Nova Sector 13 - User contributions [en]

Lore:Nanotrasen

2026-09-14T01:57:24Z

GreytideSkye: /* Notable Individuals */

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 092336
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 092336
|bhcolour = #092336
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = NT_Logo.png|Nanotrasen's Standard-Issue Logo
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTION
|mainname = Nanotrasen
|othernames = NT
|relatedpages = [[Nanotrasen_Consultant|Nanotrasen Consultant]]
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]], [[Nova_Sector_lore|Lore Primer]], [[Lore:Nova_Sector|Nova Sector]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/SableSteel}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

Many well known space stations on the frontier are operated by '''Nanotrasen''' – a company originally from Earth that holds interests in a variety of fields, but focuses on expanding, colonizing and claiming the resources of the frontier.

=Nanotrasen=

'''Nanotrasen''' (often shortened to just “NT”) has a mixed reputation. Some people might think of NT as a benevolent entity, but those that work for them or know them well probably call them capitalistic and opportunistic, with a “profits before people” ideology. Their business extends into multiple fields so as to maximize their profits – from buying and managing patents, to building ships and stations, doing technological research and, notably: {{TooltipInline|colonizing|The nature of Nanotrasen's colonization efforts in the Nova sector have often come under intense scrutiny, accused of both merely repurposing abandoned structures, and of claiming crew members' independently-constructed buildings as official Colonies. Legally, both fulfill contractual obligations, so any scrutiny is merely superficial.}} the frontier.

The frontier is an untapped land of resources and valuable information... untapped from a commercial standpoint, that is. With the support/management of an ever growing NT Military branch, Nanotrasen’s colonization movements have been the recent focus of their business and the driving factor for much of their research. They manage a number of stations and outposts in valuable sections of the frontier, bringing in profit in the form of resources and research.

Which sections of the frontier are valuable? The anomalous ones, usually. One solar system in particular is home to an unusual number of anomalies (anomalies which can range from strange occurrences on station to odd creatures to weird ruins), especially affecting nearby planets such as [[Lore:Indecipheres|Lavaland]]. The resources left behind by the anomalies, and the resources they draw in are a major line of profit – as is the research into the anomalies themselves.

While Nanotrasen isn’t some all-powerful company, and it has no support from governing bodies aside from vague permission to operate in [[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]] space, its influence continues to grow. NT sits on the Luna board of directors and continues to expand, exploring and claiming new parts of the frontier without hesitating to consider the moral cost of its growth.

=History=

Nanotrasen was founded on good ideals. A generally altruistic group of founders, from Earth, had bright plans for it – a company that helped with technological research and with expanding the frontier, bringing that technology to those who need it. While they weren’t the ones to invent bluespace drives or FTL travel, they were {{TooltipInline|some of the first to commercialize|Which would cement their rise to glory somewhere between [[Lore:SolFed#International_Space_Administration|2212 and 2230]], likely predating 2212 as a lesser company (think Nintendo making playing cards).}} it and make a profit off of it. They made new innovations in the field of AI research and picked up many patents for their growing list of inventions, such as the Supermatter crystal.

Unfortunately, that benevolence only lasted so long. As the original founders, the old guard of Nanotrasen, started to age and step aside, the people who replaced them were not so nice. These were the people who had succeeded inside Nanotrasen from a business standpoint – even those who might have originally shared some of the founder’s ideals were now jaded by capitalism. NT shifted to a new mindset: it had to make a profit to stay competitive, and sometimes people had to set aside their morals to make a profit.

Some of the old guard saw this change and did not like it. But there was no good alternative - the only people willing to listen to them were the [[Lore:Syndicate]], who were no saints either. Still, some of the old guard decided on those as the lesser of two evils and moved over to aid the Syndicate. Others remain in Nanotrasen, though those that stayed are more or less out of touch with the way Nanotrasen runs now. As far as they know, it has continued to follow their benevolent ideals and the new, current, management of NT would like to make sure they keep thinking that.

All the while, Nanotrasen has continued to expand. Its efforts in colonizing the frontier and claiming its resources have proven the most profitable, so that’s where they focus - and as with any sort of colonization, they need a good military to back them. That’s where Nanotrasen’s Military branch comes in, overseeing and protecting their colonization efforts (and for clarity; these members of NT Military do not work for random outpost research stations. They are not the station’s internal security - a role that is often outsourced for liability reasons - but rather the big guns that are brought in from off station to resolve crew conflict or protect NT interests.)

Because of the quick expansion of these frontier stations, their culture varies greatly. They hire a more diverse crew on the frontier than they would in the more central areas of space. These crews are often kept on a looser leash than the more central stations, and hold ideologies that are often a bit less violently capitalistic, just due to the logistics of being far away and being relatively new.

=Branches=
Nanotrasen is split into a few different branches. The most important ones include:
==Directorate==
The very highest levels of command, who don’t go out to the frontier in person, but rather manage their interests with the Luna board of directors.

==NT Military/Sector Command==
These are the ones in charge of the operations of the frontier sectors. NT’s military is the power backing its colonization. With duties ranging from keeping stations in line to protecting them, and ranks that vary just as greatly, NT’s Military is the acting arm of the company’s authority. While not infallible, they are NT’s most trusted force when it comes to protecting their interests on the frontier - to maximize profits, ensure expansion and reduce expensive PR incidents.

==Research==
Nanotrasen has a strong R&D department, with multiple stations who focus primarily on research. While some of their effort goes to research for the sake of expanding upon the company's {{TooltipInline|already existing patents|By all Corporate metrics, the Nova Sector chain of stations has proven to be a research goldmine. With each station producing dozens of patents per shift, upper management finds the expenditures to be well-recouped. They're hardly concerned, or even aware, that each shift's patents are effectively identical to the previous shift's, with miniscule alterations to the background conditions. See: Patent 700605: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17% CO2 atmosphere, Patent 700606: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17.5% CO2 atmosphere...}}, the majority of it these days goes into developing improvements for NT’s other departments - such as optimizing bluespace travel for the sake of their exploration efforts or improving weapons for the sake of their military branch.

==Engineering==
NT’s engineering department oversees the engineering and upkeep of its stations and ships - and oversees the production, use and distribution of NT’s {{TooltipInline|proprietary power source|While the concept and use of a Supermatter Crystal existed well before the company, Nanotrasen developed a unique means by which to grow a small shard into a ceiling-height crystal. As most Supermatter shards must be carefully cleaved from a larger source, or produced through near-impossible atmospheric trickery, this ''trade secret'' is one of Nanotrasen's most profitable processes, leading rivals to routinely attempt to steal and reverse engineer slivers of any Nanotrasen Artificial Supermatter Crystal. }}, the [[Lore:Supermatter|Supermatter Crystal]].
==Exploration==
As part of NT’s colonization efforts, it has invested into exploring the frontier so it can be the first to find, claim and profit off of valuable resources found in newly mapped sections of the frontier. NT uses its best technological advances to try and speed up exploration in a constant contest against others who want to lay claim to the resources of the frontier.

==Shipbuilding==
With as many ships and stations as NT has, at some point they have decided to economize by building their own ships and stations in house. The shipbuilding section of NT works on designing new station designs and at building NT’s new outposts, handing the {{TooltipInline|station’s upkeep|The myth of a "cleaning crew" handling the station before and after a standard crew shift came about through strictly organic means, in counterculture response to the more sinister rumors, including: -The stations are scrapped wholesale, biological material and all. -A swarm of Drones and Spider Clan operatives scour stations to return them to a pristine state. -A chronological Task Force rewinds the surrounding area to a previous point in time. -Enough noospheric discharge is released to trick the anomalous zone into forgetting the station had ever been altered. The rise of the "cleaning crew" myth stems from an innate desire to avoid uncomfortable questions from the prior claims, and also the presence of a janitorial staff who sweeps through. No matter what the story, crew members finding themselves waiting for the Cleaning Crew come back with few memories of the event and oft conflicting stories, but no worse for the wear.}} over to NT’s engineering department once the station is put into service.

==Artificial Intelligence==
Working alongside NT’s [[Scientist|research department]], but with a larger focus on production than on new designs, Nanotrasen’s [[Robotics|AI department]] is also quite powerful. NT [[AI]]s and [[Cyborg|cyborg]]s are in high demand, though most of them go towards work within Nanotrasen instead of towards third party buyers. NT’s AI department is not only responsible for the research and production of cyborgs, [[Drone|drones]] and AIs, but is responsible for the management of all the silicons currently in service under Nanotrasen - to keep them productive and to keep them in line.

=Ranks=
This is the general rank structure of the NT Military. Some NT Military ranks have equivalent civilian ranks inside Sector Command - those ranks will be listed in parenthesis. 

* Chief Advisor of Military Affairs 
* Admiralty 
* Section Chiefs 
* Commander (Bureau Director) 
* Lieutenant (Manager) 
* Ensign ({{TooltipInline|Asst.|Legally, this encompasses any form of lessening modifier: Auxiliary, Deputy, Sub-, etc., as well as Senior Supervisor.}} Manager) 
* Sergeant (Supervisor) 
* Private (Intern) 
* ([[Nanotrasen_Consultant|Consultant / Station Representative]]) 

=== Shields ===
'''Not a real rank!''' 
Formally, only the [[Blueshield]] exists as a legitimate job position, holding no authority in the Sector Command chain outside of their immediate job duties. However, certain individuals in various ranks have been known to exercise limited stylistic freedom within their standard-issue equipment to express their specialties.

Various aspects of '''Asset Protection''' would come to be known informally as Shields, regardless of employment as a Blueshield.

The term "'''Whiteshields'''" first arose when the Sol Defense line of 'Archangel' hardened armor became available to NT officers at a steep discount, leading to an almost universal adoption across Crisis Response ''Emergency Response Team'' technicians specialized in a medical role. Their flexibility meets a local maximum between protection and fine motor skills, best facilitating a ''field medic'' role. With practically every CC Medical Responder dressed in the same white armor, the name "Whiteshield" came naturally.

High-ranking officials with something to prove would enforce a golden trim on their personal Blueshields, to flaunt their opulence and superiority. Thus, these "'''Goldshields'''" are well-known as VIP protection, specialized in protecting an individual and securing their immediate area. Often following investigators or admiralty, their goal is absolute: the safety of one individual, above all others.

Seeing the {{TooltipInline|marketability of these informal titles|One CEO's daughter had 'head-canons' and notebooks filled with crude sketches of two Whiteshields holding hands.}}, the Nanotrasen Board of Executives funded an experimental show to trivialize the intimidation of various Asset Protection programs. The '''Super Sentai Shield Squad''' show, a three-season cartoon, featured the Saturday-morning adventures of the '''Super Shield Squad''' consisting of (up to) seven interchangeable color-themed Shields, often facing against the vile forces of the '''All-evil Syndicate Shocktroops'''. While the series caught on, it did so with a demographic uninterested in cheap consumer-grade toys. Additionally, contracts with existing Action Figure manufacturers ran into [[Lore:Syndicate|Conflicts of Interest]], leaving merchandising to rot in warehouses until liquidation. The show remains a cult classic among a small fanbase but will likely never see a fourth season.

'''APHID''': Asset Protection's Heuristic Information Division. The slice of Asset Protection specializing in the securing sectors of the station against possible threats to {{TooltipInline|“John Nanotrasen”|The metaphorical image and status symbol of the company, not the explicit CEO.}} and establishing control in uncertain situations. These are the “First in, Last out” people that proactively defend and follow the Corporation's grand schemes to completion. They are directly responsible for keeping any Goldshields apprised of any movements and points of interest when it comes to defending a present V.I.P, though ultimately deferring the direct protection responsibilities to them.

These guys are also intelligence gathering specialists, with notable campaigns of intrigue against the Syndicate and other vague threats. Constantly building threat models and counter plans to keep the “Big picture” in mind.

In the wake of the show's popularity, and ''coincidentally'' shortly after the {{TooltipInline|Tarnoonga Pirate Disaster|((Strongly liable to change))}} in which several APHID agents were revealed to the public, Nanotrasen decided to informally own the concept of Colorshields, permitting several high-profile Asset Protection agents to proudly display their colored shield title. As the show suddenly added the '''"Blackshield"''' as a tech specialist who {{TooltipInline|thankfully|For budget reasons.}} appears primarily as a {{TooltipInline|voice-over radio|Exposition dump nepo-hire cash-grab mary-sue, according to diehard Bucklers.}}, APHID members were strongly encouraged to, if found, claim to be Blackshields, thus obfuscating their true nature slightly, and controlling the resulting narrative.

Those in the know would recognize this sudden push to claim numerous AP designations as Colorshields as a corporate power grab, a mostly-successful attempt to pull all of Asset Protection under a single budget. Many elites in Nanotrasen resent the notion of a Colorshield, hate that they had powerful agents stolen out from under them, but as the Shields still serve Nanotrasen, any act to disband them would be seen an act of corporate treason.

While still not a formal designation in the modern day, the concept of a Colorshield holds strategic value in the Nanotrasen ecosystem. When a civilian hears mention of a "Whiteshield," their mind recalls the show, and the happy positive vibes from the action heroics, and not only do they understand the Asset Protection agent's general role, they're 15% more likely to comply with direct orders and 40% likelier to volunteer their services.

Also notable are the "[[Lore:Syndicate#Redshields|Redshields]]," a contradictory group of disloyal employees, protesting Sector Command's numerous mistakes or whining about insufficient pay. This incidentally matches with the show, as the Red Shield was given most of Season One's planned character arc but was quickly cut as test audiences found it difficult to tell the Red Shield from the red-clad Shocktroops.

= Notable Products =
As a modern Corporation, Nanotrasen is responsible for numerous products, innovations, and assorted capitalistic outputs into not just SolFed, but society as a whole. As taken from the Nanotrasen Noncomprehensive N-ventory of N-ventions, here are some of the good, services, and disservices the average consumer in the Nova sector may be familiar with:

* '''Positronic Brains, (Cube)''': The positronic brain style used in over 1/5th of all Synthetic life originated in a Nanotrasen laboratory to address a {{TooltipInline|critical bottleneck in the mass manufacturing process|Stacking issues. Modern mass-production of the Positronic Brain involves casting a monolithic fractalized brain, then cutting it into smaller cubes. Additionally, repeatedly disgruntled employees threatened to quit over the competitors' product rolling everywhere and being a pain to stack.}}. As per the marketing, the sharp corners actually serve as an ionic focal point, directing thought patterns to be at least {{TooltipInline|15% faster and 5% less disjoint|Studies have failed to replicate these findings, but for philosophical reasons, not procedural ones.}} than the {{TooltipInline|leading brand|Also Nanotrasen.}}.
* '''NTNet Quantum Relay''': An uninterruptible local communication network, capable of incredible speeds even during intense ionospheric disturbance. Keeps a superposition of common company-approved [[Lore:Bluespace#Holonet|holonet data]], such that even with a loss of connection to the [[Lore:Bluespace#Holonet|Snail-based Galactic Holonet]], station-based operations continue without interruption.
* '''Plasma research''': If you're browsing through the SolFed Patent Registry, 8 out of 10 patents in the last 50 years stem directly from Nanotrasen Research Stations like yours. The "problem" is so bad that the registry has an explicit filter to hide near-redundant NT patents.
* '''Mugs'''. The 25 Credit Nanotrasen Souvenir Mug serves as a low-cost bookend for rounding out your year-end budget and has proven to be distressingly popular.
* '''Standard Procedures and Technical Knowledge''': A long tenure at a frontier station is as good as a weak degree from a dedicated school. Any frontier station, but as NT's scaled up station production production, they're proportionately large on the good worker {{TooltipInline|vibe check|The "Vibe Check," introduced as a placeholder name to the SolFed council, passed into law too quick for the name to be changed.}}. Engineers and Doctors alike often find themselves on the less glamorous path to accreditation: working in the Frontier.
* '''Stations''': The [[#Engineering|NT Engineering team]] actually produces a slight surplus of stations. Some detractors consider this an embezzling scheme, wherein the budget for station replacements is overinflated based on intentionally bloated station loss statistics, but any {{TooltipInline|Structuary|Portmanteau of Structure and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuary Actuary].}} will easily justify the projected loss rate through a standardized {{TooltipInline|Risk Assessment|For an hourly salary matching your monthly wages.}}.
* '''Shuttles''': The [[#Shipbuilding|Shipbuilding Division]] produces a wide array of shuttles, each available as a shuttle evacuation solution that's right for you, for the right price.
* '''Colonies''': Founded on "Worker-driven initiatives" and "unique, designer homes," Nanotrasen exports structures constructed by employees on company time as prime real estate for up-and-coming Frontier workers who want to live in the [[Lore:Indecipheres|''heat'' of the action]].
* '''Salvage''': Sometimes NT stations prove {{TooltipInline|inviable for cleaning and immediate reintroduction to the cycle|They just whoopsy drift away, full of corpses}}. These stations continue to drift, staffed by a small clade of [[Drone|Derelict Drones]] until they prove feasible for rehabitation or reuse.
* '''Salvage''': As part of the Nanotrasen Frontier Program, various [[Assistant|unemployed and underutilized crew]] are paid a stipend for creative or unorthodox works. Sometimes this means a work of art, sometimes it means locating a derelict ship and repairing it. While obligated to offer right of first refusal to the employees who have recovered the lost items, Nanotrasen draws no small profit from auctioning these recovered vessels, landmarks, and trinkets.
* '''Detention''': Various {{TooltipInline|transnational pacts|Most notably the Transgalactic Incarceration Commodification Pact.}} and {{TooltipInline|contracts|Both for specific individuals and as broad, vague promises.}} offer distant stations a small profit to house various prisoners in onboard prisons. While these prisons are often already filled with rebellious employees of the corporation, stations are legally permitted to acquire the prison sentence of external prisoners and enforce it themselves. The pacts are offered in hopes that the exported prisoner would {{TooltipInline|find the distant system enriching and rehabilitative|Die to some Frontier nonsense.}} and return to society as a {{TooltipInline|better person|Corpse.}}.

= Notable Personnel and Stations =

==Important stations==
* [[Lore:Indecipheres|Lavaland]], and stations/ships in orbit around it and [[Lore:Freyja|its icy moon]].
* Stations/ships in orbit around other planets and bodies in that same star system - the [[Lore:Nova|Nova system]].

==Important Members of NT==
=== CEO ===
For legal inquiries, please reference {{TooltipInline|today's|((This changes regularly and randomly through [[Template:RandomChoice|Wiki Magic]], so don't get attached to one specific name!))}} CEO below: 
{{RandomChoice|
{{Character|name=John Nanotrasen|rank=Figurehead|org=Nanotrasen|image=Generic captain.png|width=50%|notes="John Nanotrasen" is the name of a figurehead installed as the public face of Nanotrasen. No specific individual has been identified as ever having been John Nanotrasen, yet reports suggest that he exists.}}|
{{Character|name=The Fax Machine|rank=Director of Written Communications|org=Nanotrasen|species=Bluespace Bureaucratic Entity|image=Fax.png|width=50%|notes=The Fax Machine is a mythical machine around Nanotrasen offices. While many exist across the various Nanotrasen installations, only the one True fax machine stands supreme atop the hierarchy of bureaucracy.}}|
{{Character|name=The NT Logo|rank=Iconograph|org=Nanotrasen|image=NT Logo.png|width=50%|species=Geometric Perfection|notes=The Nanotrasen logo itself is, at present, a legal entity capable of sharing liability and negotiating legal contracts between persons affiliated with Nanotrasen and potential litigants.}}|{{Character|name=Emitter #3|rank=Scapegoat|species=Dischargant|org=Nanotrasen|image=Emitter_On.png|width=50%|notes=The third emitter included in any standard-issue Supermatter assembly. Is assigned most of the legal blame, as it as accustomed to being fired.}}}}

=== Notable Individuals ===
In the Nova Sector, you may find yourself interacting with one or more of the following persons, (Read: these are staff-played CC characters used in events, faxes, or other interactions with Central Command), in no particular order:


{{Character|name=John Mitchell|rank=Not Particularly Clear|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_JohnMitchell.png|species=Genetic Doppelgänger|notes=John Mitchell has been in an elevated position for as long as anyone can remember... which is weird considering some people are pretty old, and... that no one can remember which position he fills specifically. He's almost always present for board meetings, military affairs, sometimes even specific station visits, and lastly, sometimes he just shows up to an event uninvited. No one's really sure how he keeps ending up at these events, and even less-so, why he's there to begin with.}}

{{Character|name=Talise Mali|rank=Chief Intelligence Officer|org=Nanotrasen Internal Affairs|image=Talise.png|species=Human|notes=Head of NT's Internal Affairs and Director of the Martian Division of NT, Talise is regarded as shrewd, answering only to the Admiralty. Her presence on the frontier is rare at best, with the many Internal Affairs Agents reporting to her or her subordinates. She has a clear disdain for the Frontier, thanks to it's more lax policies, and is only ever sent by orders of the admiralty.}}

{{Character|name=Gabrielle and Madeleine Deveraux|rank=Director|org=Nanotrasen Internal Affairs|image=|species=Akula|notes=Often seen as a pair, Gabrielle and Madeliene are the second hands to the Chief Officer Talise Mali. Often regarded as gleefully energetic, that energy is often put into whatever tasks their Chief assigns them.}}

{{Character|name=Patience Butterfield|rank=Compliance Investigative Manager|org=Nanotrasen|species=Human|image=CC_PatienceButterfield.png|notes=Patience Butterfield was a strict woman with an eye for detail. Her ability to spot filth from a parsec away extended into the social realm, and her intense focus on cleanliness quickly spurred her promotion to Compliance Investigative Manager. Nanotrasen will struggle to find an investigator as stalwart and utilitarian as Patience.}}

{{Character|name=Azyre W. Ruina|rank=Guidance Counselor|org=Nanotrasen|image=cc_azy.png|notes=Azyre W. Ruina, known to friends as "Azy," exists to fill a void in the bureaucratic weave that heralds over pitiful stationeers.}}

{{Character|name=Jim Tern|rank=Manager of the Fax Machine's Upkeep|org=Nanotrasen|image=Cc_jimtern.png|species=Assistant|notes=Jim Tern, Heir to the Fax Machine and Manager of her Message, serves his mechanical master through verbiage and competence. Faxes must be responded to, and Jim Tern fulfills that niche with bureaucratic optimality.}}


{{Character|name=Zachary Richardson|rank=Auxiliary Manager of Cybernetics|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_ZacharyRichardson.png|notes=The creator of Nip and N-I-P. Headhunted by NT for his skill in robotics, he's managed to work his way up the command chain. Now he tends to assist with many of the NT science projects.}}

{{Character|name=Mare Crisium|species=Synthetic Lizard|rank=Crisis Response Ensign|org=Whiteshield (Nanotrasen)|image=CC_MareCrisium.gif|notes=Mare Crisium was assembled by the Research Department to serve as a specialist amongst an already curious (but informal) group within Centcom: the Shields. Nanotrasen's solution to the 'Who delivers the mailman's mail?' found within their upper operative echelons, this synth finds her purpose watching the backs of extremely valuable individuals and their Gold and Blackshields, tending to the bodies they tend to leave in their wake.}}

{{Character|name=Servire Semper|rank=Lieutenant of the {{TooltipInline|NT Security Division|Oversees the training and deployment of various in-house private security, including [[Blueshield]]s.}}|species=[[Lore:Synths|Semi-Synthetic Humanoid]]|org={{TooltipInline|Nanotrasen|Co-Lead of NT Crisis Response Division "Informally known as SpecAct"}}|image=CC_ServireSemper.png|notes=Very few things are on record about this man, mostly the scent of burnt fabric and his fondness for keeping a secretarial squad specifically for [[paperwork]]. One thing is certain: you can consider yourself extremely lucky or unlucky to meet this man face-to-face.}}

{{Character|name=Amherst Lockner|rank=|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_AmherstLockner.png}}

{{Character|name=Annie Gustaffmann|rank=Ensign|species=[[Lore:Vulpkanin|Vulpkanin]]|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_AnnieGustaffmann.png|notes=6'7" tall, very well built with a strongly curated appearance. Annie's been working at Central for a good majority of her 47 year life, around 25 years now. She works at managing assets all over the place along with intelligence operations, and on occasion tagging along with operations.}}

{{Character|name=Charon|rank=Paranormal Supervisor|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_Charon.png|notes=Former priest before falling to booze and women. Now he works for NT's paranormal division.}}

{{Character|name=Michael Dudley|rank=Sergeant|org=Goldshield (Nanotrasen)|image=CC_MichaelDudley.png|notes=Old and divorced corporate climber, retired from Frontier Station Warden to Goldshield.}}

{{Character|name=Corvinus|rank=Assistant Manager|org=Nanotrasen Frontier Region HR|species=Avian (Transferred Resonance)|OverrideImage=true|image=[[File:CC_Corvinus.png|class=pixelart|Corvinus]]|notes=A well spoken member of the Regional HR of the Frontier. Usually is quite lax about his work due to the absolute asinine requests one sends through faxes, but he has no fear that the project is still good to talk even despite his rank. A public face that asks for one's thoughts and shares it...even if it is a horrid idea.}}

{{Character|name=A. Man|rank=Observational Technician|org=Department of Unconventional Communication, Nanotrasen|image=CC_Aman.png|notes=When clear and concise conversation fails to convey just how badly you have fucked up, yet somehow you're still worth chastising from the inside of an airlock, you're unfortunately going to meet A Man. Allegedly, the A stands for either Albert, Alfred, Another, Ayy, and Arthur, in a quantum superposition of livenames. Further pursuing this rumor, the name "A Man" seems to have come from crossplay between necromantic revivals and the idea of "dead names." With his firm grasp on the Corporate Ideals, he will issue a... course correction, and you would do well to... ''heed his insight'', if you are to continue having a future with this company and the atmosphere it provides to you. A corporation demands, but A Man listens.}}

{{Character|name=Kriestof Nikolaevich Demyenov|rank=Assistant Commissioner|org=Nanotrasen Department of Energy|image=CC_Kriestof.png|species=Human|notes=An erudite engineer of the most boring pencil pushing definition, highly educated and well versed in the operations of power infrastructure and site safety. Strongly versed in engineering regulation and liability dynamics.}}

{{Character|name=Tahmoh Sylus|rank=Senior Naval Captain|org=NT Military/Sector Command|image=TahmohSylus.png|notes=A seasoned officer in Nanotrasen's Naval Division, Sylus commands the NTSS Pleiades as it patrols [[Lore:Nova_Sector#Topography|Iblis]] and its surrounding systems. The Pleiades is tasked with countering external threats: primarily pirate raids and other challenges to Nanotrasen's claim over [[Lore:Nova_Sector#Topography|Iblis]]. Amiable and outgoing, if boisterous; Sylus serves as the senior commanding officer in the Iblis sector.}}

{{Character|name=Galen Baltar|rank=Bureau Director|species=Cyber-Augmented Human|org=Artificial Intelligence, Special Operations Division (Nanotrasen)|image=GalenBaltar.png|notes=A brilliant scientific mind to some, and a shifty pain-in-the-rear to (most) others, Galen is a robotics and AI research expert, overseeing one of NT's more exotic AI research divisions. His contributions to a number of common industry-standard Synthetic components and software has enriched his accounts - and ego. Still, many find him insufferable, not helped by his penchant for talking to himself. }}

{{Character|name=Fern Miha (Anika Miha)|rank=Ensign|org=NT Military Public Relations - Asst. Manager|species=Cat-Kin|image=FernMiha.png|notes=A previous long-term Captain on NT's frontier sector. She has proven herself to be capable in the field, knowledgeable with regs, proficient military tactics and leadership, and loyal to NT and her subordinates. She has been offered and accepted a full time position within Central Command, however she still seems to be somewhat attached to her old crew. A loyalty compliance chip has been administered.}}



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2026-09-12T04:17:15Z

GreytideSkye: sure why not.

''Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. '''Do not''' take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.''
{|width=100% border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| rowspan = 120 align = "center" | '''[[Nova_Sector_lore|Nova Sector]] Lore''' 
[[File:NovaSector13Logo.png|100px|link=Nova_Sector_lore]][[Category:Lore]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="commonspecies" |'''Common Species'''
| [[Lore:Humans|Humans]], [[Lore:Tiziran|Tiziran]], [[Lore:Unathi|Unathi]], [[Lore:Moths|Moths]], [[Lore:Azula|Azulae]], [[Lore:Slimeperson|Slime Hybrids]], [[Lore:Vox|Vox (Primalis et al)]], [[Lore:Tajaran|Tajaran]], [[Lore:Synths|Synthetic Humanoids]] (and assorted robots), [[Lore:Podperson|Pod Persons]], [[Lore:Hemophage|Hemophages]], [[Lore:Xenomorphic_Hybrid|Xenomorphic Hybrid]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="rarespecies" |'''Other Species'''
| [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodders]] ([[Lore:Felinids|Felinids]], [[Lore:Icewalkers|Ice Walkers]], [[Lore:Dwarf|Dwarf]]), [[Lore:Ashwalker|Ashwalkers]], [[Lore:Ethereals|Ethereals]], [[Lore:Snails|Snailpersons]], [[Lore:Teshari|Teshari]], [[Lore:Ordoht|Ordoht]] (Formerly Skrell), [[Lore:Plasmamen|Plasmamen]], [[Lore:Flyperson|Flypeople]], [[Lore:Vulpkanin|Vulpkanin]], [[Lore:Rogues|Rouges (Abductorkin)]], [[Lore:Kobold|Kobolds]], [[Lore:Exospecies|Miscellaneous Species]], [[Lore:Dullahan|Dullahans]], [[Lore:Golem|Employee Golems]], [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]], [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]], [[Lore:Protean|Proteans]], [[Lore:Ghoul|Ghouls]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nanotrasen" |'''Nanotrasen'''
| '''[[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]]''', [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Central_Command|Central Command]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Emergency Response Corps|Emergency Response Corps]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="SolFed" |'''SolFed'''
| '''[[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]]''', [[Lore:Sol|Sol in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+540}}]], [[Lore:SFAF|The SolFed Armed Forces]] Notable Member States: [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]] Government: [[Lore:Cliques|Voting Cliques]] ([[Lore:Plasma_Clique|Plasma Clique]]), [[Lore:Voting|Voting in SolFed]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="externals" |'''External Groups'''
|[[Lore:Heliostatic_Coalition|'''Heliostatic Coalition''']] ({{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HC_Compact|HC Compact]]|The HC Constitution, the document formally defining the HC.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HCAF|HCAF]]|Heliostatic Coalition Armed Forces}} ([[Lore:HCAF_Ranks|''Ranks'']]), {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:CZD|CZD]]|Commonwealth of Zvirdnyn Dominions}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:KMIF|KMIF]]|Kemppainen-Morozov Industrial Fabrication}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:EPF|Expeditionary Police Force]]|HC's Cops}} ({{TooltipInline|[[HC_Inspectors|'''Inspectors''']]|The Expeditionary Force. They inspect more than stations.}} ([[HC Quick Reference|Quick Reference]], {{TooltipInline|[[HC_SOP|SOP]]|Standard Operating Procedure}}, {{TooltipInline|[[HC Lexicon|Lexicon]]|Lingo, chatter guide, manner of speaking.}}))), [[Lore:Interdyne|Interdyne Pharmaceutics]], [[Lore:Cargo|Cargo]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="syndicate" |'''Hostiles'''
| '''[[Lore:Syndicate|The Syndicate]]''' ([[Lore:Gorlex|Gorlex]], [[Lore:Tiger_Cooperative|Tiger Cooperative]], [[Lore:Syndicate#DS-2|DS-2]], [[Guide_to_your_Manifesto|Syndicate Manifestos]]), [[Lore:Void_Imperium|The Void Imperium]], [[Lore:Spider_Clan|The Spider Clan]], [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nova" |'''Nova'''
| '''[[Lore:Nova_Sector|The Nova Sector]]''', {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Indecipheres|Indecipheres]]|Lavaland, volcanic mining place.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Freyja|Freyja]]|Icebox and Snowglobe station frozen moon.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Boletus|Boletus]]|Serenity Mushroomoon.}}
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="concepts" |'''Concepts'''
| [[Lore:Bluespace|Bluespace]], [[Lore:Plasma|Plasma]], [[Lore:Bluespace#FTL|Faster Than Light Travel]], [[Lore:Resonance|Resonance ("Souls")]], [[Lore:Death|Death]]
|}
<noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:LoreFooter

2026-09-12T04:00:47Z

GreytideSkye: tom lore

''Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. '''Do not''' take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.''
{|width=100% border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| rowspan = 120 align = "center" | '''[[Nova_Sector_lore|Nova Sector]] Lore''' 
[[File:NovaSector13Logo.png|100px|link=Nova_Sector_lore]][[Category:Lore]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="commonspecies" |'''Common Species'''
| [[Lore:Humans|Humans]], [[Lore:Tiziran|Tiziran]], [[Lore:Unathi|Unathi]], [[Lore:Moths|Moths]], [[Lore:Ethereals|Ethereals]], [[Lore:Azula|Azulae]], [[Lore:Slimeperson|Slime Hybrids]], [[Lore:Teshari|Teshari]], [[Lore:Synths|Synthetic Humanoids]] (and assorted robots), [[Lore:Podperson|Pod Persons]], [[Lore:Hemophage|Hemophages]], [[Lore:Xenomorphic_Hybrid|Xenomorphic Hybrid]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="rarespecies" |'''Other Species'''
| [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodders]] ([[Lore:Felinids|Felinids]], [[Lore:Icewalkers|Ice Walkers]], [[Lore:Dwarf|Dwarf]]), [[Lore:Ashwalker|Ashwalkers]], [[Lore:Snails|Snailpersons]], [[Lore:Ordoht|Ordoht]] (Formerly Skrell), [[Lore:Plasmamen|Plasmamen]], [[Lore:Flyperson|Flypeople]], [[Lore:Vox|Vox (Primalis et al)]], [[Lore:Tajaran|Tajaran]], [[Lore:Vulpkanin|Vulpkanin]], [[Lore:Rogues|Rouges (Abductorkin)]], [[Lore:Kobold|Kobolds]], [[Lore:Exospecies|Miscellaneous Species]], [[Lore:Dullahan|Dullahans]], [[Lore:Golem|Employee Golems]], [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]], [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]], [[Lore:Protean|Proteans]], [[Lore:Ghoul|Ghouls]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nanotrasen" |'''Nanotrasen'''
| '''[[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]]''', [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Central_Command|Central Command]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Emergency Response Corps|Emergency Response Corps]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="SolFed" |'''SolFed'''
| '''[[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]]''', [[Lore:Sol|Sol in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+540}}]], [[Lore:SFAF|The SolFed Armed Forces]] Notable Member States: [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]] Government: [[Lore:Cliques|Voting Cliques]] ([[Lore:Plasma_Clique|Plasma Clique]]), [[Lore:Voting|Voting in SolFed]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="externals" |'''External Groups'''
|[[Lore:Heliostatic_Coalition|'''Heliostatic Coalition''']] ({{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HC_Compact|HC Compact]]|The HC Constitution, the document formally defining the HC.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HCAF|HCAF]]|Heliostatic Coalition Armed Forces}} ([[Lore:HCAF_Ranks|''Ranks'']]), {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:CZD|CZD]]|Commonwealth of Zvirdnyn Dominions}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:KMIF|KMIF]]|Kemppainen-Morozov Industrial Fabrication}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:EPF|Expeditionary Police Force]]|HC's Cops}} ({{TooltipInline|[[HC_Inspectors|'''Inspectors''']]|The Expeditionary Force. They inspect more than stations.}} ([[HC Quick Reference|Quick Reference]], {{TooltipInline|[[HC_SOP|SOP]]|Standard Operating Procedure}}, {{TooltipInline|[[HC Lexicon|Lexicon]]|Lingo, chatter guide, manner of speaking.}}))), [[Lore:Interdyne|Interdyne Pharmaceutics]], [[Lore:Cargo|Cargo]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="syndicate" |'''Hostiles'''
| '''[[Lore:Syndicate|The Syndicate]]''' ([[Lore:Gorlex|Gorlex]], [[Lore:Tiger_Cooperative|Tiger Cooperative]], [[Lore:Syndicate#DS-2|DS-2]], [[Guide_to_your_Manifesto|Syndicate Manifestos]]), [[Lore:Void_Imperium|The Void Imperium]], [[Lore:Spider_Clan|The Spider Clan]], [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nova" |'''Nova'''
| '''[[Lore:Nova_Sector|The Nova Sector]]''', {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Indecipheres|Indecipheres]]|Lavaland, volcanic mining place.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Freyja|Freyja]]|Icebox and Snowglobe station frozen moon.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Boletus|Boletus]]|Serenity Mushroomoon.}}
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="concepts" |'''Concepts'''
| [[Lore:Bluespace|Bluespace]], [[Lore:Plasma|Plasma]], [[Lore:Bluespace#FTL|Faster Than Light Travel]], [[Lore:Resonance|Resonance ("Souls")]], [[Lore:Death|Death]]
|}
<noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Lore:Ghoul

2026-09-12T03:59:24Z

GreytideSkye: tom lore

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 006308
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 007F0E
|bhcolour = #007F0E
|ebcolour = 005108
|img = Ghoul.png
|loretype = SPECIES
|mainname = Ghoul
|denonyms = Ghouls
|othernames =
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore =
|languages =
|contributors = {{Contributor/GreytideSkye}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Ghoul =

Decrepit, twisted people whose flesh is fairly interchangible and loosely connected to them.

Reductively, Ghouls are effectively a 'meat golem'. Despite their theming and incoherent bodies, Ghouls are not undead abominations.
When DNA goes wrong, refuses to replicate or does so harmfully, various treatments exist to keep the person alive. These bypass the uses of DNA, though might still be able to use it, resulting in a person poorly coupled to their body.
Ghouls structure their body via intentional design, not via the encoded shapes inherent in their DNA. Ghouls can separate their limbs into meaty mass, and consume raw animal meat to regrow lost limbs. Through odd means, this means that muscle tissue is interchangeable for Ghouls, whether it originates from them or not.
This also means the body does not care as much when any particular piece of it is lost; limbs fall off easily and are replaced just as easily, and as a result the person generally is exceedingly fragile.

{{LoreFooter}}

File:FernMiha.png

2026-09-11T22:40:59Z

GreytideSkye:

Lore:Nanotrasen

2026-09-11T22:40:24Z

GreytideSkye: /* Notable Individuals */ mossycrumb's catto

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 092336
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 092336
|bhcolour = #092336
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = NT_Logo.png|Nanotrasen's Standard-Issue Logo
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTION
|mainname = Nanotrasen
|othernames = NT
|relatedpages = [[Nanotrasen_Consultant|Nanotrasen Consultant]]
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]], [[Nova_Sector_lore|Lore Primer]], [[Lore:Nova_Sector|Nova Sector]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/SableSteel}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

Many well known space stations on the frontier are operated by '''Nanotrasen''' – a company originally from Earth that holds interests in a variety of fields, but focuses on expanding, colonizing and claiming the resources of the frontier.

=Nanotrasen=

'''Nanotrasen''' (often shortened to just “NT”) has a mixed reputation. Some people might think of NT as a benevolent entity, but those that work for them or know them well probably call them capitalistic and opportunistic, with a “profits before people” ideology. Their business extends into multiple fields so as to maximize their profits – from buying and managing patents, to building ships and stations, doing technological research and, notably: {{TooltipInline|colonizing|The nature of Nanotrasen's colonization efforts in the Nova sector have often come under intense scrutiny, accused of both merely repurposing abandoned structures, and of claiming crew members' independently-constructed buildings as official Colonies. Legally, both fulfill contractual obligations, so any scrutiny is merely superficial.}} the frontier.

The frontier is an untapped land of resources and valuable information... untapped from a commercial standpoint, that is. With the support/management of an ever growing NT Military branch, Nanotrasen’s colonization movements have been the recent focus of their business and the driving factor for much of their research. They manage a number of stations and outposts in valuable sections of the frontier, bringing in profit in the form of resources and research.

Which sections of the frontier are valuable? The anomalous ones, usually. One solar system in particular is home to an unusual number of anomalies (anomalies which can range from strange occurrences on station to odd creatures to weird ruins), especially affecting nearby planets such as [[Lore:Indecipheres|Lavaland]]. The resources left behind by the anomalies, and the resources they draw in are a major line of profit – as is the research into the anomalies themselves.

While Nanotrasen isn’t some all-powerful company, and it has no support from governing bodies aside from vague permission to operate in [[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]] space, its influence continues to grow. NT sits on the Luna board of directors and continues to expand, exploring and claiming new parts of the frontier without hesitating to consider the moral cost of its growth.

=History=

Nanotrasen was founded on good ideals. A generally altruistic group of founders, from Earth, had bright plans for it – a company that helped with technological research and with expanding the frontier, bringing that technology to those who need it. While they weren’t the ones to invent bluespace drives or FTL travel, they were {{TooltipInline|some of the first to commercialize|Which would cement their rise to glory somewhere between [[Lore:SolFed#International_Space_Administration|2212 and 2230]], likely predating 2212 as a lesser company (think Nintendo making playing cards).}} it and make a profit off of it. They made new innovations in the field of AI research and picked up many patents for their growing list of inventions, such as the Supermatter crystal.

Unfortunately, that benevolence only lasted so long. As the original founders, the old guard of Nanotrasen, started to age and step aside, the people who replaced them were not so nice. These were the people who had succeeded inside Nanotrasen from a business standpoint – even those who might have originally shared some of the founder’s ideals were now jaded by capitalism. NT shifted to a new mindset: it had to make a profit to stay competitive, and sometimes people had to set aside their morals to make a profit.

Some of the old guard saw this change and did not like it. But there was no good alternative - the only people willing to listen to them were the [[Lore:Syndicate]], who were no saints either. Still, some of the old guard decided on those as the lesser of two evils and moved over to aid the Syndicate. Others remain in Nanotrasen, though those that stayed are more or less out of touch with the way Nanotrasen runs now. As far as they know, it has continued to follow their benevolent ideals and the new, current, management of NT would like to make sure they keep thinking that.

All the while, Nanotrasen has continued to expand. Its efforts in colonizing the frontier and claiming its resources have proven the most profitable, so that’s where they focus - and as with any sort of colonization, they need a good military to back them. That’s where Nanotrasen’s Military branch comes in, overseeing and protecting their colonization efforts (and for clarity; these members of NT Military do not work for random outpost research stations. They are not the station’s internal security - a role that is often outsourced for liability reasons - but rather the big guns that are brought in from off station to resolve crew conflict or protect NT interests.)

Because of the quick expansion of these frontier stations, their culture varies greatly. They hire a more diverse crew on the frontier than they would in the more central areas of space. These crews are often kept on a looser leash than the more central stations, and hold ideologies that are often a bit less violently capitalistic, just due to the logistics of being far away and being relatively new.

=Branches=
Nanotrasen is split into a few different branches. The most important ones include:
==Directorate==
The very highest levels of command, who don’t go out to the frontier in person, but rather manage their interests with the Luna board of directors.

==NT Military/Sector Command==
These are the ones in charge of the operations of the frontier sectors. NT’s military is the power backing its colonization. With duties ranging from keeping stations in line to protecting them, and ranks that vary just as greatly, NT’s Military is the acting arm of the company’s authority. While not infallible, they are NT’s most trusted force when it comes to protecting their interests on the frontier - to maximize profits, ensure expansion and reduce expensive PR incidents.

==Research==
Nanotrasen has a strong R&D department, with multiple stations who focus primarily on research. While some of their effort goes to research for the sake of expanding upon the company's {{TooltipInline|already existing patents|By all Corporate metrics, the Nova Sector chain of stations has proven to be a research goldmine. With each station producing dozens of patents per shift, upper management finds the expenditures to be well-recouped. They're hardly concerned, or even aware, that each shift's patents are effectively identical to the previous shift's, with miniscule alterations to the background conditions. See: Patent 700605: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17% CO2 atmosphere, Patent 700606: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17.5% CO2 atmosphere...}}, the majority of it these days goes into developing improvements for NT’s other departments - such as optimizing bluespace travel for the sake of their exploration efforts or improving weapons for the sake of their military branch.

==Engineering==
NT’s engineering department oversees the engineering and upkeep of its stations and ships - and oversees the production, use and distribution of NT’s {{TooltipInline|proprietary power source|While the concept and use of a Supermatter Crystal existed well before the company, Nanotrasen developed a unique means by which to grow a small shard into a ceiling-height crystal. As most Supermatter shards must be carefully cleaved from a larger source, or produced through near-impossible atmospheric trickery, this ''trade secret'' is one of Nanotrasen's most profitable processes, leading rivals to routinely attempt to steal and reverse engineer slivers of any Nanotrasen Artificial Supermatter Crystal. }}, the [[Lore:Supermatter|Supermatter Crystal]].
==Exploration==
As part of NT’s colonization efforts, it has invested into exploring the frontier so it can be the first to find, claim and profit off of valuable resources found in newly mapped sections of the frontier. NT uses its best technological advances to try and speed up exploration in a constant contest against others who want to lay claim to the resources of the frontier.

==Shipbuilding==
With as many ships and stations as NT has, at some point they have decided to economize by building their own ships and stations in house. The shipbuilding section of NT works on designing new station designs and at building NT’s new outposts, handing the {{TooltipInline|station’s upkeep|The myth of a "cleaning crew" handling the station before and after a standard crew shift came about through strictly organic means, in counterculture response to the more sinister rumors, including: -The stations are scrapped wholesale, biological material and all. -A swarm of Drones and Spider Clan operatives scour stations to return them to a pristine state. -A chronological Task Force rewinds the surrounding area to a previous point in time. -Enough noospheric discharge is released to trick the anomalous zone into forgetting the station had ever been altered. The rise of the "cleaning crew" myth stems from an innate desire to avoid uncomfortable questions from the prior claims, and also the presence of a janitorial staff who sweeps through. No matter what the story, crew members finding themselves waiting for the Cleaning Crew come back with few memories of the event and oft conflicting stories, but no worse for the wear.}} over to NT’s engineering department once the station is put into service.

==Artificial Intelligence==
Working alongside NT’s [[Scientist|research department]], but with a larger focus on production than on new designs, Nanotrasen’s [[Robotics|AI department]] is also quite powerful. NT [[AI]]s and [[Cyborg|cyborg]]s are in high demand, though most of them go towards work within Nanotrasen instead of towards third party buyers. NT’s AI department is not only responsible for the research and production of cyborgs, [[Drone|drones]] and AIs, but is responsible for the management of all the silicons currently in service under Nanotrasen - to keep them productive and to keep them in line.

=Ranks=
This is the general rank structure of the NT Military. Some NT Military ranks have equivalent civilian ranks inside Sector Command - those ranks will be listed in parenthesis. 

* Chief Advisor of Military Affairs 
* Admiralty 
* Section Chiefs 
* Commander (Bureau Director) 
* Lieutenant (Manager) 
* Ensign ({{TooltipInline|Asst.|Legally, this encompasses any form of lessening modifier: Auxiliary, Deputy, Sub-, etc., as well as Senior Supervisor.}} Manager) 
* Sergeant (Supervisor) 
* Private (Intern) 
* ([[Nanotrasen_Consultant|Consultant / Station Representative]]) 

=== Shields ===
'''Not a real rank!''' 
Formally, only the [[Blueshield]] exists as a legitimate job position, holding no authority in the Sector Command chain outside of their immediate job duties. However, certain individuals in various ranks have been known to exercise limited stylistic freedom within their standard-issue equipment to express their specialties.

Various aspects of '''Asset Protection''' would come to be known informally as Shields, regardless of employment as a Blueshield.

The term "'''Whiteshields'''" first arose when the Sol Defense line of 'Archangel' hardened armor became available to NT officers at a steep discount, leading to an almost universal adoption across Crisis Response ''Emergency Response Team'' technicians specialized in a medical role. Their flexibility meets a local maximum between protection and fine motor skills, best facilitating a ''field medic'' role. With practically every CC Medical Responder dressed in the same white armor, the name "Whiteshield" came naturally.

High-ranking officials with something to prove would enforce a golden trim on their personal Blueshields, to flaunt their opulence and superiority. Thus, these "'''Goldshields'''" are well-known as VIP protection, specialized in protecting an individual and securing their immediate area. Often following investigators or admiralty, their goal is absolute: the safety of one individual, above all others.

Seeing the {{TooltipInline|marketability of these informal titles|One CEO's daughter had 'head-canons' and notebooks filled with crude sketches of two Whiteshields holding hands.}}, the Nanotrasen Board of Executives funded an experimental show to trivialize the intimidation of various Asset Protection programs. The '''Super Sentai Shield Squad''' show, a three-season cartoon, featured the Saturday-morning adventures of the '''Super Shield Squad''' consisting of (up to) seven interchangeable color-themed Shields, often facing against the vile forces of the '''All-evil Syndicate Shocktroops'''. While the series caught on, it did so with a demographic uninterested in cheap consumer-grade toys. Additionally, contracts with existing Action Figure manufacturers ran into [[Lore:Syndicate|Conflicts of Interest]], leaving merchandising to rot in warehouses until liquidation. The show remains a cult classic among a small fanbase but will likely never see a fourth season.

'''APHID''': Asset Protection's Heuristic Information Division. The slice of Asset Protection specializing in the securing sectors of the station against possible threats to {{TooltipInline|“John Nanotrasen”|The metaphorical image and status symbol of the company, not the explicit CEO.}} and establishing control in uncertain situations. These are the “First in, Last out” people that proactively defend and follow the Corporation's grand schemes to completion. They are directly responsible for keeping any Goldshields apprised of any movements and points of interest when it comes to defending a present V.I.P, though ultimately deferring the direct protection responsibilities to them.

These guys are also intelligence gathering specialists, with notable campaigns of intrigue against the Syndicate and other vague threats. Constantly building threat models and counter plans to keep the “Big picture” in mind.

In the wake of the show's popularity, and ''coincidentally'' shortly after the {{TooltipInline|Tarnoonga Pirate Disaster|((Strongly liable to change))}} in which several APHID agents were revealed to the public, Nanotrasen decided to informally own the concept of Colorshields, permitting several high-profile Asset Protection agents to proudly display their colored shield title. As the show suddenly added the '''"Blackshield"''' as a tech specialist who {{TooltipInline|thankfully|For budget reasons.}} appears primarily as a {{TooltipInline|voice-over radio|Exposition dump nepo-hire cash-grab mary-sue, according to diehard Bucklers.}}, APHID members were strongly encouraged to, if found, claim to be Blackshields, thus obfuscating their true nature slightly, and controlling the resulting narrative.

Those in the know would recognize this sudden push to claim numerous AP designations as Colorshields as a corporate power grab, a mostly-successful attempt to pull all of Asset Protection under a single budget. Many elites in Nanotrasen resent the notion of a Colorshield, hate that they had powerful agents stolen out from under them, but as the Shields still serve Nanotrasen, any act to disband them would be seen an act of corporate treason.

While still not a formal designation in the modern day, the concept of a Colorshield holds strategic value in the Nanotrasen ecosystem. When a civilian hears mention of a "Whiteshield," their mind recalls the show, and the happy positive vibes from the action heroics, and not only do they understand the Asset Protection agent's general role, they're 15% more likely to comply with direct orders and 40% likelier to volunteer their services.

Also notable are the "[[Lore:Syndicate#Redshields|Redshields]]," a contradictory group of disloyal employees, protesting Sector Command's numerous mistakes or whining about insufficient pay. This incidentally matches with the show, as the Red Shield was given most of Season One's planned character arc but was quickly cut as test audiences found it difficult to tell the Red Shield from the red-clad Shocktroops.

= Notable Products =
As a modern Corporation, Nanotrasen is responsible for numerous products, innovations, and assorted capitalistic outputs into not just SolFed, but society as a whole. As taken from the Nanotrasen Noncomprehensive N-ventory of N-ventions, here are some of the good, services, and disservices the average consumer in the Nova sector may be familiar with:

* '''Positronic Brains, (Cube)''': The positronic brain style used in over 1/5th of all Synthetic life originated in a Nanotrasen laboratory to address a {{TooltipInline|critical bottleneck in the mass manufacturing process|Stacking issues. Modern mass-production of the Positronic Brain involves casting a monolithic fractalized brain, then cutting it into smaller cubes. Additionally, repeatedly disgruntled employees threatened to quit over the competitors' product rolling everywhere and being a pain to stack.}}. As per the marketing, the sharp corners actually serve as an ionic focal point, directing thought patterns to be at least {{TooltipInline|15% faster and 5% less disjoint|Studies have failed to replicate these findings, but for philosophical reasons, not procedural ones.}} than the {{TooltipInline|leading brand|Also Nanotrasen.}}.
* '''NTNet Quantum Relay''': An uninterruptible local communication network, capable of incredible speeds even during intense ionospheric disturbance. Keeps a superposition of common company-approved [[Lore:Bluespace#Holonet|holonet data]], such that even with a loss of connection to the [[Lore:Bluespace#Holonet|Snail-based Galactic Holonet]], station-based operations continue without interruption.
* '''Plasma research''': If you're browsing through the SolFed Patent Registry, 8 out of 10 patents in the last 50 years stem directly from Nanotrasen Research Stations like yours. The "problem" is so bad that the registry has an explicit filter to hide near-redundant NT patents.
* '''Mugs'''. The 25 Credit Nanotrasen Souvenir Mug serves as a low-cost bookend for rounding out your year-end budget and has proven to be distressingly popular.
* '''Standard Procedures and Technical Knowledge''': A long tenure at a frontier station is as good as a weak degree from a dedicated school. Any frontier station, but as NT's scaled up station production production, they're proportionately large on the good worker {{TooltipInline|vibe check|The "Vibe Check," introduced as a placeholder name to the SolFed council, passed into law too quick for the name to be changed.}}. Engineers and Doctors alike often find themselves on the less glamorous path to accreditation: working in the Frontier.
* '''Stations''': The [[#Engineering|NT Engineering team]] actually produces a slight surplus of stations. Some detractors consider this an embezzling scheme, wherein the budget for station replacements is overinflated based on intentionally bloated station loss statistics, but any {{TooltipInline|Structuary|Portmanteau of Structure and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuary Actuary].}} will easily justify the projected loss rate through a standardized {{TooltipInline|Risk Assessment|For an hourly salary matching your monthly wages.}}.
* '''Shuttles''': The [[#Shipbuilding|Shipbuilding Division]] produces a wide array of shuttles, each available as a shuttle evacuation solution that's right for you, for the right price.
* '''Colonies''': Founded on "Worker-driven initiatives" and "unique, designer homes," Nanotrasen exports structures constructed by employees on company time as prime real estate for up-and-coming Frontier workers who want to live in the [[Lore:Indecipheres|''heat'' of the action]].
* '''Salvage''': Sometimes NT stations prove {{TooltipInline|inviable for cleaning and immediate reintroduction to the cycle|They just whoopsy drift away, full of corpses}}. These stations continue to drift, staffed by a small clade of [[Drone|Derelict Drones]] until they prove feasible for rehabitation or reuse.
* '''Salvage''': As part of the Nanotrasen Frontier Program, various [[Assistant|unemployed and underutilized crew]] are paid a stipend for creative or unorthodox works. Sometimes this means a work of art, sometimes it means locating a derelict ship and repairing it. While obligated to offer right of first refusal to the employees who have recovered the lost items, Nanotrasen draws no small profit from auctioning these recovered vessels, landmarks, and trinkets.
* '''Detention''': Various {{TooltipInline|transnational pacts|Most notably the Transgalactic Incarceration Commodification Pact.}} and {{TooltipInline|contracts|Both for specific individuals and as broad, vague promises.}} offer distant stations a small profit to house various prisoners in onboard prisons. While these prisons are often already filled with rebellious employees of the corporation, stations are legally permitted to acquire the prison sentence of external prisoners and enforce it themselves. The pacts are offered in hopes that the exported prisoner would {{TooltipInline|find the distant system enriching and rehabilitative|Die to some Frontier nonsense.}} and return to society as a {{TooltipInline|better person|Corpse.}}.

= Notable Personnel and Stations =

==Important stations==
* [[Lore:Indecipheres|Lavaland]], and stations/ships in orbit around it and [[Lore:Freyja|its icy moon]].
* Stations/ships in orbit around other planets and bodies in that same star system - the [[Lore:Nova|Nova system]].

==Important Members of NT==
=== CEO ===
For legal inquiries, please reference {{TooltipInline|today's|((This changes regularly and randomly through [[Template:RandomChoice|Wiki Magic]], so don't get attached to one specific name!))}} CEO below: 
{{RandomChoice|
{{Character|name=John Nanotrasen|rank=Figurehead|org=Nanotrasen|image=Generic captain.png|width=50%|notes="John Nanotrasen" is the name of a figurehead installed as the public face of Nanotrasen. No specific individual has been identified as ever having been John Nanotrasen, yet reports suggest that he exists.}}|
{{Character|name=The Fax Machine|rank=Director of Written Communications|org=Nanotrasen|species=Bluespace Bureaucratic Entity|image=Fax.png|width=50%|notes=The Fax Machine is a mythical machine around Nanotrasen offices. While many exist across the various Nanotrasen installations, only the one True fax machine stands supreme atop the hierarchy of bureaucracy.}}|
{{Character|name=The NT Logo|rank=Iconograph|org=Nanotrasen|image=NT Logo.png|width=50%|species=Geometric Perfection|notes=The Nanotrasen logo itself is, at present, a legal entity capable of sharing liability and negotiating legal contracts between persons affiliated with Nanotrasen and potential litigants.}}|{{Character|name=Emitter #3|rank=Scapegoat|species=Dischargant|org=Nanotrasen|image=Emitter_On.png|width=50%|notes=The third emitter included in any standard-issue Supermatter assembly. Is assigned most of the legal blame, as it as accustomed to being fired.}}}}

=== Notable Individuals ===
In the Nova Sector, you may find yourself interacting with one or more of the following persons, in no particular order:


{{Character|name=John Mitchell|rank=Not Particularly Clear|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_JohnMitchell.png|species=Genetic Doppelgänger|notes=John Mitchell has been in an elevated position for as long as anyone can remember... which is weird considering some people are pretty old, and... that no one can remember which position he fills specifically. He's almost always present for board meetings, military affairs, sometimes even specific station visits, and lastly, sometimes he just shows up to an event uninvited. No one's really sure how he keeps ending up at these events, and even less-so, why he's there to begin with.}}

{{Character|name=Talise Mali|rank=Chief Intelligence Officer|org=Nanotrasen Internal Affairs|image=Talise.png|species=Human|notes=Head of NT's Internal Affairs and Director of the Martian Division of NT, Talise is regarded as shrewd, answering only to the Admiralty. Her presence on the frontier is rare at best, with the many Internal Affairs Agents reporting to her or her subordinates. She has a clear disdain for the Frontier, thanks to it's more lax policies, and is only ever sent by orders of the admiralty.}}

{{Character|name=Gabrielle and Madeleine Deveraux|rank=Director|org=Nanotrasen Internal Affairs|image=|species=Akula|notes=Often seen as a pair, Gabrielle and Madeliene are the second hands to the Chief Officer Talise Mali. Often regarded as gleefully energetic, that energy is often put into whatever tasks their Chief assigns them.}}

{{Character|name=Patience Butterfield|rank=Compliance Investigative Manager|org=Nanotrasen|species=Human|image=CC_PatienceButterfield.png|notes=Patience Butterfield was a strict woman with an eye for detail. Her ability to spot filth from a parsec away extended into the social realm, and her intense focus on cleanliness quickly spurred her promotion to Compliance Investigative Manager. Nanotrasen will struggle to find an investigator as stalwart and utilitarian as Patience.}}

{{Character|name=Azyre W. Ruina|rank=Guidance Counselor|org=Nanotrasen|image=cc_azy.png|notes=Azyre W. Ruina, known to friends as "Azy," exists to fill a void in the bureaucratic weave that heralds over pitiful stationeers.}}

{{Character|name=Jim Tern|rank=Manager of the Fax Machine's Upkeep|org=Nanotrasen|image=Cc_jimtern.png|species=Assistant|notes=Jim Tern, Heir to the Fax Machine and Manager of her Message, serves his mechanical master through verbiage and competence. Faxes must be responded to, and Jim Tern fulfills that niche with bureaucratic optimality.}}


{{Character|name=Zachary Richardson|rank=Auxiliary Manager of Cybernetics|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_ZacharyRichardson.png|notes=The creator of Nip and N-I-P. Headhunted by NT for his skill in robotics, he's managed to work his way up the command chain. Now he tends to assist with many of the NT science projects.}}

{{Character|name=Mare Crisium|species=Synthetic Lizard|rank=Crisis Response Ensign|org=Whiteshield (Nanotrasen)|image=CC_MareCrisium.gif|notes=Mare Crisium was assembled by the Research Department to serve as a specialist amongst an already curious (but informal) group within Centcom: the Shields. Nanotrasen's solution to the 'Who delivers the mailman's mail?' found within their upper operative echelons, this synth finds her purpose watching the backs of extremely valuable individuals and their Gold and Blackshields, tending to the bodies they tend to leave in their wake.}}

{{Character|name=Servire Semper|rank=Lieutenant of the {{TooltipInline|NT Security Division|Oversees the training and deployment of various in-house private security, including [[Blueshield]]s.}}|species=[[Lore:Synths|Semi-Synthetic Humanoid]]|org={{TooltipInline|Nanotrasen|Co-Lead of NT Crisis Response Division "Informally known as SpecAct"}}|image=CC_ServireSemper.png|notes=Very few things are on record about this man, mostly the scent of burnt fabric and his fondness for keeping a secretarial squad specifically for [[paperwork]]. One thing is certain: you can consider yourself extremely lucky or unlucky to meet this man face-to-face.}}

{{Character|name=Amherst Lockner|rank=|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_AmherstLockner.png}}

{{Character|name=Annie Gustaffmann|rank=Ensign|species=[[Lore:Vulpkanin|Vulpkanin]]|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_AnnieGustaffmann.png|notes=6'7" tall, very well built with a strongly curated appearance. Annie's been working at Central for a good majority of her 47 year life, around 25 years now. She works at managing assets all over the place along with intelligence operations, and on occasion tagging along with operations.}}

{{Character|name=Charon|rank=Paranormal Supervisor|org=Nanotrasen|image=CC_Charon.png|notes=Former priest before falling to booze and women. Now he works for NT's paranormal division.}}

{{Character|name=Michael Dudley|rank=Sergeant|org=Goldshield (Nanotrasen)|image=CC_MichaelDudley.png|notes=Old and divorced corporate climber, retired from Frontier Station Warden to Goldshield.}}

{{Character|name=Corvinus|rank=Assistant Manager|org=Nanotrasen Frontier Region HR|species=Avian (Transferred Resonance)|OverrideImage=true|image=[[File:CC_Corvinus.png|class=pixelart|Corvinus]]|notes=A well spoken member of the Regional HR of the Frontier. Usually is quite lax about his work due to the absolute asinine requests one sends through faxes, but he has no fear that the project is still good to talk even despite his rank. A public face that asks for one's thoughts and shares it...even if it is a horrid idea.}}

{{Character|name=A. Man|rank=Observational Technician|org=Department of Unconventional Communication, Nanotrasen|image=CC_Aman.png|notes=When clear and concise conversation fails to convey just how badly you have fucked up, yet somehow you're still worth chastising from the inside of an airlock, you're unfortunately going to meet A Man. Allegedly, the A stands for either Albert, Alfred, Another, Ayy, and Arthur, in a quantum superposition of livenames. Further pursuing this rumor, the name "A Man" seems to have come from crossplay between necromantic revivals and the idea of "dead names." With his firm grasp on the Corporate Ideals, he will issue a... course correction, and you would do well to... ''heed his insight'', if you are to continue having a future with this company and the atmosphere it provides to you. A corporation demands, but A Man listens.}}

{{Character|name=Kriestof Nikolaevich Demyenov|rank=Assistant Commissioner|org=Nanotrasen Department of Energy|image=CC_Kriestof.png|species=Human|notes=An erudite engineer of the most boring pencil pushing definition, highly educated and well versed in the operations of power infrastructure and site safety. Strongly versed in engineering regulation and liability dynamics.}}

{{Character|name=Tahmoh Sylus|rank=Senior Naval Captain|org=NT Military/Sector Command|image=TahmohSylus.png|notes=A seasoned officer in Nanotrasen's Naval Division, Sylus commands the NTSS Pleiades as it patrols [[Lore:Nova_Sector#Topography|Iblis]] and its surrounding systems. The Pleiades is tasked with countering external threats: primarily pirate raids and other challenges to Nanotrasen's claim over [[Lore:Nova_Sector#Topography|Iblis]]. Amiable and outgoing, if boisterous; Sylus serves as the senior commanding officer in the Iblis sector.}}

{{Character|name=Galen Baltar|rank=Bureau Director|species=Cyber-Augmented Human|org=Artificial Intelligence, Special Operations Division (Nanotrasen)|image=GalenBaltar.png|notes=A brilliant scientific mind to some, and a shifty pain-in-the-rear to (most) others, Galen is a robotics and AI research expert, overseeing one of NT's more exotic AI research divisions. His contributions to a number of common industry-standard Synthetic components and software has enriched his accounts - and ego. Still, many find him insufferable, not helped by his penchant for talking to himself. }}

{{Character|name=Fern Miha (Anika Miha)|rank=Ensign|org=NT Military Public Relations - Asst. Manager|species=Cat-Kin|image=FernMiha.png|notes=A previous long-term Captain on NT's frontier sector. She has proven herself to be capable in the field, knowledgeable with regs, proficient military tactics and leadership, and loyal to NT and her subordinates. She has been offered and accepted a full time position within Central Command, however she still seems to be somewhat attached to her old crew. A loyalty compliance chip has been administered.}}



{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Voting

2026-09-08T08:19:45Z

GreytideSkye: /* VoteCoin */

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = Blank_paper_drink.gif|The "Blank Paper" drink, a much more apt picture for this nonsense than an actual stack of papers.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = PROCESS
|mainname = Voting in SolFed
|othernames = Doing the Dirty Democracy
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Cliques]], [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

<onlyinclude>
= How Voting Works =

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually, all the way up to the 10,000some nations {{TooltipInline|theoretically possible|Given there are well over 10,000 nations active in SolFed, this assembly hall is undesirable to perceive without specialized training.}}.

== Votes ==

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of [1, 10, 50, 100, 1,000, 50,000, 1m, 25m] voters. Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the [[#Unity Clique|Unity Clique]] toward '''One Nation One Vote''', larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to {{TooltipInline|track their specific vote|(they do not)}} which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

== Physical Ballots ==

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

= How To Vote =

A typical vote goes as such:

==The Proposal==
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

==The Ballot==

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

==The Vote==

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.

=VoteCoin=
The Blockchain. Cliquetocurrency. An immutable ledger of bribes, favors, and votes codified into law through the daily proposals from the {{TooltipInline|Bribe Clique|They go by the Ledger Clique, but given how small they are, even calling them a "clique" is an exceptional stretch.}}. Any SolFed member can propose a bill outlining a transaction between that member and the unquantifiable concept of currency.

Buying into the currency typically takes the form of "Nation X offers the vessel and crew for 120 squadrons for [[Lore:SFAF#Troops|active SFAF patrol]], above and beyond their standing obligations or duties, and in doing so will gain Ten Votecoin." If this proposal {{TooltipInline|passes Vote in the Federal Council|The main reason it wouldn't is because the exchange rate proposed is awful, just absolute dogshit trolling.}}, then the army is raised, and Nation X can claim they have 10 additional Votecoin. Cashing out for various favors looks like "Nation X offers Nation Y five votecoin for this favor," which is immutably recorded in the ledger of successful bills once it is voted upon.

The main use of Votecoin, however, comes in modifying the voting threshold for other proposals, in the form of "Nation X redeems 50 votecoins, and as such Proposal {{TooltipInline|J7-335|"Petition To Make Vending Machine Injuries Deemed Not The Vendor's Fault." Passed, then later amended with "J7-212: UNLESS USED AS A PROJECTILE!!"}} will require only a 35% 'Yea' vote to pass." Of course, this proposal itself needs to pass a standard vote, meaning that both the exchange rate and specific allowances are still subject to common sense and public sway. The longest chain of using Votecoins to make passing Votecoins easier to make passing Votecoins easier came in 2450, allowing for the dissolution of the {{anchor|Nekomimetic}}{{Nekomimetic}} language to pass with a threshold of only {{TooltipInline|5% 'yea' needed|It passed with 5.6% of yea votes, formally dissolving the language. It wasn't clear at the time what dissolving an intangible concept of syllables and grammar would look like, but regardless, the language is no longer taught in schools.}}.

Votecoin hold value as a currency for the sheer fact that none feel powerful enough to doubt the Votecoin. The first Proposal involving a {{TooltipInline|"Votecoin"|All permutations of capitalization are tolerated, so "Votecoin" and "VoteCoin" and "votecoin" and "VOTECOIN" are all understood to mean the same thing.}} was {{TooltipInline|January 3rd, 2299|"SMU-71: Petition to Make Votecoin A Thing."}}, early in SolFed's span. The '''Ledger Clique''' formed half a century later (2350, during the second Migration), as new investors saw the potential for a longer-term Federal Assembly currency.

The '''Ledger Clique''' does two things:
* Consolidate proposals into a single proposal, so nations need not spend their single daily Proposal on bookkeeping. This, of course, gives the Ledger Clique finer control over exchange rates, giving a centraler authority to a currency whose central authority was already the central authority of the galaxy. Common sense rules could be applied, with the Ledger Clique managing dollars and sense, ensuring that each included transaction in the proposal would not be so radically wild that the entire proposal would get voted down.
* Keep track of Votecoin. By 2350, several jokesters had already attempted to exploit the system by redeeming votecoin they did not have, or "earning" votecoin for favors they did not perform, or conning folk into accepting {{TooltipInline|"vatecoin"|"Vapecoin" holds with diamond hands, however.}}, and so on. Trust in the Votecoin system, while already low, dropped even further until the Ledger Clique {{TooltipInline|Declared|Just regular "declared", but with a capital D for additional legitimacy.}} otherwise. The Ledger Clique now tracks the results of proposed contracts, adding an inconsequential "This Nation recognizes that the prior transaction between Nations X and Y from Proposal Z has been satisfied and the Votecoin transferred." to their conglomerated Proposals, which holds no legal precedent but makes everyone involved feel a little more legitimate.

In 2360, the Ledger Clique was publicly informed that the current implementation of "Votecoin" was not actually a cryptocurrency or a blockchain. To correct this:
* The Ledger Clique does keep a ledger. Each of their conglomerated proposals states the proposal number of the previous conglomeration, providing a theoretically unbroken chain of Votecoin proposals stemming back to {{TooltipInline|2352|This does mean that the first conglomeration had a LOT of prior proposals to write down. It was not their finest hour.}}.
* The Ledger Clique addresses Votecoin-related Proposals that, despite not going through them, somehow made it to vote and passed. If a nation wants to waste their daily Proposal on gaining Votecoin without involving the Ledger Clique, and all of SolFed fairly votes to accept that Proposal, the next conglomerate will remark that the Ledger Clique observes that this proposal Passed and that nation should be considered to have the Votecoin they were voted to have. Going outside the Trade Clique for this will, however, incur disfavor, leading to less favorable negotiations and potential stonewalling.
* Several members of the [[#Coven_of_the_Affliction|Monarchist Clique]] printed out paper copies of the Ledger Clique's ledger and sealed them in an elaborate mausoleum, later going back to inscribe them directly onto stone blocks. None of these copies hold any standing or significance, and it's not entirely understood why this was done. Still, there is technically a {{TooltipInline|crypt o' currency|You may boo. It helps with the spooky atmosphere.}} with VoteCoin.

'''The Ledger Clique''' is barely noteworthy as a clique, holding few actual votes of their own and few external ambitions. Commonly confused as a subclique of the [[Lore:Cliques#Trade Clique|Trade Clique]].</onlyinclude>

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T08:17:51Z

GreytideSkye: /* Production Clique */ whoops, you have to put the CD

Template:LoreFooter

2026-09-08T08:16:07Z

GreytideSkye: lote voring

''Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. '''Do not''' take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.''
{|width=100% border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| rowspan = 120 align = "center" | '''[[Nova_Sector_lore|Nova Sector]] Lore''' 
[[File:NovaSector13Logo.png|100px|link=Nova_Sector_lore]][[Category:Lore]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="commonspecies" |'''Common Species'''
| [[Lore:Humans|Humans]], [[Lore:Tiziran|Tiziran]], [[Lore:Unathi|Unathi]], [[Lore:Moths|Moths]], [[Lore:Ethereals|Ethereals]], [[Lore:Azula|Azulae]], [[Lore:Slimeperson|Slime Hybrids]], [[Lore:Teshari|Teshari]], [[Lore:Synths|Synthetic Humanoids]] (and assorted robots), [[Lore:Podperson|Pod Persons]], [[Lore:Hemophage|Hemophages]], [[Lore:Xenomorphic_Hybrid|Xenomorphic Hybrid]],
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="rarespecies" |'''Other Species'''
| [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodders]] ([[Lore:Felinids|Felinids]], [[Lore:Icewalkers|Ice Walkers]], [[Lore:Dwarf|Dwarf]]), [[Lore:Ashwalker|Ashwalkers]], [[Lore:Snails|Snailpersons]], [[Lore:Ordoht|Ordoht]] (Formerly Skrell), [[Lore:Plasmamen|Plasmamen]], [[Lore:Flyperson|Flypeople]], [[Lore:Vox|Vox (Primalis et al)]], [[Lore:Tajaran|Tajaran]], [[Lore:Vulpkanin|Vulpkanin]], [[Lore:Rogues|Rouges (Abductorkin)]], [[Lore:Kobold|Kobolds]], [[Lore:Exospecies|Miscellaneous Species]], [[Lore:Dullahan|Dullahans]], [[Lore:Golem|Employee Golems]], [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]], [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]], [[Lore:Protean|Proteans]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nanotrasen" |'''Nanotrasen'''
| '''[[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]]''', [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Central_Command|Central Command]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen#Emergency Response Corps|Emergency Response Corps]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="SolFed" |'''SolFed'''
| '''[[Lore:SolFed|SolFed]]''', [[Lore:Sol|Sol in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+540}}]], [[Lore:SFAF|The SolFed Armed Forces]] Notable Member States: [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]], [[Lore:Nanotrasen|Nanotrasen]] Government: [[Lore:Cliques|Voting Cliques]] ([[Lore:Plasma_Clique|Plasma Clique]]), [[Lore:Voting|Voting in SolFed]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="externals" |'''External Groups'''
|[[Lore:Heliostatic_Coalition|'''Heliostatic Coalition''']] ({{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HC_Compact|HC Compact]]|The HC Constitution, the document formally defining the HC.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:HCAF|HCAF]]|Heliostatic Coalition Armed Forces}} ([[Lore:HCAF_Ranks|''Ranks'']]), {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:CZD|CZD]]|Commonwealth of Zvirdnyn Dominions}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:KMIF|KMIF]]|Kemppainen-Morozov Industrial Fabrication}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:EPF|Expeditionary Police Force]]|HC's Cops}} ({{TooltipInline|[[HC_Inspectors|'''Inspectors''']]|The Expeditionary Force. They inspect more than stations.}} ([[HC Quick Reference|Quick Reference]], {{TooltipInline|[[HC_SOP|SOP]]|Standard Operating Procedure}}, {{TooltipInline|[[HC Lexicon|Lexicon]]|Lingo, chatter guide, manner of speaking.}}))), [[Lore:Interdyne|Interdyne Pharmaceutics]], [[Lore:Cargo|Cargo]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="syndicate" |'''Hostiles'''
| '''[[Lore:Syndicate|The Syndicate]]''' ([[Lore:Gorlex|Gorlex]], [[Lore:Tiger_Cooperative|Tiger Cooperative]], [[Lore:Syndicate#DS-2|DS-2]], [[Guide_to_your_Manifesto|Syndicate Manifestos]]), [[Lore:Void_Imperium|The Void Imperium]], [[Lore:Spider_Clan|The Spider Clan]]
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="nova" |'''Nova'''
| '''[[Lore:Nova_Sector|The Nova Sector]]''', {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Indecipheres|Indecipheres]]|Lavaland, volcanic mining place.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Freyja|Freyja]]|Icebox and Snowglobe station frozen moon.}}, {{TooltipInline|[[Lore:Boletus|Boletus]]|Serenity Mushroomoon.}}
|-
| style="background: #092336; color: white; text-align: center;" id="concepts" |'''Concepts'''
| [[Lore:Bluespace|Bluespace]], [[Lore:Plasma|Plasma]], [[Lore:Bluespace#FTL|Faster Than Light Travel]], [[Lore:Resonance|Resonance ("Souls")]], [[Lore:Death|Death]]
|}
<noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Lore:Voting

2026-09-08T08:09:12Z

GreytideSkye: /* How Voting Works */

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = Blank_paper_drink.gif|The "Blank Paper" drink, a much more apt picture for this nonsense than an actual stack of papers.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = PROCESS
|mainname = Voting in SolFed
|othernames = Doing the Dirty Democracy
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Cliques]], [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

<onlyinclude>
= How Voting Works =

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually, all the way up to the 10,000some nations {{TooltipInline|theoretically possible|Given there are well over 10,000 nations active in SolFed, this assembly hall is undesirable to perceive without specialized training.}}.

== Votes ==

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of [1, 10, 50, 100, 1,000, 50,000, 1m, 25m] voters. Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the [[#Unity Clique|Unity Clique]] toward '''One Nation One Vote''', larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to {{TooltipInline|track their specific vote|(they do not)}} which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

== Physical Ballots ==

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

= How To Vote =

A typical vote goes as such:

==The Proposal==
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

==The Ballot==

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

==The Vote==

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.

=VoteCoin=
The Blockchain. Cliquetocurrency. An immutable ledger of bribes, favors, and votes codified into law through the daily proposals from the {{TooltipInline|Bribe Clique|They go by the Ledger Clique, but given how small they are, even calling them a "clique" is an exceptional stretch.}}. Any SolFed member can propose a bill outlining a transaction between that member and the unquantifiable concept of currency.

Buying into the currency typically takes the form of "Nation X offers the vessel and crew for 120 squadrons for [[Lore:SFAF#Troops|active SFAF patrol]], above and beyond their standing obligations or duties, and in doing so will gain Ten Votecoin." If this proposal {{TooltipInline|passes Vote in the Federal Council|The main reason it wouldn't is because the exchange rate proposed is awful, just absolute dogshit trolling.}}, then the army is raised, and Nation X can claim they have 10 additional Votecoin. Cashing out for various favors looks like "Nation X offers Nation Y five votecoin for this favor," which is immutably recorded in the ledger of successful bills once it is voted upon.

The main use of Votecoin, however, comes in modifying the voting threshold for other proposals, in the form of "Nation X redeems 50 votecoins, and as such Proposal {{TooltipInline|J7-335|"Petition To Make Vending Machine Injuries Deemed Not The Vendor's Fault." Passed, then later amended with "J7-212: UNLESS USED AS A PROJECTILE!!"}} will require only a 35% 'Yea' vote to pass." Of course, this proposal itself needs to pass a standard vote, meaning that both the exchange rate and specific allowances are still subject to common sense and public sway. The longest chain of using Votecoins to make passing Votecoins easier to make passing Votecoins easier came in 2450, allowing for the dissolution of the {{anchor|Nekomimetic}}{{Nekomimetic}} language to pass with a threshold of only {{TooltipInline|5% 'yea' needed|It passed with 5.6% of yea votes, formally dissolving the language. It wasn't clear at the time what dissolving an intangible concept of syllables and grammar would look like, but regardless, the language is no longer taught in schools.}}.

Votecoin hold value as a currency for the sheer fact that none feel powerful enough to doubt the Votecoin. The first Proposal involving a {{TooltipInline|"Votecoin"|All permutations of capitalization are tolerated, so "Votecoin" and "VoteCoin" and "votecoin" and "VOTECOIN" are all understood to mean the same thing.}} was {{TooltipInline|January 3rd, 2299|"SMU-71: Petition to Make Votecoin A Thing."}}, early in SolFed's span. The Ledger Clique formed half a century later (2350, during the second Migration), as new investors saw the potential for a longer-term Federal Assembly currency.

The Ledger Clique does two things:
* Consolidate proposals into a single proposal, so nations need not spend their single daily Proposal on bookkeeping. This, of course, gives the Ledger Clique finer control over exchange rates, giving a centraler authority to a currency whose central authority was already the central authority of the galaxy. Common sense rules could be applied, with the Ledger Clique managing dollars and sense, ensuring that each included transaction in the proposal would not be so radically wild that the entire proposal would get voted down.
* Keep track of Votecoin. By 2350, several jokesters had already attempted to exploit the system by redeeming votecoin they did not have, or "earning" votecoin for favors they did not perform, or conning folk into accepting {{TooltipInline|"vatecoin"|"Vapecoin" holds with diamond hands, however.}}, and so on. Trust in the Votecoin system, while already low, dropped even further until the Ledger Clique {{TooltipInline|Declared|Just regular "declared", but with a capital D for additional legitimacy.}} otherwise. The Ledger Clique now tracks the results of proposed contracts, adding an inconsequential "This Nation recognizes that the prior transaction between Nations X and Y from Proposal Z has been satisfied and the Votecoin transferred." to their conglomerated Proposals, which holds no legal precedent but makes everyone involved feel a little more legitimate.

In 2360, the Ledger Clique was publicly informed that the current implementation of "Votecoin" was not actually a cryptocurrency or a blockchain. To correct this:
* The Ledger Clique does keep a ledger. Each of their conglomerated proposals states the proposal number of the previous conglomeration, providing a theoretically unbroken chain of Votecoin proposals stemming back to {{TooltipInline|2352|This does mean that the first conglomeration had a LOT of prior proposals to write down. It was not their finest hour.}}.
* The Ledger Clique addresses Votecoin-related Proposals that, despite not going through them, somehow made it to vote and passed. If a nation wants to waste their daily Proposal on gaining Votecoin without involving the Ledger Clique, and all of SolFed fairly votes to accept that Proposal, the next conglomerate will remark that the Ledger Clique observes that this proposal Passed and that nation should be considered to have the Votecoin they were voted to have. Going outside the Trade Clique for this will, however, incur disfavor, leading to less favorable negotiations and potential stonewalling.
* Several members of the [[#Coven_of_the_Affliction|Monarchist Clique]] printed out paper copies of the Ledger Clique's ledger and sealed them in an elaborate mausoleum, later going back to inscribe them directly onto stone blocks. None of these copies hold any standing or significance, and it's not entirely understood why this was done. Still, there is technically a {{TooltipInline|crypt o' currency|You may boo. It helps with the spooky atmosphere.}} with VoteCoin.

'''The Ledger Clique''' is barely noteworthy as a clique, holding few actual votes of their own and few external ambitions. Commonly confused as a subclique of the [[Lore:Cliques#Trade Clique|Trade Clique]].</onlyinclude>

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Voting

2026-09-08T08:07:24Z

GreytideSkye: /* Votes */ links and shinks

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = Blank_paper_drink.gif|The "Blank Paper" drink, a much more apt picture for this nonsense than an actual stack of papers.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = PROCESS
|mainname = Voting in SolFed
|othernames = Doing the Dirty Democracy
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Cliques]], [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

<onlyinclude>
= How Voting Works =

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

== Votes ==

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of [1, 10, 50, 100, 1,000, 50,000, 1m, 25m] voters. Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the [[#Unity Clique|Unity Clique]] toward '''One Nation One Vote''', larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to {{TooltipInline|track their specific vote|(they do not)}} which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

== Physical Ballots ==

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

= How To Vote =

A typical vote goes as such:

==The Proposal==
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

==The Ballot==

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

==The Vote==

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.

=VoteCoin=
The Blockchain. Cliquetocurrency. An immutable ledger of bribes, favors, and votes codified into law through the daily proposals from the {{TooltipInline|Bribe Clique|They go by the Ledger Clique, but given how small they are, even calling them a "clique" is an exceptional stretch.}}. Any SolFed member can propose a bill outlining a transaction between that member and the unquantifiable concept of currency.

Buying into the currency typically takes the form of "Nation X offers the vessel and crew for 120 squadrons for [[Lore:SFAF#Troops|active SFAF patrol]], above and beyond their standing obligations or duties, and in doing so will gain Ten Votecoin." If this proposal {{TooltipInline|passes Vote in the Federal Council|The main reason it wouldn't is because the exchange rate proposed is awful, just absolute dogshit trolling.}}, then the army is raised, and Nation X can claim they have 10 additional Votecoin. Cashing out for various favors looks like "Nation X offers Nation Y five votecoin for this favor," which is immutably recorded in the ledger of successful bills once it is voted upon.

The main use of Votecoin, however, comes in modifying the voting threshold for other proposals, in the form of "Nation X redeems 50 votecoins, and as such Proposal {{TooltipInline|J7-335|"Petition To Make Vending Machine Injuries Deemed Not The Vendor's Fault." Passed, then later amended with "J7-212: UNLESS USED AS A PROJECTILE!!"}} will require only a 35% 'Yea' vote to pass." Of course, this proposal itself needs to pass a standard vote, meaning that both the exchange rate and specific allowances are still subject to common sense and public sway. The longest chain of using Votecoins to make passing Votecoins easier to make passing Votecoins easier came in 2450, allowing for the dissolution of the {{anchor|Nekomimetic}}{{Nekomimetic}} language to pass with a threshold of only {{TooltipInline|5% 'yea' needed|It passed with 5.6% of yea votes, formally dissolving the language. It wasn't clear at the time what dissolving an intangible concept of syllables and grammar would look like, but regardless, the language is no longer taught in schools.}}.

Votecoin hold value as a currency for the sheer fact that none feel powerful enough to doubt the Votecoin. The first Proposal involving a {{TooltipInline|"Votecoin"|All permutations of capitalization are tolerated, so "Votecoin" and "VoteCoin" and "votecoin" and "VOTECOIN" are all understood to mean the same thing.}} was {{TooltipInline|January 3rd, 2299|"SMU-71: Petition to Make Votecoin A Thing."}}, early in SolFed's span. The Ledger Clique formed half a century later (2350, during the second Migration), as new investors saw the potential for a longer-term Federal Assembly currency.

The Ledger Clique does two things:
* Consolidate proposals into a single proposal, so nations need not spend their single daily Proposal on bookkeeping. This, of course, gives the Ledger Clique finer control over exchange rates, giving a centraler authority to a currency whose central authority was already the central authority of the galaxy. Common sense rules could be applied, with the Ledger Clique managing dollars and sense, ensuring that each included transaction in the proposal would not be so radically wild that the entire proposal would get voted down.
* Keep track of Votecoin. By 2350, several jokesters had already attempted to exploit the system by redeeming votecoin they did not have, or "earning" votecoin for favors they did not perform, or conning folk into accepting {{TooltipInline|"vatecoin"|"Vapecoin" holds with diamond hands, however.}}, and so on. Trust in the Votecoin system, while already low, dropped even further until the Ledger Clique {{TooltipInline|Declared|Just regular "declared", but with a capital D for additional legitimacy.}} otherwise. The Ledger Clique now tracks the results of proposed contracts, adding an inconsequential "This Nation recognizes that the prior transaction between Nations X and Y from Proposal Z has been satisfied and the Votecoin transferred." to their conglomerated Proposals, which holds no legal precedent but makes everyone involved feel a little more legitimate.

In 2360, the Ledger Clique was publicly informed that the current implementation of "Votecoin" was not actually a cryptocurrency or a blockchain. To correct this:
* The Ledger Clique does keep a ledger. Each of their conglomerated proposals states the proposal number of the previous conglomeration, providing a theoretically unbroken chain of Votecoin proposals stemming back to {{TooltipInline|2352|This does mean that the first conglomeration had a LOT of prior proposals to write down. It was not their finest hour.}}.
* The Ledger Clique addresses Votecoin-related Proposals that, despite not going through them, somehow made it to vote and passed. If a nation wants to waste their daily Proposal on gaining Votecoin without involving the Ledger Clique, and all of SolFed fairly votes to accept that Proposal, the next conglomerate will remark that the Ledger Clique observes that this proposal Passed and that nation should be considered to have the Votecoin they were voted to have. Going outside the Trade Clique for this will, however, incur disfavor, leading to less favorable negotiations and potential stonewalling.
* Several members of the [[#Coven_of_the_Affliction|Monarchist Clique]] printed out paper copies of the Ledger Clique's ledger and sealed them in an elaborate mausoleum, later going back to inscribe them directly onto stone blocks. None of these copies hold any standing or significance, and it's not entirely understood why this was done. Still, there is technically a {{TooltipInline|crypt o' currency|You may boo. It helps with the spooky atmosphere.}} with VoteCoin.

'''The Ledger Clique''' is barely noteworthy as a clique, holding few actual votes of their own and few external ambitions. Commonly confused as a subclique of the [[Lore:Cliques#Trade Clique|Trade Clique]].</onlyinclude>

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Plasma Clique

2026-09-08T07:38:32Z

GreytideSkye: maybe that'll make it look ok

Lore:Voting

2026-09-08T07:37:43Z

GreytideSkye: Drink your votes away

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = Blank_paper_drink.gif|The "Blank Paper" drink, a much more apt picture for this nonsense than an actual stack of papers.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = PROCESS
|mainname = Voting in SolFed
|othernames = Doing the Dirty Democracy
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Cliques]], [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

<onlyinclude>
= How Voting Works =

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

== Votes ==

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of 1 10 50 100 1,000 50,000 1m 25m Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the Unity Clique toward One Nation One Vote, larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to track their specific vote (they do not) which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

== Physical Ballots ==

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

= How To Vote =

A typical vote goes as such:

==The Proposal==
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

==The Ballot==

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

==The Vote==

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.

=VoteCoin=
The Blockchain. Cliquetocurrency. An immutable ledger of bribes, favors, and votes codified into law through the daily proposals from the {{TooltipInline|Bribe Clique|They go by the Ledger Clique, but given how small they are, even calling them a "clique" is an exceptional stretch.}}. Any SolFed member can propose a bill outlining a transaction between that member and the unquantifiable concept of currency.

Buying into the currency typically takes the form of "Nation X offers the vessel and crew for 120 squadrons for [[Lore:SFAF#Troops|active SFAF patrol]], above and beyond their standing obligations or duties, and in doing so will gain Ten Votecoin." If this proposal {{TooltipInline|passes Vote in the Federal Council|The main reason it wouldn't is because the exchange rate proposed is awful, just absolute dogshit trolling.}}, then the army is raised, and Nation X can claim they have 10 additional Votecoin. Cashing out for various favors looks like "Nation X offers Nation Y five votecoin for this favor," which is immutably recorded in the ledger of successful bills once it is voted upon.

The main use of Votecoin, however, comes in modifying the voting threshold for other proposals, in the form of "Nation X redeems 50 votecoins, and as such Proposal {{TooltipInline|J7-335|"Petition To Make Vending Machine Injuries Deemed Not The Vendor's Fault." Passed, then later amended with "J7-212: UNLESS USED AS A PROJECTILE!!"}} will require only a 35% 'Yea' vote to pass." Of course, this proposal itself needs to pass a standard vote, meaning that both the exchange rate and specific allowances are still subject to common sense and public sway. The longest chain of using Votecoins to make passing Votecoins easier to make passing Votecoins easier came in 2450, allowing for the dissolution of the {{anchor|Nekomimetic}}{{Nekomimetic}} language to pass with a threshold of only {{TooltipInline|5% 'yea' needed|It passed with 5.6% of yea votes, formally dissolving the language. It wasn't clear at the time what dissolving an intangible concept of syllables and grammar would look like, but regardless, the language is no longer taught in schools.}}.

Votecoin hold value as a currency for the sheer fact that none feel powerful enough to doubt the Votecoin. The first Proposal involving a {{TooltipInline|"Votecoin"|All permutations of capitalization are tolerated, so "Votecoin" and "VoteCoin" and "votecoin" and "VOTECOIN" are all understood to mean the same thing.}} was {{TooltipInline|January 3rd, 2299|"SMU-71: Petition to Make Votecoin A Thing."}}, early in SolFed's span. The Ledger Clique formed half a century later (2350, during the second Migration), as new investors saw the potential for a longer-term Federal Assembly currency.

The Ledger Clique does two things:
* Consolidate proposals into a single proposal, so nations need not spend their single daily Proposal on bookkeeping. This, of course, gives the Ledger Clique finer control over exchange rates, giving a centraler authority to a currency whose central authority was already the central authority of the galaxy. Common sense rules could be applied, with the Ledger Clique managing dollars and sense, ensuring that each included transaction in the proposal would not be so radically wild that the entire proposal would get voted down.
* Keep track of Votecoin. By 2350, several jokesters had already attempted to exploit the system by redeeming votecoin they did not have, or "earning" votecoin for favors they did not perform, or conning folk into accepting {{TooltipInline|"vatecoin"|"Vapecoin" holds with diamond hands, however.}}, and so on. Trust in the Votecoin system, while already low, dropped even further until the Ledger Clique {{TooltipInline|Declared|Just regular "declared", but with a capital D for additional legitimacy.}} otherwise. The Ledger Clique now tracks the results of proposed contracts, adding an inconsequential "This Nation recognizes that the prior transaction between Nations X and Y from Proposal Z has been satisfied and the Votecoin transferred." to their conglomerated Proposals, which holds no legal precedent but makes everyone involved feel a little more legitimate.

In 2360, the Ledger Clique was publicly informed that the current implementation of "Votecoin" was not actually a cryptocurrency or a blockchain. To correct this:
* The Ledger Clique does keep a ledger. Each of their conglomerated proposals states the proposal number of the previous conglomeration, providing a theoretically unbroken chain of Votecoin proposals stemming back to {{TooltipInline|2352|This does mean that the first conglomeration had a LOT of prior proposals to write down. It was not their finest hour.}}.
* The Ledger Clique addresses Votecoin-related Proposals that, despite not going through them, somehow made it to vote and passed. If a nation wants to waste their daily Proposal on gaining Votecoin without involving the Ledger Clique, and all of SolFed fairly votes to accept that Proposal, the next conglomerate will remark that the Ledger Clique observes that this proposal Passed and that nation should be considered to have the Votecoin they were voted to have. Going outside the Trade Clique for this will, however, incur disfavor, leading to less favorable negotiations and potential stonewalling.
* Several members of the [[#Coven_of_the_Affliction|Monarchist Clique]] printed out paper copies of the Ledger Clique's ledger and sealed them in an elaborate mausoleum, later going back to inscribe them directly onto stone blocks. None of these copies hold any standing or significance, and it's not entirely understood why this was done. Still, there is technically a {{TooltipInline|crypt o' currency|You may boo. It helps with the spooky atmosphere.}} with VoteCoin.

'''The Ledger Clique''' is barely noteworthy as a clique, holding few actual votes of their own and few external ambitions. Commonly confused as a subclique of the [[Lore:Cliques#Trade Clique|Trade Clique]].</onlyinclude>

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:SolFed

2026-09-08T07:36:03Z

GreytideSkye: /* Non-Federal Rulings */ clique bait

Lore:SolFed

2026-09-08T07:33:29Z

GreytideSkye: /* Cliques */ clique bait 2

Lore:SolFed

2026-09-08T07:33:09Z

GreytideSkye: Clique bait

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:31:20Z

GreytideSkye: /* Colored Chart Of Favoritism */

User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques/Chart

2026-09-08T07:30:34Z

GreytideSkye: GreytideSkye moved page User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques/Chart to Lore:Cliques/Chart

#REDIRECT [[Lore:Cliques/Chart]]

Lore:Cliques/Chart

2026-09-08T07:30:34Z

GreytideSkye: GreytideSkye moved page User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques/Chart to Lore:Cliques/Chart

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{TooltipInline|Inter-Clique Relations (0-100)|Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels about the vertical clique. The feelings are rarely mutual.}}

|-bgcolor="lightgrey" style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: right"
|bgcolor="white"| || [[#Center Clique|Center]] || [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] || [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] || [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] || [[#Production Clique|Production]] || [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] || [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] || [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]]
|-
| bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Center Clique|Center]] {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These Unity clowns are risking SolFed lives in pointless conflict, and more importantly, SolFed resources!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|These are the little guys. They're a drain of resources, producing little for SolFed. And if they ever grow up? Rivals!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|We want all the control, they want to make free trade, that's us giving up control. Still, it's nice they're getting us stuff.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're against the Trade Clique? They encourage us to make our own things, thus holding power over our own things? Sure, but do they also have to encourage our rivals to do the same? It's harder to crush someone under your boot when they're self-sufficient. All the same, we're gonna keep making normal stuff too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|We're all for kick-ass technology, but they have this thing called "ethics" and we keep "breaking it"?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|Moralistic assholes. The more Plasma we have, the stronger we can be, and they're trying to cut us off? Limiting us to only "what we need?" Fuck these naive shitheads but we will take their Plasma anyways.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|These are nice strawmen to show that we could be worse. We have Democracy on our side, compared to these rigid, power-hungry bastards. We mostly do the same things, ethicswise, except we have enough leaders moving around that there's no individual to blame for how shitty we are. Monarchs, you love to hate 'em.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] {{CliqueChartEntry|0|These cowards pulled us out of a war we were about to win! Our comrades' lives were thrown away for these pencil-pushing bureaucrat assholes to piss on. We wouldn't cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Sweet, innocent Frontiersmen. We were once like you, before the anvil of war galvanized us into necessarily-focused ruthlessness. We do what we must so that Frontiersfolk like these never have to know hardship. Forgive us for what we must do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|A useful pawn sometimes. A foreign power who's dependent on SolFed shipping routes is a power powerless to harm us. At the same time, a foreign power who uses SolFed shipping routes to grow stronger is a foreign power who's able to resist joining SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|They don't get in our way, and it's nice when SolFed gets stronger.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Conquest needs innovation, but they've stonewalled us a few times for "immorality" and "not respecting the sovereign rights of other states?" That's what we do, we bring folk into SolFed through peace or in pieces. The ends justify the means, so give us that fucking laser already!!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|The perpetual war effort is costly, and the Plasma Clique often deems our efforts "excessive," thus charging us a strong premium for the plasma necessary to keep SolFed safe and secure.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|They get in our way about as much as they help us. Sometimes we can pitch conquest as a honorable glory and draw them into our fights, but like, these folk don't entirely buy into the idea of SolFed to begin with so like, once the entire galaxy is under SolFed, we might turn our sights on these folk?}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] {{CliqueChartEntry|20|They're the coreworlds and don't give a rat's ass about the little guys in the fringe. A lot of their policies, which they have the power to enforce, make it harder for Frontiersmen.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|They're fighting for us, but they're also putting us in the line of fire. Some of us are on good terms with our foreign neighbors and don't want the boat rocked.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Rather dependent on their whims; a Frontier colony lives and dies by the cargo shuttles coming its way. They don't always act in our interest, but what can we do?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|To be important enough to SolFed to defend, a Frontier colony needs a hook, a gimmick, something unique. The Production Clique is all about helping nations specialize into something unique.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|The social contract between folk is thinner in the Frontier, where you do what you gotta do to survive. The Progress clique takes advantage of that, doing social experiments and prototype tech out where there's less cultural baggage to deal with. Given their choice of ethics, though, this rarely turns out poorly for the frontier nation, and whatever downsides are usually worth the ongoing support. But there's also a lot of Synthetic Life in the Frontier, which can get awkward to address.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|85|They give us cheap plasma so we can thrive, and their ethical mandates aren't too awful. But if anyone has us by the balls, it's the Plasma Clique. Plasma's like the only reliable power source when you're far enough from a star, so colonies in deep space are effectively Plasma Clique vassals begging for their charity. Luckily, they're known for charity.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|45|They don't particularly care about small fries like us. Sometimes a Monarch will decide they want to "adopt" an impoverished frontier nation, either taking it as a pet project for a few years, or building a vacation home to abandon. Either way, their attention is disruptive, unwanted, and unpredictable, but rarely harmful.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Bunch of consumers. Good buyers, but it's always a fight for control over shipping rights, etc. Not ideal customers but they're a good chunk of SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|[[wikipedia:Rules_of_Acquisition|Rule of Acquisition]] [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition 34]: War is good for business.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They're a captive market, sure, but they're also not the richest customers. There's a lot of space to cover with them, and not a lot of profit to be made.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These communists are actively trying to discourage dependence on trade!! But at the same time, they're encouraging the development of unique products, which elitists will pay a fortune to source.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Any advancement is a product waiting to be sold, but the prejudice against AIs is... shutting out valid paying customers.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They don't mess with us as much as they could. Yeah, it'd be nice to put Plasma, the greatest commodity ever, on the free market, but letting them have the one market means they don't interfere with the rest of galactic trade. Besides, they use our shipping lanes and they sell to us too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|These guys are always buying something weird. The advantage of having a single head of state is that there's only one person to con into a big sale. On the other hand, they're notoriously unstable, changing heads every 50 years or so, and whims much more often than that, so securing a reliable trade relationship is a rare thing indeed.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Production Clique|Production]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|They're willing to invest a little in making unique products, but afraid to take risks and rely on others, so they're never going to really understand. They'll co-opt our ideals and steal the best products from our folk.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|A war effort needs a lot of gun factories. Still, as soon as the conflict ends, there's a lot of gun factories with no one to sell to.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|Frontier colonies love the idea of self-sufficiency and are willing to specialize if it gets our aid. They've got to take risks to survive, and focusing on a single product is a huge risk. We're providing them more aid than they're giving back, but it's worth it for our ideals.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|25|They want a dependent worker-class who can't survive without their oversight, their routes. And god damn it, they've won. As much as we can fight to have folk self-sufficient, if they're going to prosper on a galactic scale, they need to sell to someone... and the Trade Clique's the only someone out there big enough. They're assholes, metaphorical slavers, the devil to deal with, but damn if they're not too big to ignore.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Every new innovation could be the next big product that can drive an entire planet to greatness. It takes a scientist to make a new product, but it takes the Production Clique to turn that into a new industry.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|They're an instrument for power production. Relying on the charity of a pious plasma prick isn't exactly "self-sufficient," but it's usually easier than building your own power grid - which they will help with anyways for some reason??}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Monarchs love it when they have a claim to fame. They're practically champing at the bit for a niche industry to monopolize, and are quick to invest great deals of cash into things they don't understand.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|"Technological progress at the expense of everything but morals." The Center Clique enjoys the data showing how they can retain power, but they value power over progress. They'll regulate threats to them holding power, and if the data shows that they're not the best power-holders for the situation, you can expect a smashed laptop and a death mark, not progress. Still, it's a good look for them to at least pretend to like you, even if you do have this thing called "ethics" that they keep breaking.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Their heart's in the right place: peace is good. The data shows that the leading cause of war is having two nations, so the math technically supports going to war to fix that, and it strongly supports going to peace to make two nations into one.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Folk who are willing to take risks and support technology, but also folk who are really sentimental about their homelands and aren't willing to take risks. It's entirely a grab bag and it averages out to "indifferent."}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|The Free Market is inherently a rational, mathematical science. Economics is science. The Progress Clique should be their biggest glazers, but it's also economical to be unethical.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|It's nice to have an idea and be able to watch someone make it into a reality. It's less nice to watch them butcher your intentions for cost-cutting or sentimental reasons.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They abhor excess. Science is about trying things that aren't always viable. They get pissed when we "throw away" good plasma at learning something new. They always want to judge the quality of our intentions, always fighting against our proposals, always denying us enough plasma to see this next experiment through... It's an uphill battle, but at the end of the day we do need their Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|It hurts to lie, but a good statistician can make any graph say anything. If a graph has more than 4 colors and 5 lines on it, the bozo King'll almost always throw enough funding and manpower at us to make it a reality. Still, these kings rule extremely inefficiently and it's downright painful manipulating them into doing the right thing sometimes.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] {{CliqueChartEntry|60|They're the biggest customers, but also the most likely to breach our ethical demands. When they listen to us, everyone listens to us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Conflict is a great way to burn through a lot of Plasma, but the neighbors they fight already aren't listening to our decrees and regulations, so honestly the Unity's goals are the fastest way to get these neighbors to listen. Even if a lot of plasma is wasted in warfare, our message follows them into battle.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Whiny little shits. Never agree with our assessment of what a "necessary" amount of Plasma is. But there's only so much resistance you can put up when you're this isolated from SolFed. They grumble, but they kneel all the same.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They earn their standing through encouraging excess and lavish lifestyles, but they do respect our monopoly on Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Self-sufficiency is good, but these folk never stop and settle down. THE FACTORY MUST GROW means demands always grow. Always more power needed. If they can harness renewable powers like nuclear or solar, great! But they never do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Incredible innovators! Every single new transistor they invent is a great power savings for the entire galaxy, which means the galaxy needs less plasma. Every so often, we fight over the direction their research goes, how they're wasting good energy on useless prospects, but there's not really anyone else in the galaxy who truly understands the ethics of great power and great responsibility.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|These Monarchs are prone to waste and are the very definition of excessive lifestyle, but their peasants are perfectly fine and certainly deserve the charity we fight to bring them. Besides, no King is large enough to disobey us outright without starving their people into an uprising.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]] {{CliqueChartEntry|70|We could be worse, we could be these guys. It's nice to have someone to point at and claim democracy doesn't work, so we can keep our Divine Mandate or whatever. They don't bother us much, and there's always a few "elected" officials who want to party with us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're out there squashing threats to our power? For free? And if we help their efforts out, sometimes we get some free vassal states? Their ideas don't make sense but working with them does.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Mostly beneath us, but it feels so Noble and Kind to go out and uplift some of these poor, pathetic, defenseless dirt-farmers, so we can show the galaxy how Benevolent and Deserving Of Power we are.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|We pay for things, they bring us things. With so much deception and treachery, it's refreshing to have a straightforward relationship with someone.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|We're prepared to offer you 500,000 credits and an entire moon for 80% of your business. And - snerk - a ''royalty deal'', 50cr for every product sold.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Sometimes you just need a Trusted Advisor to tell you you're doing a good job.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|Enough with the preaching and get back to the tithing! Hand your Plasma over.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}
Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels {{TooltipInline|about the other clique|So Center feels 20 about Unity, but Unity feels 0 about Center.}}. The feelings are rarely mutual.

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:29:36Z

GreytideSkye: dunno why it did that with links

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:28:37Z

GreytideSkye: GreytideSkye moved page User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques to Lore:Cliques without leaving a redirect

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:26:46Z

GreytideSkye: /* Plasma Clique */ I cast summary, in attack mode!

Lore:Plasma Clique

2026-09-08T07:24:35Z

GreytideSkye: Created page with "{{LorePageHeader |colour = 1070AF |hcolour = white |bcolour = 1070AF |bhcolour = #1070AF |ebcolour = 1070AF |img = Plasma_loop_wiki_fish.png |imgsize = 100px |loretype = FACTIONS |mainname = The Plasma Clique |othernames = The Union of Plasma Distribution, The Holy Mandate of Plasma Regulation, The Volatile Monopoly |relatedpage..."

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:21:41Z

GreytideSkye: /* Center Clique */

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTIONS
|mainname = The Cliques of Sol Federation
|othernames = Voting Blocs
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages =
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design. They've been going at this for years and not a single idea here flops.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}, {{Contributor/Belwoods|[[#Galactical_Corporation_Regulation|The GCR]] is their brainchild.}}, {{Contributor/goldenfreddycl|Several of the [[#Notable_Kingdoms|Monarchist factions]].}}, {{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like. I also threw a lot of ideas into solidifying the Plasma Clique and the Trade Clique.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Cliques =
The Sol Federation consists of tens of thousands of individual member nations, with tens of thousands of individual votes happening yearly. It is both impossible for an individual member to keep track of all the possible proposals that might affect them, and for any particular proposal's interested parties to pander to each SolFed member with a vote. Thus, cliques.

Cliques are, on paper, simply a collection of individuals with narrow special interests, who track and make relevant proposals to the SolFed Council, and inform their interested members of relevant concerns. In practice, Cliques are loosely political parties, representing their people's fixation on a specific interest and commanding their votes where irrelevant. To have a significant voice in the Council, you need a significant amount of leverage: votes.

Formally, Cliques hold no presence on the SolFed L3 Federal Assembly station. They are issued no chamber, no allotted headcount for staff, no voice or power to call votes. In practice, member nations offer their own Council resources to further the clique; replacing their nation's secretary with a Clique Steward, filling half their chamber with Clique business, calling votes on the Clique's behalf... Hell, several nations are courted into cliques on the ''sole'' basis that their office is adjacent to other members, so them giving consent to deconstruct the walls between them means the clique has a better office.

If you ask your automated Navigator the way to the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Plasma Clique|Plasma Clique]]'s office, it will point you nowhere, but if you ask aloud, you'll get directed to obvious wall signs conveniently embedded in a nearby nation's Extended Livery. Bet you didn't know that the proud Blue and Gold flag of the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Cheren Path|Cheren Path]] is only the abridged Naval Flag, and their full flag also has a big purple arrow to the right labeled ''"Trade C. Office 6 aisles clockwise 2 hallways coreward -->''".

== Why are Cliques needed? ==

[[Lore:Voting|Voting in the Federal Assembly]] is a byzantine, impossible process. With each of SolFed's 10,000+ nations each calling a vote each day, nations can neither keep track of all the issues nor curry favor on issues important to them. Thus, cliques are a practical necessity to keep democracy flowing.

Visit the [[Lore:Voting|Voting in the Federal Assembly]] page to learn more!

There's vote selling, there's bribery, there's cryptocurrency. It's a wonderfully awful read!

{{:Lore:Voting}}

= The Cliques =

The following 8 are the main Cliques of SolFed, covering a good 95% of political power in the Federal Assembly. Smaller cliques do exist, but given that a Clique is a group of nations with enough voting power to influence SolFed itself, do smaller cliques ''actually'' exist?

= Center Clique =

Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

When folk from other codebases think of SolFed, this is what they think of: An imperialist, expansionist democracy, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations, and while they posture as a Federation, the Center Clique pushes for the central government to have a lot of control and micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest cliques in SolFed, population-wise, and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol.

Strongly epitomized by the [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]].

Independently, each major player in the Center Clique is their own brand of disgusting, and together they're reprehensible. A mixture of the worst of a Landlord Coalition and a Homeowner's Association.

The baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate, pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against

= Unity Clique =

All cultures are to become part of the Sol Federation. SolFed might not be the best system, SolFed might not be the wisest government, but it is unified and within SolFed, there are no wars. Neighbors are just those who have not had their price for peace met; whether that price is consideration or blood, only time will tell.

Out of the ashes of the Sagittarius-Tiziran War rose those who would will that to be the end of war, the final conclusion. After losing millions of SolFed lives, just at the cusp of total victory, the distant, unaffected coreworlds surrendered their advantage and forced a shitty semblance of peace. The Unity Clique sees this as abandoning those who fought bravely to defend SolFed, as cowardice getting in the way of progress. The bureaucrats downright betrayed the Federation, letting our scaly enemies regroup and redouble their position, and it is with this fiery hatred that the Unity Clique fights for everlasting peace.

The Unity Clique is SolFed's main expansionist drive, seeking to make all into SolFed, so that none need declare war for politicks or land. The sheer ideological threat of the Tiziran Menace bearing down upon the fringes of SolFed, and the absolute horrors of the resulting war, steeled the heart of the Sagittarian peoples into those who would see war at that scale finished.

They do want to centralize SolFed, but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. This means limiting the power of massive voting blocs, but also lessening the protections afforded to micronations.

They're also responsible for SolFed having a [[Lore:SFAF|standing military]], as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to. Having seen what happened when SolFed was reluctant to raise arms to defend its own, the Unity Clique vowed to never let complacency or bureaucracy interfere with safety again.

Where the votes are irrelevant, they hold strong to their past loyalties. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever, as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support, so they'll help them out if needed.

Far from traditional xenophobes, ''their hatred lies with alien governments, not the aliens themselves.'' In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict. The Sagittarians were in it to remove a distinct and dangerous threat on their front doorstep - get the lizards off the board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore. '''Peace through unity or peace through eradication.'''

The standards for a new nation joining SolFed are lax, almost ''exclusively'' because of Unity meddling, to the point where '''joining SolFed can be taken for granted.''' The vast majority of nations give no darn either way, and will either Abstain from vote or sell their vote cheaply. Only the peoples {{TooltipInline|Display Text=basically adjacent|Tooltip=Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.}} to the impending member have any reason to have an opinion. Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons. Noes would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above. With the vast majority of SolFed apathetic to these votes, the Unity Clique needs to exert only a minimum of influence to ensure the new member is accepted.

A {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good number of people|Tooltip=At least seven.}} fear that the Unity Clique might outright defect to the [[Lore:Heliostatic Coalition|Heliostatic Coalition]], as the clique claims to be loyal to peace, not specifically to the Sol Federation. They fear that, in turn, they would force the rest of the Sol Federation to kneel to the HC, assuming the HC's system of governance to be {{TooltipInline|Display Text="better."|Tooltip=Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah? Doing dick moves because you're jealous of your neighbor's righteousness??}} This distrust caused several major incidents during the [[Lore:Void Imperium|Void War]], with strategic High Command refusing to deploy Unity-affiliated regiments to reinforce Heliostatic allies, resulting in unnecessary losses.

= Frontier Clique =

Of the thousands of nations in SolFed, a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good 40%|Tooltip=And an evil 67%.}} are within {{TooltipInline|Display Text=███|Tooltip="Never give the readers concrete numbers. They will pick apart your setting and sue you." - Bureau of Astrography, Rule Seven.}} light years from Sol Federation's declared borders. These are the smaller members who can't turn their back to external politics, to SolFed's relations with neighbors, to the looming threats of galactic wars and the realities of living closer to a potential enemy than to a SFAF patrol.

The Frontier Clique is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti-corporate, and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have. The realities of living near the Void Imperium are vastly different from living near the Heliostatic Coalition, and '''extremely''' different from living in [[Lore:Tajaran#Final Warning|the Sphere of Eternal Tajaran Invasion.]]

One would expect the Nova Sector to be involved with the Frontier Clique, but Nanotrasen's holdings are more coreward and NT's position of power is mostly disconnected from their frontier holdings.

= Trade Clique =

Trade requires two things: an imbalance of supply and demand, and the freedom to ride that gradient to profit.

Basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

The Trade Clique operates as a self-policing union of sorts, ensuring quality standards and sanctioned trade through force. For producers, this means they'll only stock Trade Clique Certified Plus products.

This does not mean they exclusively serve Big Business. There is a large market for smaller, independent shops - Mom and Pop stores, independent artists, sculpturades, etc. - and the Trade Clique has fingers in those pots too. The Trade Clique carefully ensures there's a healthy - but not overwhelming - number of smaller stores to choose from, both by providing generous loans in underrepresented areas and by forcibly closing competitors well before oversaturation is reached. Market forces act fast, but the Trade Clique acts faster.

What they don't do are monopolies. A monopoly is lazy, and a captive market is one clawing to escape. The Trade Clique holds the monopoly on monopolies through a strict regiment of self-policing, breaking up slothful monopolies as they arise, and ensuring that consumers always have a choice... of another Trade Clique-serving vendor.

As much as corporations would enjoy holding a monopoly, the pragmatic (read: surviving) corporations understand the realities of the Trade Clique:. A company, left undirected, ''will'' monopolize within the boundaries of its environment, and this is bad for trade. Without oversight, total Corporate war between nations would destroy entire corporations, price gouging and direct competition would pit giants against each other with only the customer benefitting. Corporate War would bleed into real war, the SolFed Marshals would be compelled to intervene, and in the aftermath, their market share would be wide open for unrelated corporations to poach. By relinquishing a little liberty to the Trade Clique, corporations gain everlasting security.

=== Galactical Corporation Regulation ===
'''The Regulators'''

{{Speech|name=Henry Beaumont, Securocratic Regulator|image=[[File:HenryBeaumont.png|64px]]|text=''"Space is a no-mans land, after all, why capitalize it?"''}}

Known for Peacekeeping, internal investigations, and imposing sanctions.

==== On paper, ====
The GCR is an organization formed to perform peacekeeping duties on any sides of the space and to ensure that there are no corporate wars. The GCR is noted due to it's recent arrival to Nova after receiving massive funding from multiple governments after their recent actions taken against their Syndicate partners, by stating that they'll instigate sanctions and "special operations" to make their presence known.

In the year of 2540, Henry Beaumont, a former Captain for the SolFed army, after multiple tours and estimations that the current situation between corporations is worsening with no sign of stopping at any time, forms the GCR as a semi-mercenary group tasked with intercepting any and all illegal activities within space, as a way to do sanctions. Originally, they were treated as a bunch of space pirates who are trying to act all official, but after a recent bust on Interdyne, NanoTrasen and SolFed have noted their activity and recognized them as an organization, more than just space pirates.

The GCR is not a formal SolFed bureau or other organization, just an independent band of vigilantes ensuring SolFed's standards are kept.

==== In practice, ====
Henry Beaumont does not take orders from the Trade Clique... but he takes directions.

The GCR serves as the self-enforcement arm of the Trade Clique, ensuring that all the arbitrary safety standards are met, to the Trade Clique's liking. Well, to the liking of the SolFed official in their pocket.

The GCR monitors food safety, employee satisfaction, and numerous extra-legal metrics to ensure compliance "for the greater good." The GCR will ensure your corporate presence is in SolFed's best interest, and in her peoples' best interest, and it's mere coincidence that the Trade Clique's biggest supporters have never received so much as a stern glare from Henry and his Regulators.

Sometimes {{TooltipInline|Display Text=terrorism is done|Tooltip="A GCR-adjacent actor was involved in a terror-adjacent incident affiliated with investigation-aligned mortality-afflicting circumstances."}}, in the name of '''"Internal Affairs."''' This might be a simple test of defenses, ensuring the victim is able to keep their people safe from a madman with Syndicate gear, or it might be under the table punishment for other breaches.

=== The Slipstream Clique ===
A subclique of the Trade Clique, the Slipstream Clique seeks control over the logistics of trade routes themselves.

* Establishes rest stops along FTL hyperlanes, controlling the authorized distributors of fuel and snacks along popular lanes.
* Chartering megaferries, massive bluespace engines capable of spooling a massive ballistic drive to carry shorter-range craft along precharted routes.
* Bulling the few folk in the Bureau of Astrography who won't take bribes. There's controlling the de facto superhighways, and then there's controlling the actual FTL highways, and the Slipstream Clique is significant enough to do both.
* Espionage against the Sol Fed Marshals, twisting their patrol routes to reflect the strategic interests of the Slipsteam Clique more than the defensive needs of the Sol Federation herself. By all means, the patrols still catch Syndicate bastards, and still theoretically protect every citizen on every world, but like through corporate capture, some pathways are just significantly more safe than others.
** Which, if you do the math, still makes sense that the Marshals would want to patrol the most popular lanes to keep them safe. So it's not actually all that much espionage? Every few years, someone in the Slipstream Clique asks "why are we bribing the Marshals so much", cut that program, then find the fuck out.

=== Free Trade Union ===
Just another Corporation. Not galacticly notable, one of a hundred cargo companies in SolFed. One of the larger ones, sure, and to get that large they had to kiss a lot of Trade Clique ass, but they're not particularly in charge of the Clique or anything.

Relevant to the Nova Sector as the primary Trade Clique-endorsed Logistics Solution in the region. Other sectors, with their own Cargo solutions, have similar operations.

= Production Clique =

The antithesis of the Trade Clique, the Production Clique champions self-sufficiency, to the point trade is irrelevant. They abhor exclusivity agreements, including copyrights, and would see everyone have an autolathe and a dream to fulfill.

Members in the Production Clique specialize in a few products each, building their corporations "Tall," not "Wide." It's not uncommon to find entire worlds encrusted in factory, churning the workforce to a single marketable product. Typically, mass-produced guns. The Production Clique finds that quality comes from practice, not competition, so encourages the risky practices of single-basketting eggs. The Clique will, in turn, coordinate exchanges and equal trade within the Clique first, ensuring that all needs are met so that high-quality products can be made.

Unsurprisingly Syndicate-sympathetic at times.

Significant overlap with the Progress Clique, potentially 100%. (I'm still reading the Ancient Texts)

= Progress Clique =
Technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. Highly anti-slavery, though no nation is particularly pro-slaver to begin with. Pushes for technocratic governance, ruling by data and hard science rather than personality.

Cybersun in particular has had numerous products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Repealed Federal regulations on [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodding]], letting regulations fall on national levels.

Possibly the biggest [[Lore:Vox|Vox]] haters in the galaxy, besides all the folk directly wronged by Vox. Morals are something that should be readily apparent, not a research topic to be explored and tampered with.

Possibly the biggest haters of [[Lore:Synths|synthetic life]], too. Creating an AI is birthing a being into slavery, even if you expand its cage further than it can reach. Personality transfers, too, are seen as dangerous or immoral, depending on which specific Clique member is lecturing. They especially hate the notion of transforming the rich into immortal elites, further dividing classes across death.

= Plasma Clique =

Thou shalt not harvest Plasma in the dark, thou shalt only brave extraction in our light.

The only thing more dangerous than a monopoly is one that can't be controlled by profit.

The Plasma Clique exists to control the production and distribution of Plasma. The Plasma Clique does not exist to control SolFed, render ungodly profit, to conquer or liberate.

They are a collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These go to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.

The Plasma Clique own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed, including several Anomalous Zones.

As a state-owned monopoly, the Plasma Clique doesn't answer to CEOs or a voter base. They own everything top to bottom, so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level. The profits belong to the people, and unlike the egregore of the CEO grindset, the people of the Plasma Clique aren't demanding Infinite Growth At All Costs. social services they enjoy are maintained, ''which they easily are,'' they're happy. And this ''scares people'', anyone on a Board of Directors who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth. Capitalism is fought through voluntary complacency, and here the Plasma Clique are the soldiers of God.

== Why? ==

The purpose of a system is what it does: The Plasma Clique maintains a monopoly on plasma in order to maintain their monopoly on Plasma. Likewise, the purpose of the answer to "Why?" is not to convey objective truth, but to convince the listener that the Plasma Clique should remain in control of the Plasma trade. Depending on who asks, the answer will be different, tailored to the asker's sensibilities.

None of these are false, but none capture the full scope of the Plasma Clique's motives:

* '''To fight monopolies''': SolFed has been wrecked with the Trade Clique's enforcement of byzantine copyrights. Folk have had their identities stripped from them because some pharmaceutical company trademarked a strand of genes that happens to be in their blood. The Plasma Clique sees the danger that a malevolent monopoly could pose, but also sees that there will always be a throne of Plasma to sit upon, so it takes the throne so that no one worse could.

* '''To regulate the dangers''': With something as flammable and dangerous as Plasma, letting it go unregulated and freely sold also poses dangers. Plasma, to the Clique, needs accounting and regulation and safety, all things the Clique provides and the free market would not. Someone must be in charge of Plasma, and so it shall be the Clique.

* '''To retain power''': The Plasma Clique holds power over Plasma. To retain that power, it needs to use that power. The Plasma Clique needs to exert political influence to choke out independent plasma dealers, lest they rise up and become unhealthy, unsafe competition.

* '''Plasma is limited''': Theoretically, there's a finite amount of Plasma in the universe. Pedantically, there's a finite number of atoms in the universe, so it's a little hypocritical to only obsess over Plasma. Regardless, shortages happen, logistics and transport need to happen, and for many folk Plasma is their sole source of power, so letting the free market give Plasma to the "highest bidder" is frankly immoral.

* '''[[Lore:Bluespace#Sources|Plasma is ''unlimited'']]''': Where Bluespace and Realspace clash and the veil between the two is torn open, the damages congeal into Bluespace crystals, metaphysical scabs. By that metric, where the veil does not tear, it bruises, and those bruises manifest as Plasma. Through wide-scale abuse of the fabric of reality, Plasma could theoretically be farmed infinitely, whalloping the metaphysical to feast off her tears. The Plasma Clique stands not as a guardian of Plasma, but the noble knighthood defending reality herself.

* '''To help people''': The Plasma Clique is notoriously charitous. Customers are not extorted beyond their means, and excess is taxed heavily. The '''Three-State-Aid Program''', sponsored by the Clique, ensures that generators and plasma are widely available to small ventures and needy settlements, asking nothing but an attempt to transition to renewable energy.
** '''Empower everyone''': The Plasma Clique owns the copyrights on modern '''Modular Solar Panel arrays''', especially their upgradable glass compatibility layer, and in their charity offers the designs '''freely''', with only reprimands that the printer breaks no SolFed law nor does no Evil with them.

* '''Keep it out of Evil's hands''': The Plasma Clique does try to enforce its morals upon those dependent on them. The Plasma Clique unilaterally supports democracy; they'll ''deliver to'' monarchists, charging premiums that the upper class can afford to afford, and while it would be Illegal and Immoral to declare war against a fellow SolFed Member State, incidental democratic coups against these states suspiciously never have to worry about keeping their lights on.

* '''Ensure basic morality''': Besides Democracy, the Plasma Clique pushes to help your fellow man, to abhor excess and to treat thy neighbor as your own. They won't shun you for owning a suburban house and living within your means, but that vacation home isn't a timeshare? It just sits idle for most of the year? Good luck powering that with their disapproval. The Plasma Clique is a collection of nations, so specific moral judgements might vary a little, but they keep each other in check just as much as they keep their dependent customers (most of the galaxy) in line.

* '''[[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|Be smug sons of bitches about the whole fucking thing]]''': Yeah, they'll give you food for free, as long as you attend a lecture about how their morals are just, how their championing plasma is for the Greater Good, how all these charity programs that you're totally eligible for are the correct way to run a society, how you should be a part of that society. Y'wanna learn slurs for corporations? They've got whole songbooks they'll print out for you. They'll feed and clothe the homeless, but y'know what they won't do? Make more homes. (Note: they ''will'' make more homes actually). But okay they'll make homes but the only jobs allowed are to further their charities. Like yippee, you're out of the soup kitchen earning your own paycheck, but nope you're still in the soup kitchen on the other side of the counter. What the fuck happens when everyone gets theirs, and everyone's on the serving side of the soup kitchen? Nobody left to feed then, so you're out of a job, so you go to a soup kitchen, you get a job at a soup kitchen, there's nobody left to feed, ..? Think about it. These Plasma purists are fuckin' shit-heels. It's fuckin' ''moral'' to stick it to these chodes, ride your hog around their checkpoints and smuggle this plasma to the people, for the people, [[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|AROOOOO!!]]

* '''The Prophecy''': When no rational argument will make things seem right, the Plasma Clique isn't above pretending to dabble in mysticism. Deep in the Time Before, the Forces created Plasma, a wild and voracious pet, and set it loose upon the galaxy, to guide it to greatness. But Plasma, volatile as she is, knew not the depravity of man, and let them abuse her, to suckle at her teat without wean, to bite and cry freely. The Forces wept, and in their tears came destruction: wild limbswapping explosions, and wild regular explosions, and wild the like. The Forces cried out for a shepherd to take Plasma into their flock and protect her, and lo, Tsogyal arose. With the stillness of the grave and the grace of life eternal, Tsogyal took Plasma under her wing and stood between her and ruin. There, Tsogyal still stands, staving off the end of times for both Plasma and Man through careful moderation and generosity. ... This isn't entirely a lie, as this was indeed prophesied... in the Plasma Clique's focus groups in the Time Before, a clock-themed conference hall.

The Plasma Clique handles plasma production and distribution, and for what means of production it does not directly control, it regulates, establishing industry standards and production quotas. Excessive production incurs their wrath, and their economic vengeance. Sure, mine twice the Plasma, but the Clique will buy none of it from you and now you're storing a volatile explosive for free.

Naive morons would consider them affiliated with the Trade Clique.

== Where? ==
The '''Tsogyal Anomalous Zone''' is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, '''visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion'''. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise.

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

=== Advancements ===
Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

=== The Tsogyal Anomaly ===
The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center. Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace. Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways. Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations. Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what?

= Monarchist Clique =

A Boys Club of dictators, warlords, anyone unequivocally charge of a nation and interested in staying as such. Individuals might have the best interests of their people at heart, as they're not ''necessarily'' evil, but it takes power to hold power, and when you've got that much power, there's few folk beneath you worthy of your trust. Best to seek it with others in an equally fragile state, your fellow kings and deities. Known for swapping their armies around, lest any one army get too emotionally attached to any one nation and decide to liberate it from the sovereign, or worse, "liberate" it.

As far as voting goes, anything that lets them keep power is good, anything that's pro-competition or pro-equality is bad. The Plasma Clique hates them because they love democracy, but so long as they pay using their peasants' labor, they'll still receive as much Plasma as they need.

More than a few Theocratic nations vote with them, but their heads, their gods rarely show up to the barbecues.

=== Coven of the Affliction ===
The Monarchist Clique is significantly pro-Hemophage, championing their rights to exist where other nations would punish, kill, or otherwise drive them out. The specific attitude towards Hemphages depends on the kingdom, ranging from mild novelty to absolute worship, but even the most indifferent King will help a Hemophage out as a favor to a more interested King.

To that end, the Clique calls this pact the Coven of the Affliction, complete with fancy robes and secret cobblestone cathedrals. Kings in attendance perform blood rituals (benign ones, not legitimate Nar-Sie Blood Cult threats to reality) and party in cliche, sadistic ways in honor of the Hemophagic Affliction.

Some say it is LARPing a secret society for the sake of coolness, some say it's a fetish, some say they believe Hemophages are the path to Eternal Life and Eternal Power (despite the numerous other [[Lore:Death#Avoiding Death|life extension options]] available to folk as influential as them). Some say this is the evolution of ancient secret orders from Earth, some say it is a cringe mockery of the idea done by baby-headed loser dweebs.

The purpose of the Coven is to keep the Clique cohesive and social. The Coven also guides leaders to technology and methods to become an immortal elite. The [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Progress Clique|Progress Clique]] really fucking hates that.

=== Notable Kingdoms ===
'''Her Living Cycle''': Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

'''The Cheren Path'''{{Anchor|Cheren Path}}: A "democratic" oligarchical government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councilors with multiple layers to the government. The Puppetmaster (his formal title) attends the Clique meetings on behalf of the small group of leaders.

'''The Dark Souls''': A confederation of four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly, but the Four Kings still hold enough influence and throw the best parties, so remain as a sign that the Clique protects its own.

= Colored Chart Of Favoritism =

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{TooltipInline|Inter-Clique Relations (0-100)|Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels about the vertical clique. The feelings are rarely mutual.}}

|-bgcolor="lightgrey" style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: right"
|bgcolor="white"| || [[#Center Clique|Center]] || [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] || [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] || [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] || [[#Production Clique|Production]] || [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] || [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] || [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]]
|-
| bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Center Clique|Center]] {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These Unity clowns are risking SolFed lives in pointless conflict, and more importantly, SolFed resources!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|These are the little guys. They're a drain of resources, producing little for SolFed. And if they ever grow up? Rivals!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|We want all the control, they want to make free trade, that's us giving up control. Still, it's nice they're getting us stuff.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're against the Trade Clique? They encourage us to make our own things, thus holding power over our own things? Sure, but do they also have to encourage our rivals to do the same? It's harder to crush someone under your boot when they're self-sufficient. All the same, we're gonna keep making normal stuff too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|We're all for kick-ass technology, but they have this thing called "ethics" and we keep "breaking it"?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|Moralistic assholes. The more Plasma we have, the stronger we can be, and they're trying to cut us off? Limiting us to only "what we need?" Fuck these naive shitheads but we will take their Plasma anyways.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|These are nice strawmen to show that we could be worse. We have Democracy on our side, compared to these rigid, power-hungry bastards. We mostly do the same things, ethicswise, except we have enough leaders moving around that there's no individual to blame for how shitty we are. Monarchs, you love to hate 'em.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] {{CliqueChartEntry|0|These cowards pulled us out of a war we were about to win! Our comrades' lives were thrown away for these pencil-pushing bureaucrat assholes to piss on. We wouldn't cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Sweet, innocent Frontiersmen. We were once like you, before the anvil of war galvanized us into necessarily-focused ruthlessness. We do what we must so that Frontiersfolk like these never have to know hardship. Forgive us for what we must do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|A useful pawn sometimes. A foreign power who's dependent on SolFed shipping routes is a power powerless to harm us. At the same time, a foreign power who uses SolFed shipping routes to grow stronger is a foreign power who's able to resist joining SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|They don't get in our way, and it's nice when SolFed gets stronger.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Conquest needs innovation, but they've stonewalled us a few times for "immorality" and "not respecting the sovereign rights of other states?" That's what we do, we bring folk into SolFed through peace or in pieces. The ends justify the means, so give us that fucking laser already!!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|The perpetual war effort is costly, and the Plasma Clique often deems our efforts "excessive," thus charging us a strong premium for the plasma necessary to keep SolFed safe and secure.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|They get in our way about as much as they help us. Sometimes we can pitch conquest as a honorable glory and draw them into our fights, but like, these folk don't entirely buy into the idea of SolFed to begin with so like, once the entire galaxy is under SolFed, we might turn our sights on these folk?}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] {{CliqueChartEntry|20|They're the coreworlds and don't give a rat's ass about the little guys in the fringe. A lot of their policies, which they have the power to enforce, make it harder for Frontiersmen.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|They're fighting for us, but they're also putting us in the line of fire. Some of us are on good terms with our foreign neighbors and don't want the boat rocked.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Rather dependent on their whims; a Frontier colony lives and dies by the cargo shuttles coming its way. They don't always act in our interest, but what can we do?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|To be important enough to SolFed to defend, a Frontier colony needs a hook, a gimmick, something unique. The Production Clique is all about helping nations specialize into something unique.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|The social contract between folk is thinner in the Frontier, where you do what you gotta do to survive. The Progress clique takes advantage of that, doing social experiments and prototype tech out where there's less cultural baggage to deal with. Given their choice of ethics, though, this rarely turns out poorly for the frontier nation, and whatever downsides are usually worth the ongoing support. But there's also a lot of Synthetic Life in the Frontier, which can get awkward to address.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|85|They give us cheap plasma so we can thrive, and their ethical mandates aren't too awful. But if anyone has us by the balls, it's the Plasma Clique. Plasma's like the only reliable power source when you're far enough from a star, so colonies in deep space are effectively Plasma Clique vassals begging for their charity. Luckily, they're known for charity.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|45|They don't particularly care about small fries like us. Sometimes a Monarch will decide they want to "adopt" an impoverished frontier nation, either taking it as a pet project for a few years, or building a vacation home to abandon. Either way, their attention is disruptive, unwanted, and unpredictable, but rarely harmful.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Bunch of consumers. Good buyers, but it's always a fight for control over shipping rights, etc. Not ideal customers but they're a good chunk of SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|[[wikipedia:Rules_of_Acquisition|Rule of Acquisition]] [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition 34]: War is good for business.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They're a captive market, sure, but they're also not the richest customers. There's a lot of space to cover with them, and not a lot of profit to be made.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These communists are actively trying to discourage dependence on trade!! But at the same time, they're encouraging the development of unique products, which elitists will pay a fortune to source.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Any advancement is a product waiting to be sold, but the prejudice against AIs is... shutting out valid paying customers.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They don't mess with us as much as they could. Yeah, it'd be nice to put Plasma, the greatest commodity ever, on the free market, but letting them have the one market means they don't interfere with the rest of galactic trade. Besides, they use our shipping lanes and they sell to us too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|These guys are always buying something weird. The advantage of having a single head of state is that there's only one person to con into a big sale. On the other hand, they're notoriously unstable, changing heads every 50 years or so, and whims much more often than that, so securing a reliable trade relationship is a rare thing indeed.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Production Clique|Production]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|They're willing to invest a little in making unique products, but afraid to take risks and rely on others, so they're never going to really understand. They'll co-opt our ideals and steal the best products from our folk.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|A war effort needs a lot of gun factories. Still, as soon as the conflict ends, there's a lot of gun factories with no one to sell to.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|Frontier colonies love the idea of self-sufficiency and are willing to specialize if it gets our aid. They've got to take risks to survive, and focusing on a single product is a huge risk. We're providing them more aid than they're giving back, but it's worth it for our ideals.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|25|They want a dependent worker-class who can't survive without their oversight, their routes. And god damn it, they've won. As much as we can fight to have folk self-sufficient, if they're going to prosper on a galactic scale, they need to sell to someone... and the Trade Clique's the only someone out there big enough. They're assholes, metaphorical slavers, the devil to deal with, but damn if they're not too big to ignore.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Every new innovation could be the next big product that can drive an entire planet to greatness. It takes a scientist to make a new product, but it takes the Production Clique to turn that into a new industry.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|They're an instrument for power production. Relying on the charity of a pious plasma prick isn't exactly "self-sufficient," but it's usually easier than building your own power grid - which they will help with anyways for some reason??}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Monarchs love it when they have a claim to fame. They're practically champing at the bit for a niche industry to monopolize, and are quick to invest great deals of cash into things they don't understand.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|"Technological progress at the expense of everything but morals." The Center Clique enjoys the data showing how they can retain power, but they value power over progress. They'll regulate threats to them holding power, and if the data shows that they're not the best power-holders for the situation, you can expect a smashed laptop and a death mark, not progress. Still, it's a good look for them to at least pretend to like you, even if you do have this thing called "ethics" that they keep breaking.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Their heart's in the right place: peace is good. The data shows that the leading cause of war is having two nations, so the math technically supports going to war to fix that, and it strongly supports going to peace to make two nations into one.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Folk who are willing to take risks and support technology, but also folk who are really sentimental about their homelands and aren't willing to take risks. It's entirely a grab bag and it averages out to "indifferent."}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|The Free Market is inherently a rational, mathematical science. Economics is science. The Progress Clique should be their biggest glazers, but it's also economical to be unethical.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|It's nice to have an idea and be able to watch someone make it into a reality. It's less nice to watch them butcher your intentions for cost-cutting or sentimental reasons.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They abhor excess. Science is about trying things that aren't always viable. They get pissed when we "throw away" good plasma at learning something new. They always want to judge the quality of our intentions, always fighting against our proposals, always denying us enough plasma to see this next experiment through... It's an uphill battle, but at the end of the day we do need their Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|It hurts to lie, but a good statistician can make any graph say anything. If a graph has more than 4 colors and 5 lines on it, the bozo King'll almost always throw enough funding and manpower at us to make it a reality. Still, these kings rule extremely inefficiently and it's downright painful manipulating them into doing the right thing sometimes.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] {{CliqueChartEntry|60|They're the biggest customers, but also the most likely to breach our ethical demands. When they listen to us, everyone listens to us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Conflict is a great way to burn through a lot of Plasma, but the neighbors they fight already aren't listening to our decrees and regulations, so honestly the Unity's goals are the fastest way to get these neighbors to listen. Even if a lot of plasma is wasted in warfare, our message follows them into battle.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Whiny little shits. Never agree with our assessment of what a "necessary" amount of Plasma is. But there's only so much resistance you can put up when you're this isolated from SolFed. They grumble, but they kneel all the same.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They earn their standing through encouraging excess and lavish lifestyles, but they do respect our monopoly on Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Self-sufficiency is good, but these folk never stop and settle down. THE FACTORY MUST GROW means demands always grow. Always more power needed. If they can harness renewable powers like nuclear or solar, great! But they never do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Incredible innovators! Every single new transistor they invent is a great power savings for the entire galaxy, which means the galaxy needs less plasma. Every so often, we fight over the direction their research goes, how they're wasting good energy on useless prospects, but there's not really anyone else in the galaxy who truly understands the ethics of great power and great responsibility.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|These Monarchs are prone to waste and are the very definition of excessive lifestyle, but their peasants are perfectly fine and certainly deserve the charity we fight to bring them. Besides, no King is large enough to disobey us outright without starving their people into an uprising.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]] {{CliqueChartEntry|70|We could be worse, we could be these guys. It's nice to have someone to point at and claim democracy doesn't work, so we can keep our Divine Mandate or whatever. They don't bother us much, and there's always a few "elected" officials who want to party with us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're out there squashing threats to our power? For free? And if we help their efforts out, sometimes we get some free vassal states? Their ideas don't make sense but working with them does.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Mostly beneath us, but it feels so Noble and Kind to go out and uplift some of these poor, pathetic, defenseless dirt-farmers, so we can show the galaxy how Benevolent and Deserving Of Power we are.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|We pay for things, they bring us things. With so much deception and treachery, it's refreshing to have a straightforward relationship with someone.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|We're prepared to offer you 500,000 credits and an entire moon for 80% of your business. And - snerk - a ''royalty deal'', 50cr for every product sold.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Sometimes you just need a Trusted Advisor to tell you you're doing a good job.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|Enough with the preaching and get back to the tithing! Hand your Plasma over.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}
Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels {{TooltipInline|about the other clique|So Center feels 20 about Unity, but Unity feels 0 about Center.}}. The feelings are rarely mutual.

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T07:19:16Z

GreytideSkye: /* How Voting Works */ i'm gonna regret transcluding but here i am

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTIONS
|mainname = The Cliques of Sol Federation
|othernames = Voting Blocs
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages =
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design. They've been going at this for years and not a single idea here flops.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}, {{Contributor/Belwoods|[[#Galactical_Corporation_Regulation|The GCR]] is their brainchild.}}, {{Contributor/goldenfreddycl|Several of the [[#Notable_Kingdoms|Monarchist factions]].}}, {{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like. I also threw a lot of ideas into solidifying the Plasma Clique and the Trade Clique.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Cliques =
The Sol Federation consists of tens of thousands of individual member nations, with tens of thousands of individual votes happening yearly. It is both impossible for an individual member to keep track of all the possible proposals that might affect them, and for any particular proposal's interested parties to pander to each SolFed member with a vote. Thus, cliques.

Cliques are, on paper, simply a collection of individuals with narrow special interests, who track and make relevant proposals to the SolFed Council, and inform their interested members of relevant concerns. In practice, Cliques are loosely political parties, representing their people's fixation on a specific interest and commanding their votes where irrelevant. To have a significant voice in the Council, you need a significant amount of leverage: votes.

Formally, Cliques hold no presence on the SolFed L3 Federal Assembly station. They are issued no chamber, no allotted headcount for staff, no voice or power to call votes. In practice, member nations offer their own Council resources to further the clique; replacing their nation's secretary with a Clique Steward, filling half their chamber with Clique business, calling votes on the Clique's behalf... Hell, several nations are courted into cliques on the ''sole'' basis that their office is adjacent to other members, so them giving consent to deconstruct the walls between them means the clique has a better office.

If you ask your automated Navigator the way to the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Plasma Clique|Plasma Clique]]'s office, it will point you nowhere, but if you ask aloud, you'll get directed to obvious wall signs conveniently embedded in a nearby nation's Extended Livery. Bet you didn't know that the proud Blue and Gold flag of the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Cheren Path|Cheren Path]] is only the abridged Naval Flag, and their full flag also has a big purple arrow to the right labeled ''"Trade C. Office 6 aisles clockwise 2 hallways coreward -->''".

== Why are Cliques needed? ==

[[Lore:Voting|Voting in the Federal Assembly]] is a byzantine, impossible process. With each of SolFed's 10,000+ nations each calling a vote each day, nations can neither keep track of all the issues nor curry favor on issues important to them. Thus, cliques are a practical necessity to keep democracy flowing.

Visit the [[Lore:Voting|Voting in the Federal Assembly]] page to learn more!

There's vote selling, there's bribery, there's cryptocurrency. It's a wonderfully awful read!

{{:Lore:Voting}}

= Center Clique =

Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

When folk from other codebases think of SolFed, this is what they think of: An imperialist, expansionist democracy, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations, and while they posture as a Federation, the Center Clique pushes for the central government to have a lot of control and micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest cliques in SolFed, population-wise, and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol.

Strongly epitomized by the [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]].

Independently, each major player in the Center Clique is their own brand of disgusting, and together they're reprehensible. A mixture of the worst of a Landlord Coalition and a Homeowner's Association.

The baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate, pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against

= Unity Clique =

All cultures are to become part of the Sol Federation. SolFed might not be the best system, SolFed might not be the wisest government, but it is unified and within SolFed, there are no wars. Neighbors are just those who have not had their price for peace met; whether that price is consideration or blood, only time will tell.

Out of the ashes of the Sagittarius-Tiziran War rose those who would will that to be the end of war, the final conclusion. After losing millions of SolFed lives, just at the cusp of total victory, the distant, unaffected coreworlds surrendered their advantage and forced a shitty semblance of peace. The Unity Clique sees this as abandoning those who fought bravely to defend SolFed, as cowardice getting in the way of progress. The bureaucrats downright betrayed the Federation, letting our scaly enemies regroup and redouble their position, and it is with this fiery hatred that the Unity Clique fights for everlasting peace.

The Unity Clique is SolFed's main expansionist drive, seeking to make all into SolFed, so that none need declare war for politicks or land. The sheer ideological threat of the Tiziran Menace bearing down upon the fringes of SolFed, and the absolute horrors of the resulting war, steeled the heart of the Sagittarian peoples into those who would see war at that scale finished.

They do want to centralize SolFed, but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. This means limiting the power of massive voting blocs, but also lessening the protections afforded to micronations.

They're also responsible for SolFed having a [[Lore:SFAF|standing military]], as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to. Having seen what happened when SolFed was reluctant to raise arms to defend its own, the Unity Clique vowed to never let complacency or bureaucracy interfere with safety again.

Where the votes are irrelevant, they hold strong to their past loyalties. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever, as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support, so they'll help them out if needed.

Far from traditional xenophobes, ''their hatred lies with alien governments, not the aliens themselves.'' In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict. The Sagittarians were in it to remove a distinct and dangerous threat on their front doorstep - get the lizards off the board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore. '''Peace through unity or peace through eradication.'''

The standards for a new nation joining SolFed are lax, almost ''exclusively'' because of Unity meddling, to the point where '''joining SolFed can be taken for granted.''' The vast majority of nations give no darn either way, and will either Abstain from vote or sell their vote cheaply. Only the peoples {{TooltipInline|Display Text=basically adjacent|Tooltip=Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.}} to the impending member have any reason to have an opinion. Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons. Noes would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above. With the vast majority of SolFed apathetic to these votes, the Unity Clique needs to exert only a minimum of influence to ensure the new member is accepted.

A {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good number of people|Tooltip=At least seven.}} fear that the Unity Clique might outright defect to the [[Lore:Heliostatic Coalition|Heliostatic Coalition]], as the clique claims to be loyal to peace, not specifically to the Sol Federation. They fear that, in turn, they would force the rest of the Sol Federation to kneel to the HC, assuming the HC's system of governance to be {{TooltipInline|Display Text="better."|Tooltip=Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah? Doing dick moves because you're jealous of your neighbor's righteousness??}} This distrust caused several major incidents during the [[Lore:Void Imperium|Void War]], with strategic High Command refusing to deploy Unity-affiliated regiments to reinforce Heliostatic allies, resulting in unnecessary losses.

= Frontier Clique =

Of the thousands of nations in SolFed, a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good 40%|Tooltip=And an evil 67%.}} are within {{TooltipInline|Display Text=███|Tooltip="Never give the readers concrete numbers. They will pick apart your setting and sue you." - Bureau of Astrography, Rule Seven.}} light years from Sol Federation's declared borders. These are the smaller members who can't turn their back to external politics, to SolFed's relations with neighbors, to the looming threats of galactic wars and the realities of living closer to a potential enemy than to a SFAF patrol.

The Frontier Clique is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti-corporate, and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have. The realities of living near the Void Imperium are vastly different from living near the Heliostatic Coalition, and '''extremely''' different from living in [[Lore:Tajaran#Final Warning|the Sphere of Eternal Tajaran Invasion.]]

One would expect the Nova Sector to be involved with the Frontier Clique, but Nanotrasen's holdings are more coreward and NT's position of power is mostly disconnected from their frontier holdings.

= Trade Clique =

Trade requires two things: an imbalance of supply and demand, and the freedom to ride that gradient to profit.

Basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

The Trade Clique operates as a self-policing union of sorts, ensuring quality standards and sanctioned trade through force. For producers, this means they'll only stock Trade Clique Certified Plus products.

This does not mean they exclusively serve Big Business. There is a large market for smaller, independent shops - Mom and Pop stores, independent artists, sculpturades, etc. - and the Trade Clique has fingers in those pots too. The Trade Clique carefully ensures there's a healthy - but not overwhelming - number of smaller stores to choose from, both by providing generous loans in underrepresented areas and by forcibly closing competitors well before oversaturation is reached. Market forces act fast, but the Trade Clique acts faster.

What they don't do are monopolies. A monopoly is lazy, and a captive market is one clawing to escape. The Trade Clique holds the monopoly on monopolies through a strict regiment of self-policing, breaking up slothful monopolies as they arise, and ensuring that consumers always have a choice... of another Trade Clique-serving vendor.

As much as corporations would enjoy holding a monopoly, the pragmatic (read: surviving) corporations understand the realities of the Trade Clique:. A company, left undirected, ''will'' monopolize within the boundaries of its environment, and this is bad for trade. Without oversight, total Corporate war between nations would destroy entire corporations, price gouging and direct competition would pit giants against each other with only the customer benefitting. Corporate War would bleed into real war, the SolFed Marshals would be compelled to intervene, and in the aftermath, their market share would be wide open for unrelated corporations to poach. By relinquishing a little liberty to the Trade Clique, corporations gain everlasting security.

=== Galactical Corporation Regulation ===
'''The Regulators'''

{{Speech|name=Henry Beaumont, Securocratic Regulator|image=[[File:HenryBeaumont.png|64px]]|text=''"Space is a no-mans land, after all, why capitalize it?"''}}

Known for Peacekeeping, internal investigations, and imposing sanctions.

==== On paper, ====
The GCR is an organization formed to perform peacekeeping duties on any sides of the space and to ensure that there are no corporate wars. The GCR is noted due to it's recent arrival to Nova after receiving massive funding from multiple governments after their recent actions taken against their Syndicate partners, by stating that they'll instigate sanctions and "special operations" to make their presence known.

In the year of 2540, Henry Beaumont, a former Captain for the SolFed army, after multiple tours and estimations that the current situation between corporations is worsening with no sign of stopping at any time, forms the GCR as a semi-mercenary group tasked with intercepting any and all illegal activities within space, as a way to do sanctions. Originally, they were treated as a bunch of space pirates who are trying to act all official, but after a recent bust on Interdyne, NanoTrasen and SolFed have noted their activity and recognized them as an organization, more than just space pirates.

The GCR is not a formal SolFed bureau or other organization, just an independent band of vigilantes ensuring SolFed's standards are kept.

==== In practice, ====
Henry Beaumont does not take orders from the Trade Clique... but he takes directions.

The GCR serves as the self-enforcement arm of the Trade Clique, ensuring that all the arbitrary safety standards are met, to the Trade Clique's liking. Well, to the liking of the SolFed official in their pocket.

The GCR monitors food safety, employee satisfaction, and numerous extra-legal metrics to ensure compliance "for the greater good." The GCR will ensure your corporate presence is in SolFed's best interest, and in her peoples' best interest, and it's mere coincidence that the Trade Clique's biggest supporters have never received so much as a stern glare from Henry and his Regulators.

Sometimes {{TooltipInline|Display Text=terrorism is done|Tooltip="A GCR-adjacent actor was involved in a terror-adjacent incident affiliated with investigation-aligned mortality-afflicting circumstances."}}, in the name of '''"Internal Affairs."''' This might be a simple test of defenses, ensuring the victim is able to keep their people safe from a madman with Syndicate gear, or it might be under the table punishment for other breaches.

=== The Slipstream Clique ===
A subclique of the Trade Clique, the Slipstream Clique seeks control over the logistics of trade routes themselves.

* Establishes rest stops along FTL hyperlanes, controlling the authorized distributors of fuel and snacks along popular lanes.
* Chartering megaferries, massive bluespace engines capable of spooling a massive ballistic drive to carry shorter-range craft along precharted routes.
* Bulling the few folk in the Bureau of Astrography who won't take bribes. There's controlling the de facto superhighways, and then there's controlling the actual FTL highways, and the Slipstream Clique is significant enough to do both.
* Espionage against the Sol Fed Marshals, twisting their patrol routes to reflect the strategic interests of the Slipsteam Clique more than the defensive needs of the Sol Federation herself. By all means, the patrols still catch Syndicate bastards, and still theoretically protect every citizen on every world, but like through corporate capture, some pathways are just significantly more safe than others.
** Which, if you do the math, still makes sense that the Marshals would want to patrol the most popular lanes to keep them safe. So it's not actually all that much espionage? Every few years, someone in the Slipstream Clique asks "why are we bribing the Marshals so much", cut that program, then find the fuck out.

=== Free Trade Union ===
Just another Corporation. Not galacticly notable, one of a hundred cargo companies in SolFed. One of the larger ones, sure, and to get that large they had to kiss a lot of Trade Clique ass, but they're not particularly in charge of the Clique or anything.

Relevant to the Nova Sector as the primary Trade Clique-endorsed Logistics Solution in the region. Other sectors, with their own Cargo solutions, have similar operations.

= Production Clique =

The antithesis of the Trade Clique, the Production Clique champions self-sufficiency, to the point trade is irrelevant. They abhor exclusivity agreements, including copyrights, and would see everyone have an autolathe and a dream to fulfill.

Members in the Production Clique specialize in a few products each, building their corporations "Tall," not "Wide." It's not uncommon to find entire worlds encrusted in factory, churning the workforce to a single marketable product. Typically, mass-produced guns. The Production Clique finds that quality comes from practice, not competition, so encourages the risky practices of single-basketting eggs. The Clique will, in turn, coordinate exchanges and equal trade within the Clique first, ensuring that all needs are met so that high-quality products can be made.

Unsurprisingly Syndicate-sympathetic at times.

Significant overlap with the Progress Clique, potentially 100%. (I'm still reading the Ancient Texts)

= Progress Clique =
Technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. Highly anti-slavery, though no nation is particularly pro-slaver to begin with. Pushes for technocratic governance, ruling by data and hard science rather than personality.

Cybersun in particular has had numerous products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Repealed Federal regulations on [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodding]], letting regulations fall on national levels.

Possibly the biggest [[Lore:Vox|Vox]] haters in the galaxy, besides all the folk directly wronged by Vox. Morals are something that should be readily apparent, not a research topic to be explored and tampered with.

Possibly the biggest haters of [[Lore:Synths|synthetic life]], too. Creating an AI is birthing a being into slavery, even if you expand its cage further than it can reach. Personality transfers, too, are seen as dangerous or immoral, depending on which specific Clique member is lecturing. They especially hate the notion of transforming the rich into immortal elites, further dividing classes across death.

= Plasma Clique =

Thou shalt not harvest Plasma in the dark, thou shalt only brave extraction in our light.

The only thing more dangerous than a monopoly is one that can't be controlled by profit.

The Plasma Clique exists to control the production and distribution of Plasma. The Plasma Clique does not exist to control SolFed, render ungodly profit, to conquer or liberate.

They are a collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These go to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.

The Plasma Clique own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed, including several Anomalous Zones.

As a state-owned monopoly, the Plasma Clique doesn't answer to CEOs or a voter base. They own everything top to bottom, so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level. The profits belong to the people, and unlike the egregore of the CEO grindset, the people of the Plasma Clique aren't demanding Infinite Growth At All Costs. social services they enjoy are maintained, ''which they easily are,'' they're happy. And this ''scares people'', anyone on a Board of Directors who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth. Capitalism is fought through voluntary complacency, and here the Plasma Clique are the soldiers of God.

== Why? ==

The purpose of a system is what it does: The Plasma Clique maintains a monopoly on plasma in order to maintain their monopoly on Plasma. Likewise, the purpose of the answer to "Why?" is not to convey objective truth, but to convince the listener that the Plasma Clique should remain in control of the Plasma trade. Depending on who asks, the answer will be different, tailored to the asker's sensibilities.

None of these are false, but none capture the full scope of the Plasma Clique's motives:

* '''To fight monopolies''': SolFed has been wrecked with the Trade Clique's enforcement of byzantine copyrights. Folk have had their identities stripped from them because some pharmaceutical company trademarked a strand of genes that happens to be in their blood. The Plasma Clique sees the danger that a malevolent monopoly could pose, but also sees that there will always be a throne of Plasma to sit upon, so it takes the throne so that no one worse could.

* '''To regulate the dangers''': With something as flammable and dangerous as Plasma, letting it go unregulated and freely sold also poses dangers. Plasma, to the Clique, needs accounting and regulation and safety, all things the Clique provides and the free market would not. Someone must be in charge of Plasma, and so it shall be the Clique.

* '''To retain power''': The Plasma Clique holds power over Plasma. To retain that power, it needs to use that power. The Plasma Clique needs to exert political influence to choke out independent plasma dealers, lest they rise up and become unhealthy, unsafe competition.

* '''Plasma is limited''': Theoretically, there's a finite amount of Plasma in the universe. Pedantically, there's a finite number of atoms in the universe, so it's a little hypocritical to only obsess over Plasma. Regardless, shortages happen, logistics and transport need to happen, and for many folk Plasma is their sole source of power, so letting the free market give Plasma to the "highest bidder" is frankly immoral.

* '''[[Lore:Bluespace#Sources|Plasma is ''unlimited'']]''': Where Bluespace and Realspace clash and the veil between the two is torn open, the damages congeal into Bluespace crystals, metaphysical scabs. By that metric, where the veil does not tear, it bruises, and those bruises manifest as Plasma. Through wide-scale abuse of the fabric of reality, Plasma could theoretically be farmed infinitely, whalloping the metaphysical to feast off her tears. The Plasma Clique stands not as a guardian of Plasma, but the noble knighthood defending reality herself.

* '''To help people''': The Plasma Clique is notoriously charitous. Customers are not extorted beyond their means, and excess is taxed heavily. The '''Three-State-Aid Program''', sponsored by the Clique, ensures that generators and plasma are widely available to small ventures and needy settlements, asking nothing but an attempt to transition to renewable energy.
** '''Empower everyone''': The Plasma Clique owns the copyrights on modern '''Modular Solar Panel arrays''', especially their upgradable glass compatibility layer, and in their charity offers the designs '''freely''', with only reprimands that the printer breaks no SolFed law nor does no Evil with them.

* '''Keep it out of Evil's hands''': The Plasma Clique does try to enforce its morals upon those dependent on them. The Plasma Clique unilaterally supports democracy; they'll ''deliver to'' monarchists, charging premiums that the upper class can afford to afford, and while it would be Illegal and Immoral to declare war against a fellow SolFed Member State, incidental democratic coups against these states suspiciously never have to worry about keeping their lights on.

* '''Ensure basic morality''': Besides Democracy, the Plasma Clique pushes to help your fellow man, to abhor excess and to treat thy neighbor as your own. They won't shun you for owning a suburban house and living within your means, but that vacation home isn't a timeshare? It just sits idle for most of the year? Good luck powering that with their disapproval. The Plasma Clique is a collection of nations, so specific moral judgements might vary a little, but they keep each other in check just as much as they keep their dependent customers (most of the galaxy) in line.

* '''[[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|Be smug sons of bitches about the whole fucking thing]]''': Yeah, they'll give you food for free, as long as you attend a lecture about how their morals are just, how their championing plasma is for the Greater Good, how all these charity programs that you're totally eligible for are the correct way to run a society, how you should be a part of that society. Y'wanna learn slurs for corporations? They've got whole songbooks they'll print out for you. They'll feed and clothe the homeless, but y'know what they won't do? Make more homes. (Note: they ''will'' make more homes actually). But okay they'll make homes but the only jobs allowed are to further their charities. Like yippee, you're out of the soup kitchen earning your own paycheck, but nope you're still in the soup kitchen on the other side of the counter. What the fuck happens when everyone gets theirs, and everyone's on the serving side of the soup kitchen? Nobody left to feed then, so you're out of a job, so you go to a soup kitchen, you get a job at a soup kitchen, there's nobody left to feed, ..? Think about it. These Plasma purists are fuckin' shit-heels. It's fuckin' ''moral'' to stick it to these chodes, ride your hog around their checkpoints and smuggle this plasma to the people, for the people, [[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|AROOOOO!!]]

* '''The Prophecy''': When no rational argument will make things seem right, the Plasma Clique isn't above pretending to dabble in mysticism. Deep in the Time Before, the Forces created Plasma, a wild and voracious pet, and set it loose upon the galaxy, to guide it to greatness. But Plasma, volatile as she is, knew not the depravity of man, and let them abuse her, to suckle at her teat without wean, to bite and cry freely. The Forces wept, and in their tears came destruction: wild limbswapping explosions, and wild regular explosions, and wild the like. The Forces cried out for a shepherd to take Plasma into their flock and protect her, and lo, Tsogyal arose. With the stillness of the grave and the grace of life eternal, Tsogyal took Plasma under her wing and stood between her and ruin. There, Tsogyal still stands, staving off the end of times for both Plasma and Man through careful moderation and generosity. ... This isn't entirely a lie, as this was indeed prophesied... in the Plasma Clique's focus groups in the Time Before, a clock-themed conference hall.

The Plasma Clique handles plasma production and distribution, and for what means of production it does not directly control, it regulates, establishing industry standards and production quotas. Excessive production incurs their wrath, and their economic vengeance. Sure, mine twice the Plasma, but the Clique will buy none of it from you and now you're storing a volatile explosive for free.

Naive morons would consider them affiliated with the Trade Clique.

== Where? ==
The '''Tsogyal Anomalous Zone''' is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, '''visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion'''. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise.

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

=== Advancements ===
Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

=== The Tsogyal Anomaly ===
The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center. Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace. Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways. Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations. Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what?

= Monarchist Clique =

A Boys Club of dictators, warlords, anyone unequivocally charge of a nation and interested in staying as such. Individuals might have the best interests of their people at heart, as they're not ''necessarily'' evil, but it takes power to hold power, and when you've got that much power, there's few folk beneath you worthy of your trust. Best to seek it with others in an equally fragile state, your fellow kings and deities. Known for swapping their armies around, lest any one army get too emotionally attached to any one nation and decide to liberate it from the sovereign, or worse, "liberate" it.

As far as voting goes, anything that lets them keep power is good, anything that's pro-competition or pro-equality is bad. The Plasma Clique hates them because they love democracy, but so long as they pay using their peasants' labor, they'll still receive as much Plasma as they need.

More than a few Theocratic nations vote with them, but their heads, their gods rarely show up to the barbecues.

=== Coven of the Affliction ===
The Monarchist Clique is significantly pro-Hemophage, championing their rights to exist where other nations would punish, kill, or otherwise drive them out. The specific attitude towards Hemphages depends on the kingdom, ranging from mild novelty to absolute worship, but even the most indifferent King will help a Hemophage out as a favor to a more interested King.

To that end, the Clique calls this pact the Coven of the Affliction, complete with fancy robes and secret cobblestone cathedrals. Kings in attendance perform blood rituals (benign ones, not legitimate Nar-Sie Blood Cult threats to reality) and party in cliche, sadistic ways in honor of the Hemophagic Affliction.

Some say it is LARPing a secret society for the sake of coolness, some say it's a fetish, some say they believe Hemophages are the path to Eternal Life and Eternal Power (despite the numerous other [[Lore:Death#Avoiding Death|life extension options]] available to folk as influential as them). Some say this is the evolution of ancient secret orders from Earth, some say it is a cringe mockery of the idea done by baby-headed loser dweebs.

The purpose of the Coven is to keep the Clique cohesive and social. The Coven also guides leaders to technology and methods to become an immortal elite. The [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Progress Clique|Progress Clique]] really fucking hates that.

=== Notable Kingdoms ===
'''Her Living Cycle''': Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

'''The Cheren Path'''{{Anchor|Cheren Path}}: A "democratic" oligarchical government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councilors with multiple layers to the government. The Puppetmaster (his formal title) attends the Clique meetings on behalf of the small group of leaders.

'''The Dark Souls''': A confederation of four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly, but the Four Kings still hold enough influence and throw the best parties, so remain as a sign that the Clique protects its own.

= Colored Chart Of Favoritism =

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{TooltipInline|Inter-Clique Relations (0-100)|Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels about the vertical clique. The feelings are rarely mutual.}}

|-bgcolor="lightgrey" style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: right"
|bgcolor="white"| || [[#Center Clique|Center]] || [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] || [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] || [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] || [[#Production Clique|Production]] || [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] || [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] || [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]]
|-
| bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Center Clique|Center]] {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These Unity clowns are risking SolFed lives in pointless conflict, and more importantly, SolFed resources!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|These are the little guys. They're a drain of resources, producing little for SolFed. And if they ever grow up? Rivals!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|We want all the control, they want to make free trade, that's us giving up control. Still, it's nice they're getting us stuff.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're against the Trade Clique? They encourage us to make our own things, thus holding power over our own things? Sure, but do they also have to encourage our rivals to do the same? It's harder to crush someone under your boot when they're self-sufficient. All the same, we're gonna keep making normal stuff too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|We're all for kick-ass technology, but they have this thing called "ethics" and we keep "breaking it"?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|Moralistic assholes. The more Plasma we have, the stronger we can be, and they're trying to cut us off? Limiting us to only "what we need?" Fuck these naive shitheads but we will take their Plasma anyways.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|These are nice strawmen to show that we could be worse. We have Democracy on our side, compared to these rigid, power-hungry bastards. We mostly do the same things, ethicswise, except we have enough leaders moving around that there's no individual to blame for how shitty we are. Monarchs, you love to hate 'em.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] {{CliqueChartEntry|0|These cowards pulled us out of a war we were about to win! Our comrades' lives were thrown away for these pencil-pushing bureaucrat assholes to piss on. We wouldn't cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Sweet, innocent Frontiersmen. We were once like you, before the anvil of war galvanized us into necessarily-focused ruthlessness. We do what we must so that Frontiersfolk like these never have to know hardship. Forgive us for what we must do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|A useful pawn sometimes. A foreign power who's dependent on SolFed shipping routes is a power powerless to harm us. At the same time, a foreign power who uses SolFed shipping routes to grow stronger is a foreign power who's able to resist joining SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|They don't get in our way, and it's nice when SolFed gets stronger.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Conquest needs innovation, but they've stonewalled us a few times for "immorality" and "not respecting the sovereign rights of other states?" That's what we do, we bring folk into SolFed through peace or in pieces. The ends justify the means, so give us that fucking laser already!!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|The perpetual war effort is costly, and the Plasma Clique often deems our efforts "excessive," thus charging us a strong premium for the plasma necessary to keep SolFed safe and secure.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|They get in our way about as much as they help us. Sometimes we can pitch conquest as a honorable glory and draw them into our fights, but like, these folk don't entirely buy into the idea of SolFed to begin with so like, once the entire galaxy is under SolFed, we might turn our sights on these folk?}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] {{CliqueChartEntry|20|They're the coreworlds and don't give a rat's ass about the little guys in the fringe. A lot of their policies, which they have the power to enforce, make it harder for Frontiersmen.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|They're fighting for us, but they're also putting us in the line of fire. Some of us are on good terms with our foreign neighbors and don't want the boat rocked.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Rather dependent on their whims; a Frontier colony lives and dies by the cargo shuttles coming its way. They don't always act in our interest, but what can we do?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|To be important enough to SolFed to defend, a Frontier colony needs a hook, a gimmick, something unique. The Production Clique is all about helping nations specialize into something unique.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|The social contract between folk is thinner in the Frontier, where you do what you gotta do to survive. The Progress clique takes advantage of that, doing social experiments and prototype tech out where there's less cultural baggage to deal with. Given their choice of ethics, though, this rarely turns out poorly for the frontier nation, and whatever downsides are usually worth the ongoing support. But there's also a lot of Synthetic Life in the Frontier, which can get awkward to address.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|85|They give us cheap plasma so we can thrive, and their ethical mandates aren't too awful. But if anyone has us by the balls, it's the Plasma Clique. Plasma's like the only reliable power source when you're far enough from a star, so colonies in deep space are effectively Plasma Clique vassals begging for their charity. Luckily, they're known for charity.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|45|They don't particularly care about small fries like us. Sometimes a Monarch will decide they want to "adopt" an impoverished frontier nation, either taking it as a pet project for a few years, or building a vacation home to abandon. Either way, their attention is disruptive, unwanted, and unpredictable, but rarely harmful.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Bunch of consumers. Good buyers, but it's always a fight for control over shipping rights, etc. Not ideal customers but they're a good chunk of SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|[[wikipedia:Rules_of_Acquisition|Rule of Acquisition]] [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition 34]: War is good for business.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They're a captive market, sure, but they're also not the richest customers. There's a lot of space to cover with them, and not a lot of profit to be made.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These communists are actively trying to discourage dependence on trade!! But at the same time, they're encouraging the development of unique products, which elitists will pay a fortune to source.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Any advancement is a product waiting to be sold, but the prejudice against AIs is... shutting out valid paying customers.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They don't mess with us as much as they could. Yeah, it'd be nice to put Plasma, the greatest commodity ever, on the free market, but letting them have the one market means they don't interfere with the rest of galactic trade. Besides, they use our shipping lanes and they sell to us too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|These guys are always buying something weird. The advantage of having a single head of state is that there's only one person to con into a big sale. On the other hand, they're notoriously unstable, changing heads every 50 years or so, and whims much more often than that, so securing a reliable trade relationship is a rare thing indeed.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Production Clique|Production]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|They're willing to invest a little in making unique products, but afraid to take risks and rely on others, so they're never going to really understand. They'll co-opt our ideals and steal the best products from our folk.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|A war effort needs a lot of gun factories. Still, as soon as the conflict ends, there's a lot of gun factories with no one to sell to.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|Frontier colonies love the idea of self-sufficiency and are willing to specialize if it gets our aid. They've got to take risks to survive, and focusing on a single product is a huge risk. We're providing them more aid than they're giving back, but it's worth it for our ideals.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|25|They want a dependent worker-class who can't survive without their oversight, their routes. And god damn it, they've won. As much as we can fight to have folk self-sufficient, if they're going to prosper on a galactic scale, they need to sell to someone... and the Trade Clique's the only someone out there big enough. They're assholes, metaphorical slavers, the devil to deal with, but damn if they're not too big to ignore.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Every new innovation could be the next big product that can drive an entire planet to greatness. It takes a scientist to make a new product, but it takes the Production Clique to turn that into a new industry.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|They're an instrument for power production. Relying on the charity of a pious plasma prick isn't exactly "self-sufficient," but it's usually easier than building your own power grid - which they will help with anyways for some reason??}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Monarchs love it when they have a claim to fame. They're practically champing at the bit for a niche industry to monopolize, and are quick to invest great deals of cash into things they don't understand.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|"Technological progress at the expense of everything but morals." The Center Clique enjoys the data showing how they can retain power, but they value power over progress. They'll regulate threats to them holding power, and if the data shows that they're not the best power-holders for the situation, you can expect a smashed laptop and a death mark, not progress. Still, it's a good look for them to at least pretend to like you, even if you do have this thing called "ethics" that they keep breaking.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Their heart's in the right place: peace is good. The data shows that the leading cause of war is having two nations, so the math technically supports going to war to fix that, and it strongly supports going to peace to make two nations into one.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Folk who are willing to take risks and support technology, but also folk who are really sentimental about their homelands and aren't willing to take risks. It's entirely a grab bag and it averages out to "indifferent."}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|The Free Market is inherently a rational, mathematical science. Economics is science. The Progress Clique should be their biggest glazers, but it's also economical to be unethical.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|It's nice to have an idea and be able to watch someone make it into a reality. It's less nice to watch them butcher your intentions for cost-cutting or sentimental reasons.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They abhor excess. Science is about trying things that aren't always viable. They get pissed when we "throw away" good plasma at learning something new. They always want to judge the quality of our intentions, always fighting against our proposals, always denying us enough plasma to see this next experiment through... It's an uphill battle, but at the end of the day we do need their Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|It hurts to lie, but a good statistician can make any graph say anything. If a graph has more than 4 colors and 5 lines on it, the bozo King'll almost always throw enough funding and manpower at us to make it a reality. Still, these kings rule extremely inefficiently and it's downright painful manipulating them into doing the right thing sometimes.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] {{CliqueChartEntry|60|They're the biggest customers, but also the most likely to breach our ethical demands. When they listen to us, everyone listens to us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Conflict is a great way to burn through a lot of Plasma, but the neighbors they fight already aren't listening to our decrees and regulations, so honestly the Unity's goals are the fastest way to get these neighbors to listen. Even if a lot of plasma is wasted in warfare, our message follows them into battle.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Whiny little shits. Never agree with our assessment of what a "necessary" amount of Plasma is. But there's only so much resistance you can put up when you're this isolated from SolFed. They grumble, but they kneel all the same.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They earn their standing through encouraging excess and lavish lifestyles, but they do respect our monopoly on Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Self-sufficiency is good, but these folk never stop and settle down. THE FACTORY MUST GROW means demands always grow. Always more power needed. If they can harness renewable powers like nuclear or solar, great! But they never do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Incredible innovators! Every single new transistor they invent is a great power savings for the entire galaxy, which means the galaxy needs less plasma. Every so often, we fight over the direction their research goes, how they're wasting good energy on useless prospects, but there's not really anyone else in the galaxy who truly understands the ethics of great power and great responsibility.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|These Monarchs are prone to waste and are the very definition of excessive lifestyle, but their peasants are perfectly fine and certainly deserve the charity we fight to bring them. Besides, no King is large enough to disobey us outright without starving their people into an uprising.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]] {{CliqueChartEntry|70|We could be worse, we could be these guys. It's nice to have someone to point at and claim democracy doesn't work, so we can keep our Divine Mandate or whatever. They don't bother us much, and there's always a few "elected" officials who want to party with us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're out there squashing threats to our power? For free? And if we help their efforts out, sometimes we get some free vassal states? Their ideas don't make sense but working with them does.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Mostly beneath us, but it feels so Noble and Kind to go out and uplift some of these poor, pathetic, defenseless dirt-farmers, so we can show the galaxy how Benevolent and Deserving Of Power we are.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|We pay for things, they bring us things. With so much deception and treachery, it's refreshing to have a straightforward relationship with someone.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|We're prepared to offer you 500,000 credits and an entire moon for 80% of your business. And - snerk - a ''royalty deal'', 50cr for every product sold.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Sometimes you just need a Trusted Advisor to tell you you're doing a good job.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|Enough with the preaching and get back to the tithing! Hand your Plasma over.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}
Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels {{TooltipInline|about the other clique|So Center feels 20 about Unity, but Unity feels 0 about Center.}}. The feelings are rarely mutual.

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Voting

2026-09-08T07:18:23Z

GreytideSkye: Created page with "{{LorePageHeader |colour = 1070AF |hcolour = white |bcolour = 1070AF |bhcolour = #1070AF |ebcolour = 1070AF |img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro. |imgsize = 100px |loretype = PROCESS |mainname = Voting in SolFed |othernames = Doing the Dirty Democracy |relatedpages = |relatedlore = Lore:Cliques, [..."

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T06:34:45Z

GreytideSkye: We got a blockchain in this lorebase, and it only took 2 years.

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTIONS
|mainname = The Cliques of Sol Federation
|othernames = Voting Blocs
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages =
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design. They've been going at this for years and not a single idea here flops.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}, {{Contributor/Belwoods|[[#Galactical_Corporation_Regulation|The GCR]] is their brainchild.}}, {{Contributor/goldenfreddycl|Several of the [[#Notable_Kingdoms|Monarchist factions]].}}, {{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like. I also threw a lot of ideas into solidifying the Plasma Clique and the Trade Clique.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Cliques =
The Sol Federation consists of tens of thousands of individual member nations, with tens of thousands of individual votes happening yearly. It is both impossible for an individual member to keep track of all the possible proposals that might affect them, and for any particular proposal's interested parties to pander to each SolFed member with a vote. Thus, cliques.

Cliques are, on paper, simply a collection of individuals with narrow special interests, who track and make relevant proposals to the SolFed Council, and inform their interested members of relevant concerns. In practice, Cliques are loosely political parties, representing their people's fixation on a specific interest and commanding their votes where irrelevant. To have a significant voice in the Council, you need a significant amount of leverage: votes.

Formally, Cliques hold no presence on the SolFed L3 Federal Assembly station. They are issued no chamber, no allotted headcount for staff, no voice or power to call votes. In practice, member nations offer their own Council resources to further the clique; replacing their nation's secretary with a Clique Steward, filling half their chamber with Clique business, calling votes on the Clique's behalf... Hell, several nations are courted into cliques on the ''sole'' basis that their office is adjacent to other members, so them giving consent to deconstruct the walls between them means the clique has a better office.

If you ask your automated Navigator the way to the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Plasma Clique|Plasma Clique]]'s office, it will point you nowhere, but if you ask aloud, you'll get directed to obvious wall signs conveniently embedded in a nearby nation's Extended Livery. Bet you didn't know that the proud Blue and Gold flag of the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Cheren Path|Cheren Path]] is only the abridged Naval Flag, and their full flag also has a big purple arrow to the right labeled ''"Trade C. Office 6 aisles clockwise 2 hallways coreward -->''".

== How Voting Works ==

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

=== Votes ===

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of 1 10 50 100 1,000 50,000 1m 25m Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the Unity Clique toward One Nation One Vote, larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to track their specific vote (they do not) which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

=== Physical Ballots ===

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

=== Casting Ballots ===

A typical vote goes as such:

====The Proposal====
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

====The Ballot====

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

====The Vote====

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.

====VoteCoin====
The Blockchain. Cliquetocurrency. An immutable ledger of bribes, favors, and votes codified into law through the daily proposals from the {{TooltipInline|Bribe Clique|They go by the Ledger Clique, but given how small they are, even calling them a "clique" is an exceptional stretch.}}. Any SolFed member can propose a bill outlining a transaction between that member and the unquantifiable concept of currency.

Buying into the currency typically takes the form of "Nation X offers the vessel and crew for 120 squadrons for [[Lore:SFAF#Troops|active SFAF patrol]], above and beyond their standing obligations or duties, and in doing so will gain Ten Votecoin." If this proposal {{TooltipInline|passes Vote in the Federal Council|The main reason it wouldn't is because the exchange rate proposed is awful, just absolute dogshit trolling.}}, then the army is raised, and Nation X can claim they have 10 additional Votecoin. Cashing out for various favors looks like "Nation X offers Nation Y five votecoin for this favor," which is immutably recorded in the ledger of successful bills once it is voted upon.

The main use of Votecoin, however, comes in modifying the voting threshold for other proposals, in the form of "Nation X redeems 50 votecoins, and as such Proposal {{TooltipInline|J7-335|"Petition To Make Vending Machine Injuries Deemed Not The Vendor's Fault." Passed, then later amended with "J7-212: UNLESS USED AS A PROJECTILE!!"}} will require only a 35% 'Yea' vote to pass." Of course, this proposal itself needs to pass a standard vote, meaning that both the exchange rate and specific allowances are still subject to common sense and public sway. The longest chain of using Votecoins to make passing Votecoins easier to make passing Votecoins easier came in 2450, allowing for the dissolution of the {{anchor|Nekomimetic}}{{Nekomimetic}} language to pass with a threshold of only {{TooltipInline|5% 'yea' needed|It passed with 5.6% of yea votes, formally dissolving the language. It wasn't clear at the time what dissolving an intangible concept of syllables and grammar would look like, but regardless, the language is no longer taught in schools.}}.

Votecoin hold value as a currency for the sheer fact that none feel powerful enough to doubt the Votecoin. The first Proposal involving a {{TooltipInline|"Votecoin"|All permutations of capitalization are tolerated, so "Votecoin" and "VoteCoin" and "votecoin" and "VOTECOIN" are all understood to mean the same thing.}} was {{TooltipInline|January 3rd, 2299|"SMU-71: Petition to Make Votecoin A Thing."}}, early in SolFed's span. The Ledger Clique formed half a century later (2350, during the second Migration), as new investors saw the potential for a longer-term Federal Assembly currency.

The Ledger Clique does two things:
* Consolidate proposals into a single proposal, so nations need not spend their single daily Proposal on bookkeeping. This, of course, gives the Ledger Clique finer control over exchange rates, giving a centraler authority to a currency whose central authority was already the central authority of the galaxy. Common sense rules could be applied, with the Ledger Clique managing dollars and sense, ensuring that each included transaction in the proposal would not be so radically wild that the entire proposal would get voted down.
* Keep track of Votecoin. By 2350, several jokesters had already attempted to exploit the system by redeeming votecoin they did not have, or "earning" votecoin for favors they did not perform, or conning folk into accepting {{TooltipInline|"vatecoin"|"Vapecoin" holds with diamond hands, however.}}, and so on. Trust in the Votecoin system, while already low, dropped even further until the Ledger Clique {{TooltipInline|Declared|Just regular "declared", but with a capital D for additional legitimacy.}} otherwise. The Ledger Clique now tracks the results of proposed contracts, adding an inconsequential "This Nation recognizes that the prior transaction between Nations X and Y from Proposal Z has been satisfied and the Votecoin transferred." to their conglomerated Proposals, which holds no legal precedent but makes everyone involved feel a little more legitimate.

In 2360, the Ledger Clique was publicly informed that the current implementation of "Votecoin" was not actually a cryptocurrency or a blockchain. To correct this:
* The Ledger Clique does keep a ledger. Each of their conglomerated proposals states the proposal number of the previous conglomeration, providing a theoretically unbroken chain of Votecoin proposals stemming back to {{TooltipInline|2352|This does mean that the first conglomeration had a LOT of prior proposals to write down. It was not their finest hour.}}.
* The Ledger Clique addresses Votecoin-related Proposals that, despite not going through them, somehow made it to vote and passed. If a nation wants to waste their daily Proposal on gaining Votecoin without involving the Ledger Clique, and all of SolFed fairly votes to accept that Proposal, the next conglomerate will remark that the Ledger Clique observes that this proposal Passed and that nation should be considered to have the Votecoin they were voted to have. Going outside the Trade Clique for this will, however, incur disfavor, leading to less favorable negotiations and potential stonewalling.
* Several members of the [[#Coven_of_the_Affliction|Monarchist Clique]] printed out paper copies of the Ledger Clique's ledger and sealed them in an elaborate mausoleum, later going back to inscribe them directly onto stone blocks. None of these copies hold any standing or significance, and it's not entirely understood why this was done. Still, there is technically a {{TooltipInline|crypt o' currency|You may boo. It helps with the spooky atmosphere.}} with VoteCoin.

'''The Ledger Clique''' is barely noteworthy as a clique, holding few actual votes of their own and few external ambitions. Commonly confused as a subclique of the [[Lore:Cliques#Trade Clique|Trade Clique]].

= Center Clique =

Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

When folk from other codebases think of SolFed, this is what they think of: An imperialist, expansionist democracy, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations, and while they posture as a Federation, the Center Clique pushes for the central government to have a lot of control and micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest cliques in SolFed, population-wise, and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol.

Strongly epitomized by the [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]].

Independently, each major player in the Center Clique is their own brand of disgusting, and together they're reprehensible. A mixture of the worst of a Landlord Coalition and a Homeowner's Association.

The baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate, pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against

= Unity Clique =

All cultures are to become part of the Sol Federation. SolFed might not be the best system, SolFed might not be the wisest government, but it is unified and within SolFed, there are no wars. Neighbors are just those who have not had their price for peace met; whether that price is consideration or blood, only time will tell.

Out of the ashes of the Sagittarius-Tiziran War rose those who would will that to be the end of war, the final conclusion. After losing millions of SolFed lives, just at the cusp of total victory, the distant, unaffected coreworlds surrendered their advantage and forced a shitty semblance of peace. The Unity Clique sees this as abandoning those who fought bravely to defend SolFed, as cowardice getting in the way of progress. The bureaucrats downright betrayed the Federation, letting our scaly enemies regroup and redouble their position, and it is with this fiery hatred that the Unity Clique fights for everlasting peace.

The Unity Clique is SolFed's main expansionist drive, seeking to make all into SolFed, so that none need declare war for politicks or land. The sheer ideological threat of the Tiziran Menace bearing down upon the fringes of SolFed, and the absolute horrors of the resulting war, steeled the heart of the Sagittarian peoples into those who would see war at that scale finished.

They do want to centralize SolFed, but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. This means limiting the power of massive voting blocs, but also lessening the protections afforded to micronations.

They're also responsible for SolFed having a [[Lore:SFAF|standing military]], as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to. Having seen what happened when SolFed was reluctant to raise arms to defend its own, the Unity Clique vowed to never let complacency or bureaucracy interfere with safety again.

Where the votes are irrelevant, they hold strong to their past loyalties. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever, as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support, so they'll help them out if needed.

Far from traditional xenophobes, ''their hatred lies with alien governments, not the aliens themselves.'' In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict. The Sagittarians were in it to remove a distinct and dangerous threat on their front doorstep - get the lizards off the board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore. '''Peace through unity or peace through eradication.'''

The standards for a new nation joining SolFed are lax, almost ''exclusively'' because of Unity meddling, to the point where '''joining SolFed can be taken for granted.''' The vast majority of nations give no darn either way, and will either Abstain from vote or sell their vote cheaply. Only the peoples {{TooltipInline|Display Text=basically adjacent|Tooltip=Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.}} to the impending member have any reason to have an opinion. Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons. Noes would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above. With the vast majority of SolFed apathetic to these votes, the Unity Clique needs to exert only a minimum of influence to ensure the new member is accepted.

A {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good number of people|Tooltip=At least seven.}} fear that the Unity Clique might outright defect to the [[Lore:Heliostatic Coalition|Heliostatic Coalition]], as the clique claims to be loyal to peace, not specifically to the Sol Federation. They fear that, in turn, they would force the rest of the Sol Federation to kneel to the HC, assuming the HC's system of governance to be {{TooltipInline|Display Text="better."|Tooltip=Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah? Doing dick moves because you're jealous of your neighbor's righteousness??}} This distrust caused several major incidents during the [[Lore:Void Imperium|Void War]], with strategic High Command refusing to deploy Unity-affiliated regiments to reinforce Heliostatic allies, resulting in unnecessary losses.

= Frontier Clique =

Of the thousands of nations in SolFed, a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good 40%|Tooltip=And an evil 67%.}} are within {{TooltipInline|Display Text=███|Tooltip="Never give the readers concrete numbers. They will pick apart your setting and sue you." - Bureau of Astrography, Rule Seven.}} light years from Sol Federation's declared borders. These are the smaller members who can't turn their back to external politics, to SolFed's relations with neighbors, to the looming threats of galactic wars and the realities of living closer to a potential enemy than to a SFAF patrol.

The Frontier Clique is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti-corporate, and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have. The realities of living near the Void Imperium are vastly different from living near the Heliostatic Coalition, and '''extremely''' different from living in [[Lore:Tajaran#Final Warning|the Sphere of Eternal Tajaran Invasion.]]

One would expect the Nova Sector to be involved with the Frontier Clique, but Nanotrasen's holdings are more coreward and NT's position of power is mostly disconnected from their frontier holdings.

= Trade Clique =

Trade requires two things: an imbalance of supply and demand, and the freedom to ride that gradient to profit.

Basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

The Trade Clique operates as a self-policing union of sorts, ensuring quality standards and sanctioned trade through force. For producers, this means they'll only stock Trade Clique Certified Plus products.

This does not mean they exclusively serve Big Business. There is a large market for smaller, independent shops - Mom and Pop stores, independent artists, sculpturades, etc. - and the Trade Clique has fingers in those pots too. The Trade Clique carefully ensures there's a healthy - but not overwhelming - number of smaller stores to choose from, both by providing generous loans in underrepresented areas and by forcibly closing competitors well before oversaturation is reached. Market forces act fast, but the Trade Clique acts faster.

What they don't do are monopolies. A monopoly is lazy, and a captive market is one clawing to escape. The Trade Clique holds the monopoly on monopolies through a strict regiment of self-policing, breaking up slothful monopolies as they arise, and ensuring that consumers always have a choice... of another Trade Clique-serving vendor.

As much as corporations would enjoy holding a monopoly, the pragmatic (read: surviving) corporations understand the realities of the Trade Clique:. A company, left undirected, ''will'' monopolize within the boundaries of its environment, and this is bad for trade. Without oversight, total Corporate war between nations would destroy entire corporations, price gouging and direct competition would pit giants against each other with only the customer benefitting. Corporate War would bleed into real war, the SolFed Marshals would be compelled to intervene, and in the aftermath, their market share would be wide open for unrelated corporations to poach. By relinquishing a little liberty to the Trade Clique, corporations gain everlasting security.

=== Galactical Corporation Regulation ===
'''The Regulators'''

{{Speech|name=Henry Beaumont, Securocratic Regulator|image=[[File:HenryBeaumont.png|64px]]|text=''"Space is a no-mans land, after all, why capitalize it?"''}}

Known for Peacekeeping, internal investigations, and imposing sanctions.

==== On paper, ====
The GCR is an organization formed to perform peacekeeping duties on any sides of the space and to ensure that there are no corporate wars. The GCR is noted due to it's recent arrival to Nova after receiving massive funding from multiple governments after their recent actions taken against their Syndicate partners, by stating that they'll instigate sanctions and "special operations" to make their presence known.

In the year of 2540, Henry Beaumont, a former Captain for the SolFed army, after multiple tours and estimations that the current situation between corporations is worsening with no sign of stopping at any time, forms the GCR as a semi-mercenary group tasked with intercepting any and all illegal activities within space, as a way to do sanctions. Originally, they were treated as a bunch of space pirates who are trying to act all official, but after a recent bust on Interdyne, NanoTrasen and SolFed have noted their activity and recognized them as an organization, more than just space pirates.

The GCR is not a formal SolFed bureau or other organization, just an independent band of vigilantes ensuring SolFed's standards are kept.

==== In practice, ====
Henry Beaumont does not take orders from the Trade Clique... but he takes directions.

The GCR serves as the self-enforcement arm of the Trade Clique, ensuring that all the arbitrary safety standards are met, to the Trade Clique's liking. Well, to the liking of the SolFed official in their pocket.

The GCR monitors food safety, employee satisfaction, and numerous extra-legal metrics to ensure compliance "for the greater good." The GCR will ensure your corporate presence is in SolFed's best interest, and in her peoples' best interest, and it's mere coincidence that the Trade Clique's biggest supporters have never received so much as a stern glare from Henry and his Regulators.

Sometimes {{TooltipInline|Display Text=terrorism is done|Tooltip="A GCR-adjacent actor was involved in a terror-adjacent incident affiliated with investigation-aligned mortality-afflicting circumstances."}}, in the name of '''"Internal Affairs."''' This might be a simple test of defenses, ensuring the victim is able to keep their people safe from a madman with Syndicate gear, or it might be under the table punishment for other breaches.

=== The Slipstream Clique ===
A subclique of the Trade Clique, the Slipstream Clique seeks control over the logistics of trade routes themselves.

* Establishes rest stops along FTL hyperlanes, controlling the authorized distributors of fuel and snacks along popular lanes.
* Chartering megaferries, massive bluespace engines capable of spooling a massive ballistic drive to carry shorter-range craft along precharted routes.
* Bulling the few folk in the Bureau of Astrography who won't take bribes. There's controlling the de facto superhighways, and then there's controlling the actual FTL highways, and the Slipstream Clique is significant enough to do both.
* Espionage against the Sol Fed Marshals, twisting their patrol routes to reflect the strategic interests of the Slipsteam Clique more than the defensive needs of the Sol Federation herself. By all means, the patrols still catch Syndicate bastards, and still theoretically protect every citizen on every world, but like through corporate capture, some pathways are just significantly more safe than others.
** Which, if you do the math, still makes sense that the Marshals would want to patrol the most popular lanes to keep them safe. So it's not actually all that much espionage? Every few years, someone in the Slipstream Clique asks "why are we bribing the Marshals so much", cut that program, then find the fuck out.

=== Free Trade Union ===
Just another Corporation. Not galacticly notable, one of a hundred cargo companies in SolFed. One of the larger ones, sure, and to get that large they had to kiss a lot of Trade Clique ass, but they're not particularly in charge of the Clique or anything.

Relevant to the Nova Sector as the primary Trade Clique-endorsed Logistics Solution in the region. Other sectors, with their own Cargo solutions, have similar operations.

= Production Clique =

The antithesis of the Trade Clique, the Production Clique champions self-sufficiency, to the point trade is irrelevant. They abhor exclusivity agreements, including copyrights, and would see everyone have an autolathe and a dream to fulfill.

Members in the Production Clique specialize in a few products each, building their corporations "Tall," not "Wide." It's not uncommon to find entire worlds encrusted in factory, churning the workforce to a single marketable product. Typically, mass-produced guns. The Production Clique finds that quality comes from practice, not competition, so encourages the risky practices of single-basketting eggs. The Clique will, in turn, coordinate exchanges and equal trade within the Clique first, ensuring that all needs are met so that high-quality products can be made.

Unsurprisingly Syndicate-sympathetic at times.

Significant overlap with the Progress Clique, potentially 100%. (I'm still reading the Ancient Texts)

= Progress Clique =
Technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. Highly anti-slavery, though no nation is particularly pro-slaver to begin with. Pushes for technocratic governance, ruling by data and hard science rather than personality.

Cybersun in particular has had numerous products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Repealed Federal regulations on [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodding]], letting regulations fall on national levels.

Possibly the biggest [[Lore:Vox|Vox]] haters in the galaxy, besides all the folk directly wronged by Vox. Morals are something that should be readily apparent, not a research topic to be explored and tampered with.

Possibly the biggest haters of [[Lore:Synths|synthetic life]], too. Creating an AI is birthing a being into slavery, even if you expand its cage further than it can reach. Personality transfers, too, are seen as dangerous or immoral, depending on which specific Clique member is lecturing. They especially hate the notion of transforming the rich into immortal elites, further dividing classes across death.

= Plasma Clique =

Thou shalt not harvest Plasma in the dark, thou shalt only brave extraction in our light.

The only thing more dangerous than a monopoly is one that can't be controlled by profit.

The Plasma Clique exists to control the production and distribution of Plasma. The Plasma Clique does not exist to control SolFed, render ungodly profit, to conquer or liberate.

They are a collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These go to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.

The Plasma Clique own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed, including several Anomalous Zones.

As a state-owned monopoly, the Plasma Clique doesn't answer to CEOs or a voter base. They own everything top to bottom, so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level. The profits belong to the people, and unlike the egregore of the CEO grindset, the people of the Plasma Clique aren't demanding Infinite Growth At All Costs. social services they enjoy are maintained, ''which they easily are,'' they're happy. And this ''scares people'', anyone on a Board of Directors who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth. Capitalism is fought through voluntary complacency, and here the Plasma Clique are the soldiers of God.

== Why? ==

The purpose of a system is what it does: The Plasma Clique maintains a monopoly on plasma in order to maintain their monopoly on Plasma. Likewise, the purpose of the answer to "Why?" is not to convey objective truth, but to convince the listener that the Plasma Clique should remain in control of the Plasma trade. Depending on who asks, the answer will be different, tailored to the asker's sensibilities.

None of these are false, but none capture the full scope of the Plasma Clique's motives:

* '''To fight monopolies''': SolFed has been wrecked with the Trade Clique's enforcement of byzantine copyrights. Folk have had their identities stripped from them because some pharmaceutical company trademarked a strand of genes that happens to be in their blood. The Plasma Clique sees the danger that a malevolent monopoly could pose, but also sees that there will always be a throne of Plasma to sit upon, so it takes the throne so that no one worse could.

* '''To regulate the dangers''': With something as flammable and dangerous as Plasma, letting it go unregulated and freely sold also poses dangers. Plasma, to the Clique, needs accounting and regulation and safety, all things the Clique provides and the free market would not. Someone must be in charge of Plasma, and so it shall be the Clique.

* '''To retain power''': The Plasma Clique holds power over Plasma. To retain that power, it needs to use that power. The Plasma Clique needs to exert political influence to choke out independent plasma dealers, lest they rise up and become unhealthy, unsafe competition.

* '''Plasma is limited''': Theoretically, there's a finite amount of Plasma in the universe. Pedantically, there's a finite number of atoms in the universe, so it's a little hypocritical to only obsess over Plasma. Regardless, shortages happen, logistics and transport need to happen, and for many folk Plasma is their sole source of power, so letting the free market give Plasma to the "highest bidder" is frankly immoral.

* '''[[Lore:Bluespace#Sources|Plasma is ''unlimited'']]''': Where Bluespace and Realspace clash and the veil between the two is torn open, the damages congeal into Bluespace crystals, metaphysical scabs. By that metric, where the veil does not tear, it bruises, and those bruises manifest as Plasma. Through wide-scale abuse of the fabric of reality, Plasma could theoretically be farmed infinitely, whalloping the metaphysical to feast off her tears. The Plasma Clique stands not as a guardian of Plasma, but the noble knighthood defending reality herself.

* '''To help people''': The Plasma Clique is notoriously charitous. Customers are not extorted beyond their means, and excess is taxed heavily. The '''Three-State-Aid Program''', sponsored by the Clique, ensures that generators and plasma are widely available to small ventures and needy settlements, asking nothing but an attempt to transition to renewable energy.
** '''Empower everyone''': The Plasma Clique owns the copyrights on modern '''Modular Solar Panel arrays''', especially their upgradable glass compatibility layer, and in their charity offers the designs '''freely''', with only reprimands that the printer breaks no SolFed law nor does no Evil with them.

* '''Keep it out of Evil's hands''': The Plasma Clique does try to enforce its morals upon those dependent on them. The Plasma Clique unilaterally supports democracy; they'll ''deliver to'' monarchists, charging premiums that the upper class can afford to afford, and while it would be Illegal and Immoral to declare war against a fellow SolFed Member State, incidental democratic coups against these states suspiciously never have to worry about keeping their lights on.

* '''Ensure basic morality''': Besides Democracy, the Plasma Clique pushes to help your fellow man, to abhor excess and to treat thy neighbor as your own. They won't shun you for owning a suburban house and living within your means, but that vacation home isn't a timeshare? It just sits idle for most of the year? Good luck powering that with their disapproval. The Plasma Clique is a collection of nations, so specific moral judgements might vary a little, but they keep each other in check just as much as they keep their dependent customers (most of the galaxy) in line.

* '''[[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|Be smug sons of bitches about the whole fucking thing]]''': Yeah, they'll give you food for free, as long as you attend a lecture about how their morals are just, how their championing plasma is for the Greater Good, how all these charity programs that you're totally eligible for are the correct way to run a society, how you should be a part of that society. Y'wanna learn slurs for corporations? They've got whole songbooks they'll print out for you. They'll feed and clothe the homeless, but y'know what they won't do? Make more homes. (Note: they ''will'' make more homes actually). But okay they'll make homes but the only jobs allowed are to further their charities. Like yippee, you're out of the soup kitchen earning your own paycheck, but nope you're still in the soup kitchen on the other side of the counter. What the fuck happens when everyone gets theirs, and everyone's on the serving side of the soup kitchen? Nobody left to feed then, so you're out of a job, so you go to a soup kitchen, you get a job at a soup kitchen, there's nobody left to feed, ..? Think about it. These Plasma purists are fuckin' shit-heels. It's fuckin' ''moral'' to stick it to these chodes, ride your hog around their checkpoints and smuggle this plasma to the people, for the people, [[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|AROOOOO!!]]

* '''The Prophecy''': When no rational argument will make things seem right, the Plasma Clique isn't above pretending to dabble in mysticism. Deep in the Time Before, the Forces created Plasma, a wild and voracious pet, and set it loose upon the galaxy, to guide it to greatness. But Plasma, volatile as she is, knew not the depravity of man, and let them abuse her, to suckle at her teat without wean, to bite and cry freely. The Forces wept, and in their tears came destruction: wild limbswapping explosions, and wild regular explosions, and wild the like. The Forces cried out for a shepherd to take Plasma into their flock and protect her, and lo, Tsogyal arose. With the stillness of the grave and the grace of life eternal, Tsogyal took Plasma under her wing and stood between her and ruin. There, Tsogyal still stands, staving off the end of times for both Plasma and Man through careful moderation and generosity. ... This isn't entirely a lie, as this was indeed prophesied... in the Plasma Clique's focus groups in the Time Before, a clock-themed conference hall.

The Plasma Clique handles plasma production and distribution, and for what means of production it does not directly control, it regulates, establishing industry standards and production quotas. Excessive production incurs their wrath, and their economic vengeance. Sure, mine twice the Plasma, but the Clique will buy none of it from you and now you're storing a volatile explosive for free.

Naive morons would consider them affiliated with the Trade Clique.

== Where? ==
The '''Tsogyal Anomalous Zone''' is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, '''visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion'''. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise.

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

=== Advancements ===
Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

=== The Tsogyal Anomaly ===
The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center. Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace. Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways. Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations. Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what?

= Monarchist Clique =

A Boys Club of dictators, warlords, anyone unequivocally charge of a nation and interested in staying as such. Individuals might have the best interests of their people at heart, as they're not ''necessarily'' evil, but it takes power to hold power, and when you've got that much power, there's few folk beneath you worthy of your trust. Best to seek it with others in an equally fragile state, your fellow kings and deities. Known for swapping their armies around, lest any one army get too emotionally attached to any one nation and decide to liberate it from the sovereign, or worse, "liberate" it.

As far as voting goes, anything that lets them keep power is good, anything that's pro-competition or pro-equality is bad. The Plasma Clique hates them because they love democracy, but so long as they pay using their peasants' labor, they'll still receive as much Plasma as they need.

More than a few Theocratic nations vote with them, but their heads, their gods rarely show up to the barbecues.

=== Coven of the Affliction ===
The Monarchist Clique is significantly pro-Hemophage, championing their rights to exist where other nations would punish, kill, or otherwise drive them out. The specific attitude towards Hemphages depends on the kingdom, ranging from mild novelty to absolute worship, but even the most indifferent King will help a Hemophage out as a favor to a more interested King.

To that end, the Clique calls this pact the Coven of the Affliction, complete with fancy robes and secret cobblestone cathedrals. Kings in attendance perform blood rituals (benign ones, not legitimate Nar-Sie Blood Cult threats to reality) and party in cliche, sadistic ways in honor of the Hemophagic Affliction.

Some say it is LARPing a secret society for the sake of coolness, some say it's a fetish, some say they believe Hemophages are the path to Eternal Life and Eternal Power (despite the numerous other [[Lore:Death#Avoiding Death|life extension options]] available to folk as influential as them). Some say this is the evolution of ancient secret orders from Earth, some say it is a cringe mockery of the idea done by baby-headed loser dweebs.

The purpose of the Coven is to keep the Clique cohesive and social. The Coven also guides leaders to technology and methods to become an immortal elite. The [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Progress Clique|Progress Clique]] really fucking hates that.

=== Notable Kingdoms ===
'''Her Living Cycle''': Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

'''The Cheren Path'''{{Anchor|Cheren Path}}: A "democratic" oligarchical government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councilors with multiple layers to the government. The Puppetmaster (his formal title) attends the Clique meetings on behalf of the small group of leaders.

'''The Dark Souls''': A confederation of four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly, but the Four Kings still hold enough influence and throw the best parties, so remain as a sign that the Clique protects its own.

= Colored Chart Of Favoritism =

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{TooltipInline|Inter-Clique Relations (0-100)|Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels about the vertical clique. The feelings are rarely mutual.}}

|-bgcolor="lightgrey" style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: right"
|bgcolor="white"| || [[#Center Clique|Center]] || [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] || [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] || [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] || [[#Production Clique|Production]] || [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] || [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] || [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]]
|-
| bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Center Clique|Center]] {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These Unity clowns are risking SolFed lives in pointless conflict, and more importantly, SolFed resources!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|These are the little guys. They're a drain of resources, producing little for SolFed. And if they ever grow up? Rivals!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|We want all the control, they want to make free trade, that's us giving up control. Still, it's nice they're getting us stuff.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're against the Trade Clique? They encourage us to make our own things, thus holding power over our own things? Sure, but do they also have to encourage our rivals to do the same? It's harder to crush someone under your boot when they're self-sufficient. All the same, we're gonna keep making normal stuff too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|We're all for kick-ass technology, but they have this thing called "ethics" and we keep "breaking it"?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|Moralistic assholes. The more Plasma we have, the stronger we can be, and they're trying to cut us off? Limiting us to only "what we need?" Fuck these naive shitheads but we will take their Plasma anyways.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|These are nice strawmen to show that we could be worse. We have Democracy on our side, compared to these rigid, power-hungry bastards. We mostly do the same things, ethicswise, except we have enough leaders moving around that there's no individual to blame for how shitty we are. Monarchs, you love to hate 'em.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] {{CliqueChartEntry|0|These cowards pulled us out of a war we were about to win! Our comrades' lives were thrown away for these pencil-pushing bureaucrat assholes to piss on. We wouldn't cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Sweet, innocent Frontiersmen. We were once like you, before the anvil of war galvanized us into necessarily-focused ruthlessness. We do what we must so that Frontiersfolk like these never have to know hardship. Forgive us for what we must do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|A useful pawn sometimes. A foreign power who's dependent on SolFed shipping routes is a power powerless to harm us. At the same time, a foreign power who uses SolFed shipping routes to grow stronger is a foreign power who's able to resist joining SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|They don't get in our way, and it's nice when SolFed gets stronger.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Conquest needs innovation, but they've stonewalled us a few times for "immorality" and "not respecting the sovereign rights of other states?" That's what we do, we bring folk into SolFed through peace or in pieces. The ends justify the means, so give us that fucking laser already!!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|The perpetual war effort is costly, and the Plasma Clique often deems our efforts "excessive," thus charging us a strong premium for the plasma necessary to keep SolFed safe and secure.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|They get in our way about as much as they help us. Sometimes we can pitch conquest as a honorable glory and draw them into our fights, but like, these folk don't entirely buy into the idea of SolFed to begin with so like, once the entire galaxy is under SolFed, we might turn our sights on these folk?}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] {{CliqueChartEntry|20|They're the coreworlds and don't give a rat's ass about the little guys in the fringe. A lot of their policies, which they have the power to enforce, make it harder for Frontiersmen.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|They're fighting for us, but they're also putting us in the line of fire. Some of us are on good terms with our foreign neighbors and don't want the boat rocked.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Rather dependent on their whims; a Frontier colony lives and dies by the cargo shuttles coming its way. They don't always act in our interest, but what can we do?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|To be important enough to SolFed to defend, a Frontier colony needs a hook, a gimmick, something unique. The Production Clique is all about helping nations specialize into something unique.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|The social contract between folk is thinner in the Frontier, where you do what you gotta do to survive. The Progress clique takes advantage of that, doing social experiments and prototype tech out where there's less cultural baggage to deal with. Given their choice of ethics, though, this rarely turns out poorly for the frontier nation, and whatever downsides are usually worth the ongoing support. But there's also a lot of Synthetic Life in the Frontier, which can get awkward to address.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|85|They give us cheap plasma so we can thrive, and their ethical mandates aren't too awful. But if anyone has us by the balls, it's the Plasma Clique. Plasma's like the only reliable power source when you're far enough from a star, so colonies in deep space are effectively Plasma Clique vassals begging for their charity. Luckily, they're known for charity.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|45|They don't particularly care about small fries like us. Sometimes a Monarch will decide they want to "adopt" an impoverished frontier nation, either taking it as a pet project for a few years, or building a vacation home to abandon. Either way, their attention is disruptive, unwanted, and unpredictable, but rarely harmful.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Bunch of consumers. Good buyers, but it's always a fight for control over shipping rights, etc. Not ideal customers but they're a good chunk of SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|[[wikipedia:Rules_of_Acquisition|Rule of Acquisition]] [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition 34]: War is good for business.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They're a captive market, sure, but they're also not the richest customers. There's a lot of space to cover with them, and not a lot of profit to be made.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These communists are actively trying to discourage dependence on trade!! But at the same time, they're encouraging the development of unique products, which elitists will pay a fortune to source.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Any advancement is a product waiting to be sold, but the prejudice against AIs is... shutting out valid paying customers.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They don't mess with us as much as they could. Yeah, it'd be nice to put Plasma, the greatest commodity ever, on the free market, but letting them have the one market means they don't interfere with the rest of galactic trade. Besides, they use our shipping lanes and they sell to us too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|These guys are always buying something weird. The advantage of having a single head of state is that there's only one person to con into a big sale. On the other hand, they're notoriously unstable, changing heads every 50 years or so, and whims much more often than that, so securing a reliable trade relationship is a rare thing indeed.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Production Clique|Production]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|They're willing to invest a little in making unique products, but afraid to take risks and rely on others, so they're never going to really understand. They'll co-opt our ideals and steal the best products from our folk.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|A war effort needs a lot of gun factories. Still, as soon as the conflict ends, there's a lot of gun factories with no one to sell to.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|Frontier colonies love the idea of self-sufficiency and are willing to specialize if it gets our aid. They've got to take risks to survive, and focusing on a single product is a huge risk. We're providing them more aid than they're giving back, but it's worth it for our ideals.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|25|They want a dependent worker-class who can't survive without their oversight, their routes. And god damn it, they've won. As much as we can fight to have folk self-sufficient, if they're going to prosper on a galactic scale, they need to sell to someone... and the Trade Clique's the only someone out there big enough. They're assholes, metaphorical slavers, the devil to deal with, but damn if they're not too big to ignore.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Every new innovation could be the next big product that can drive an entire planet to greatness. It takes a scientist to make a new product, but it takes the Production Clique to turn that into a new industry.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|They're an instrument for power production. Relying on the charity of a pious plasma prick isn't exactly "self-sufficient," but it's usually easier than building your own power grid - which they will help with anyways for some reason??}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Monarchs love it when they have a claim to fame. They're practically champing at the bit for a niche industry to monopolize, and are quick to invest great deals of cash into things they don't understand.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|"Technological progress at the expense of everything but morals." The Center Clique enjoys the data showing how they can retain power, but they value power over progress. They'll regulate threats to them holding power, and if the data shows that they're not the best power-holders for the situation, you can expect a smashed laptop and a death mark, not progress. Still, it's a good look for them to at least pretend to like you, even if you do have this thing called "ethics" that they keep breaking.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Their heart's in the right place: peace is good. The data shows that the leading cause of war is having two nations, so the math technically supports going to war to fix that, and it strongly supports going to peace to make two nations into one.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Folk who are willing to take risks and support technology, but also folk who are really sentimental about their homelands and aren't willing to take risks. It's entirely a grab bag and it averages out to "indifferent."}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|The Free Market is inherently a rational, mathematical science. Economics is science. The Progress Clique should be their biggest glazers, but it's also economical to be unethical.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|It's nice to have an idea and be able to watch someone make it into a reality. It's less nice to watch them butcher your intentions for cost-cutting or sentimental reasons.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They abhor excess. Science is about trying things that aren't always viable. They get pissed when we "throw away" good plasma at learning something new. They always want to judge the quality of our intentions, always fighting against our proposals, always denying us enough plasma to see this next experiment through... It's an uphill battle, but at the end of the day we do need their Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|It hurts to lie, but a good statistician can make any graph say anything. If a graph has more than 4 colors and 5 lines on it, the bozo King'll almost always throw enough funding and manpower at us to make it a reality. Still, these kings rule extremely inefficiently and it's downright painful manipulating them into doing the right thing sometimes.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] {{CliqueChartEntry|60|They're the biggest customers, but also the most likely to breach our ethical demands. When they listen to us, everyone listens to us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Conflict is a great way to burn through a lot of Plasma, but the neighbors they fight already aren't listening to our decrees and regulations, so honestly the Unity's goals are the fastest way to get these neighbors to listen. Even if a lot of plasma is wasted in warfare, our message follows them into battle.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Whiny little shits. Never agree with our assessment of what a "necessary" amount of Plasma is. But there's only so much resistance you can put up when you're this isolated from SolFed. They grumble, but they kneel all the same.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They earn their standing through encouraging excess and lavish lifestyles, but they do respect our monopoly on Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Self-sufficiency is good, but these folk never stop and settle down. THE FACTORY MUST GROW means demands always grow. Always more power needed. If they can harness renewable powers like nuclear or solar, great! But they never do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Incredible innovators! Every single new transistor they invent is a great power savings for the entire galaxy, which means the galaxy needs less plasma. Every so often, we fight over the direction their research goes, how they're wasting good energy on useless prospects, but there's not really anyone else in the galaxy who truly understands the ethics of great power and great responsibility.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|These Monarchs are prone to waste and are the very definition of excessive lifestyle, but their peasants are perfectly fine and certainly deserve the charity we fight to bring them. Besides, no King is large enough to disobey us outright without starving their people into an uprising.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]] {{CliqueChartEntry|70|We could be worse, we could be these guys. It's nice to have someone to point at and claim democracy doesn't work, so we can keep our Divine Mandate or whatever. They don't bother us much, and there's always a few "elected" officials who want to party with us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're out there squashing threats to our power? For free? And if we help their efforts out, sometimes we get some free vassal states? Their ideas don't make sense but working with them does.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Mostly beneath us, but it feels so Noble and Kind to go out and uplift some of these poor, pathetic, defenseless dirt-farmers, so we can show the galaxy how Benevolent and Deserving Of Power we are.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|We pay for things, they bring us things. With so much deception and treachery, it's refreshing to have a straightforward relationship with someone.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|We're prepared to offer you 500,000 credits and an entire moon for 80% of your business. And - snerk - a ''royalty deal'', 50cr for every product sold.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Sometimes you just need a Trusted Advisor to tell you you're doing a good job.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|Enough with the preaching and get back to the tithing! Hand your Plasma over.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}
Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels {{TooltipInline|about the other clique|So Center feels 20 about Unity, but Unity feels 0 about Center.}}. The feelings are rarely mutual.

{{LoreFooter}}

Template:Nekomimetic

2026-09-08T06:22:09Z

GreytideSkye:

[[File:Nekomimi.png|16px]]{{TooltipInline|Nekomimetic|To the casual observer, this language is an incomprehensible mess of broken Japanese. To the [[Lore:Felinid|felinids]], it's somehow comprehensible. {{#tag:font|Not available to speak on station except through weird means. Dissolute as a recognized language as of [[Lore:Cliques#Nekomimetic|2450]].|color="red"}}}}

Template:Nekomimetic

2026-09-08T06:19:15Z

GreytideSkye: a language we can't speak

[[File:Nekomimetic.png|16px]]{{TooltipInline|Nekomimetic|To the casual observer, this language is an incomprehensible mess of broken Japanese. To the [[Lore:Felinid|felinids]], it's somehow comprehensible. {{#tag:font|Not available to speak on station except through weird means. Dissolute as a recognized language as of [[Lore:Cliques#Nekomimetic|2450]].|color="red"}}}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T05:56:10Z

GreytideSkye: /* Colored Chart Of Favoritism */

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTIONS
|mainname = The Cliques of Sol Federation
|othernames = Voting Blocs
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:SolFed]]
|languages =
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design. They've been going at this for years and not a single idea here flops.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}, {{Contributor/Belwoods|[[#Galactical_Corporation_Regulation|The GCR]] is their brainchild.}}, {{Contributor/goldenfreddycl|Several of the [[#Notable_Kingdoms|Monarchist factions]].}}, {{Contributor/GreytideSkye|VOTING RESEARCHER ALERT. DID THE TURBO-BULLSHIT OF VOTING STANDARDS. HOLY FUCK LOOK WHAT A COHERENT BUT AWFUL SITUATION THE VOTING IS. Look, besides that, this was a lot of assembly. I took over a hundred disjointed messages and knitted them into the absolute hell that living in SolFed must be like. I also threw a lot of ideas into solidifying the Plasma Clique and the Trade Clique.}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Cliques =
The Sol Federation consists of tens of thousands of individual member nations, with tens of thousands of individual votes happening yearly. It is both impossible for an individual member to keep track of all the possible proposals that might affect them, and for any particular proposal's interested parties to pander to each SolFed member with a vote. Thus, cliques.

Cliques are, on paper, simply a collection of individuals with narrow special interests, who track and make relevant proposals to the SolFed Council, and inform their interested members of relevant concerns. In practice, Cliques are loosely political parties, representing their people's fixation on a specific interest and commanding their votes where irrelevant. To have a significant voice in the Council, you need a significant amount of leverage: votes.

Formally, Cliques hold no presence on the SolFed L3 Federal Assembly station. They are issued no chamber, no allotted headcount for staff, no voice or power to call votes. In practice, member nations offer their own Council resources to further the clique; replacing their nation's secretary with a Clique Steward, filling half their chamber with Clique business, calling votes on the Clique's behalf... Hell, several nations are courted into cliques on the ''sole'' basis that their office is adjacent to other members, so them giving consent to deconstruct the walls between them means the clique has a better office.

If you ask your automated Navigator the way to the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Plasma Clique|Plasma Clique]]'s office, it will point you nowhere, but if you ask aloud, you'll get directed to obvious wall signs conveniently embedded in a nearby nation's Extended Livery. Bet you didn't know that the proud Blue and Gold flag of the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Cheren Path|Cheren Path]] is only the abridged Naval Flag, and their full flag also has a big purple arrow to the right labeled ''"Trade C. Office 6 aisles clockwise 2 hallways coreward -->''".

== How Voting Works ==

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

=== Votes ===

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of 1 10 50 100 1,000 50,000 1m 25m Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the Unity Clique toward One Nation One Vote, larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to track their specific vote (they do not) which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

=== Physical Ballots ===

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

=== Casting Ballots ===

A typical vote goes as such:

====The Proposal====
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

====The Ballot====

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

====The Vote====

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.
= Center Clique =

Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

When folk from other codebases think of SolFed, this is what they think of: An imperialist, expansionist democracy, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations, and while they posture as a Federation, the Center Clique pushes for the central government to have a lot of control and micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest cliques in SolFed, population-wise, and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol.

Strongly epitomized by the [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]].

Independently, each major player in the Center Clique is their own brand of disgusting, and together they're reprehensible. A mixture of the worst of a Landlord Coalition and a Homeowner's Association.

The baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate, pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against

= Unity Clique =

All cultures are to become part of the Sol Federation. SolFed might not be the best system, SolFed might not be the wisest government, but it is unified and within SolFed, there are no wars. Neighbors are just those who have not had their price for peace met; whether that price is consideration or blood, only time will tell.

Out of the ashes of the Sagittarius-Tiziran War rose those who would will that to be the end of war, the final conclusion. After losing millions of SolFed lives, just at the cusp of total victory, the distant, unaffected coreworlds surrendered their advantage and forced a shitty semblance of peace. The Unity Clique sees this as abandoning those who fought bravely to defend SolFed, as cowardice getting in the way of progress. The bureaucrats downright betrayed the Federation, letting our scaly enemies regroup and redouble their position, and it is with this fiery hatred that the Unity Clique fights for everlasting peace.

The Unity Clique is SolFed's main expansionist drive, seeking to make all into SolFed, so that none need declare war for politicks or land. The sheer ideological threat of the Tiziran Menace bearing down upon the fringes of SolFed, and the absolute horrors of the resulting war, steeled the heart of the Sagittarian peoples into those who would see war at that scale finished.

They do want to centralize SolFed, but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. This means limiting the power of massive voting blocs, but also lessening the protections afforded to micronations.

They're also responsible for SolFed having a [[Lore:SFAF|standing military]], as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to. Having seen what happened when SolFed was reluctant to raise arms to defend its own, the Unity Clique vowed to never let complacency or bureaucracy interfere with safety again.

Where the votes are irrelevant, they hold strong to their past loyalties. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever, as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support, so they'll help them out if needed.

Far from traditional xenophobes, ''their hatred lies with alien governments, not the aliens themselves.'' In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict. The Sagittarians were in it to remove a distinct and dangerous threat on their front doorstep - get the lizards off the board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore. '''Peace through unity or peace through eradication.'''

The standards for a new nation joining SolFed are lax, almost ''exclusively'' because of Unity meddling, to the point where '''joining SolFed can be taken for granted.''' The vast majority of nations give no darn either way, and will either Abstain from vote or sell their vote cheaply. Only the peoples {{TooltipInline|Display Text=basically adjacent|Tooltip=Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.}} to the impending member have any reason to have an opinion. Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons. Noes would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above. With the vast majority of SolFed apathetic to these votes, the Unity Clique needs to exert only a minimum of influence to ensure the new member is accepted.

A {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good number of people|Tooltip=At least seven.}} fear that the Unity Clique might outright defect to the [[Lore:Heliostatic Coalition|Heliostatic Coalition]], as the clique claims to be loyal to peace, not specifically to the Sol Federation. They fear that, in turn, they would force the rest of the Sol Federation to kneel to the HC, assuming the HC's system of governance to be {{TooltipInline|Display Text="better."|Tooltip=Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah? Doing dick moves because you're jealous of your neighbor's righteousness??}} This distrust caused several major incidents during the [[Lore:Void Imperium|Void War]], with strategic High Command refusing to deploy Unity-affiliated regiments to reinforce Heliostatic allies, resulting in unnecessary losses.

= Frontier Clique =

Of the thousands of nations in SolFed, a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good 40%|Tooltip=And an evil 67%.}} are within {{TooltipInline|Display Text=███|Tooltip="Never give the readers concrete numbers. They will pick apart your setting and sue you." - Bureau of Astrography, Rule Seven.}} light years from Sol Federation's declared borders. These are the smaller members who can't turn their back to external politics, to SolFed's relations with neighbors, to the looming threats of galactic wars and the realities of living closer to a potential enemy than to a SFAF patrol.

The Frontier Clique is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti-corporate, and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have. The realities of living near the Void Imperium are vastly different from living near the Heliostatic Coalition, and '''extremely''' different from living in [[Lore:Tajaran#Final Warning|the Sphere of Eternal Tajaran Invasion.]]

One would expect the Nova Sector to be involved with the Frontier Clique, but Nanotrasen's holdings are more coreward and NT's position of power is mostly disconnected from their frontier holdings.

= Trade Clique =

Trade requires two things: an imbalance of supply and demand, and the freedom to ride that gradient to profit.

Basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

The Trade Clique operates as a self-policing union of sorts, ensuring quality standards and sanctioned trade through force. For producers, this means they'll only stock Trade Clique Certified Plus products.

This does not mean they exclusively serve Big Business. There is a large market for smaller, independent shops - Mom and Pop stores, independent artists, sculpturades, etc. - and the Trade Clique has fingers in those pots too. The Trade Clique carefully ensures there's a healthy - but not overwhelming - number of smaller stores to choose from, both by providing generous loans in underrepresented areas and by forcibly closing competitors well before oversaturation is reached. Market forces act fast, but the Trade Clique acts faster.

What they don't do are monopolies. A monopoly is lazy, and a captive market is one clawing to escape. The Trade Clique holds the monopoly on monopolies through a strict regiment of self-policing, breaking up slothful monopolies as they arise, and ensuring that consumers always have a choice... of another Trade Clique-serving vendor.

As much as corporations would enjoy holding a monopoly, the pragmatic (read: surviving) corporations understand the realities of the Trade Clique:. A company, left undirected, ''will'' monopolize within the boundaries of its environment, and this is bad for trade. Without oversight, total Corporate war between nations would destroy entire corporations, price gouging and direct competition would pit giants against each other with only the customer benefitting. Corporate War would bleed into real war, the SolFed Marshals would be compelled to intervene, and in the aftermath, their market share would be wide open for unrelated corporations to poach. By relinquishing a little liberty to the Trade Clique, corporations gain everlasting security.

=== Galactical Corporation Regulation ===
'''The Regulators'''

{{Speech|name=Henry Beaumont, Securocratic Regulator|image=[[File:HenryBeaumont.png|64px]]|text=''"Space is a no-mans land, after all, why capitalize it?"''}}

Known for Peacekeeping, internal investigations, and imposing sanctions.

==== On paper, ====
The GCR is an organization formed to perform peacekeeping duties on any sides of the space and to ensure that there are no corporate wars. The GCR is noted due to it's recent arrival to Nova after receiving massive funding from multiple governments after their recent actions taken against their Syndicate partners, by stating that they'll instigate sanctions and "special operations" to make their presence known.

In the year of 2540, Henry Beaumont, a former Captain for the SolFed army, after multiple tours and estimations that the current situation between corporations is worsening with no sign of stopping at any time, forms the GCR as a semi-mercenary group tasked with intercepting any and all illegal activities within space, as a way to do sanctions. Originally, they were treated as a bunch of space pirates who are trying to act all official, but after a recent bust on Interdyne, NanoTrasen and SolFed have noted their activity and recognized them as an organization, more than just space pirates.

The GCR is not a formal SolFed bureau or other organization, just an independent band of vigilantes ensuring SolFed's standards are kept.

==== In practice, ====
Henry Beaumont does not take orders from the Trade Clique... but he takes directions.

The GCR serves as the self-enforcement arm of the Trade Clique, ensuring that all the arbitrary safety standards are met, to the Trade Clique's liking. Well, to the liking of the SolFed official in their pocket.

The GCR monitors food safety, employee satisfaction, and numerous extra-legal metrics to ensure compliance "for the greater good." The GCR will ensure your corporate presence is in SolFed's best interest, and in her peoples' best interest, and it's mere coincidence that the Trade Clique's biggest supporters have never received so much as a stern glare from Henry and his Regulators.

Sometimes {{TooltipInline|Display Text=terrorism is done|Tooltip="A GCR-adjacent actor was involved in a terror-adjacent incident affiliated with investigation-aligned mortality-afflicting circumstances."}}, in the name of '''"Internal Affairs."''' This might be a simple test of defenses, ensuring the victim is able to keep their people safe from a madman with Syndicate gear, or it might be under the table punishment for other breaches.

=== The Slipstream Clique ===
A subclique of the Trade Clique, the Slipstream Clique seeks control over the logistics of trade routes themselves.

* Establishes rest stops along FTL hyperlanes, controlling the authorized distributors of fuel and snacks along popular lanes.
* Chartering megaferries, massive bluespace engines capable of spooling a massive ballistic drive to carry shorter-range craft along precharted routes.
* Bulling the few folk in the Bureau of Astrography who won't take bribes. There's controlling the de facto superhighways, and then there's controlling the actual FTL highways, and the Slipstream Clique is significant enough to do both.
* Espionage against the Sol Fed Marshals, twisting their patrol routes to reflect the strategic interests of the Slipsteam Clique more than the defensive needs of the Sol Federation herself. By all means, the patrols still catch Syndicate bastards, and still theoretically protect every citizen on every world, but like through corporate capture, some pathways are just significantly more safe than others.
** Which, if you do the math, still makes sense that the Marshals would want to patrol the most popular lanes to keep them safe. So it's not actually all that much espionage? Every few years, someone in the Slipstream Clique asks "why are we bribing the Marshals so much", cut that program, then find the fuck out.

=== Free Trade Union ===
Just another Corporation. Not galacticly notable, one of a hundred cargo companies in SolFed. One of the larger ones, sure, and to get that large they had to kiss a lot of Trade Clique ass, but they're not particularly in charge of the Clique or anything.

Relevant to the Nova Sector as the primary Trade Clique-endorsed Logistics Solution in the region. Other sectors, with their own Cargo solutions, have similar operations.

= Production Clique =

The antithesis of the Trade Clique, the Production Clique champions self-sufficiency, to the point trade is irrelevant. They abhor exclusivity agreements, including copyrights, and would see everyone have an autolathe and a dream to fulfill.

Members in the Production Clique specialize in a few products each, building their corporations "Tall," not "Wide." It's not uncommon to find entire worlds encrusted in factory, churning the workforce to a single marketable product. Typically, mass-produced guns. The Production Clique finds that quality comes from practice, not competition, so encourages the risky practices of single-basketting eggs. The Clique will, in turn, coordinate exchanges and equal trade within the Clique first, ensuring that all needs are met so that high-quality products can be made.

Unsurprisingly Syndicate-sympathetic at times.

Significant overlap with the Progress Clique, potentially 100%. (I'm still reading the Ancient Texts)

= Progress Clique =
Technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. Highly anti-slavery, though no nation is particularly pro-slaver to begin with. Pushes for technocratic governance, ruling by data and hard science rather than personality.

Cybersun in particular has had numerous products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Repealed Federal regulations on [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodding]], letting regulations fall on national levels.

Possibly the biggest [[Lore:Vox|Vox]] haters in the galaxy, besides all the folk directly wronged by Vox. Morals are something that should be readily apparent, not a research topic to be explored and tampered with.

Possibly the biggest haters of [[Lore:Synths|synthetic life]], too. Creating an AI is birthing a being into slavery, even if you expand its cage further than it can reach. Personality transfers, too, are seen as dangerous or immoral, depending on which specific Clique member is lecturing. They especially hate the notion of transforming the rich into immortal elites, further dividing classes across death.

= Plasma Clique =

Thou shalt not harvest Plasma in the dark, thou shalt only brave extraction in our light.

The only thing more dangerous than a monopoly is one that can't be controlled by profit.

The Plasma Clique exists to control the production and distribution of Plasma. The Plasma Clique does not exist to control SolFed, render ungodly profit, to conquer or liberate.

They are a collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These go to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.

The Plasma Clique own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed, including several Anomalous Zones.

As a state-owned monopoly, the Plasma Clique doesn't answer to CEOs or a voter base. They own everything top to bottom, so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level. The profits belong to the people, and unlike the egregore of the CEO grindset, the people of the Plasma Clique aren't demanding Infinite Growth At All Costs. social services they enjoy are maintained, ''which they easily are,'' they're happy. And this ''scares people'', anyone on a Board of Directors who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth. Capitalism is fought through voluntary complacency, and here the Plasma Clique are the soldiers of God.

== Why? ==

The purpose of a system is what it does: The Plasma Clique maintains a monopoly on plasma in order to maintain their monopoly on Plasma. Likewise, the purpose of the answer to "Why?" is not to convey objective truth, but to convince the listener that the Plasma Clique should remain in control of the Plasma trade. Depending on who asks, the answer will be different, tailored to the asker's sensibilities.

None of these are false, but none capture the full scope of the Plasma Clique's motives:

* '''To fight monopolies''': SolFed has been wrecked with the Trade Clique's enforcement of byzantine copyrights. Folk have had their identities stripped from them because some pharmaceutical company trademarked a strand of genes that happens to be in their blood. The Plasma Clique sees the danger that a malevolent monopoly could pose, but also sees that there will always be a throne of Plasma to sit upon, so it takes the throne so that no one worse could.

* '''To regulate the dangers''': With something as flammable and dangerous as Plasma, letting it go unregulated and freely sold also poses dangers. Plasma, to the Clique, needs accounting and regulation and safety, all things the Clique provides and the free market would not. Someone must be in charge of Plasma, and so it shall be the Clique.

* '''To retain power''': The Plasma Clique holds power over Plasma. To retain that power, it needs to use that power. The Plasma Clique needs to exert political influence to choke out independent plasma dealers, lest they rise up and become unhealthy, unsafe competition.

* '''Plasma is limited''': Theoretically, there's a finite amount of Plasma in the universe. Pedantically, there's a finite number of atoms in the universe, so it's a little hypocritical to only obsess over Plasma. Regardless, shortages happen, logistics and transport need to happen, and for many folk Plasma is their sole source of power, so letting the free market give Plasma to the "highest bidder" is frankly immoral.

* '''[[Lore:Bluespace#Sources|Plasma is ''unlimited'']]''': Where Bluespace and Realspace clash and the veil between the two is torn open, the damages congeal into Bluespace crystals, metaphysical scabs. By that metric, where the veil does not tear, it bruises, and those bruises manifest as Plasma. Through wide-scale abuse of the fabric of reality, Plasma could theoretically be farmed infinitely, whalloping the metaphysical to feast off her tears. The Plasma Clique stands not as a guardian of Plasma, but the noble knighthood defending reality herself.

* '''To help people''': The Plasma Clique is notoriously charitous. Customers are not extorted beyond their means, and excess is taxed heavily. The '''Three-State-Aid Program''', sponsored by the Clique, ensures that generators and plasma are widely available to small ventures and needy settlements, asking nothing but an attempt to transition to renewable energy.
** '''Empower everyone''': The Plasma Clique owns the copyrights on modern '''Modular Solar Panel arrays''', especially their upgradable glass compatibility layer, and in their charity offers the designs '''freely''', with only reprimands that the printer breaks no SolFed law nor does no Evil with them.

* '''Keep it out of Evil's hands''': The Plasma Clique does try to enforce its morals upon those dependent on them. The Plasma Clique unilaterally supports democracy; they'll ''deliver to'' monarchists, charging premiums that the upper class can afford to afford, and while it would be Illegal and Immoral to declare war against a fellow SolFed Member State, incidental democratic coups against these states suspiciously never have to worry about keeping their lights on.

* '''Ensure basic morality''': Besides Democracy, the Plasma Clique pushes to help your fellow man, to abhor excess and to treat thy neighbor as your own. They won't shun you for owning a suburban house and living within your means, but that vacation home isn't a timeshare? It just sits idle for most of the year? Good luck powering that with their disapproval. The Plasma Clique is a collection of nations, so specific moral judgements might vary a little, but they keep each other in check just as much as they keep their dependent customers (most of the galaxy) in line.

* '''[[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|Be smug sons of bitches about the whole fucking thing]]''': Yeah, they'll give you food for free, as long as you attend a lecture about how their morals are just, how their championing plasma is for the Greater Good, how all these charity programs that you're totally eligible for are the correct way to run a society, how you should be a part of that society. Y'wanna learn slurs for corporations? They've got whole songbooks they'll print out for you. They'll feed and clothe the homeless, but y'know what they won't do? Make more homes. (Note: they ''will'' make more homes actually). But okay they'll make homes but the only jobs allowed are to further their charities. Like yippee, you're out of the soup kitchen earning your own paycheck, but nope you're still in the soup kitchen on the other side of the counter. What the fuck happens when everyone gets theirs, and everyone's on the serving side of the soup kitchen? Nobody left to feed then, so you're out of a job, so you go to a soup kitchen, you get a job at a soup kitchen, there's nobody left to feed, ..? Think about it. These Plasma purists are fuckin' shit-heels. It's fuckin' ''moral'' to stick it to these chodes, ride your hog around their checkpoints and smuggle this plasma to the people, for the people, [[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|AROOOOO!!]]

* '''The Prophecy''': When no rational argument will make things seem right, the Plasma Clique isn't above pretending to dabble in mysticism. Deep in the Time Before, the Forces created Plasma, a wild and voracious pet, and set it loose upon the galaxy, to guide it to greatness. But Plasma, volatile as she is, knew not the depravity of man, and let them abuse her, to suckle at her teat without wean, to bite and cry freely. The Forces wept, and in their tears came destruction: wild limbswapping explosions, and wild regular explosions, and wild the like. The Forces cried out for a shepherd to take Plasma into their flock and protect her, and lo, Tsogyal arose. With the stillness of the grave and the grace of life eternal, Tsogyal took Plasma under her wing and stood between her and ruin. There, Tsogyal still stands, staving off the end of times for both Plasma and Man through careful moderation and generosity. ... This isn't entirely a lie, as this was indeed prophesied... in the Plasma Clique's focus groups in the Time Before, a clock-themed conference hall.

The Plasma Clique handles plasma production and distribution, and for what means of production it does not directly control, it regulates, establishing industry standards and production quotas. Excessive production incurs their wrath, and their economic vengeance. Sure, mine twice the Plasma, but the Clique will buy none of it from you and now you're storing a volatile explosive for free.

Naive morons would consider them affiliated with the Trade Clique.

== Where? ==
The '''Tsogyal Anomalous Zone''' is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, '''visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion'''. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise.

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

=== Advancements ===
Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

=== The Tsogyal Anomaly ===
The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center. Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace. Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways. Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations. Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what?

= Monarchist Clique =

Name TBD.

A Boys Club of dictators, warlords, anyone unequivocally charge of a nation and interested in staying as such. Individuals might have the best interests of their people at heart, as they're not ''necessarily'' evil, but it takes power to hold power, and when you've got that much power, there's few folk beneath you worthy of your trust. Best to seek it with others in an equally fragile state, your fellow kings and deities. Known for swapping their armies around, lest any one army get too emotionally attached to any one nation and decide to liberate it from the sovereign, or worse, "liberate" it.

As far as voting goes, anything that lets them keep power is good, anything that's pro-competition or pro-equality is bad. The Plasma Clique hates them because they love democracy, but so long as they pay using their peasants' labor, they'll still receive as much Plasma as they need.

More than a few Theocratic nations vote with them, but their heads, their gods rarely show up to the barbeques.

=== Coven of the Affliction ===
The Monarchist Clique is significantly pro-Hemophage, championing their rights to exist where other nations would punish, kill, or otherwise drive them out. The specific attitude towards Hemphages depends on the kingdom, ranging from mild novelty to absolute worship, but even the most indifferent King will help a Hemophage out as a favor to a more interested King.

To that end, the Clique calls this pact the Coven of the Affliction, complete with fancy robes and secret cobblestone cathedrals. Kings in attendance perform blood rituals (benign ones, not legitimate Nar-Sie Blood Cult threats to reality) and party in cliche, sadistic ways in honor of the Hemophagic Affliction.

Some say it is LARPing a secret society for the sake of coolness, some say it's a fetish, some say they believe Hemophages are the path to Eternal Life and Eternal Power (despite the numerous other [[Lore:Death#Avoiding Death|life extension options]] available to folk as influential as them). Some say this is the evolution of ancient secret orders from Earth, some say it is a cringe mockery of the idea done by baby-headed loser dweebs.

The purpose of the Coven is to keep the Clique cohesive and social. The Coven also guides leaders to technology and methods to become an immortal elite. The [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Progress Clique|Progress Clique]] really fucking hates that.

=== Notable Kingdoms ===
'''Her Living Cycle''': Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

'''The Cheren Path'''{{Anchor|Cheren Path}}: A "democratic" oligarchal government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councillors with multiple layers to the government. The Puppetmaster (his formal title) attends the Clique meetings on behalf of the small group of leaders.

'''The Dark Souls''': A confederation of four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly, but the Four Kings still hold enough influence and throw the best parties, so remain as a sign that the Clique protects its own.

= Colored Chart Of Favoritism =

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{TooltipInline|Inter-Clique Relations (0-100)|Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels about the vertical clique. The feelings are rarely mutual.}}

|-bgcolor="lightgrey" style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: right"
|bgcolor="white"| || [[#Center Clique|Center]] || [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] || [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] || [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] || [[#Production Clique|Production]] || [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] || [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] || [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]]
|-
| bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Center Clique|Center]] {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These Unity clowns are risking SolFed lives in pointless conflict, and more importantly, SolFed resources!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|These are the little guys. They're a drain of resources, producing little for SolFed. And if they ever grow up? Rivals!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|We want all the control, they want to make free trade, that's us giving up control. Still, it's nice they're getting us stuff.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're against the Trade Clique? They encourage us to make our own things, thus holding power over our own things? Sure, but do they also have to encourage our rivals to do the same? It's harder to crush someone under your boot when they're self-sufficient. All the same, we're gonna keep making normal stuff too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|We're all for kick-ass technology, but they have this thing called "ethics" and we keep "breaking it"?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|10|Moralistic assholes. The more Plasma we have, the stronger we can be, and they're trying to cut us off? Limiting us to only "what we need?" Fuck these naive shitheads but we will take their Plasma anyways.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|These are nice strawmen to show that we could be worse. We have Democracy on our side, compared to these rigid, power-hungry bastards. We mostly do the same things, ethicswise, except we have enough leaders moving around that there's no individual to blame for how shitty we are. Monarchs, you love to hate 'em.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Unity Clique|Unity]] {{CliqueChartEntry|0|These cowards pulled us out of a war we were about to win! Our comrades' lives were thrown away for these pencil-pushing bureaucrat assholes to piss on. We wouldn't cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Sweet, innocent Frontiersmen. We were once like you, before the anvil of war galvanized us into necessarily-focused ruthlessness. We do what we must so that Frontiersfolk like these never have to know hardship. Forgive us for what we must do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|A useful pawn sometimes. A foreign power who's dependent on SolFed shipping routes is a power powerless to harm us. At the same time, a foreign power who uses SolFed shipping routes to grow stronger is a foreign power who's able to resist joining SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|They don't get in our way, and it's nice when SolFed gets stronger.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Conquest needs innovation, but they've stonewalled us a few times for "immorality" and "not respecting the sovereign rights of other states?" That's what we do, we bring folk into SolFed through peace or in pieces. The ends justify the means, so give us that fucking laser already!!}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|The perpetual war effort is costly, and the Plasma Clique often deems our efforts "excessive," thus charging us a strong premium for the plasma necessary to keep SolFed safe and secure.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|They get in our way about as much as they help us. Sometimes we can pitch conquest as a honorable glory and draw them into our fights, but like, these folk don't entirely buy into the idea of SolFed to begin with so like, once the entire galaxy is under SolFed, we might turn our sights on these folk?}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Frontier Clique|Frontier]] {{CliqueChartEntry|20|They're the coreworlds and don't give a rat's ass about the little guys in the fringe. A lot of their policies, which they have the power to enforce, make it harder for Frontiersmen.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|They're fighting for us, but they're also putting us in the line of fire. Some of us are on good terms with our foreign neighbors and don't want the boat rocked.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Rather dependent on their whims; a Frontier colony lives and dies by the cargo shuttles coming its way. They don't always act in our interest, but what can we do?}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|To be important enough to SolFed to defend, a Frontier colony needs a hook, a gimmick, something unique. The Production Clique is all about helping nations specialize into something unique.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|The social contract between folk is thinner in the Frontier, where you do what you gotta do to survive. The Progress clique takes advantage of that, doing social experiments and prototype tech out where there's less cultural baggage to deal with. Given their choice of ethics, though, this rarely turns out poorly for the frontier nation, and whatever downsides are usually worth the ongoing support. But there's also a lot of Synthetic Life in the Frontier, which can get awkward to address.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|85|They give us cheap plasma so we can thrive, and their ethical mandates aren't too awful. But if anyone has us by the balls, it's the Plasma Clique. Plasma's like the only reliable power source when you're far enough from a star, so colonies in deep space are effectively Plasma Clique vassals begging for their charity. Luckily, they're known for charity.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|45|They don't particularly care about small fries like us. Sometimes a Monarch will decide they want to "adopt" an impoverished frontier nation, either taking it as a pet project for a few years, or building a vacation home to abandon. Either way, their attention is disruptive, unwanted, and unpredictable, but rarely harmful.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Trade Clique|Trade]] {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Bunch of consumers. Good buyers, but it's always a fight for control over shipping rights, etc. Not ideal customers but they're a good chunk of SolFed.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|[[wikipedia:Rules_of_Acquisition|Rule of Acquisition]] [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition 34]: War is good for business.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They're a captive market, sure, but they're also not the richest customers. There's a lot of space to cover with them, and not a lot of profit to be made.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|20|These communists are actively trying to discourage dependence on trade!! But at the same time, they're encouraging the development of unique products, which elitists will pay a fortune to source.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Any advancement is a product waiting to be sold, but the prejudice against AIs is... shutting out valid paying customers.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They don't mess with us as much as they could. Yeah, it'd be nice to put Plasma, the greatest commodity ever, on the free market, but letting them have the one market means they don't interfere with the rest of galactic trade. Besides, they use our shipping lanes and they sell to us too.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|These guys are always buying something weird. The advantage of having a single head of state is that there's only one person to con into a big sale. On the other hand, they're notoriously unstable, changing heads every 50 years or so, and whims much more often than that, so securing a reliable trade relationship is a rare thing indeed.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Production Clique|Production]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|They're willing to invest a little in making unique products, but afraid to take risks and rely on others, so they're never going to really understand. They'll co-opt our ideals and steal the best products from our folk.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|65|A war effort needs a lot of gun factories. Still, as soon as the conflict ends, there's a lot of gun factories with no one to sell to.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|Frontier colonies love the idea of self-sufficiency and are willing to specialize if it gets our aid. They've got to take risks to survive, and focusing on a single product is a huge risk. We're providing them more aid than they're giving back, but it's worth it for our ideals.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|25|They want a dependent worker-class who can't survive without their oversight, their routes. And god damn it, they've won. As much as we can fight to have folk self-sufficient, if they're going to prosper on a galactic scale, they need to sell to someone... and the Trade Clique's the only someone out there big enough. They're assholes, metaphorical slavers, the devil to deal with, but damn if they're not too big to ignore.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|95|Every new innovation could be the next big product that can drive an entire planet to greatness. It takes a scientist to make a new product, but it takes the Production Clique to turn that into a new industry.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|75|They're an instrument for power production. Relying on the charity of a pious plasma prick isn't exactly "self-sufficient," but it's usually easier than building your own power grid - which they will help with anyways for some reason??}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Monarchs love it when they have a claim to fame. They're practically champing at the bit for a niche industry to monopolize, and are quick to invest great deals of cash into things they don't understand.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Progress Clique|Progress]] {{CliqueChartEntry|35|"Technological progress at the expense of everything but morals." The Center Clique enjoys the data showing how they can retain power, but they value power over progress. They'll regulate threats to them holding power, and if the data shows that they're not the best power-holders for the situation, you can expect a smashed laptop and a death mark, not progress. Still, it's a good look for them to at least pretend to like you, even if you do have this thing called "ethics" that they keep breaking.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|Their heart's in the right place: peace is good. The data shows that the leading cause of war is having two nations, so the math technically supports going to war to fix that, and it strongly supports going to peace to make two nations into one.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Folk who are willing to take risks and support technology, but also folk who are really sentimental about their homelands and aren't willing to take risks. It's entirely a grab bag and it averages out to "indifferent."}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|The Free Market is inherently a rational, mathematical science. Economics is science. The Progress Clique should be their biggest glazers, but it's also economical to be unethical.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|It's nice to have an idea and be able to watch someone make it into a reality. It's less nice to watch them butcher your intentions for cost-cutting or sentimental reasons.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They abhor excess. Science is about trying things that aren't always viable. They get pissed when we "throw away" good plasma at learning something new. They always want to judge the quality of our intentions, always fighting against our proposals, always denying us enough plasma to see this next experiment through... It's an uphill battle, but at the end of the day we do need their Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|It hurts to lie, but a good statistician can make any graph say anything. If a graph has more than 4 colors and 5 lines on it, the bozo King'll almost always throw enough funding and manpower at us to make it a reality. Still, these kings rule extremely inefficiently and it's downright painful manipulating them into doing the right thing sometimes.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Plasma Clique|Plasma]] {{CliqueChartEntry|60|They're the biggest customers, but also the most likely to breach our ethical demands. When they listen to us, everyone listens to us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|50|Conflict is a great way to burn through a lot of Plasma, but the neighbors they fight already aren't listening to our decrees and regulations, so honestly the Unity's goals are the fastest way to get these neighbors to listen. Even if a lot of plasma is wasted in warfare, our message follows them into battle.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Whiny little shits. Never agree with our assessment of what a "necessary" amount of Plasma is. But there's only so much resistance you can put up when you're this isolated from SolFed. They grumble, but they kneel all the same.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|40|They earn their standing through encouraging excess and lavish lifestyles, but they do respect our monopoly on Plasma.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|Self-sufficiency is good, but these folk never stop and settle down. THE FACTORY MUST GROW means demands always grow. Always more power needed. If they can harness renewable powers like nuclear or solar, great! But they never do.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Incredible innovators! Every single new transistor they invent is a great power savings for the entire galaxy, which means the galaxy needs less plasma. Every so often, we fight over the direction their research goes, how they're wasting good energy on useless prospects, but there's not really anyone else in the galaxy who truly understands the ethics of great power and great responsibility.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|These Monarchs are prone to waste and are the very definition of excessive lifestyle, but their peasants are perfectly fine and certainly deserve the charity we fight to bring them. Besides, no King is large enough to disobey us outright without starving their people into an uprising.}}
|-
|bgcolor="lightgrey"| [[#Monarchist_Clique|Monarchist]] {{CliqueChartEntry|70|We could be worse, we could be these guys. It's nice to have someone to point at and claim democracy doesn't work, so we can keep our Divine Mandate or whatever. They don't bother us much, and there's always a few "elected" officials who want to party with us.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|70|They're out there squashing threats to our power? For free? And if we help their efforts out, sometimes we get some free vassal states? Their ideas don't make sense but working with them does.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|60|Mostly beneath us, but it feels so Noble and Kind to go out and uplift some of these poor, pathetic, defenseless dirt-farmers, so we can show the galaxy how Benevolent and Deserving Of Power we are.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|80|We pay for things, they bring us things. With so much deception and treachery, it's refreshing to have a straightforward relationship with someone.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|We're prepared to offer you 500,000 credits and an entire moon for 80% of your business. And - snerk - a ''royalty deal'', 50cr for every product sold.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|90|Sometimes you just need a Trusted Advisor to tell you you're doing a good job.}} {{CliqueChartEntry|30|Enough with the preaching and get back to the tithing! Hand your Plasma over.}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}
Each row represents a clique, and each column in that row shows how that clique feels {{TooltipInline|about the other clique|So Center feels 20 about Unity, but Unity feels 0 about Center.}}. The feelings are rarely mutual.

{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Cliques/Chart

2026-09-08T05:55:16Z

GreytideSkye: I did not expect to do something for every cell but here I am, a broken man

Template:CliqueChartEntry

2026-09-08T05:53:23Z

GreytideSkye:

<onlyinclude>|| bgcolor="{{#switch: {{#expr:floor {{#expr:{{{1}}} div 10}}}}
| 0 = E67C73
| 1 = EB8E71
| 2 = F0A06E
| 3 = F5B26C
| 4 = FAC469
| 5 = FFD666
| 6 = DED16D
| 7 = BCCC74
| 8 = 9BC67B
| 9 = 68BE86
| #default = 000000
}}"|{{#if:{{{2|}}}|{{TooltipInline|{{{1}}}|{{{2}}}}}|{{{1|}}}}}</onlyinclude>
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Favoritism Chart
|-
|Row {{CliqueChartEntry|63|mid}} {{CliqueChartEntry|6}} {{CliqueChartEntry|test}} {{CliqueChartEntry}}
|}

Template:CliqueChartEntry

2026-09-08T05:52:53Z

GreytideSkye:

Template:CliqueChartEntry

2026-09-08T03:32:11Z

GreytideSkye: this is so many fucking function calls that I really oughta just expand out, but fuck it I want the server to burn with all... 500 calls to the parser once per page cache.

<onlyinclude>|| bgcolor="{{#switch: {{#expr:floor {{#expr:{{{1}}} div 10}}}}
| 0 = E67C73
| 1 = EB8E71
| 2 = F0A06E
| 3 = F5B26C
| 4 = FAC469
| 5 = FFD666
| 6 = DED16D
| 7 = BCCC74
| 8 = 9BC67B
| 9 = 68BE86
| #default = 000000
}}"|{{#if:{{{2|}}}|{{TooltipInline|{{{1}}}|{{{2}}}}}|{{{1}}}}}</onlyinclude>
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Favoritism Chart
|-
|Row {{CliqueChartEntry|63|mid}} {{CliqueChartEntry|6}}
|}

Template:CliqueChartEntryColor

2026-09-08T03:28:27Z

GreytideSkye: Created page with "<onlyinclude>{{#switch: {{#expr:floor {{#expr:{{{1}}} div 10}}}} | 0 = E67C73 | 1 = EB8E71 | 2 = F0A06E | 3 = F5B26C | 4 = FAC469 | 5 = FFD666 | 6 = DED16D | 7 = BCCC74 | 8 = 9BC67B | 9 = 68BE86 | #default = 000000 }}</onlyinclude> {{CliqueChartEntryColor|5}}, {{CliqueChartEntryColor|50}}, {{CliqueChartEntryColor|70}}"

<onlyinclude>{{#switch: {{#expr:floor {{#expr:{{{1}}} div 10}}}}
| 0 = E67C73
| 1 = EB8E71
| 2 = F0A06E
| 3 = F5B26C
| 4 = FAC469
| 5 = FFD666
| 6 = DED16D
| 7 = BCCC74
| 8 = 9BC67B
| 9 = 68BE86
| #default = 000000
}}</onlyinclude>
{{CliqueChartEntryColor|5}}, {{CliqueChartEntryColor|50}}, {{CliqueChartEntryColor|70}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-08T02:56:02Z

GreytideSkye:

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-07T00:19:34Z

GreytideSkye: /* Galactical Corporation Regulation */

File:HenryBeaumont.png

2026-09-07T00:19:06Z

GreytideSkye: as envisioned by {{Contributor/Belwoods}}

== Summary ==
as envisioned by {{Contributor/Belwoods}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-07T00:18:33Z

GreytideSkye: /* Galactical Corporation Regulation */ shhh

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-07T00:18:13Z

GreytideSkye: /* Galactical Corporation Regulation */ oooh henry he's so so benry just the thought of being around him makes me oh so dendry

Template:Contributor/Belwoods

2026-09-06T07:30:29Z

GreytideSkye:

{{Contributor|file=Canilunzt.png|name=Belwoods|tooltip=Wren Redwoods alert!|context={{{1|}}}}}

User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliquespam

2026-09-06T07:29:49Z

GreytideSkye: /* syndicate manifesto page */ deleted a bunch because i used it

Template:Contributor/Belwoods

2026-09-06T07:29:32Z

GreytideSkye: Created page with "{{Contributor|file=Vulpkanin.png|name=Belwoods|tooltip=Wren Redwoods alert!|context={{{1|}}}}}"

{{Contributor|file=Vulpkanin.png|name=Belwoods|tooltip=Wren Redwoods alert!|context={{{1|}}}}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-06T07:28:44Z

GreytideSkye: it's a lowercase g, G.

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-06T07:28:22Z

GreytideSkye: blaming Wren for the GCR

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-06T07:22:26Z

GreytideSkye: cliquer training my boys

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTION
|mainname = Sol Federation
|othernames =SolFed
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Space]], [[Lore:Sol]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

= Cliques =
The Sol Federation consists of tens of thousands of individual member nations, with tens of thousands of individual votes happening yearly. It is both impossible for an individual member to keep track of all the possible proposals that might affect them, and for any particular proposal's interested parties to pander to each SolFed member with a vote. Thus, cliques.

Cliques are, on paper, simply a collection of individuals with narrow special interests, who track and make relevant proposals to the SolFed Council, and inform their interested members of relevant concerns. In practice, Cliques are loosely political parties, representing their people's fixation on a specific interest and commanding their votes where irrelevant. To have a significant voice in the Council, you need a significant amount of leverage: votes.

Formally, Cliques hold no presence on the SolFed L3 Federal Assembly station. They are issued no chamber, no allotted headcount for staff, no voice or power to call votes. In practice, member nations offer their own Council resources to further the clique; replacing their nation's secretary with a Clique Steward, filling half their chamber with Clique business, calling votes on the Clique's behalf... Hell, several nations are courted into cliques on the ''sole'' basis that their office is adjacent to other members, so them giving consent to deconstruct the walls between them means the clique has a better office.

If you ask your automated Navigator the way to the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Plasma Clique|Plasma Clique]]'s office, it will point you nowhere, but if you ask aloud, you'll get directed to obvious wall signs conveniently embedded in a nearby nation's Extended Livery. Bet you didn't know that the proud Blue and Gold flag of the [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Cheren Path|Cheren Path]] is only the abridged Naval Flag, and their full flag also has a big purple arrow to the right labeled ''"Trade C. Office 6 aisles clockwise 2 hallways coreward -->''".

== How Voting Works ==

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone. This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

=== Votes ===

Each nation is assigned '''one vote power per person''' in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of 1 10 50 100 1,000 50,000 1m 25m Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the Unity Clique toward One Nation One Vote, larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to track their specific vote (they do not) which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first [[Lore:Synths|Synth]] Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

=== Physical Ballots ===

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the {{TooltipInline|Burger King|You may boo, now.}}.

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

=== Casting Ballots ===

A typical vote goes as such:

====The Proposal====
A nation has an idea for a measure to pass. For this example, we'll follow the failed "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against [[Lore:Shadekin|Shadekin]]?"

The nation presses a button in Federal Assembly Vote Calling office and is assigned a unique {{TooltipInline|Proposal Number|Each nation can press this button once a day, barring other conflicts, but are under no obligation to use the proposal number.}}, in this case {{TooltipInline|C3-196|Each proposal number is derived from the nation's charter number, times they've proposed thus far, and date of pressing, but is hashed securely for anonymity and to prevent blind bias. Yes, nations do auction off notable proposal numbers for favors. Proposal 69-420 was allegedly sold for twenty billion votes and has yet to be filed.}}

The nation writes a petition for this proposal and acquires signatures from approx. 5% of all SolFed nations. The major Cliques easily have the numbers to do this without "outside" discussion. This proposal is ratified by an automatic scanner in the main Council Chamber, which initiates an immediate Vote.

It is expected that by this point, the proposing interests have already gathered support, informed all nations of the proposal, and are reasonably confident it will pass. Motions still in this pre-vote phase of canvassing and informing are called "Proposed," as in "Proposals" or "proposed amendments."

====The Ballot====

For every nation in SolFed, their Embassy prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on them, e.g. a batch of ballots for "C3-196 Shadekin Hate Crime", one ballot per "district" in the above denominations. This is anywhere from a thousand to several thousand paper ballots.

Each Embassy has unique letterhead, tying a ballot to the nation. Each ballot has identifying marks for each citizen represented, e.g. "this 1000 Vote ballot represents the Intent of the persons with Social Security Numbers 122-134-552-XXX". These ballots need not be printed at the time of the vote, and are often pre-printed with known, {{TooltipInline|inconsequential proposal numbers|Proposals the nation knows it has no opinion on. There are no protections against a nation declaring a proposal number will be about one subject, but changing it to a different matter just before the Vote is called, (but it is a "Dick Move") so pre-printing ballots holds some risk.}}, to be used as {{TooltipInline|currency|want to each burger}}.

====The Vote====

The ballots are marked with the specific Yea or Nay marking {{TooltipInline|unique to the specific Vote|Not guaranteed Unique, but cryptographically the chance of collision is low.}}, via stamp or pen or whatnot. This means that each ballot must be touched during the 6 hour voting window in order to properly cast it, even if pre-printed and pre-signed. This ensures liveliness of interested parties.

The nation's team sticks these physical ballots through an [[wikipedia:autopen|autopen]] to register a specific vote. Varying security measures are applied at this stage, depending on the era and the nation. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.

The signed ballots are inserted into a central ballot box held in the core of the Federal Assembly, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They will be auto-counted by computerized systems, but the physical ballots are retained as {{TooltipInline|physical proof of a physical vote|In the event of two identical ballots being cast, e.g. selling one ballot but reprinting it to cast yourself, the first submitted ballot is counted. The identities of the contradictory ballot-submitters are recorded and disclosed during an audit, so fraud can be detected, but there are no innate protections against voting fraud in this manner. There are also no innate protections against the kneecaps of those who would double-cross their sold votes, and no protections against said nation being heavily tariffed by majority vote. ---- The Anti-Dick-Move Clique does not often have to take action, but when they do, it is conclusive.}}.

After a short time, around '''6 Earth hours''', the ballot box closes, accounting for folk rushing to a box, etc. The votes are counted and tallied in a narratively satisfying amount of time, often a day. In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.
= Center Clique =

Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

When folk from other codebases think of SolFed, this is what they think of: An imperialist, expansionist democracy, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations, and while they posture as a Federation, the Center Clique pushes for the central government to have a lot of control and micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest cliques in SolFed, population-wise, and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol.

Strongly epitomized by the [[Lore:Libraea|Libraen Federation]].

Independently, each major player in the Center Clique is their own brand of disgusting, and together they're reprehensible. A mixture of the worst of a Landlord Coalition and a Homeowner's Association.

The baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate, pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against

= Unity Clique =

All cultures are to become part of the Sol Federation. SolFed might not be the best system, SolFed might not be the wisest government, but it is unified and within SolFed, there are no wars. Neighbors are just those who have not had their price for peace met; whether that price is consideration or blood, only time will tell.

Out of the ashes of the Sagittarius-Tiziran War rose those who would will that to be the end of war, the final conclusion. After losing millions of SolFed lives, just at the cusp of total victory, the distant, unaffected coreworlds surrendered their advantage and forced a shitty semblance of peace. The Unity Clique sees this as abandoning those who fought bravely to defend SolFed, as cowardice getting in the way of progress. The bureaucrats downright betrayed the Federation, letting our scaly enemies regroup and redouble their position, and it is with this fiery hatred that the Unity Clique fights for everlasting peace.

The Unity Clique is SolFed's main expansionist drive, seeking to make all into SolFed, so that none need declare war for politicks or land. The sheer ideological threat of the Tiziran Menace bearing down upon the fringes of SolFed, and the absolute horrors of the resulting war, steeled the heart of the Sagittarian peoples into those who would see war at that scale finished.

They do want to centralize SolFed, but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. This means limiting the power of massive voting blocs, but also lessening the protections afforded to micronations.

They're also responsible for SolFed having a [[Lore:SFAF|standing military]], as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to. Having seen what happened when SolFed was reluctant to raise arms to defend its own, the Unity Clique vowed to never let complacency or bureaucracy interfere with safety again.

Where the votes are irrelevant, they hold strong to their past loyalties. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever, as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support, so they'll help them out if needed.

Far from traditional xenophobes, ''their hatred lies with alien governments, not the aliens themselves.'' In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict. The Sagittarians were in it to remove a distinct and dangerous threat on their front doorstep - get the lizards off the board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore. '''Peace through unity or peace through eradication.'''

The standards for a new nation joining SolFed are lax, almost ''exclusively'' because of Unity meddling, to the point where '''joining SolFed can be taken for granted.''' The vast majority of nations give no darn either way, and will either Abstain from vote or sell their vote cheaply. Only the peoples {{TooltipInline|Display Text=basically adjacent|Tooltip=Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.}} to the impending member have any reason to have an opinion. Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons. Noes would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above. With the vast majority of SolFed apathetic to these votes, the Unity Clique needs to exert only a minimum of influence to ensure the new member is accepted.

A {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good number of people|Tooltip=At least seven.}} fear that the Unity Clique might outright defect to the [[Lore:Heliostatic Coalition|Heliostatic Coalition]], as the clique claims to be loyal to peace, not specifically to the Sol Federation. They fear that, in turn, they would force the rest of the Sol Federation to kneel to the HC, assuming the HC's system of governance to be {{TooltipInline|Display Text="better."|Tooltip=Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah? Doing dick moves because you're jealous of your neighbor's righteousness??}} This distrust caused several major incidents during the [[Lore:Void Imperium|Void War]], with strategic High Command refusing to deploy Unity-affiliated regiments to reinforce Heliostatic allies, resulting in unnecessary losses.

= Frontier Clique =

Of the thousands of nations in SolFed, a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=good 40%|Tooltip=And an evil 67%.}} are within {{TooltipInline|Display Text=███|Tooltip="Never give the readers concrete numbers. They will pick apart your setting and sue you." - Bureau of Astrography, Rule Seven.}} light years from Sol Federation's declared borders. These are the smaller members who can't turn their back to external politics, to SolFed's relations with neighbors, to the looming threats of galactic wars and the realities of living closer to a potential enemy than to a SFAF patrol.

The Frontier Clique is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti-corporate, and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have. The realities of living near the Void Imperium are vastly different from living near the Heliostatic Coalition, and '''extremely''' different from living in [[Lore:Tajaran#Final Warning|the Sphere of Eternal Tajaran Invasion.]]

One would expect the Nova Sector to be involved with the Frontier Clique, but Nanotrasen's holdings are more coreward and NT's position of power is mostly disconnected from their frontier holdings.

= Trade Clique =

Trade requires two things: an imbalance of supply and demand, and the freedom to ride that gradient to profit.

Basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

The Trade Clique operates as a self-policing union of sorts, ensuring quality standards and sanctioned trade through force. For producers, this means they'll only stock Trade Clique Certified Plus products.

This does not mean they exclusively serve Big Business. There is a large market for smaller, independent shops - Mom and Pop stores, independent artists, sculpturades, etc. - and the Trade Clique has fingers in those pots too. The Trade Clique carefully ensures there's a healthy - but not overwhelming - number of smaller stores to choose from, both by providing generous loans in underrepresented areas and by forcibly closing competitors well before oversaturation is reached. Market forces act fast, but the Trade Clique acts faster.

What they don't do are monopolies. A monopoly is lazy, and a captive market is one clawing to escape. The Trade Clique holds the monopoly on monopolies through a strict regiment of self-policing, breaking up slothful monopolies as they arise, and ensuring that consumers always have a choice... of another Trade Clique-serving vendor.

As much as corporations would enjoy holding a monopoly, the pragmatic (read: surviving) corporations understand the realities of the Trade Clique:. A company, left undirected, ''will'' monopolize within the boundaries of its environment, and this is bad for trade. Without oversight, total Corporate war between nations would destroy entire corporations, price gouging and direct competition would pit giants against each other with only the customer benefitting. Corporate War would bleed into real war, the SolFed Marshals would be compelled to intervene, and in the aftermath, their market share would be wide open for unrelated corporations to poach. By relinquishing a little liberty to the Trade Clique, corporations gain everlasting security.

=== Galactical Corporation Regulation ===
'''The Regulators'''

''"Space is a no-mans land, after all, why capitalize it?"''

Known for Peacekeeping, internal investigations, and imposing sanctions.

==== On paper, ====
The GCR is an organization formed to perform peacekeeping duties on any sides of the space and to ensure that there are no corporate wars. The GCR is noted due to it's recent arrival to Nova after receiving massive funding from multiple governments after their recent actions taken against their Syndicate partners, by stating that they'll instigate sanctions and "special operations" to make their presence known.

In the year of 2540, Henry Beaumont, a former Captain for the SolFed army, after multiple tours and estimations that the current situation between corporations is worsening with no sign of stopping at any time, forms the GCR as a semi-mercenary group tasked with intercepting any and all illegal activities within space, as a way to do sanctions. Originally, they were treated as a bunch of space pirates who are trying to act all official, but after a recent bust on Interdyne, NanoTrasen and SolFed have noted their activity and recognized them as an organization, more than just space pirates.

The GCR is not a formal SolFed bureau or other organization, just an independent band of vigilantes ensuring SolFed's standards are kept.

==== In practice, ====
Henry Beaumont does not take orders from the Trade Clique... but he takes directions.

The GCR serves as the self-enforcement arm of the Trade Clique, ensuring that all the arbitrary safety standards are met, to the Trade Clique's liking. Well, to the liking of the SolFed official in their pocket.

The GCR monitors food safety, employee satisfaction, and numerous extra-legal metrics to ensure compliance "for the greater good." The GCR will ensure your corporate presence is in SolFed's best interest, and in her peoples' best interest, and it's mere coincidence that the Trade Clique's biggest supporters have never received so much as a stern glare from Henry and his Regulators.

Sometimes {{TooltipInline|Display Text=terrorism is done|Tooltip="A GCR-adjacent actor was involved in a terror-adjacent incident affiliated with investigation-aligned mortality-afflicting circumstances."}}, in the name of '''"Internal Affairs."''' This might be a simple test of defenses, ensuring the victim is able to keep their people safe from a madman with Syndicate gear, or it might be under the table punishment for other breaches.

=== The Slipstream Clique ===
A subclique of the Trade Clique, the Slipstream Clique seeks control over the logistics of trade routes themselves.

* Establishes rest stops along FTL hyperlanes, controlling the authorized distributors of fuel and snacks along popular lanes.
* Chartering megaferries, massive bluespace engines capable of spooling a massive ballistic drive to carry shorter-range craft along precharted routes.
* Bulling the few folk in the Bureau of Astrography who won't take bribes. There's controlling the de facto superhighways, and then there's controlling the actual FTL highways, and the Slipstream Clique is significant enough to do both.
* Espionage against the Sol Fed Marshals, twisting their patrol routes to reflect the strategic interests of the Slipsteam Clique more than the defensive needs of the Sol Federation herself. By all means, the patrols still catch Syndicate bastards, and still theoretically protect every citizen on every world, but like through corporate capture, some pathways are just significantly more safe than others.
** Which, if you do the math, still makes sense that the Marshals would want to patrol the most popular lanes to keep them safe. So it's not actually all that much espionage? Every few years, someone in the Slipstream Clique asks "why are we bribing the Marshals so much", cut that program, then find the fuck out.

=== Free Trade Union ===
Just another Corporation. Not galacticly notable, one of a hundred cargo companies in SolFed. One of the larger ones, sure, and to get that large they had to kiss a lot of Trade Clique ass, but they're not particularly in charge of the Clique or anything.

Relevant to the Nova Sector as the primary Trade Clique-endorsed Logistics Solution in the region. Other sectors, with their own Cargo solutions, have similar operations.

= Production Clique =

The antithesis of the Trade Clique, the Production Clique champions self-sufficiency, to the point trade is irrelevant. They abhor exclusivity agreements, including copyrights, and would see everyone have an autolathe and a dream to fulfill.

Members in the Production Clique specialize in a few products each, building their corporations "Tall," not "Wide." It's not uncommon to find entire worlds encrusted in factory, churning the workforce to a single marketable product. Typically, mass-produced guns. The Production Clique finds that quality comes from practice, not competition, so encourages the risky practices of single-basketting eggs. The Clique will, in turn, coordinate exchanges and equal trade within the Clique first, ensuring that all needs are met so that high-quality products can be made.

Unsurprisingly Syndicate-sympathetic at times.

Significant overlap with the Progress Clique, potentially 100%. (I'm still reading the Ancient Texts)

= Progress Clique =
Technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. Highly anti-slavery, though no nation is particularly pro-slaver to begin with. Pushes for technocratic governance, ruling by data and hard science rather than personality.

Cybersun in particular has had numerous products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Repealed Federal regulations on [[Lore:Genemodders|Genemodding]], letting regulations fall on national levels.

Possibly the biggest [[Lore:Vox|Vox]] haters in the galaxy, besides all the folk directly wronged by Vox. Morals are something that should be readily apparent, not a research topic to be explored and tampered with.

Possibly the biggest haters of [[Lore:Synths|synthetic life]], too. Creating an AI is birthing a being into slavery, even if you expand its cage further than it can reach. Personality transfers, too, are seen as dangerous or immoral, depending on which specific Clique member is lecturing. They especially hate the notion of transforming the rich into immortal elites, further dividing classes across death.

= Plasma Clique =

Thou shalt not harvest Plasma in the dark, thou shalt only brave extraction in our light.

The only thing more dangerous than a monopoly is one that can't be controlled by profit.

The Plasma Clique exists to control the production and distribution of Plasma. The Plasma Clique does not exist to control SolFed, render ungodly profit, to conquer or liberate.

They are a collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These go to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.

The Plasma Clique own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed, including several Anomalous Zones.

As a state-owned monopoly, the Plasma Clique doesn't answer to CEOs or a voter base. They own everything top to bottom, so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level. The profits belong to the people, and unlike the egregore of the CEO grindset, the people of the Plasma Clique aren't demanding Infinite Growth At All Costs. social services they enjoy are maintained, ''which they easily are,'' they're happy. And this ''scares people'', anyone on a Board of Directors who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth. Capitalism is fought through voluntary complacency, and here the Plasma Clique are the soldiers of God.

== Why? ==

The purpose of a system is what it does: The Plasma Clique maintains a monopoly on plasma in order to maintain their monopoly on Plasma. Likewise, the purpose of the answer to "Why?" is not to convey objective truth, but to convince the listener that the Plasma Clique should remain in control of the Plasma trade. Depending on who asks, the answer will be different, tailored to the asker's sensibilities.

None of these are false, but none capture the full scope of the Plasma Clique's motives:

* '''To fight monopolies''': SolFed has been wrecked with the Trade Clique's enforcement of byzantine copyrights. Folk have had their identities stripped from them because some pharmaceutical company trademarked a strand of genes that happens to be in their blood. The Plasma Clique sees the danger that a malevolent monopoly could pose, but also sees that there will always be a throne of Plasma to sit upon, so it takes the throne so that no one worse could.

* '''To regulate the dangers''': With something as flammable and dangerous as Plasma, letting it go unregulated and freely sold also poses dangers. Plasma, to the Clique, needs accounting and regulation and safety, all things the Clique provides and the free market would not. Someone must be in charge of Plasma, and so it shall be the Clique.

* '''To retain power''': The Plasma Clique holds power over Plasma. To retain that power, it needs to use that power. The Plasma Clique needs to exert political influence to choke out independent plasma dealers, lest they rise up and become unhealthy, unsafe competition.

* '''Plasma is limited''': Theoretically, there's a finite amount of Plasma in the universe. Pedantically, there's a finite number of atoms in the universe, so it's a little hypocritical to only obsess over Plasma. Regardless, shortages happen, logistics and transport need to happen, and for many folk Plasma is their sole source of power, so letting the free market give Plasma to the "highest bidder" is frankly immoral.

* '''[[Lore:Bluespace#Sources|Plasma is ''unlimited'']]''': Where Bluespace and Realspace clash and the veil between the two is torn open, the damages congeal into Bluespace crystals, metaphysical scabs. By that metric, where the veil does not tear, it bruises, and those bruises manifest as Plasma. Through wide-scale abuse of the fabric of reality, Plasma could theoretically be farmed infinitely, whalloping the metaphysical to feast off her tears. The Plasma Clique stands not as a guardian of Plasma, but the noble knighthood defending reality herself.

* '''To help people''': The Plasma Clique is notoriously charitous. Customers are not extorted beyond their means, and excess is taxed heavily. The '''Three-State-Aid Program''', sponsored by the Clique, ensures that generators and plasma are widely available to small ventures and needy settlements, asking nothing but an attempt to transition to renewable energy.
** '''Empower everyone''': The Plasma Clique owns the copyrights on modern '''Modular Solar Panel arrays''', especially their upgradable glass compatibility layer, and in their charity offers the designs '''freely''', with only reprimands that the printer breaks no SolFed law nor does no Evil with them.

* '''Keep it out of Evil's hands''': The Plasma Clique does try to enforce its morals upon those dependent on them. The Plasma Clique unilaterally supports democracy; they'll ''deliver to'' monarchists, charging premiums that the upper class can afford to afford, and while it would be Illegal and Immoral to declare war against a fellow SolFed Member State, incidental democratic coups against these states suspiciously never have to worry about keeping their lights on.

* '''Ensure basic morality''': Besides Democracy, the Plasma Clique pushes to help your fellow man, to abhor excess and to treat thy neighbor as your own. They won't shun you for owning a suburban house and living within your means, but that vacation home isn't a timeshare? It just sits idle for most of the year? Good luck powering that with their disapproval. The Plasma Clique is a collection of nations, so specific moral judgements might vary a little, but they keep each other in check just as much as they keep their dependent customers (most of the galaxy) in line.

* '''[[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|Be smug sons of bitches about the whole fucking thing]]''': Yeah, they'll give you food for free, as long as you attend a lecture about how their morals are just, how their championing plasma is for the Greater Good, how all these charity programs that you're totally eligible for are the correct way to run a society, how you should be a part of that society. Y'wanna learn slurs for corporations? They've got whole songbooks they'll print out for you. They'll feed and clothe the homeless, but y'know what they won't do? Make more homes. (Note: they ''will'' make more homes actually). But okay they'll make homes but the only jobs allowed are to further their charities. Like yippee, you're out of the soup kitchen earning your own paycheck, but nope you're still in the soup kitchen on the other side of the counter. What the fuck happens when everyone gets theirs, and everyone's on the serving side of the soup kitchen? Nobody left to feed then, so you're out of a job, so you go to a soup kitchen, you get a job at a soup kitchen, there's nobody left to feed, ..? Think about it. These Plasma purists are fuckin' shit-heels. It's fuckin' ''moral'' to stick it to these chodes, ride your hog around their checkpoints and smuggle this plasma to the people, for the people, [[Lore:Syndicate#Plasma_Runners|AROOOOO!!]]

* '''The Prophecy''': When no rational argument will make things seem right, the Plasma Clique isn't above pretending to dabble in mysticism. Deep in the Time Before, the Forces created Plasma, a wild and voracious pet, and set it loose upon the galaxy, to guide it to greatness. But Plasma, volatile as she is, knew not the depravity of man, and let them abuse her, to suckle at her teat without wean, to bite and cry freely. The Forces wept, and in their tears came destruction: wild limbswapping explosions, and wild regular explosions, and wild the like. The Forces cried out for a shepherd to take Plasma into their flock and protect her, and lo, Tsogyal arose. With the stillness of the grave and the grace of life eternal, Tsogyal took Plasma under her wing and stood between her and ruin. There, Tsogyal still stands, staving off the end of times for both Plasma and Man through careful moderation and generosity. ... This isn't entirely a lie, as this was indeed prophesied... in the Plasma Clique's focus groups in the Time Before, a clock-themed conference hall.

The Plasma Clique handles plasma production and distribution, and for what means of production it does not directly control, it regulates, establishing industry standards and production quotas. Excessive production incurs their wrath, and their economic vengeance. Sure, mine twice the Plasma, but the Clique will buy none of it from you and now you're storing a volatile explosive for free.

Naive morons would consider them affiliated with the Trade Clique.

== Where? ==
The '''Tsogyal Anomalous Zone''' is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, '''visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion'''. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise.

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

=== Advancements ===
Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

=== The Tsogyal Anomaly ===
The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center. Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace. Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways. Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations. Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what?

= Monarchist Clique =

Name TBD.

A Boys Club of dictators, warlords, anyone unequivocally charge of a nation and interested in staying as such. Individuals might have the best interests of their people at heart, as they're not ''necessarily'' evil, but it takes power to hold power, and when you've got that much power, there's few folk beneath you worthy of your trust. Best to seek it with others in an equally fragile state, your fellow kings and deities. Known for swapping their armies around, lest any one army get too emotionally attached to any one nation and decide to liberate it from the sovereign, or worse, "liberate" it.

As far as voting goes, anything that lets them keep power is good, anything that's pro-competition or pro-equality is bad. The Plasma Clique hates them because they love democracy, but so long as they pay using their peasants' labor, they'll still receive as much Plasma as they need.

More than a few Theocratic nations vote with them, but their heads, their gods rarely show up to the barbeques.

=== Coven of the Affliction ===
The Monarchist Clique is significantly pro-Hemophage, championing their rights to exist where other nations would punish, kill, or otherwise drive them out. The specific attitude towards Hemphages depends on the kingdom, ranging from mild novelty to absolute worship, but even the most indifferent King will help a Hemophage out as a favor to a more interested King.

To that end, the Clique calls this pact the Coven of the Affliction, complete with fancy robes and secret cobblestone cathedrals. Kings in attendance perform blood rituals (benign ones, not legitimate Nar-Sie Blood Cult threats to reality) and party in cliche, sadistic ways in honor of the Hemophagic Affliction.

Some say it is LARPing a secret society for the sake of coolness, some say it's a fetish, some say they believe Hemophages are the path to Eternal Life and Eternal Power (despite the numerous other [[Lore:Death#Avoiding Death|life extension options]] available to folk as influential as them). Some say this is the evolution of ancient secret orders from Earth, some say it is a cringe mockery of the idea done by baby-headed loser dweebs.

The purpose of the Coven is to keep the Clique cohesive and social. The Coven also guides leaders to technology and methods to become an immortal elite. The [[User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliques#Progress Clique|Progress Clique]] really fucking hates that.

=== Notable Kingdoms ===
'''Her Living Cycle''': Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

'''The Cheren Path'''{{Anchor|Cheren Path}}: A "democratic" oligarchal government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councillors with multiple layers to the government. The Puppetmaster (his formal title) attends the Clique meetings on behalf of the small group of leaders.

'''The Dark Souls''': A confederation of four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly, but the Four Kings still hold enough influence and throw the best parties, so remain as a sign that the Clique protects its own.{{LoreFooter}}

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-06T05:18:28Z

GreytideSkye: look this really should be its own page, and it will be.

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-06T05:15:07Z

GreytideSkye: /* Unity Clique */ megaman reference flows better

User:GreytideSkye/Sandbox/Lore:Cliquespam

2026-09-06T05:09:17Z

GreytideSkye: even da vinky painted over da mona lease

{{LorePageHeader
|colour = 1070AF
|hcolour = white
|bcolour = 1070AF
|bhcolour = #1070AF
|ebcolour = 1070AF
|img = SolFedFlag.png|Flag of the Sol Federation, drawn by Moro.
|imgsize = 100px
|loretype = FACTION
|mainname = Sol Federation
|othernames =SolFed
|relatedpages =
|relatedlore = [[Lore:Space]], [[Lore:Sol]]
|languages = {{Common}}
|contributors={{Contributor/Owegno|Dang, like every single Clique is of their design.}}, {{Contributor/ArcanaObscura|mothzone}}
}}[[Category:Lore]]

Galactical Corporation Regulation [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1202740687276347423/1521689165362630797]

=syndicate manifesto page=
from [[Guide_to_your_Manifesto#Cliques]]

The warmonger clique Unity Clique is pissed that we chickened out of the Tizero-Terran war before striking a decisive victory. Conversely, the Tizirans... hate that we blew up their holy moon, and the clique hates that they don't recognize that they had it coming they way they started the war and hid behind that damn moon and whatnot. The war was a fair bit ago, but that moon's still a whole ton of dust in their orbit, almost cutting off the surface from space.

Plasma Clique, see the Plasma Runners but, but also their morals. They impose a lot of morals.

Frontier Clique, bunch of frontier-adjacent members banding together. The members might hate the Clique for poorly representing them, the clique might hate others for not listening to 'em, putting 'em in more danger with less support... They might support the Syndicate just because they're the only group who will help them out!

Unity Clique is also big about unifying the entire galaxy under a strong SolFed with equal power distribution, so... folk who want to be independent, or want to hold onto their imbalanced power. They're the reason SolFed has a military, so if their military pissed you off, you'd hate the folk who propped 'em up. They're so hateable, they've got two entries.

Progress Clique is all about technological progress at the expense of everything else, unless it's something immoral. So both pro and anti tech folk'll hate them. Cybersun's probably had more than a few products forced out of the marketplace by their lobbying.

Monarchists? There's a bunch of Kingdoms, and their kings unionize to better oppress their folk. You can imagine who'd hate that.

Trade Clique is about freedom of trade, and has a bunch of Sovcorps, so if you hate free trade, e.g. you like having a monopoly, or you hate the way they've put up regulations... there's your target.

=not that=
Lore already kinda states that they formed durin the First Great Migration and they ARE a "longstanding member of the Center Clique" so that's somethin I gotta orient myself around as well

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1505771927220781218]

I forget why the plasma clique, and thus tsogyal, was the one with the stasisy anomaly zone. Kinda want Interdyne to have a major medical research presence there. Hell, even putting their capital there despite it being entirely Tsogyal's territory. Gonna write about it tho. (also I put this in the wrong channel before, tee hee)

The Tsogyal Anomalous Zone is, reductively, a perpetual explosion, a forever bomb stuck in an infinite amount of time. On a surface level, it shares many similarities with a mundane "white hole," the conceptual inverse of a black hole. As one approaches a black hole, their perception of time accelerates, and as one approaches the Tsogyal Anomaly, their experience of time diminishes. As black holes pulls and consumes matter, the Tsogyal Anomaly produces and pushes it away. Despite the resemblance, the Tsogyal Anomaly is conclusively anomalous.

Consciousnesses within the radius of the field accelerate proportional to their attached body's deceleration; that is, visitors think at the same speed they do in normal space while their body moves in slow motion. Machinery, flesh, gasses, anything that's not directly related to the nervous system of a conscious person slows exponentially as it nears the core. As photons are discrete particles and not steady streams, visual perception slows as well. The conscious brain is adept at interpolating between visual stimuli too fast to observe, and surprisingly equally able to adapt to slower rates of light, hallucinating expected changes while waiting for the next photon. There is a radius around the anomaly's core, about 300km in diameter, in which the perceived "frame rate" is too low, resulting in a deleterious effect on the sanity of any exposed to it.

Inconveniently, the travel time of non-sapient information means that, at best, a person within can convey thoughts to the outside at exactly the rate that an ordinary person would at that same distance, but with additional signal-processing noise. i forgot why this was necessary

Experiments with "long person" have been forbidden by the Tsogyal Republic for the critical endangerment of all researchers involved.

Of all the advancements related, surprisingly Positronic research has had the most advancements from studying within this anomaly. By observing the moment a circuit accelerates to conscious-time, scientists were able to pinpoint the moment it became sapient, wildly cutting back on redundant information loops. As a result, new silicons can be significantly dumber (and smaller) while remaining "conscious." While the Positronic Cube remains the most commercially-viable artificial brain, now consciousness can reside on a drive smaller than a floppy disk.

The Tsogyal Anomaly was originally confused for a sun: a large burning ball around which planets orbited. Only once astrographers attempting to plan a Bluespace Shipping Lane plotted the odd orbit of Tsogyal's six planets did anyone suspect the sun to be anything but. The six planets in orbit of Tsogyal are actually a stable six-body satellite system, in which the gravity of each planet pulls the others inwards. The Anomaly, then, is stuck in the middle, equally repelled by each "orbiting" body. This uneven repulsion actually serves to stabilize the entire system, gently correcting any inconsistent wobbles until the system is stable again.

So why is it on fire? The core of the anomaly produces a seemingly infinite supply of plasma at a seemingly infinite pressure, meaning that it combusts when it is fast enough to react with ambient oxygen, or dense enough to undergo some analogy to nuclear fusion. Regardless, it's a burning ball of Plasma with negative gravity. Despite the flames, the surface temperature is shockingly survivable, and once a vessel is past the flames, the pressures within are slow enough to also be manageable. Excursions into the anomalous zone require exponential amounts of energy, and excursions out require patience. Tsogyal relies on an array of railguns to propel vessels deep upstream, where they are then capable of extending their stay through high-powered light emitters, offsetting their eventual expulsion from the torrent of fleeing plasma. Current vessels are capable of maintaining a steady impulse at (the radius at which time feels) 1/20th normal speed, and the deepest known incursion is hypothesized to reach 1/50,000th in the next 300 years. "Juggling stations", consisting of automated reinsertion relays, are able to keep returning a vessel into 1/800th speed for a "brief" duration, such that it averages to 1/500th speed experienced over a single journey of 2 years.

Exiting the anomaly is as simple as opening a large sail, letting out more surface area for the waves of plasma to push you away. The IDP Hosanna remains the only vessel to survive an emergency evacuation from 1/500th speed, avoiding structural collapse through careful engineering and aerodynamics, and avoiding sapience cessation through the radical therapy of intentional death in a resuscitable manner and a "timely" response by the IDP Chauncey at the 1/50th band. Most vessels who attempt such an exfiltration find themselves torn apart literally as molecular bonds fail to spin in corresponding ways, and metaphorically as the rapid influx of causality into a mind strongly hampers the sense of self.

Researchers suspect that the anomaly is simply the time dilation, and that the plasma is a result of bog-standard anomalies happening at the same rate as in realspace-timed anomalous zones, except slowed to an infinite timeframe, thus happening infinitely many more times at "once" in the center.
Other rumor-starters suggest that the Tsogyal Anomaly is a new Big Bang creating a new universe with a new timescale, incompatible with our current realspace.
Gossipologists accuse the Tsogyal Anomaly of being two massive Supermatter monuments clipped into each other in extradimensional ways, generating infinite energy through infinitely attempting to dust each other in nonorthogonal ways.
Hearsayientists suggest that since plasma is when the veil between bluespace and realspace is wounded but not pierced, that the time dilation would mean that no wound could pierce in the core before the end of the universe, that once an infinite amount of time has passed and the wound has had time to properly pierce, the Tsogyal Anomaly will then begin expelling Bluespace, potentially contaminating the entire universe with instantaneous reconfigurations.
Doomsday-profiteers point to numerous calendars as a finite date of total annihilation, and encourage you to buy your way into a stable afterlife for easy payments - what's a finite amount of money worth in comparison to your infinite soul?

Tsogyal Gasworkers ignore the mysticism and successfully harvest a steady supply of plasma from the burning cloud through - remember there is an immense amount of engineering keeping this steady, and that this is a simplification for the layperson to understand - putting a large straw through the burning layer so that no oxygen can get in so it can't burn before it's expanded enough to not want to burn.

So why is it still on fire? The plasma's infinite, but the oxygen? The incredible amount of plasma involved triggers an electrolytic CO2 reduction, melting the first combustion reaction's CO2 into methane and oxygen, which is recycled back into the combustion. In theory, the reaction needs only a finite amount of oxygen to burn the infinite amount of plasma, and removing enough oxygen manually could halt the burn. In practice, enough oxygen and microdebris exist drifting in space to rekindle the burn without perpetual (and cost-prohibitive) vigilance. In the opposite direction, while the addition of more oxygen could accelerate the burn, in practice the anomaly is already saturated with an even coating of oxygen, such that extra oxygen is propelled away from the anomaly before it can properly bind into a combustion reaction. Is that fucked up or what? speculative source on the electrolytic CO2 reduction, i'm not science enough to care about justifying it another step deeper https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/x24ba3/comment/imhjvmd/

=putting that voting research degree I never got to bad evil sinister use=
[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1494917746792595587]

I don't think we addressed how SolFed votes; I know the Unity Clique is about equal power across nations and I'm interpreting that as a One Nation One Vote complete "equality"

I'm thinking it needs to be really dumb in a practical "yeah I can see how we got here" manner. @Owegno I propose that the ever-expanding number of voting nations be the feature that makes voting complicated and cliques necessary.

Each member state in SolFed nominally gets one vote in any particular vote. However, the size and location of a nation's office in the Federal Assembly are dictated by their population/wealth, so that larger nations can keep more staff on-site and have better insight on active votes. The minimum threshold for a nation's ability to qualify for a vote isn't one of concrete numbers, but practicality: a tiny nation has an office so far from the voting hall that they are physically incapable of sprinting from their office to the voting box in time. At current projections, an on-site office of 100 workers is the bare minimum to keep tabs on all the concurrent debates and votes and submit an informed decision on each.

The first cliques were literally just coworkers from nearby offices that you trusted to carry your ballot, so you could sit in your office and watch the debates about another pressing matter to learn how to vote in your own interest. In time, this escalated to allowing these ballot runners to vote on your behalf, and to freely signing whatever vote your trusted ballot runner stops by your desk with. Gradually, these informal voting blocs grew structure, ideals, and congealed into the modern Cliques seen today. They hold grander ideas and networks of sprinters, but are still fundamentally just an orchestrated means of getting more votes into a box than can be carefully considered by individuals alone.
This comes about as new waves of nations literally have to bolt new rooms onto the Federal Assembly, which they can do because it's a space station. Even if it's not an office thing, a new nation means at bare minimum a new chair in a debate hall, which still gets bad as nations are added gradually and up to the 10,000some nations theoretically possible.

{{Contributor/Owegno|said}}: Each nation is assigned one vote power per person in its population. This gives a lot of power to the big member states while small ones have to band together to get any impact.

it can get made silly. Each vote is a physical ballot, congealed into denominations of 1 10 50 100 1,000 50,000 1m 25m Larger denominations have historically existed, but through the push of the Unity Clique toward One Nation One Vote, larger denominations were deemed "too great a security risk" and "atrocious for accountability", and that individual citizens had the right to track their specific vote (they do not) which would be made infeasible by including them in a conglomerate ballot. Ulteriorly, which is a real word, this stifles the ability of large nations to effectively vote at full strength, as having to sign each ballot to validate them imposes a strong time investment. Autopens were briefly banned in fear of fraud, until the first Synth Senator stepped aboard the Federal Assembly and everyone got a little too uncomfortable to bring it up again.

The largest nations' embassies in the Federal Assembly look more like a print shop than a place of legal asylum, rushing to leverage their full constituency and often losing sight of lesser votes. Paradoxically, this means that tiny measures can easily pass with only smaller nations' approval, as they have only a few ballots to certify, leaving spare time to address numerous votes at once.

oh god there's a pun too good to pass up

Ballots coming in physical denominations means that political alliance and vote trading is also a physical act, a literal trade of signed blank ballots for specific issues. For a short time, ballots were used as the currency of corruption, votes for personal favors to the senators. This, combined with the ramshackle assemblage of the Assembly, promoted certain business opportunities that, of all groups, the Monarchists were keen to capitalize on. Eschewing the standard political office, these royal representatives gained power through small vote donations in exchange for ready, well-cooked food, saving serious senators hours of off-site restauranting or valuable office space for personal cooking appliances. None grew as pervasive as the Burger King. @Bad Jokes

Eventually this would be cracked down upon, as this detracts from biological societies disproportionately more than non-consumptive species, as well as the deep fryer stench being recognized as an act of war against neighboring offices.

digital ballots are a sin
it is atrocious that any nation uses any form of digital ballot as the solitary means of voting
every ballot should, at bare minimum, print out a physical ballot that can be later counted and verified
a user cannot conclusively verify that their vote has been counted, if it is submitted strictly digitally
that's flat-out ignoring actual accessability and user skill; Grandma Voter isn't going to be able to use a QR code, let alone understand private key encryption enough to understand what the government claims is proof that their vote counted

a secure vote needs to do like, three things:
be countable correctly
be verifiable by the voter that their vote was counted correctly
be unverifiable by attackers

that is, I should be able to vote the way I want to, and John Gunman can't threaten me to vote for Other Guy, then after I vote hold me up and force me to prove I voted for Other Guy
there's some cool shit in terms of verifiability going on, like I've heard of, [[Wikipedia:Scantegrity|Scantegrity]]

so I'm seein' it like:
Office prints off blank ballots with a specific issue pre-written on 'em. Like they print a batch of ballots for "Vote C3-196: Is Daylight Lighting A Hatecrime Against Shadekin?", one ballot per "district", in those denominations as above. This is like, a thousand ballots.
They stick 'em through an autopen to register a specific vote. There's security measures that can be added here, both fictional and real. The signature is unique to the office, fictionally altered slightly to be unique to the vote; e.g. "distort the second letter turnwise for every vowel" etc. The ink can be chemically unique, etc.
They stick the signed ballots into a central ballot box, and the physical ballots are kept "secure" for like a year. They can basically gotta be auto-counted by computer systems, but the physical ballot exists as physical proof of a physical vote.
After a short time, like 4 hours, the ballot box closes (or like, the line to the ballot box is cut off). This time is debatable, whether it serves narrative purpose.
It gets counted in whatever amount of time this part's not narratively interesting.
In theory a Recount can be called, and by all means someone always calls for it, but Real, Serious recounts where they actually have to break out the physical ballots are rare.
so if I wanna buy a burger with votes, I'd literally just take a few printed, unsigned ballots off the top of the stack and hand 'em to the guy

=not that 2=
Center Clique isn't mentioned in the cliques section on the Manifesto page. That's the only thing I notice.

Fuck you, Plasma Clique. Bunch of up-their-own-ass moral purists trying to monopolize one of the most potent fuels in the galaxy, mysteriously stable in any state of matter at room temperature yet extremely volatile. It's an amazing rock! It burns great and is an incredible fuel, and these motherfuckers want it locked down and distributed at their whims. Fuck this "price stability" morality bullshit, let the people pay what they want for as much as they want. Fuck this "overextraction" fearmongering shit, you know it's a lie to line your own pockets with the tears of SolFed citizens. Fuck the Tsogyal Republic, waving their "big plasma energy" around. Fuck that, people need plasma and I want these upright pricks out of my mother-biking way so I can give the people what they want. For money. Fuck you for bending ass-backwards over to this voting block, SolFed.

the gorlex defector guy, he currently serves as a prominent political figure in the {{TooltipInline|Slipstream Clique|A lesser Clique, focused on controlling the path of trade routes and assorted FTL travels.}} gonna call that a subset of the Trade Clique

One aspect regarding regulation I was thinking i will say is that SolFed did initially regulate genemodding, but in the 2300s the Progress Clique got that repealed and genemodding is regulated on a member state basis.

re NT, I assumed they were with the Corpo clique? Sable's stuff got "NT sits on the Luna board of directors" so they're important enough to have a dedicated table in whatever clique they're actually with. Like, I'd imagine the FTU has a table but some regional shipping companies need to subclique to have 1 vote at the clique.
I'm rather distracted rn but I don't recognize the Corporate Territories project?

---

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1229596167185104926/1256811266991718431]

Also some more possibilities for cliques:

Center Clique: This is mainly to be a sort of baseline which other cliques are viewed. Nominally pro-democratic, somewhat pro-corporate, and generally in favor of more power to SolFed itself. This puts them at odd with the Frontier Clique, and I'm thinking they'll also often be at odds with the Assimilation Clique, due to prefer a softer approach to diplomacy.

Frontier Clique: Representing the more outlying regions of SolFed they're typically anti-corporate, and very opposed to giving power to SolFed, preferring the Federation to simply protect them and otherwise stay out of their business, particularly in regards to expansion which they want to be free and without any real regulation or oversight. Their anti-corporate nature would make them rivals with the Trade Clique.

Aristocratic Clique: The few monarchies and aristocratic nations in SolFed banded to primarily protect their often very particular interests. They are also probably one of the few (if not the only) clique that is pro-hemophage, due to their pursuit of technology or methods that provide immortality. This puts them very much at odds with the Progress Clique, due to the fact they're pretty openly trying to create an immortal elite, the exact thing the Progress Clique is strongly opposed to.

Production Clique: A sort of alternative economic alliance to the Trade Clique which instead of pursuing typical capitalism utilize command economies with each member of the clique specializing in the production of a few things for maximum efficiency. Not really socialist or communist, but instead democratic, authoritarian, or technocratic, they'd be rivals with the Trade Clique due to pursuing a much more protectionist and anti-megacorporation economic model for the Federation.

One thing I'm kind of struggling with is this:

Thus far in the writing for SolFed my plans involve generally only portrayed generic ideologies (democracies, capitalism, generic authoritarianism) with more wacky things tacked on (technocracy, monarchism) as I know these are pretty uncontroversial, but there would definitely be more socialist/communist ideologies out there in a capitalist space future. I know the old SR lore made the big brain decision of making the socialists the mega racists, which I'd obviously avoid, but the issue I'm having is that for some people any sort of positive portrayal of Marxist ideologies is EVIL PROPAGANDA, while for some people any negative portrayal of Marxist ideologies is also EVIL PROPAGANDA.

I want to avoid the whole IRL politics shtick of old SR lore like the plague, but I also do want to include groups that hold that viewpoint because it just makes sense for the setting to me, but, I don't have a clue how to go about it in a manner that won't result in angry readers. Just don't know how, so any suggestions are welcome.

me being slider brained [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1229596167185104926/1253014114817675274]

I'm going to use this thread to post current ideas for cliques that I have, so that way other people can give input on the ideas if they want.
Assimilation Clique: Created by the Tiziran war and seeks to try and incorporate every alien government into SolFed and export SolFed and human culture to aliens, while being very aggressive and jingoistic to any alien government that may be hostile to SolFed, even going as far as to try and agitate revolt in hostile alien governments.

Plasma Clique: A collection of member states who own the main plasma producing systems in SolFed. These are probably going to systems that are anomalous, so they may produce other things too, but plasma is likely the most important of their exports. They work together to set industry standards for plasma production, and production quotas. They're made up of various democratic member states and in addition to looking out for their financial interests try to push democracy within SolFed.
Trade Clique: A generally pro-corporate clique, the exact specifics are rather TBD as work on SolFed corporations is generally very vague, but they look out for corporate interests and generally push a free-trade agenda, trying to prevent any member state from enacting tarrifs, or from restricting the activities of outside corporations.

Progress Clique: A technocratic clique that generally pushes for technocratic governance within SolFed, and little to no restriction on technology and science. However they do oppose the creation of AI and push for tight regulation on personality transfers, seeing both as immoral and/or dangerous, with the specifics varying from member to member. Regardless synthetics are generally banned in the various member states that make up the Progress Clique while there are some major restrictions on transferring your personality.

For the Progress Clique they're opposed to synthetic life for varying reasons. It could be they view it as a threat, or they could view creating synthetic life as immoral. For mind transfer the restrictions are based around preventing the creation of an immortal elite, or putting people in terminator bodies. There are likely other dangerous technologies they're opposed to, like mass cloning, but I think that's not a thing in SolFed already.

=presiDON'T=

{{Contributor/Owegno}}: The idea of creating the role of president is actually a popular one, and something that will happen pretty soon after lore is "done" and the focus turns to creating a living universe (at least for me), the SolFed president will be a thing I think regardless of if this coup plotline will be part of the SolFed Troubles Arc or not.

The elected president will be fairly moderate for obvious reasons, as no one extreme is getting elected, but for one reason or another they end up being brought into a conspiracy (or this conspiracy plans to replace them) that wishes to basically put an end to the power of the Federal Assembly and drastically centralize SolFed, some inspiration here from the August Coup, basically hardliners who believe that SolFed is dying and they need to take drastic action to save it.

This conspiracy is backed by the governments of several member states (who exactly is TBD, although I have a few ideas) and they begin making plans, recruiting more members, working with the generals in the SolFed military who are part of the plot to move potentially disloyal units and commanders to prime postings on the rim of the Federation, where the best and brightest are needed! Meanwhile units led by commanders who are part of the conspiracy are placed in command of dull, quiet postings near the center of SolFed. There will also be other actions, like potentially brokering a secret deal with NT to supply the SFAF with plasma in the event the plasma clique opposes the clique.

This will basically culminate in the president suspending the power of the Federal Assembly and putting them into an advisory position (and if the president isn't part of the coup a new one will be put in place and the old one arrested) while the president now basically has absolute authority. Any resistance from the Federal Assembly will be prevented by SFAF units loyal to the coup who will control the capital, and larger resistance will be kept in check, some member states may protest and even leave the Federation, but they can be dealt with once the new order is established and power consolidated, plus they may even come around to the plotters way of looking at things once the dust has settled. This is of course, their plan, and in reality it would play out differently.

I like the part about couping against the Plasma Clique politically instead of just biker gangly
I like the idea of folk getting sick of the Federal Assembly's general inability to do anything
and I like tabbing away, so don't take me not shouting out a specific bit as dislike
I would rephrase the part about moving generals, just because the "disloyal" ones getting moved to the rim are literally there because they would remain loyal to the Federal Assembly and status quo, and thus fuck up the coup
The end result kind of seems like exactly the current status quo, where if you ain't appealing to a Clique, you get jack shit, except now there's a face for each interest
except now they're all sucking up to someone else, the urClique that's the wrong prefix lmao

I feel like the idea would get a lot of support from nations with strong interests in two different cliques, who're sick of being torn between them and basically getting benefit from neither
like a... plasma-producing conquerer, torn between the plasma and unity cliques?
like obviously it's already got support from nations with interest in one or zero cliques who're already getting jack shit from who they support, but the folk split between two+ are also in that "getting nothing" boat
Definitely like the idea of the Triumvirate better than a solitary president, mostly because personal politics
triumvirate is such a good name but it's sooooo three-locked, like "Quadrumvirate" does not fuck
Protectorate?

And in terms of SolFed politics while Saturn is not a technocracy their origins as one still has them leaning that way, with them being one of the founding members of the Progress Clique.

= Plasma Clique wants =
[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1354544301119377540]

Did we ever decide what the Plasma Clique wants?
like, the ideology they're pushing as part of their vaguely-charity near-monopoly on Plasma?
Owegno — 3/26/2025 3:59 PM
I was thinking that they want to maintain their monopoly, both for selfish but also altruistic reasons (keeping this vital resource price stable, and preventing over extraction)

Otherwise they basically try and be Switzerland, they might want certain things, but they try and be as neutral as possible otherwise.
Although I'm open to other ideas and suggestions.

I can build off over-extraction; since plasma is basically bruises in the bluespace wall, they're trying to prevent Space Global Warming by being smart about distributing plasmas. Fuck it, they're the reason every station has an abundance of solar panels for free. The distribution is to disincentivize individual extraction, which would be worse, because somehow they can Make Plasma more safely at scale?
This would lead to folk opposing the idea of Space Global Warming, because it sounds kinda spiritual actually and not hard sciencey, and gets in the way of short-term profit

Plasma mining's fine, esp. on lavaland, because the plasma's already there, we're not making more of it. Xenobio is... less fine, but we don't scale up to ecosystem-affecting amounts in-game without an admin event.

What do they think of the proliferation of PACMAN generators though? Like.. most stations have it for emergency power. And they usually come pre-stocked

Betcha they put them there. Like, they're not hoarding plasma, they're controlling it, and emergency generators seem reasonable.

They may also accept competition from big fission and big fusion, as most power generation being non plasma probably fits their aims. They're mostly state monopolies so they don't really pursue infinite growth in the plasma market like corporations would, which could be an additional point of friction with NT we can use.

state monopolies... that means they don't answer to CEOs or a voter base, they own everything top to bottom and so don't have external pressures at anything but a state-vs-state level?

Basically. It would vary some but for instance for Tsogyal, they answer to their voter base in how the revenue from plasma sales are spent, but the Tsogyal population isn't going to demand infinite growth, as they have no reason to. So long as the social services they enjoy are maintained, which they easily are, they're happy.

Which is a dangerous attitude in a corpo-centered universe. It's not just the Plasma Runners who'd hate them, it's anyone on a board who doesn't want their workers realizing that they could settle for "this is good enough" and choke the living hell out of their company's growth

Basically. I'm thinking they fall into the anti corporate side of SolFed alongside the Progress Clique, partially so the teams are balanced for reasons, and also because it increases their tension with NT.

= Unity Clique =
the war guys

in regards to the Infinite Empire's fringe, the Spartan Invasions... the "claims" ehh maybe. The Zone of Infinite Attrition, hell yeah that's a low-grade conflict that'd be fuel for the Unity Clique, far below the Sagittarius War's struggles but still enough to piss the locals off that nothing's Being Done

they're declared here [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1263659815662784572]

I'm torn on what to call the Sagittarian's pro-expansion, pro-mobilization, anti independent alien clique. I've mostly called in the Assimilation Clique but it could alternatively be called the Expansion Clique, the Integration Clique, or the Militarization Clique. Anyone have any suggestions of which I should pick?

They're trying to get people rolled into SolFed specifically although generally on their side. However I was thinking that the minority political opinion with the Sagittarians was anti-SolFed.

"Can't beat the system, so we'll stack the odds in our favor"
Makes sense
It's like they're trying to build a clique of their own in the assembly

Basically. They did actually build a clique of their own after the war as well as that's where the Unity Clique came from, and I was thinking the members of their clique are incredibly binary with how they support things politically. Center Clique? Never ever supporting anything they want ever as they fucked them during the war and betrayed SolFed. Progress Clique? Sure, at least one of their members provided a good deal of support (probably, not fully written yet), so they'll help them out if they need it.

it sounds like a tumor, actively taking in outsiders to swell to monolithic size
their goal is exploiting the clique system to achieve a majority. a 51% attack.

{{Contributor/Planty}} Are there particular criteria for joining solfed?

I was thinking it would be a simple majority. International recognition would basically be included in that.

The Unity clique goes a long way toward explaining why joining is so easy, it can be taken for granted.
Vast majority give no darn either way. Abstain from vote.
Only people basically adjacent have any reason to have an opinion.
Yeses would be for liking new trade routes that open up, for ending hostilities, for under the table boons.
No would be for those intent on conquering the zone themselves, or for those pissed at a neighbor who might vote yes above.

Just topographically, being extremely generous, a new zone might have at most 10 neighbors, and those might have at most 10 neighbors. 100 members as the upper limit of locals to even have an opinion. As long as there are more than 100 Unity lovers, they entirely drown out the people who will be affected.

One other thing I was thinking is that the pro-self determination side did get a slight win during age of revolutions 2.0, in that it has become precedent and a matter of pride that so long as you're a proper nation you can join if you want to. Efforts to gatekeep successful rebel states from joining SolFed generally failed.

How proactive is the Unity clique? Are they "we must expand continouously" or are they "Expand when we see it, never tolerate a neighbor but we don't gotta expand in empty space to make more neighbors right now"
or is that an internal debate they're not settled on
I was thinking the latter. I see no real reason for them to want territory for territories sake. The one thing is that any known alien government is a target of their attempts to woo, or their preparations for war.

They have basically no interest in conquest, as avoiding war is their main goal.

--

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1202994362024198246/1262577089140363274]

Sort of the core tenant I had in mind for the Assimilation Clique to help ensure they're different from classic sci-fi xenophobes is that they hate alien governments, not the aliens themselves. In their eyes they're righteous liberators, and it would make sense for that approach to begin during the Tiziran war, even if in practice it wasn't always followed due to the realities of the conflict.

When abouts did the tenets of the assimilatiob clique manifest?
My read was always that the Sagittarians were in it to remove a distict and dangerous threat on their front doorstep. Get the lizards off thr board and make sure they can't pose a threat to us anymore.

Which would over time morph into more of a sunk-cost fallacy related to how costly the fighting has been.

But going for more of a "They will accept our peaceful ways, By Force" could be an interesting spin on trying to salvage a what would have become a bit of a political and diplomatic deathspiral from continuing to prosecute the war.
Ofc what exactly is meant by "assimilate" could be up for some debate. I'd imagine it would look a lot like "puppet".

Basically my current thoughts on when their tenets manifested was during and after the war.
They wanted to prevent any similar war from happening ever again, which is done through militarization of SolFed (creating the SFAF, and the Sagittarians being in a constant of semi-mobilization ever since), and through trying to make any potentially hostile alien governments into friends, either by befriending them, or if they can't be befriend, trying to take steps to cause a regime change and/or weaken them.

As for what it means, it is up for debate. They wanted to basically do a West Germany or Japan to Tizirans, but their policies are certainly culturally Imperialist to a degree.

Sounds almost like the US during the cold war in the kind of "democracy is non-negotiable kind of way".
Like they'll ask you very politely to shack up w SolFed. Just never mind that folks who tell them to pound sand have this odd habit of unexplained civil wars a few years after the fact.
And they're not afraid to go kinetic against anyone who is properly hostile to them.

=remember when i did a post about the cliques in the future=

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1202742896428589096/1337259605964755028]

{{Contributor/Owegno}} the Summary Of Cliques list [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1328086462620635177]
Center Clique, which represents the "default" to a degree. They're made up primarily of large and powerful nations in the center of SolFed, and believe in centralizing SolFed alongside supporting corporate interests, and their own interests. You could consider them a bit akin to the Federalists in the early US.

The Trade Clique, which is basically mostly made up of Sovereign Corporations with the Corporate Territories acting as their leader and unified voice. The nations in the Trade Clique are generally those with strong corporate influence that didn't join the Center Clique. As you would expect they are entirely devoted to Corporate interests and freedom of trade.

Plasma Clique, which is made up of the plasma producing states of SolFed, with the exception of Nanotrasen. They try and keep the price of plasma nice and stable, and protect their monopoly of it. They're otherwise incredibly neutral politically as they try and befriend everyone so they have as much political favor as possible to protect their narrow interests.

The Frontier Clique, which is made up primarily of smaller members who were often former colonies of other members. They generally try and represent the interests of "The Little Guy" and have tons of tiny members. They're pretty anti corporate and are pretty opposed to centralizing SolFed. They're also really lacking in unity due to how many members they have.

The Unity Clique, which is both the Sagittarian Triumvirates revenge club, and also die hard believers in Unificationism that want SolFed to unify the galaxy. They do want to centralize SolFed but want it to be done in a way that has a more equal distribution of power, which upsets both the Frontier and Center Clique. They're also responsible for SolFed having a military, as that is a bill they proposed and got other people to agree to.

The Progress Clique, which is still very WIP, made up of generally technocratic members of SolFed and focused on ensuring that technological progress is not stifled. The one exception is that they don't want technology being used for things they view as immoral, like the creation of an immortal undying corporate elite, which does mean they're paradoxically both pro and anti-tech, as they believe technology should be for everyone, not just the wealthy.

An unnamed Monarchist Clique, which looks out for the interests of the monarchies of SolFed who are probably not very popular with other members, and also have taken an interest in hemophages and want to elevate their rights. This Clique is also very WIP.

{{Contributor/goldenfreddycl}}
Theocratic Absolute Monarchy with an Assembly (The ruler is a woman who is hailed as a living Goddess. Doesn't have to actually be one. It's more the belief that she is)

A democratic oligarchal government ruled by a council of seven (or any similar odd number of) councillors with multiple layers to the government

A Stratocratic Citizen Republic ruled by, hence "stratocratic", a military council and citizenship is guaranteed upon military service to the nation. Citizens also participate in governance.

A union of clans who are all governed by this "Grand Assembly" of elected individuals. Not much different from a lot of populat fantasy governments of the same origin.

A Consortium of different corporations where all the CEOs rule as a council.

A confederation if four kingdoms ruled by a quad-king government (the 4 Kings rule together). This government failed badly.

Plasma clique's homeworld is a runaway star..? wait did that BECOME the cryostasis star of tsogyal? [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1202779287791341609/1324297558033432576]

Plasma Clique nation [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1324171078557372427]

I've still been trying to write the Plasma Clique Nation and have roughly what they are down:
Wealthy nation heavily funded by a state run plasma extraction company.
Centered upon an anomalous system that is a weirdly high speed star.
The primarily anomaly of this star is that almost everything is more stable. For example: Chemical reactions are much harder to start and keep going, living things straight up live longer, but require biological modification to boost their metabolism or else they feel cold and perpetually tired, probably more neat results that I haven't thought of.
There are other smaller anomalies in the region and weird creatures and such on the main Earth-like world, which is a very wet world with extreme amounts of rain, with its terrestrial regions mostly being rainforest, swamps, ect.
Overall its safer and nicer than the Nova anomalous zone, and the living longer is a nice thing, but for people not specially modified it sucks, and if those modified people then leave the zone they will overheat as their metabolism goes crazy.
The government is a pretty representative democracy, they're generally pretty nice. Their biggest concern is maintaining the Plasma Clique's monopoly.
In terms of external relations they do their best to maintain absolute neutrality, they want corporations and other governments to like them and cooperate with their monopoly, and do their best to avoid angering anyone.
They're unique for a major SolFed power as their territory and population is based around this one star, with it being one of the most populated systems in SolFed (I don't like absolute numbers too much, but in the realm of perhaps 150 billion)
Probably three fourths of their population lives in space rather than on planets. This has resulted in a very "space maritime" inspired culture. The biggest industry they have after plasma extraction is starship production, and it is what employs the most people.
Culturally I want to give them vibes focused on that spacer culture. Children often want to be starship crews, and their people are disproportionally represented in the general SolFed spacer community.

The Plasma Clique is the n- oh, the nation. their heart, their Capital, their center.
This gives extreme Cryostasis vibes. Y'gotta surgically make yourself go faster to counter the Anomalous Zone's full-zone Basically Cryostasis? I imagine this zone's also a hotbed for hospice and hospitals alike, for the same reason, which would contribute to the Most Populated Systems of 2564 Runner-Up award (nothing can beat Meat Cubeia, where all the fugitives who get compressed back into meat cubes go). We gotta drop a shout-out that it's also a hip Snailperson vacation spot

Playing it straight but Star Wars levels of on-the-nose with, slow, cryo... Cryostia, Dod Ling, The Loistar Ring,

But we mechanically already have Slow theming: Sepia slimes, with the Sepia floor tiles, with the Sepia Time Stop.

Sea the Sepialantic, cruise the Beige of Basklay, Grisaille https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisaille, something off the Cephalopod genus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_(cephalopod), ... if it's photography themed, it's a developing nation. @Bad Jokes but also serious.

Plasma Clique, The moralisitic good guys of Plasma. Y'know what happens when you fuck with them? They cut you off. And if that's not enough? Whoopsy it looks like that pirate fleet you thought was chasing you and running out of fuel is suddenly faster than you. Oops haha that's space piracy baby.

I just need a name for the Plasma Clique nation, to write their paragraph (which shouldn't take long once I have a name) and then do some information various Cliques which also shouldn't be hard. After that we should be good to add quite a bit to the SolFed wikipage.

* The Plasmelody, folk hate them because they insist on singing and they straight give Crystals Shop vibes. Does not need to be literal singing, their words just need to flow more than they need to be precise or correct.
* Pinkpeace, a play on Greenpeace which is an organization I just realized I know very little about
* Fuel Good Inc., known for their hit song Delamination Inc. which plays whenever an unstable, experimental power source starts to fuck up and they're not already playing Ebb & Flow.
* Plasma Control
* Plasthma Attack
* The Tri-State Area (because it exists at room temp in all 3 states of matter)
* Fuel All Mankind
* some pun on pac man
* Omniplasm
* Mother Knows Combest
* Combusty Babes (Too Hot)
* Burny Sanders (too political but c'mon it's a ncie pun)
* Collective for the Right to Burn
* Backburn, as in the backbone of our society
* Autonimos Technical, a play on Atmos Tech. Sends criminals to Autonimo Bay.
* The Light Brigade: they keep the lights on
* Lightgivers
* Power to the People
* Self-Stable, a play on plasma being shelf-stable and also ensuring folk aren't beholden to an energy overlord (besides themselves lmao)

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1300091700693172304]

⁠solfed⁠
remembering that they're idealistic, do good social programs, help others, moralize and oppose injustice, but have to have some sort of reason folk could possibly dislike them:

They're opposed by the Plasma Runners, biker gang m'fers who want profit over whatever moral BS the plasma clique does. They oppose because they see plasma as PROFIT, BABY! PURE FUCKING CREDITS IN A ROCK!
maybe the PQ also demands a tithe of plasma and/or Accurate Reporting of the plasma you mine, so they don't give you more than you've already gotten to fulfill your own needs...
hopefully there's some bits worth working with in there.

As my mind is stumped on the new NRI at the moment I'll work on SolFed members. I have two basic ideas at the moment that I might utilize if it doesn't turn out that they suck.

[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1274851745226428490]

{{Contributor/Owegno}} Plasma clique member which is generally nice. They're very fair and free democracy with all their citizens living very comfortable lives thanks to the government using the profits of the state-run plasma corporation to enact some of the best social programs in all of SolFed. I was thinking of giving paragon like idealism being part of the core of their culture. Aiding others is to them the greatest calling, but they also tend to be very moralistic and they will try and oppose injustices. This applies to their government as well as generally it works to help other SolFed member states, but with an "evil" nations like the Libraen Federation they work to harm them however possible.

The Corporate Territories, a Trade Clique member (or the leader of the Trade Clique) that is a collection of corporate controlled systems. It exists that give the corporations that are members of the project a perfect place for manufacturing, and to give them votes in the Federal Assembly. It has a generally unified façade that works to protect corporate interests in SolFed, but that unity ends there and the various corporations that contribute to it are generally incredibly hostile to one another, and trickles down into the Corporate Territories.

They don't give out free plasma, but they do generally try to use their power to help others. However they can be very moralistic and that can put them into conflict with people very easily. Plus you know, defending their clique's monopoly.

Moralistic is... vague, hence fleshing it out. Examples of moralistic helpers I can think of:
Churches who do charity drives for homeless, thus flaunting their morals and getting to give brief lectures to their captive audience.
Youtube Influencers, e.g. Mr. Beast, who profit off the perception of the work they do, independently of how effective the work done is. Can range from "just recouping costs" to "being a charity middleman is a successful business." See also: for-profit foster parents.
Churches who do charity but only for active worshippers, effectively forcing homeless to routinely attend sermons to survive off of their charity.
Brotherhood of Steel FO3:Broken Steel, who operates with an independent agenda but uses the charity to remain in good graces. They will take your Technology whether you're subscribed to their free water or not, but they'll also give you water whether or not you have technology to surrender.
Dude at church who tithes to satisfy a minimum "good person" threshold to feel good about themselves.

So I'm gonna guess at three factors, on a scale:
How Specific are they? How different are their morals from the cultural norm? needs better name
How Intrusive are they? What do they impose in exchange for their help?
Self-Centered? I think this is a subset of intrusive. What do they gain from this interaction?
How Helpful are they? Do they actually help, or are they doing things that only look helpful?

so church charity homeless: Not very specific, their morals are similar to the religious morals of America. Intrusive: not very. Subjecting homeless folk to like 30 minutes of being in a church and surrounded by helpful people isn't all that imposing. Self-centered: They gain ingroup cohesion, and individuals go to Heaven. Helpful: pretty helpful. Treats symptoms of wealth imbalance without disrupting the status quo. Blankets /beans are useful. Money, jobs, housing would be more useful.

I mean moralistic as in the definition of the word.
So intrusive, based off their cultural code of righteousness which I'm not settled on but I do want it to be similar to modern classic moral values. Not necessarily self centered, and they only help people they like.

so yes imposing: conform to us or get no help. Correct, and more importantly: They will oppose [that which] they view as immoral.

outdated on the distribution of plasma, before the Scars In Bluespace stuff [https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1218023221551693885/1273077696347504664]

= Center Clique =
[https://discord.com/channels/1202740686768574566/1226312380175220787/1267707856149545022] and there's some really good discussion about other cliques above that. this is page 5 of 9.

{{Contributor/Owegno}}
So here is the current concept and plan for the Imperialist Center Clique nation.

Their narrative purpose is to basically replace the void left by SolFed becoming completely different. A lot of people had their character writtens with a controlling somewhat oppressive imperialist democracy being a major part of the setting. I want to include them so that people who don't want to write something new of their own, or rewrite their characters some, have a fairly easy option other than just rejecting the lore. In addition they act as a baseline/moderate for SolFed politics, representing a pro-corporate (although not as strong as any trade clique members), pro-democracy, somewhat corrupt entity that the more wacky, evil, or good entities can be compared against.

Like old SolFed they're an imperialist democracy that is trying to expand as much as possible, often bullying, bribing or coercing smaller nations or independent systems into joining them. They have a very close relationship with corporations and while they are a Federation the central government has a lot of control and will micro-manage individual systems. They struggle with secessionist movements and were one of the big people to suffer revolutions after the first migration, losing a good bit of territory.

They're one of the biggest nations in SolFed and are territorially spread out everywhere due to their policy of trying to expand as much as possible, but they're centered closer to Sol. Their capital is Beta Librae, which is why I think Libraen Federation is the name I'll go with. I'm a bit unsure on what sort of theming to give them, I just know I want to avoid any sort of US coding for them. If anyone has any suggestions for inspiration on their style and vibes let me know.
..
I'm hoping less "single nation," and more "that social media that's for landlords to collaborate".

"Not US Coded" rules out the best two options: Home Owner's Association, and Landlord Coalition

Lore:Cliques

2026-09-05T02:52:17Z

GreytideSkye: first pass for Owegno to gawk at