior. However, Core Factions have their own interests which may cause complications when one wishes to maintain those attachments, and their attending benefits.

Sidebar: The Everen and Apiax

Both the Everen and the Apiax have a complex internal political structure and are heavily biased toward their own culture and species. It is possible to build alliances with them, but not truly 'be' a member of either group. In general they attempt to remain outside of the normal turmoil of GC politics, though possible advantages may be gained by courting their Council representatives.

The Council

Overview: The Council of GC is a relatively recent creation, established after the last attempt of an interstellar empire to turn Grand Convergence into their hub for intergalactic expansion. The attempt was thwarted by the closing of a vital Spireway and in the aftermath, a more representative form of government rose to attend to the unique interests and goals of the disparate Plates.

Each Plate has representation on the Council, working to promote stability and good relations between each other. There is a small tax on all trades, used to maintain the Spireguard and other communal interests. The governing body of GC also attempts to maintain the rule of law, with the relatively recent oppression leading to a light touch and fairly fluid frameworks managed more by common sense than firm regulation. Some attempts have been made to exploit them, but usually find the damage and corruption relatively minimal thanks to a combination of contract law, the Arbitrators and high transparency.

Each Plate chooses it’s representation in their own way and are expected to present their Plate's interests to the Council as well as mediate high level disputes taking place on their own territory. The Council proceeds are open to the general public and said public can petition the Council directly to have their grievances addressed if they so choose.

The Council does not have a separate police force, with each Plate shouldering the responsibility of policing it's own territory and transporting offenders for processing. Each Plate may also have their own quirks and their own ways of handling those who disrupt the common laws and local culture.

Council Members:

The Spireguard

The insignia of the Spireguard, defenders of the connections between Worlds.

The insignia of the Spireguard, defenders of the connections between Worlds.

Overview: The Spireguard formed from the remnants of the military left of the former galactic empire. They found a new purpose in guarding Grand Convergence, but the Spireguard are not the police. They are soldiers and volunteer auxiliaries dedicated to the protection and maintenance of the Spire Network and the first line of defense against the horrors of the Unmade.

The Spireguard work alongside the customs organizations of each Plate with relentless attention to detail to ensure nothing (exceptionally) harmful is imported or exported. Many consider them stifling or unbending. Depending on the drink, many other unflattering words in hundreds of languages may float to the surface -- but one thing is for sure. There are no complaints when the Unmade attack and they work with that same relentless, unbending drive to force them back into their pockets of unreality.

The Spireguard have legal authority and jurisdiction only as far as their immediate purview. Unless there is a threat to the Spires, Unmade or otherwise, it is not their problem to stop. They take purely defensive action against Dead Sectors, relying on Fixers and volunteer efforts to reclaim or eliminate them, though they do post hefty bounties on them and other lingering Unmade threats. The Council provides some disbursement to the guard itself through the trade tax, which they use to train and gear their people, as well as funding research into stopping the Unmade.

The Grand Market Initiative

The Insignia of the Grand Market Initiative.

The Insignia of the Grand Market Initiative.

Overview: The Drasin-based GMI, partnered with (and rival to) the Prospector's Guild, holds an iron grip over trade. They enforce standardized measures and coordinate trading hubs and corporations within GC. They also maintain local regulations in conjunction with the Council, mostly restrictions forbidding the (rampant) exploitation of other Worlds. These are enforced by fines, sanctions and contracted bounties. If there is enough disruption, GMI may even petition to have the offender arrested or outright banished.

Everything passing through GC must be inspected. They are checked for biological, chemical, magical, ontological and other exotic threats. Each active Spire is responsible for their own customs with assistance from the Spireguard. Smuggling does exist, but examples tend to be made of the most brazen efforts to keep the rest in line. The Lost Sector has the strongest black market, but it is also the most dangerous, having gotten the entire Borough quarantined more than once. Also more than once has an enterprising smuggler believed themselves clever enough to import something particularly lucrative (and dangerous) through the Spire's security systems.

Contract law is extremely common in GC. The GMI usually have contracts open for various requests, with anyone able to post an official contract with the stipulation that the reward be held in escrow at a GMI-approved facility. Contracts also require a method of verification (Such as a notarized cargo manifest) with the reward transferred to the one who completed it. People caught falsifying these contracts for any reason find themselves banned from the system and blacklisted from fixer networks. Fixers being the general name for the people in GC who make a living performing the tasks on these contract boards.

The Prospectors Guild

The insignia of the Prospectors, the explorers and seekers of Grand Convergence.

The insignia of the Prospectors, the explorers and seekers of Grand Convergence.

Overview: The Prospectors Guild of Delerath forms the other half of the economic machinery of GC. A melange of salvagers, miners, explorers and madmen, the Prospectors are often the first to charge through a Spireway to scout out a Beacon and determine what potential trades and materials are there to harvest.

They are also the ones to extract local resources and transport them to Grand Convergence. They, like the GMI, follow a set of rules. They are looser than the GMI, but those rules are enforced ruthlessly just the same.

They also tend to uphold the anti-exploitation rules, though Dead Worlds may be harvested freely as long as those byproducts do not harm GC and one can survive, and stomach, the insanely dangerous environments.

Prospectors generally make a point to negotiate with native groups to secure mining and trade rights, paying a reasonably fair price (based on GC market values and exchange rates in local barter or currency)

They also have a long ongoing rivalry with the trading hubs and corporations of the GMI, both sides trying to cut eachother out of the whole process. This usually gives them many reasons to look the other way when fellow Prospectors are hauling less than legal cargo (by GMI dictates). The Delerath Spire is the second most common Spire to smuggle goods through, though a careful and vigilant eye is kept on the flow of goods anyway. Nobody wants to be the one who let a nuclear weapon or memetic bioplague be smuggled through their Spire.

The Anti-Exploitation Rules

If a World has sapient inhabitants:

  1. Mass exploitation of local resources is forbidden.
  2. Harvesting local resources should be done in the most efficient and least environmentally impacting means possible.
  3. Resources should be offered to the local market at fair prices first.
  4. Excess can be sent back to Grand Convergence.
  5. If you try to make a World into a Dead World to get around these rules, you're going to get chucked into Gapspace by Gerun personally.

If it's a Dead World:

  1. Go wild. Haul freight. Don't die. Don't bring back anything that will destroy Grand Convergence if some idiot touches it.
  2. If you mess up and report that it's a Dead World and you find out it isn't, you're responsible for fixing anything you broke. Don't mess up, that's coming out of /your/ pocket.

The Titans of Commerce

The insignia of the Titans of Commerce, those who stand atop the mountain of gold.

The insignia of the Titans of Commerce, those who stand atop the mountain of gold.

Overview: The Titans of Commerce appear to be just another financial guild at first, but their specialty is very different from the GMI. The flow of currency interests them. They treat money with the same focus Istamnir and its scientists treat the flow of energy. Drakkenweald accountants are considered some of the best in their field. They provide capital to those who request it and handle the storage, protection and minting of GP itself. The Titans are not just nomenclature, as many dragons, giants and other massive beings make their home on and around the spacious peaks and floating islands of Drakkenweald. The Titans have an extensive internal audit system, priding themselves on always being accurate and always dealing fairly. In contract and trade law, their auditors are second only to the Arbitrators of Bin Agal, with a commensurate price tag for their services.

There is an aura of slow inevitability around many dealings with the Titans. They trade on reputation and quality, both of which take time and patience to cultivate. They can often come off, generally, as overbearingly slow. Human time scales mean little to the Titans and this often frustrates those who act quickly, or try to skirt the lines of acceptable behavior. But like an implacable glacier, they are far from easy to interrupt once they get going.

The rivalry between the Architects and the Titans is a mutual grudge formed when the Titans overthrew Charnel as the previous center of financial operations. The Titans move to stymie them as much as possible, considering their actions decadent, short-sighted and shameful. To be compared to the Architects or having it intimated that one should seek assistance from Charnel is considered, in Drakkenweald, to be a deadly insult.

The Architects of Trade

Overview: The Architects are loosely considered a 'group' but they are really nothing of the kind. They fiercely compete with each other as they do with any other faction of GC. There are six known Architects. Five of them have existed for hundreds of years, with the newest arriving relatively recently. Each of them seem to have a nearly insatiable requirement, often resulting in terrible consequences for those around them.

Each Architect has their own organization below them which works to further their purposes, with no problems engaging in whatever activities they need to advance those purposes. They are, however, united in their incandescent hatred of the Titans of Commerce, who have taken their 'rightful' economic space in Grand Convergence. Most of the Architects consider this unjust, and meddling with the Titans is probably the only thing that would get them to work together on anything other than the most temporary of goals.

Many foolish heroes once believed the Architects were easy prey. They serve as cautionary tales now.

The Architects have not survived this long by chance.

For further information on each of the Architects, see their NPC profiles.