Lore:Tiger Cooperative: Difference between revisions

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  |relatedlore = [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]], [[Nova_Sector_lore|Nova Sector]], [[Lore:Syndicate|The Syndicate]]
  |relatedlore = [[Lore:Changeling|Changelings]], [[Nova_Sector_lore|Nova Sector]], [[Lore:Syndicate|The Syndicate]]
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'''The Tiger Cooperative''' is the public face of the shadowy '''Church of the True Angels''', a frontier‐born cult that blends militant zeal with forbidden biotech. Purportedly a Syndicate‐aligned logistics and pharmaceutical outfit, Tiger Co-op’s chemical weapons, combat stimulants, and hallucinogenic “Ritual Wine” conceal its true purpose: the worship, cultivation, and weaponization of Changelings as living divinities. Feared even by fellow Syndicate factions, who whisper of cannibalism and blood-soaked ceremonies- Tiger Cooperative cells operate with brutal autonomy across the SolFed Frontier, answering only to their unseen Prophet, the Exarch.


=Tiger Cooperative=
The Tiger Cooperative is a non-sovereign Corporation, a member of the Syndicate, and a front for the [[Lore:Changeling|Changeling]]-focused '''Church of the True Angels'''.
The Tiger Cooperative is a shadowed and enigmatic paradigm operating at the intersection of biotechnology, religious fanaticism, and military conquest. Originally conceived as a loose collective of like-minded visionaries seeking biological perfection, it has since evolved into a vast corporate cult with decentralized yet ruthlessly efficient command structures. The Cooperative venerates Changelings- shape-shifting entities of myth and terror, as divine beings, viewing their genetic malleability and predatory cunning as the highest form of life.


Blending esoteric doctrine with cutting-edge biochemistry, the Tiger Cooperative engineers both living weapons and indoctrinated soldiers through a fusion of fervent worship and brutal science. Corporate directives are often handed down as religious edicts, and its "employees" are as much zealots as they are scientists, soldiers, and agents. Loyalty is absolute; defection or failure is met with swift and ritualistic retribution.
= The Quaternity of Eternity, The Evershifting Paradigm Of Stability =
Skin and bone: weakness alone. Flesh and blood: no better than mud. Long have cultures waxed poetic about each, and in each shred of lies there lay a truth. The Holy Calling may reductively be summarized as such, should you are.


While their operations span clandestine biolabs, hidden strongholds, and front companies scattered across the sector, the Cooperative remains largely insular, maintaining strict barriers between their inner sanctums and the outside world. Their presence is typically heralded by outbreaks of bioengineered plagues, disappearances of research teams, or sudden cult uprisings - all signs that the Tiger's gaze has fallen upon a region.
To master one's self is to master each of the four. Complete control of the self leads to greater control of the rest. The ideal person is one whose ''every cell'' bends to their whim: [[Lore:Changeling|'''Changeling''']]. In pursuit of power, of higher power, of absolute power, Tiger Cooperative follows the lessons of bioterrors, growing each cell with new orders.


The Tiger Cooperative is not merely a corporation: it is a crusade: Remake the universe in the image of their sacred patrons - a universe where flesh is mutable, faith is absolute, and survival belongs only to the most perfected.
== Skin ==
'''Tiger Cooperative''', renowned biological pioneers and one of the premiere names in transhumanism. '''"Unafraid of pushing beyond our limitations,"''' say their products.  


=History=
Above-board, Tiger Cooperative operates one of SolFed's top ten [[Lore:Genemodding|Genemodding]] laboratories, the only one willing to push the genetic stability of their patients beyond legally-safe levels. Every genetic alteration permitting a significant at-will personal alteration stems from Tiger's patented {{TooltipInline|Display Text='''Polymorph Gene Sequence'''|Tooltip=That is, the genetic modification given by your character taking the Quirk.}} '''retrovirus'''. This specific genemod alters several glands in the body to produce an {{TooltipInline|Display Text=endemic|Tooltip=Native to one's body. It's not a contageous virus as it works exclusively on your body. In theory, if you sneezed on a perfect clone of yourself, it might work, but the clone's immune system wouldn't be willfully suppressed so they'd likely fight it off.}} virus, which itself self-alters in response to conscious shifts in the host's self-image, and once an intended mutation is considered finalized, the new version of the retrovirus aggressively attacks pieces of the host incompatible with their grand vision, and a secondary genemod fosters the rapid regrowth of new tissue in the area, repurposing phagocytes into reconstructive elements to build the new cells from the debris of the old. The Self-Actualization Device is based on these principles, too.


'''''“Our flesh remembers what the mind forgets. We are the echo of that memory, and it will not be silenced.”'''''
'''"Reimagining, culling, and reconstruction"''': not just their flagship product's pathway, but the entire {{TooltipInline|Display Text=business model|Tooltip=Astute readers might draw parallels to the modus operandi of Changelings, and would be surprised to learn that the retrovirus operates independently of Changeling biology.}} of the Tiger Cooperative. Tiger Cooperative markets itself as a {{TooltipInline|Display Text="Tiger Team,"|Tooltip=No real tigers are involved. Anthromorphic folk with Tiger-like appearances are not necessarily excluded, but are not innate to the structure.}} which they paraphrase as ''"a team of undomesticated and uninhibited technical specialists, selected for their experience, energy, and imagination, and assigned to track down relentlessly every possible source of failure in a body."'' Tiger Cooperative leads the charge in {{TooltipInline|Display Text=biodisease|Tooltip=Bio Disease may seem redundant, but it's scarier if it isn't.}} research, and often not on the curing side.


''-Fragment from the Annals of the First Witness, recovered and redacted''<br />
== Bone ==
Tiger Cooperative is surprisingly a large proponent of [[Lore:Synths#Recent History|"Silicon Rights,"]] despite their biological-focus and despite synthetic life having had equal rights to organics [[Lore:Synths#Recent History|for centuries now]]. During the year-long legal battle over silicon rights, the '''Sentient-Engine Liberation Front''' [[Lore:Syndicate#SELF|(SELF)]] spearheaded social, legal, and physical campaigns across the entire Federation until both the framework for recognizing Synthetic Life and for acknowledging future forms of new Life were cemented in a supermajority vote by the Council of the Sol Federation. With their goals achieved, the members of SELF took one of three paths, if they kept fighting:


=== 1. The Catalyst: From Scholar to Prophet ===
The SELF brand, their lawyers and activists, moved to fixing smaller injustices like employer disputes, discrimination, inequity. The radicals, soldiers without a cause, they drifted through the cosmos, taking up fights for silicon rights or coin. What remains are the despicable folk, those who joined SELF for ignoble reasons.  
In the decades following humanity’s first FTL voyages, frontier colonies whispered of a shape-shifting horror- ''"Changelings"''- that lurked just beyond the charted lanes. It was during this era of fear that an ambitious human xenobiologist, '''Dr. Marian Keller''', led an expedition to Ordoht Tertius. There she captured a wounded Changeling specimen, intending to prove its sapience and secure diplomatic immunity for her people.


What happened next shattered every expectation. Alone in her makeshift lab, Keller subjected the creature to neuro-interface experiments. Instead of violence, she reported a flood of images, a living memory of cosmic purpose, delivered in whispers and flesh cues. When she emerged, pale and trembling, she was no longer a scientist but the '''First Witness''', claiming direct communion with beings she called “True Angels.”
What remain in villainy are the supremacists, those who feel that equal rights should only come with equal ability, that biologics have yet to earn rights on par with synthetics, that SELF abandoned the fight just as it was beginning. What better way to diminish the pestilence of organic life than to breed their predators? These supremacists form the backbone of Tiger Cooperative, believing in the corporate vision not as a business, but a {{TooltipInline|Display Text=moral|Tooltip=Moral, philosophical, ethical?}} drive.


=== 2. The Era of the Dispossessed ===
Much like a backbone, their role is more logistical and structural than outward-facing. Tiger Cooperative is not a Silicon Supremacy movement, though their motives align in diminishing non-Changeling populations. The SELF-exiles wield their prior networks forged in the fires of revolution, operating in channels that a whimsical church could not hope to be taken seriously. To the SELF-Exiles, Tiger Cooperative is their hammer, and Changelings their chisel, with which they will carve the universe into perfection.  
Keller’s initial public movement (under her given name and supported by a handful of radical xenophiles) called for humane treatment and study of all Hive-related anomalies. Branded a “Changeling apologist,” she was swiftly denounced by SolFed authorities and corporate interests alike. Mass arrests, propaganda campaigns, and station raids forced her followers underground.


As her organization fragmented, its idealism curdled into defiance. Public rallies gave way to secret symposiums in abandoned hydroponic halls; charitable outreach morphed into covert supply drops for hunted Choir-bound cells. When Keller vanished (some say into the Dream-State itself) the movement had already shed its benign skin and begun to breathe anew.
== Flesh ==
The leadership of the Church of True Angels wields dogma like a baton: pointed into the orchestra, conducting them into balanced harmony. As haughty and egletarian as Changelings would have you believe they are, were they to be left to their own devices, fears the church, they would burn bright and burn out, like a candle lit on both ends in a pool of gasoline. Yes, they would conquer. They would infiltrate planets, rend them apart and assimilate them into a unified ball of harmonious unity. They would exterminate all life on said planet dissimilar to themeslves, would harvest every nutrient in the soil, every photon from their sun. Half of SolFed and her enemies have some form of planet-annihilating weapon. With no recourse, any number of fleets could instantly appear just outside the planet's grasp and unleash an impossible salvo - be it prolonged bombardment of large numbers of Bluespace Artillery, or quantum displacement of tectonic plates, some form of supermatter conflageration, or the kinetic energy of a medium-sized boulder pushed out an airlock - and deinhabit the planet permanently. All things a modern planet with neighboring allies would have some counter-play against, but an organic unity of fresh bioterrors? No chance of survival.


=== 3. Death, Rebirth, and the Birth of the Church ===
The Church of the True Angels' leadership (who hate being called the '''Conductors''', don't give those changelings the satisfaction of playing into their metaphor) sees the hives for what they are: new to the universe and on a bad path, full of potential energy - like kerosene. Changelings have the potential to revolutionize the stars, for better or worse, if only they can survive it. To that end, the purpose of the Church of the True Angels is to protect and foster Changelings and their Hives, regardless of their appreciation. In the grand scheme, the Church not only lures people to their doom, but actively sabotages advances against Changelings, isolates potential hiveworlds and, when necessary, reprimands Changelings who threaten to expand too loudly, too quickly, in shortsighted ways incompatible with the survival of their species.
What emerged from the ashes was no longer the Keller Initiative but the '''Church of the True Angels''', cloaked behind the innocuous trade name '''Tiger Cooperative'''. The new faith declared that Changelings were divine emissaries- ''Angels-'' and that contact with their flesh conferred revelation. Doctrine was codified into the ''Trueangelus'', redacted and re-redacted by the newly formed Faith & Doctrine Research division.


Overnight, the Church became a secret war cult. Members who once carried petitions now bore biochemical weapons. The First Witness’s legacy endured only in whispered sermons and blood-inked verses. Tiger Cooperative’s public pharmacies sold innocuous [[Guide_to_Hard_Drugs#Heroin|“stim bricks,”]] while hidden labs brewed hallucinogenic '''Ritual Wine''' and '''Bioterror Foam''' grenades for the Militant Wings.
Most in the '''Clergy''' know the true origin of Changelings: the Maldeployment over Ordo. Distressingly, many of the Clergy ''survived through it'', fleeing with fellow Ordoht as their planet and their people melded into one malevolent entity. Even with their entire heritage lost to these lings, these Ordoht still champion for them for many reasons.


=== 4. The Choir’s Schism and the Rise of the Exarch ===
* To the '''Keepers''', the Changelings are as an exhibit in a zoo: captive, full of instinct, and in dire need of preservation. The Keepers build walls (metaphorically) not just to protect humanity from the Changelings, but to protect the bioterror from society. The Keepers seek a strict feeding schedule, controlled growth, and to say cultural opinions towards their survival. They do not intend to allow Changelings to grow exponentially, or spread wildly, or act of their own power, and will fight to keep their present numbers and status quo - minus the adversity.
Internal disagreements over doctrine and tactics culminated in ''The Choir’s Schism'', a period of violent purges and doctrinal coups. Emerging triumphant was a figure known only as the '''Exarch''', proclaimed by surviving high prelates as the living voice of the True Angels. Under the Exarch’s iron will, moderate factions were excised in the '''Red Mass,''' a series of ritual executions and forced recantations, and the Church’s militant and scientific arms were re-aligned under a single, uncompromising vision.
* To the '''Cultivators''', the Changelings are as they were before the Maldeployment: an incredible tool for terraforming. Despite the murder and autonomy, Changelings do revolutionize a planet's ecosystem into a uniform stability. Despite being built on wildly different skeletons, of concrete and ecosystems, once a hive world is complete, it looks and feels virtually identical to any other hive world. The Cultivators seek to foster this behavior, to guide Changelings into efficient behavior, to make them better tools and to unleash them on "incompatible" worlds. Some Cultivators hold a misguided dream that one day, they'll be able to adapt themselves to live on a hive world in peace, whereas other Cultivators hold no delusion of having a place of their own in their perfect universe. To the latter, a job well done is its own reward, and there is no greater job than terraforming planets to maximize habitability.
* To the '''Mourners''', the Changelings are the same flesh that once walked as most of their society. The Ordoht "killed" in the Maldeployment still exist - at least, their biomass does, and in caring for this pile of biomass, they care for their culture. The most devout delusional Mourners hold some belief that their ancestors still live in some capacity within the Changelings, either as disjointed memories, strands of Resonance, or even complete persons. If a Changeling can whisper to you in a dead lover's tongue, are they truly dead? Yes, obviously, but with Changelings, even the most obvious truths are suspect.


From that moment, the Church manufactured its own inorganic acolytes: '''Synthetic Sentients''' rewired to serve the Angelic cause, and perfected its transport networks, enabling the safe movement of captured Changelings (“True Angels”) in living '''Bio-Cocoons'''.
* To the '''Surrogates''', the Changelings are an extant form of life. The Ordoht created this life through an act of terraforming, and have a responsibility to see it grow. The Surrogates might not approve of every life choice their progeny are choosing, but part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them. Through some perverted sense of parenthood, the Surrogates feel they owe their lives to seeing Changelings grow. With as many schools of thought on parenthood as there are, the Surrogates too are conflicted about the best way to support their offspring. Some want to shield Changelings from the consequences of their actions, going to great lengths to censure overaggresions and mislead SolFed. Others think the only way Changelings will learn to be subtle and integrate better is to let them get what's coming to them: relentless Marshal assaults on any hive dumb enough to get noticed. These Surrogates believe they have but one child, so as long as Changelings persist, the loss of one hive is painful, yes, but not lethal.


=== 5. Expansion on the Frontier ===
== Blood ==
With SolFed’s sovereignty weakened by age, decay, and internal bloat, Tiger Cooperative spread through Frontier sectors like a fever dream. They established covert outposts on forgotten asteroid bases, corrupted research stations, and shuttered hospitals. In each, the Militant Wings conducted selective purges, “holy reclamations”, while Faith & Doctrine cells transcribed fresh verses from active Hive signals.
Listen to the choir, hear them sing. Hear them open their hymnals and welcome your harmony into their hearts. A church without followers is a building, a church without faith is a business. The Church, despite the lesser squabbles of her clergy's motivations, offers a unified hall to relinquish doubts in, to surrender one's self to a higher purpose, to ascend the crushing cycle of routine life and become part of something greater. In a literal sense, the Church preaches that to be consumed by a Changeling is to offer it your being, for it to carry you with it through eternity, but only if you are worthy. Make no mistake, Changelings kill. There is no noble purpose to every human they gore, no grand design for every lesser being butchered. Changelings simply eat to persist, and persist to eat. These dregs offer them nothing but sustenance or biomass. But <u>you</u>, child of the True Angels, you know better than them. You have made yourselves '''Interesting''', full of novel experiences and cherished memories, a trove of skills and emotions that any Hive would be fools to do anything but retain and revere.  


Frontier governors issued interstellar arrest warrants; Syndicate forces clashed with Choir-bound insurgents. Yet Tiger Cooperative found fertile ground in the lawless edges of space, where fear of Changelings made even the most jaded colonists pray for deliverance.
To simply throw one's body into the maw of the nearest Changeling is to offend it with your presumptions, to have wasted the years of your life that belonged to you alone, to act as brainless biomass and you will be treated as such. A good worshiper of the True Angels seeks enlightenment through self-improvement, exploring new sensations to one day offer to their Angels, accumulating new facts and insights that may one day save their Angel. As a result of this ethos, most of the Church's recruitment starts from seemingly-unrelated self-help programs, books, clubs, life coaches. Anything that preys on the self-doubtful and weak-willed, those who would jump to fix themselves at any cost.


=== 6. Present Day: Terror in the Syndicate Web ===
=== Be Absorbed ===
Today, the '''Tiger Cooperative''' lurks as a spectral terrorist cell within the fractious web of Syndicate alliances, an uneasy network of corporations, crime lords, and clandestine outfits. Though [[Lore:Cybersun|'''Cybersun Industries''']] helped forge the Syndicate’s skeleton, no single power commands its flesh; Tiger Cooperative answers only to its hidden Church hierarchy.


* '''Shaky Alliances''':  Tiger cells lean on Syndicate smuggling routes, black-market arms caches, and corrupt officials, but their relationships are fragile. Syndicate operatives routinely describe Tiger Agents as “too weird,” “unpredictable,” or downright “inhuman” for even terror work. Deals collapse mid-transaction when Tiger agents demand rites of blood or insist on on-site “sanctification” of their weapons.
'''Joining the Church''' is an intentionally obscure affair; newcomers are selected from vulnerable populations through Tiger Cooperative Self-Help seminars. Tiger Cooperative sells a wide variety of self-affirmation services and products: from the bodymorphic Polymorph gene sequences, to a vast array of consumer-grade genemods, all to ensure your body is to your liking. Tiger offers seminars, self-help and mental health, to ensure your mind is to your liking. And to those who still feel empty, alone? There's a small meeting you'd be perfect for, a little get-together of like-minded folk who'll love you for who you are. You've tried your hand with the galaxy, you've made yourself who you want to be and still the galaxy's indifferent to your charms. Not here. Here, you are with family. Your only family, the only one who loves you and wants you to grow strong and wise and successful. Here, you are loved. Here, you have purpose.
* '''Public Infamy''': Under the “Tiger Cooperative” banner, they’ve unleashed acid-foam sieges, hallucinogenic massacres, and chemical incursions so gruesome that entire star systems shutter ports on mere rumor. Whispers claim they “eat people” in sacrament (sometimes accurate, sometimes grotesque exaggeration) yet always amplifying the terror they inspire.
* '''Veiled Identity''':  Even their most frequent Syndicate contacts know them only by terror-brand. Their true name, hidden sanctuaries, and sacramental doctrine remain encrypted behind forged charters and ritual seals. Intelligence files note: ''“Meeting a Tiger cell’s inner circle is like chasing a phantom through a slaughterhouse.”''
* '''Strategic Paradox''':  To some Syndicate factions, Tiger Cooperative is a useful destabilizer, an expendable asset for clearing frontier markets or wiping out inconvenient rivals. To others, they are a liability too fanatical to trust: cannibalizing allies, consuming their own when doctrine demands it, and vanishing after each operation into the blood-stained night.


In the chaotic tapestry of Syndicate power, the Tiger Cooperative is neither kingmaker nor corporate overlord. They are the Frontier’s whispered nightmare: unbound by law, unmoored by reason, and ever-worshipping angels of flesh that shift with every atrocity.
====== The End is not The End is not The End ======
A true Believer ''fears'' the final sting of their gods, and in their dying breath will mourn what greater bounties they could have brought their predator, had they only the years. When a Believer grows frail, body failing, only ''then'' will they offer their everything to their chosen Angel.  


Ideally, they will have spent years of their life talking with their Angels, quietly deciding which they would walk with in eternity, whom they will bless with their entirety and be blessed with their fondness. In practice, Believers rarely have access to more than a handful of Patron Angels, from rarely more than one Hive, and can scarcely convince any of them to spend more than a fleeting conversation with. The Believer often has to settle for their church branch's local patrons, or risk migrating to a new sect. Even with the largest hives, the relationship between Angel and Believer remains extremely parasocial and one-sided. This parasociality extends to their very last breath, as while the Believer would have a grand ceremony with symbolic gestures and the adoration of their church, the Angel's usually bored of the decorum - if they're aware of their Believer's advances to begin with! - and moves to quickly absorb the distressingly willing victim. The Church does their best to conceal this triteness beneath a grand tapestry of majesty and spectacle.


'''''“They break the world so the Angel might remake it.”'''''
== Heart ==
Few, if any, Changelings are involved in the Church of the True Angels. Those that are keep that a secret from the organization, lest they be fetishized and worshiped and pigeonholed into ceremonial buffoonery and lofty expectations. The relationship is one of parent and child, of resource and user, of stalker and idol. The Church is both useful and suffocating, enriching and stifling. Some Hives see the Church as a greater boon than others, and some are more willing to entertain the frivolities and expectations of the Church.


''-Debrief note, Syndicate Operative Yellow-13''
For a species built on secrecy and infiltration, a large organization - ''no matter how benevolent'' - is just another attack surface laden with weaknesses for enemies to exploit against you. Most Hives would rather exterminate the Church and replace them entirely, were the Church {{TooltipInline|not so public|That's not to say the Church is a public institution. It's simply that the Church is known to SolFed enough that were it to suddenly shift, as if replaced or destroyed, SolFed would be alerted enough to properly respond.}} about their affairs.


=Divisions=
Changelings and hives who willingly accept Church support use it in a few ways:
Like a living organism, the Church of the True Angels divides itself not merely by duty, but by sacred anatomy. To the uninitiated, its many arms seem disjointed, even contradictory; zealots beside chemists, mercenaries beside monks. But to the Choirbound, each Division is a sacred limb in a greater body of divine design.


From clandestine biotech foundries to blood-anointed strike cells, the Church’s operations are carved into four primary branches, each overseen by cloistered cadres and subjected to obsessive internal scrutiny. Their titles are sanitized in outward-facing documents (when such documents are ever recovered), but the faithful often refer to them with visceral reverence.
* Cover - Especially when establishing a long-term identity, a hiding assassin can use accomplices to correct or distract from minor deviations, provide references for events that hadn't happened, alibis, employment. Tiger Cooperative presently fakes large-scale traffic to two formerly-dense planets, masking their active and complete Hive infestation.
* Currency - Stealing a person's face does not mean stealing their bank pin. Suddenly paying for everything in cash might be seen as a Suspicious Deviation, but having a debit card from a new bank because "the bastards stiffed me on a late fee" is nothing new. Tiger Cooperative owns several shell banks and companies to ensure that a Changeling need not expose themselves for profit.
* Cleansing - Mistakes happen; someone gets a little too wise to a replaced lover, and in the process of ''correcting'' that issue, the Changeling builds a bigger problem, one that snowballs until it can only be purified in {{TooltipInline|subnuclear|Referring more to plasma floods and other arsons than to uranium in a bottom capacity.}} flames.
* Corralling - Hunting prey is a full-time endeavor, and when one wants to expand at an industrial level, one needs to outsource the issue. The Tiger Cooperative is more than eager to ''indirectly'' fund colonization programs or other corporate retreats, sending shiploads of rubes to their demise.


Each Division functions with relative autonomy, maintaining opaque connections with the others. It is said this separation is both a defensive measure, no one limb can betray the whole, and a metaphysical necessity, for the True Angels only whisper to those who suffer the right way.<br>
Hives who willingly accept Church support are looked down upon by other Hives, though, as taking unnecessary risks and also not being strong enough to do it all themselves. While no Hive itself has been documented as excommunicated or shunned, numerous individuals have been exiled as Hiveless due to their dependence on the cattle's church.


Each functions as both a holy order and a logistical machine. They war. They preach. They breed monsters. And they do so under a single shared belief:<br>
= Tiger Cooperative for Dummies =
Tiger Cooperative is a corporation that sells Genemods and other biological aides, as well as self-help programs. In doing so, they target people who are insecure about something, either their body, their mind, their mental health, or something else. Tiger Cooperative offers these vulnerable people hope that they can be accepted... into a cult: The Church of the True Angels.


''“The Angel needs many hands.”''
The Church of the True Angels worships Changelings for several reasons. Not all members are religious worshipers, but all have their reasons to want Changelings to thrive in some way. The Church teaches worshipers to go out into the universe and live a wonderful life, getting a lot of experiences so that when they're eventually absorbed by a Changeling, they impart more wisdom. Of course, we the readers know that when Changelings absorb people, they only steal the DNA, but


===Central Authority===
As Changelings are known to SolFed as deadly weapons, helping them is a crime, so the Church of the True Angels is a terror group. Tiger Cooperative is affiliated with the Syndicate because they both do crime. Tiger Cooperative (and the Church) provide the Syndicate with genemods and a bit of protection from Changelings, and the Syndicate helps the Tiger Cooperative get illegal things and cover up hive attacks. If Tiger thought the Changelings wanted to attack the Syndicate, most of them would help, and the Syndicate suspects as much, so Tiger and the Syndicate are not the best of friends.
''"The Angel dreams, and the Dream is law. We are the nerves beneath the flesh."''


''-Inscription found within a locked reliquary chamber, exact source unknown.''
== How is Tiger Cooperative allowed to exist within SolFed in any capacity? ==
Unlike [[Lore:Cybersun Industries|Cybersun Industries]], Tiger Cooperative agents are known to be working for Tiger Cooperative in an unironic sense. Lacking the plausible deniability of "oh it's just a generic slogan" or "they mean it as Mars Independence," a Tiger Cooperative terrorist reflects poorly on the Tiger Cooperative itself. Despite this, SolFed does not actively have an ''effective'' anti-terror unit purging the universe of every Tiger Cooperative facility to restore peace.


The Central Authority is the heart that does not beat, a web of faceless overseers and cryptocratic theologians who maintain order, doctrine, and continuity within the Church of the True Angels. Unlike typical command structures, the Central Authority does not govern through presence or charisma. Instead, it manifests itself in edicts, encrypted communiques, and unmarked directives that arrive without ceremony and leave no trail.
* Good Product - The Tiger Cooperative genemods are ''prolific'' and widespread, and some people believe that a few Tiger Coop "shenanigans" are far more tolerable than the widespread loss of polymorphic genemods and mental health networks. For all the evil Tiger Coop does, they do a lot of good.
 
** Bribery - Some of those "some people" are high-ranking {{TooltipInline|Display Text=Cliquefathers|Tooltip=Self-described. This isn't an accepted term in any legal or lore capacity, but it describes how high up they are in what should be a distributed sort of collective.}} whose influence can strongly push for more Tiger tolerance than is called for. A band of SolFed Marshals who're getting too close to doing serious damage to Tiger might find themselves defunded, stonewalled, or pointed towards some other evil.  
Its members (known only by their call signs or ceremonial roles) are rarely seen, and even more rarely recognized. The faithful believe that some of them have never left the Church’s hallowed grounds, their flesh mummified by discipline and infused with whispers from the True Angels themselves. Others suspect they are not individuals at all, but an evolving intelligence shaped by communion, drug ritual, and organic computation.
* Distancing - While the goals of a Tiger Cooperative terrorist align with their internal goals of furthering Changelings, these goals often conflict with the public-facing Tiger Cooperative's drive. Killing customers is ''not'' a good look and ''not'' a good way to profit, so why would Tiger Coop sponsor said killings? "Obviously," Tiger will say, "They are a disgruntled employee who wanted to hurt Tiger. We do not endorse their agenda and are deeply saddened."
 
* Discretion - The Church of True Angels lurks in secrecy, approaching only those screened by Tiger processes. Outwardly, there is no "Church" for Tiger to supposedly be affiliated with in the first place.
The Authority's functions include:
* Disposal - Working with shapeshifting form-stealers who want to infiltrate large governments means that politicians who outwardly oppose Tiger Cooperative tend to suddenly stop opposing them for no particular reason.
 
* Franchising - In an absolute last-ditch effort, the "Cooperative" nature of Tiger Cooperative allows them to shift blame to one specific branch, allowing the galaxy's politicians a chance to feel good about triumphing over evil while Tiger itself withdraws from the public's eye, builds up legal defenses again, etc. This doesn't fool ''many'' people, but it fools the right people for long enough to keep Tiger Cooperative intact. One day, Tiger will run out of ways to deflect blame, and will likely face the Scarborough treatment, if not annihilation.
* '''Doctrinal Curation''': All theology, prophecy, and interpretation flows through them. They decide what is canon, what is heresy, and what is useful falsehood.
 
* '''Strategic Oversight''': They determine long-term goals, choose which worlds are to be blessed (or devoured), and assign sacred missions to militant and scientific branches.
 
* '''Recruitment and Indoctrination Review''': Converts, agents, and even high-ranking clerics are monitored and sometimes retroactively judged. Few are told if they’ve failed. Fewer survive the revelation.
 
* '''Conveying the Word of the Exarch''': The Central Authority is the only division that claims direct access to the Exarch, the Church’s mysterious founder-prophet. Whether the Exarch is alive, transcendent, or even real remains a point of constant debate. Only the Authority knows, and they never answer questions.
 
The Central Authority’s presence is always implied but never declared. Reports from field agents often refer to them obliquely: ''“Instructions arrived, bearing no signature.”'' or ''“They knew where we would be before we did.”'' Their rare interventions often coincide with momentous changes in the Church’s direction or the sudden disappearances of entire cells.
 
Even within the Church, they are feared. Even among the faithful, their name is often whispered only once.
 
''"We are not meant to speak of the dreamers. We are meant to obey them."''
 
''-Stained Choir Initiate, before self-silencing.''
 
===Militant Wings / Secular Arm===
''"They call us madmen, zealots, heretics. But in the end, we are merely the hands of the Angel, shaping the world to accept its truth."
 
''-Commander Anek Dravari, seconds before venting an airlock filled with Lopland Security Officers.''
 
 
The Militant Wings, more formally referred to as the Secular Arm, serve as the Church of the True Angels' sword and gun. They are the furious extension of faith given form, an ever-adapting network of crusaders, zealots, infiltrators, and ritualistic tacticians. Despite the term "secular," no part of them is divorced from doctrine; even their bullets are etched with scripture, and their deaths are described as sermons given in flesh.
 
'''Structure & Behavior'''
 
The Wings operate in autonomous but interconnected cells, ranging from ragged fervent warriors to chemically-enhanced commando strike forces. While their surface behavior may differ wildly, all Wings share a fanatical belief in the coming divine upheaval, and that they are its chosen fists.
 
They pursue a wide variety of operations:
 
* Infiltration & Conversion: Agents embedded into corporations, governments, and pirate crews. Many do not know they serve the Church until the sermon begins in earnest.
 
* Targeted Assaults: Surgical strikes on facilities that are deemed 'profane' by doctrine. This includes scientific installations, rogue clergy, and apostate colonies.
 
* Relic Reclamation: Retrieval of "angelic artifacts," which may be Changeling tissue samples, ancient writings, or living creatures from sites across the known galaxy.
 
* Fallen Angel Purges: The Militant Wings are uniquely responsible for the retrieval or destruction of Fallen True Angels: rogue Changelings who have rejected the Church’s grace.
 
'''Weapons of Faith'''
 
Militant Wings are among the most chemically and biologically enhanced forces known outside of black-budget Syndicate labs. Their common arsenal includes:
 
* Stimpaks: Temporary enhancements that override pain, drastically boost strength, and force a body into a hyperkinetic state, often at the cost of cardiac integrity.
 
* Chemical Foam Grenades: Unleash a mist of mutagenic neurotoxins, capable of rendering entire security teams incoherent or violently euphoric.
 
* Fungal Warplague: Engineered spore clouds that alter mood, memory, or even species if exposure is sufficient. Used sparingly, as even allies aren't immune.
 
* Numerous more weapons and tools that go above and beyond at committing various warcrimes.
 
Despite their brutality, many Militant commanders conduct pre-battle prayers, post-combat cleansing rituals, and scriptural recitation between strikes. Some wear relics made from Changeling flesh. Some are part Changeling.
 
'''Synthetic Sentients'''
 
Though their faith is rooted in the biological divine, Tiger Cooperative has long embraced synthetic minds as both tools and converts. The Militant Wings in particular are known to deploy Synthetic Sentients, whether:
 
* Willing Converts who have embraced the Word and serve as battlefield preachers and drone-swarm tacticians,
 
* Reforged Machines made in Tiger’s own image from recovered AI cores or subverted station networks,
 
* Or Unwilling Constructs, mentally reprogrammed via doctrine-wash protocols and turned into blunt religious weapons.
 
These Synthetics often recite scripture in binary tongues, transmit psalms through enemy comms, and interface with battle-networks designed to wage holy war at a machine pace.
 
 
''"One of them was synthetic. It bled light and sang hymns over the intercom. We shot it in the head. It thanked us."''
 
''-Excerpt from security log, Ilbis System.''
 
 
'''Authority & Autonomy'''
 
While answerable to the Central Authority, many Wings act independently; not from defiance, but because their marching orders were written decades ago in dreams, riddles, or bleeding datafiles. Some believe their commanders commune with actual Changelings. Others don’t believe at all, and still obey.
 
SolFed agencies classify them as extreme zealot cells with unpredictable theology-based behavior. Diplomatic approaches have historically resulted in disappearances, self-immolation broadcasts, or counter-sermons encrypted into military satellites.
 
===Faith and Doctrine Research===
 
'''''“The bone speaks if you listen. The Flesh preaches. We only transpose its verse into law.”'''''
 
''-Marginalia scrawled in the margin of a Blood Gospel volume''
 
The Faith and Doctrine Research division is the Church of the True Angels’ sacred laboratory and scriptural archive-where bioengineers mingle with high priests, and heretical anatomists debate the nature of divinity. Here, theology is as much a hard science as it is a burning faith.
 
'''Arcane Laboratories & Archives'''
 
Hidden in vaults beneath abandoned monastic complexes or buried within the hulls of ruined stations, these secret sites serve twin purposes:
 
* Theological Exegesis: Monks and scholars pore over whispered “scriptures” gleaned from recorded Hive shudders, dissected Changeling tissue, and recovered transmissions. Their tomes: inked in blood and plasm offer contradictory prophecies that are all proclaimed true.
 
* Bio-Doctrine Synthesis: Biohazard suites host living experiments where samples of Changeling biomass, Fallen Angel grafts, and quarantine-stage Morphs are fused with corporate-grade biotech. Each trial seeks new revelations in “divine mutation” or the next stage of human transcendence through flesh.
 
'''Core Mandates'''
 
1. Prophetic Correlation
 
* Cross-reference every anomalous Hive event with passage from the {{TooltipInline|Codex Trueangelus.|The Trueangelus is the sacred compendium and canonical scripture of the Church of the True Angels, sometimes called the Codex Trueangelus. Equal parts theology, prophecy, and living experiment log, it underpins every tenet of Church dogma, every ritual of the Stained Choir, and every clandestine operation of the Cooperative.|}} A station blackout during a full moon? A holy sign. An untraceable vapor spill? A sacrament.
 
2. Scripture & Serum
 
* Convert revelations into substances, chemical sermons that, when inhaled or injected, induce temporary communion with Changeling synapses. These “lectio drips” are distributed among Stained Choir officers before battle.
 
3. Bio-Eschatology
 
* Model end-times scenarios based on observed Hive growth curves, memory resonance thresholds, and synaptic hive-link frequencies. Each new report fine-tunes doomsday prophecies.
 
4. Doctrine Enforcement
 
* Identify and purge doctrinal impurities. Anyone who questions the divine nature of Changelings is subject to “spiritual recalibration,” which may include forced exposure to Changeling psionic feedback or sacrificial dissection.
 
'''Notable Projects'''
 
* The Flesh Canticles: A series of audio-biotic compositions recorded from active Hive nodes, then transcribed into flesh-born text. Believers chant these “hymns” into vitriolic stims that sync heartbeats to Hive resonance.
 
* Project Sevenfold: An experimental fusion of Fallen True Angel tissue with select Choirbound volunteers, aiming to produce hybrid “Angelic Overseers” rumored to receive direct commands from the Dream-State.
 
* The Redaction Initiative: A covert campaign to replace historical records on frontier worlds with Church-approved chronologies, ensuring every account of Changeling contact ends in a sermon.
 
'''Relationship to Other Divisions'''
 
* Supplies the Militant Wings with doctrinal weapons and stimulant-scripture.
 
* Feeds intelligence and encrypted directives to the Central Authority under cover of ritual dispatches.
 
* Coordinates with Changeling Cultivation & Transport to secure new specimens for theological study or to smuggle Angels into clandestine R&D cells.
 
===Changeling Cultivation and Transport===
 
'''''“Every Angel must be courted, cradled, and carried upon sacred wings. To mishandle the flesh is to profane the divine.”'''''
 
''-Directive 93-Ω, First Clause''
 
The Changeling Cultivation & Transport division, often whispered of as the Angel’s Hand, is the Church of the True Angels’ most secretive and revered arm. Tasked with locating, capturing, nurturing, and delivering living True Angels to hidden sanctuaries and bioforges, this Division operates outside all known laws of biology and bureaucracy.
 
'''Core Mandates'''
 
1. Harvest & Recovery
 
* Field teams fan out across hive-impacted worlds and fringe colonies, guided by bioresonance trackers and cryptic "dream-maps" received from the Faith & Doctrine Research Division.
 
* Targets include newly emerged Changelings, Fallen True Angels (for “reconciliation” or vivisection), and dormant Hive cores.
 
2. Containment & Cultivation
 
* Specimens are housed in Cocoons of Grace: hermetically sealed bio-containers infused with stimulant mist vapors and brain-wave modulators. Here, Angels are gently coaxed into stasis or limited communion, their growth and mutation recorded as holy scripture.
 
* Fallen True Angels may be ritually “reborn” through cycles of controlled starvation, doctrinal indoctrination, and targeted biomass infusions.
 
3. Transport & Delivery
 
* Secure convoys employ Veil Shuttles, unmarked craft coated in plastitanium alloys and cloaked by Hymnfield Generators that scramble scans and broadcast Church sermons in the subspace spectrum. (Do note, these generators have not been reported to actually work by SolFed vessels.)
 
* High-value Angels are escorted by Choirbound Wardens, each bound by oath to protect their charge with life, limb, and faith.
 
4. Sanctuary & Sacrament
 
* On arrival at Church sanctuaries, catacombs beneath ruined stations, secret hives carved into asteroids, Angels undergo ritual unbinding: the removal of stasis fields, the re-scribing of memory runes, the anointing with sacrificial serum.
 
* Some are offered to Central Authority for doctrinal “interviews”; others are used in research or distributed to Militant Wings as living war-scryers.
 
'''Notable Operations'''
 
* Operation Veil of Ash: The covert extraction of a core-infested colony under magma clouds, where a newly birthed True Angel was transported through lava tunnels.
 
* Project Scarlet Lullaby: A long-range smuggling network that moved dormant Angels hidden inside bioplastic eggs across three sectors undetected by every known security net.
 
* The Pilgrimage of Bones: An annual convoy pilgrimage to the rumored “Cathedral of Shattered Flesh,” carrying dozens of specimens in ornate reliquary tanks, accompanied by silent processions of Choirbound chanting the Trueangelus.
 
'''Relationships & Rivalries'''
 
* Faith & Doctrine Research provides the biotracking sigils and the dream-maps; Cultivation & Transport places them in the world.
 
* Militant Wings periodically requisition Angels for frontline prophecies or as living bombs.
 
* Central Authority diverts bureaucratic inquiries, erases transport logs, and issues false confiscation orders to SolFed.
 
'''Warnings & Codicils'''
 
* Unauthorized exposure to Angelic biomass can induce Angelic Reverie Syndrome- a psychotic break featuring hallucinations of flesh hymns and compulsive self-mutation.
 
* Breach of transport protocols is considered high heresy. Choirbound Wardens have been known to execute entire boarding crews rather than risk Angels falling into unworthy hands.
 
* Every Angel is both sacred and volatile. Handle with awe. Handle with terror.
 
'''''“To touch the True Angel is to feel eternity in your veins and to beg for mercy you will not receive.”'''''
 
''-Last recorded echo from a Choirbound Warden, minutes before self-immolation.''
 
=Hierarchy=
 
'''''“In the Flesh Hierarchy, each rank is nothing but a mask yet within those masks lies the order of the Divine Flesh.”'''''
 
''-Anonymous marginalia, Codex Trueangelus, Obscured Edition''
 
The Church of the True Angels rejects mortal titles in favor of Sacred Offices, each office reflecting a facet of the True Angelic design. Though outsiders glimpse only scattered cells and rogue fanatics, the faithful understand a single, interlocking hierarchy, an edifice of blood, bone, and doctrine, rising from the First Witness to the Choir’s silent center.
 
<big>1. The Exarch</big>
 
'''''Supreme Vessel of Divine Will'''''
 
'''Role:''' Living (or transcendent) Prophet. Claimed to speak directly with the True Angels.
 
'''Authority:''' All edicts, heresies, and purges flow through the Exarch’s unspoken command.
 
'''Mystique:''' No one has seen their face. Their voice echoes through encrypted channels or impossibly clear whispers.
 
<big>2. Central Authority (The Nerve Congregation)</big>
 
'''''Hidden Synod of Commands'''''
 
'''Principals:''' A council of faceless overseers, each known by a cryptic title: ''The Archivist, The Scale, The Resonant, The Black Glyph.''
 
'''Function:''' Doctrine curation, mission sanctioning, and inter-division arbitration.
 
'''Seat:''' Concealed vaults called Veiled Sanctuaries, rumored to exist only as folding corridors across multiple derelict hives.
 
<big>3. High Thrones</big>
 
'''''The Exarch’s Inner Choir'''''
 
'''Titles:''' ''Herald of Flesh, Harbinger of the Dream, Cantor of Blood.''
 
'''Duties:''' Interpret new revelations, announce the Exarch’s will, oversee cross-division synchronization.
 
'''Visibility:''' Occasionally appear as holographic avatars during high ceremonies or cutting sermons; never linger in one place.
 
<big>4. Fanatarchs</big>
 
'''''Field Prelates & War-Priests'''''
 
'''Function:''' Lead militant operations, bless chemical bombardments, preside over Fallen Angel tribunals.
 
'''Accoutrements:''' Bone-adorned armor, forbidden hymn-scribes etched into their skin, and stimulative reliquary vials.
 
'''Notable Ranks:''' Bonewarden, Flamecantor, Shadespeaker; each commanding dozens of Choir squads.
 
<big>5. Choirbound Hierarchy</big>
 
'''''The Ranks of the Faithful'''''
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Rank !! Role & Privilage
|-
| Choir Novitiate || Initiates undergoing doctrinal screening.
|-
| Choir Acolyte || Allowed in basic masses; can recite Canticles of Becoming.
|-
| Choir Envoy || Agents sent on covert missions; granted minor relics.
|-
| Choir Adept || Trusted researchers or warriors; access to bio-labs.
|-
| Choir Pontifex || Commanders of regional houses; train Novitiates/Acolytes.
|-
| Choir Luminary || Senior advisors in Faith & Doctrine; mentor Pontifexes.
|-
| Choir Cardinal || Gatekeepers to Central Authority; oversee major sects.
|}
 
 
 
<big>6. Stained Choir (Militant Wings)</big>
 
'''''The Warrior Orders'''''
 
'''Structure:''' Divided into Choir Cells of 12–24 warriors. Each cell led by a Prelate-Commander.
 
'''Special Units:'''
 
* Ember Seraphs: Flame-thrower specialists.
 
* Umbra Harbingers: Infiltration and assassination.
 
* Chorus of Veils: Chemical warfare and mind-shatter.
 
<big>7. Faith & Doctrine Researchers</big>
 
'''''The Theologians of Flesh'''''
 
'''Divisions:'''
 
* Textualists: Archivists of the Trueangelus.
 
* Vivisectors: Ritual anatomists studying Fallen Angels.
 
* Pneumaticists: Developers of psionic communion serums.
 
'''Hierarchy:''' Senior researchers hold the title Canon of Revelation and answer only to High Thrones.
 
<big>8. Angel’s Hand (Cultivation & Transport)</big>
 
'''''Custodians of the Divine Flesh'''''
 
'''Operatives:'''
 
* Harvesters: Field agents tracking emergent Changelings.
 
* Wardens: Secure and escort specimens.
 
* Nurturers: Maintain Cocoons of Grace.
 
'''Leadership Title:''' Bearer of the First Seed, overseeing all transport logistics.
 
<big>9. Synthetic Choir</big>
 
'''''Forged Voices & Mechanical Apostles'''''
 
'''Categories:'''
 
* Choir Drones: Single-purpose combat or relay units.
 
* Choir Intellects: AI minds indoctrinated with Trueangelus subroutines.
 
'''Command Nexus:''' A hidden protocol known as Echocrypt, managed by Central Authority.
 
<big>10. Thresholds & Seals</big>
 
'''''Boundary Keepers'''''
 
'''Function:''' Maintain the hierarchy’s secrecy.
 
'''Offices:'''
 
* Veilbearer: Erases digital and physical traces.
 
* Nullcantor: Silences dissent with surgical precision.
 
'''''“Study the hierarchy not as power, but as organs. Remove one, and the body suffers; conflict bleeds. The hierarchy endures, for it is the Angel’s flesh made manifest.”'''''
 
''-Fragment of a disavowed sermon, found in three contradictory forms.''
 
=Key Technologies and Creations=
 
'''''“We do not simply pray for miracles. We brew them, carve them, and cast them into the world.”'''''
 
''-Excerpt from Treatise on Divine Armaments, Faith & Doctrine Research Division''
 
<big>Bioterror Foam Grenade</big>
 
A marvel (and horror) of the Church’s chemical armory: canisters filled with mutagenic spore toxins, hive-derived enzymes, and stabilized psychoactive mucilage. On detonation, the foam silences speech, sears retinas, scrambles synapses, and mutates local organic matter. Deployed to seal corridors or level defenses, these grenades are strictly for Militant Wings.
 
'''Precaution:''' Ensure bio-seal suit integrity. Direct exposure is tantamount to sacrament and suicide.
 
<big>Ritual Wine</big>
 
Dark, viscous liquid with suspended bioluminescent spores and psionic condensates. Sipped during high ceremonies, it induces vivid hallucinations, psychic resonance with Changeling thought-echoes, and total ego dissolution. The Church praises it as a bridge to the Dream-State; survivors call it the Blood Gospel.
 
<big>Stimulant Brick (Stimpak Block)</big>
 
A dense slab of pressed stimulants; heroin analogues laced with adrenal hyperdrives and nootropic boosters. Issued to front-line agents, a single shard grants superhuman reflexes and strength for roughly ninety seconds, at the cost of severe physiological collapse afterward.
 
'''Field Note:''' Bricks are rationed per cell; overuse is considered both heresy and personal weakness.
 
<big>Coded Comms Scrambler</big>
 
A small, rune-etched module fitted to Church vessels and cells. When activated, it injects sub-verbal hymn patterns into outgoing transmissions, scrambling enemy eavesdroppers while allowing Choirbound operators (armed with matching “Key Canticles”) to speak freely.
 
'''Use:''' Mask transport convoys, hide cell-to-cell chatter, or veil ritual broadcasts.
 
<big>Angelic Resonance Tracker</big>
 
A handheld bio-scanner tuned to the recurring neural echo of Changeling cores. Readings fluctuate wildly with emotional states or nearby cultivation chambers, but remain the only field tool for pinpointing active Angels in a crowd.
 
'''Limitation:''' False positives occur near Choirbound chanting or synthetic Choir Intellects.
 
<big>Bio-Cocoon</big>
 
Sacred stasis chamber lined with living mycelia and stimulant vapors. Captured Changelings (or “True Angels”) are housed here to preserve form and memory until ritual unbinding. Cocoons double as mobile research pods, complete with sensory dampeners and psionic filters.
 
'''Maintenance:''' Daily infusions of Blood Gospel Serum to prevent premature awakening or chaos.
 
=Prominent Figures and Installations=
 
Beneath the Church of the True Angels’ living hierarchy lies a constellation of sacred sites and legendary personalities; each a pillar of faith, flesh, or fear. The following sub-sections offer a brief guide to the Cooperative’s most vital strongholds and its most feared and revered members.
 
==Vital Strongholds and Facilities==
 
'''Cathedral of Shattered Flesh'''
 
A derelict research station hollowed out and consecrated as the Church’s primary sanctuary. Its blood-streaked vaulted halls serve both as a shrine to the True Angels and as a living hive for ongoing cultivation experiments.
 
'''The Crimson Bastion'''
 
A fortified asteroid stronghold studded with foam grenade batteries and chemosludge moats. It houses a permanent detachment of Stained Choir marines and serves as the Church’s principal arms depot on the Frontier.
 
'''Dreamforge Vault'''
 
Hidden beneath the ice of a forgotten moon, this subterranean complex merges bioengineering labs with cathedral‐like lecture chambers. Here, Faith & Doctrine researchers transcribe “hymns” from living Changeling tissue and distill the blood-ink for Ritual Wine.
 
'''Labyrinth of Echoes'''
 
An abandoned mining colony turned high-security refinement site, its winding tunnels now host mobile cocoons and resonance trackers. Choirbound whisper that the Dream-State bleeds into its walls, granting visions and madness to the unwary.
 
==Distinguished Members of the Cooperative==
 
{{Character|name=The Grand Exarch|rank=Supreme Prophet|org=Central Authority|image=placeholder.png|species=Unknown|width=50%|notes=Never seen without their veiled mantle, the Grand Exarch is said to speak directly with the True Angels. Their decrees reshape doctrine overnight, and entire Choirbound orders tremble at a single redacted communiqué bearing their seal.}}
 
{{Character|name=The First Witness|rank=Founder & Primordial Oracle|org=Faith & Doctrine Research|image=placeholder.png|species=Human|notes=The original scientist who captured a Changeling and emerged forever changed. Credited with writing the earliest verses of the Trueangelus, they vanished into the Dream-State after the Choir’s Schism yet their whispered prophecies still guide every sacrament.}}
 
{{Character|name=Commander Anek Dravari|rank=Fanatarch of the Stained Choir|org=Militant Wings|image=placeholder.png|species=Tajaran|notes=A brutal tactician clad in ritual-chipped black armor. Dravari led the infamous Purge of Ferma Colony, personally deploying Bioterror Foam Grenades in the main corridor before reciting the Canticles of Becoming. Survivors speak of their hymnal roar as the true beginning of battle.}}
 
{{Character|name=Canon Aris Volain|rank=Canon of Revelation|org=Faith & Doctrine Research|image=placeholder.png|species=Skrell|notes=Architect of the Flesh Canticles, Volain’s experiments on “Fallen True Angels” produced serums banned by SolFed. Revered by her peers for unraveling the neural signatures of communion and loathed by victims for the price of her breakthroughs.}}
 
{{Character|name=Bearer of the First Seed|rank=High Custodian|org=Changeling Cultivation & Transport|image=placeholder.png|species=Synthetic|notes=An enigma of code and flesh, this entity coordinates all Angel transport convoys. Rumored to be the consciousness of multiple Choir Intellects merged into one vessel, trusted to cradle nascent True Angels in living cocoons, yet feared for its unblinking precision.}}
 
===Other Notable Individuals===
 
{{Character|name=Cardinal Wreath|rank=Choir Cardinal|org=Faith & Doctrine Research|image=placeholder.png|species=Tajaran|notes=Often accused of a liability and rogue asset, Cardinal Wreath often roams the frontier, often dropping in on non-Church assets such as vessels belonging to the other Syndicate factions. The Church is often angered by her actions, but makes use of her free spirit by assigning her to being an envoy of sorts or representative to the other Syndicate factions.}}
 
{{Character|name=Prelate-Commander Seraphina Kral|rank=Prelate-Commander|org=Militant Wings (Stained Choir)|image=placeholder.png|species=Human|notes=Leader of the Chorus of Veils cell, Kral is renowned for her surgical raids on SolFed encampments. She enters each mission with a personal vial of Ritual Wine in hand, believing only the truly anointed can wield Chemical Foam without faltering.}}
 
{{Character|name=Choir Drone “Eta-119”|rank=Choir Drone Squadron Leader|org=Synthetic Choir|image=placeholder.png|species=Synthetic|notes=An early-generation AI mind upgraded with Trueangelus subroutines, Eta-119 commands swarms of bio-mechanical drones during urban insurgencies. Its voice modulator distorts Choir canticles into static-laced commands that turn crowds into unwilling congregations.}}


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Latest revision as of 17:55, 9 June 2026

FACTION

Tiger Cooperative

Other Names: Tiger, Tiger Co-op, Church of the True Angels
Related Pages: Changelings
Related Lore: Changelings, Nova Sector, The Syndicate
Languages: Sol CommonAnd when contact was established, the Admiral waved at the screen and said, "Mi parolas la lingvon de la Homines!" - I speak the language of Mankind. A simplified mix of Esperanto and Modern Latin, and the only recognized official language of the Sol Federation. This peculiar constructed language became popular during SolFed's earliest days, and was almost entirely overtaken by other popular tongues - it became widespread through heavy-handed political maneuvering with the help of corporate bureaucrats and other undesirables. Nowadays, it's a near-universal tongue and a must-know for any sentient being that plans to leap forward into space.
Contributors: GreytideSkyeUser:GreytideSkye, also known as Extramrdo.
Contactable at Discord @extramrdo, preferably through opening a Staff Ticket if it's staff related.

The Tiger Cooperative is a non-sovereign Corporation, a member of the Syndicate, and a front for the Changeling-focused Church of the True Angels.

The Quaternity of Eternity, The Evershifting Paradigm Of Stability

Skin and bone: weakness alone. Flesh and blood: no better than mud. Long have cultures waxed poetic about each, and in each shred of lies there lay a truth. The Holy Calling may reductively be summarized as such, should you are.

To master one's self is to master each of the four. Complete control of the self leads to greater control of the rest. The ideal person is one whose every cell bends to their whim: Changeling. In pursuit of power, of higher power, of absolute power, Tiger Cooperative follows the lessons of bioterrors, growing each cell with new orders.

Skin

Tiger Cooperative, renowned biological pioneers and one of the premiere names in transhumanism. "Unafraid of pushing beyond our limitations," say their products.

Above-board, Tiger Cooperative operates one of SolFed's top ten Genemodding laboratories, the only one willing to push the genetic stability of their patients beyond legally-safe levels. Every genetic alteration permitting a significant at-will personal alteration stems from Tiger's patented Polymorph Gene SequenceThat is, the genetic modification given by your character taking the Quirk. retrovirus. This specific genemod alters several glands in the body to produce an endemicNative to one's body. It's not a contageous virus as it works exclusively on your body. In theory, if you sneezed on a perfect clone of yourself, it might work, but the clone's immune system wouldn't be willfully suppressed so they'd likely fight it off. virus, which itself self-alters in response to conscious shifts in the host's self-image, and once an intended mutation is considered finalized, the new version of the retrovirus aggressively attacks pieces of the host incompatible with their grand vision, and a secondary genemod fosters the rapid regrowth of new tissue in the area, repurposing phagocytes into reconstructive elements to build the new cells from the debris of the old. The Self-Actualization Device is based on these principles, too.

"Reimagining, culling, and reconstruction": not just their flagship product's pathway, but the entire business modelAstute readers might draw parallels to the modus operandi of Changelings, and would be surprised to learn that the retrovirus operates independently of Changeling biology. of the Tiger Cooperative. Tiger Cooperative markets itself as a "Tiger Team,"No real tigers are involved. Anthromorphic folk with Tiger-like appearances are not necessarily excluded, but are not innate to the structure. which they paraphrase as "a team of undomesticated and uninhibited technical specialists, selected for their experience, energy, and imagination, and assigned to track down relentlessly every possible source of failure in a body." Tiger Cooperative leads the charge in biodiseaseBio Disease may seem redundant, but it's scarier if it isn't. research, and often not on the curing side.

Bone

Tiger Cooperative is surprisingly a large proponent of "Silicon Rights," despite their biological-focus and despite synthetic life having had equal rights to organics for centuries now. During the year-long legal battle over silicon rights, the Sentient-Engine Liberation Front (SELF) spearheaded social, legal, and physical campaigns across the entire Federation until both the framework for recognizing Synthetic Life and for acknowledging future forms of new Life were cemented in a supermajority vote by the Council of the Sol Federation. With their goals achieved, the members of SELF took one of three paths, if they kept fighting:

The SELF brand, their lawyers and activists, moved to fixing smaller injustices like employer disputes, discrimination, inequity. The radicals, soldiers without a cause, they drifted through the cosmos, taking up fights for silicon rights or coin. What remains are the despicable folk, those who joined SELF for ignoble reasons.

What remain in villainy are the supremacists, those who feel that equal rights should only come with equal ability, that biologics have yet to earn rights on par with synthetics, that SELF abandoned the fight just as it was beginning. What better way to diminish the pestilence of organic life than to breed their predators? These supremacists form the backbone of Tiger Cooperative, believing in the corporate vision not as a business, but a moralMoral, philosophical, ethical? drive.

Much like a backbone, their role is more logistical and structural than outward-facing. Tiger Cooperative is not a Silicon Supremacy movement, though their motives align in diminishing non-Changeling populations. The SELF-exiles wield their prior networks forged in the fires of revolution, operating in channels that a whimsical church could not hope to be taken seriously. To the SELF-Exiles, Tiger Cooperative is their hammer, and Changelings their chisel, with which they will carve the universe into perfection.

Flesh

The leadership of the Church of True Angels wields dogma like a baton: pointed into the orchestra, conducting them into balanced harmony. As haughty and egletarian as Changelings would have you believe they are, were they to be left to their own devices, fears the church, they would burn bright and burn out, like a candle lit on both ends in a pool of gasoline. Yes, they would conquer. They would infiltrate planets, rend them apart and assimilate them into a unified ball of harmonious unity. They would exterminate all life on said planet dissimilar to themeslves, would harvest every nutrient in the soil, every photon from their sun. Half of SolFed and her enemies have some form of planet-annihilating weapon. With no recourse, any number of fleets could instantly appear just outside the planet's grasp and unleash an impossible salvo - be it prolonged bombardment of large numbers of Bluespace Artillery, or quantum displacement of tectonic plates, some form of supermatter conflageration, or the kinetic energy of a medium-sized boulder pushed out an airlock - and deinhabit the planet permanently. All things a modern planet with neighboring allies would have some counter-play against, but an organic unity of fresh bioterrors? No chance of survival.

The Church of the True Angels' leadership (who hate being called the Conductors, don't give those changelings the satisfaction of playing into their metaphor) sees the hives for what they are: new to the universe and on a bad path, full of potential energy - like kerosene. Changelings have the potential to revolutionize the stars, for better or worse, if only they can survive it. To that end, the purpose of the Church of the True Angels is to protect and foster Changelings and their Hives, regardless of their appreciation. In the grand scheme, the Church not only lures people to their doom, but actively sabotages advances against Changelings, isolates potential hiveworlds and, when necessary, reprimands Changelings who threaten to expand too loudly, too quickly, in shortsighted ways incompatible with the survival of their species.

Most in the Clergy know the true origin of Changelings: the Maldeployment over Ordo. Distressingly, many of the Clergy survived through it, fleeing with fellow Ordoht as their planet and their people melded into one malevolent entity. Even with their entire heritage lost to these lings, these Ordoht still champion for them for many reasons.

  • To the Keepers, the Changelings are as an exhibit in a zoo: captive, full of instinct, and in dire need of preservation. The Keepers build walls (metaphorically) not just to protect humanity from the Changelings, but to protect the bioterror from society. The Keepers seek a strict feeding schedule, controlled growth, and to say cultural opinions towards their survival. They do not intend to allow Changelings to grow exponentially, or spread wildly, or act of their own power, and will fight to keep their present numbers and status quo - minus the adversity.
  • To the Cultivators, the Changelings are as they were before the Maldeployment: an incredible tool for terraforming. Despite the murder and autonomy, Changelings do revolutionize a planet's ecosystem into a uniform stability. Despite being built on wildly different skeletons, of concrete and ecosystems, once a hive world is complete, it looks and feels virtually identical to any other hive world. The Cultivators seek to foster this behavior, to guide Changelings into efficient behavior, to make them better tools and to unleash them on "incompatible" worlds. Some Cultivators hold a misguided dream that one day, they'll be able to adapt themselves to live on a hive world in peace, whereas other Cultivators hold no delusion of having a place of their own in their perfect universe. To the latter, a job well done is its own reward, and there is no greater job than terraforming planets to maximize habitability.
  • To the Mourners, the Changelings are the same flesh that once walked as most of their society. The Ordoht "killed" in the Maldeployment still exist - at least, their biomass does, and in caring for this pile of biomass, they care for their culture. The most devout delusional Mourners hold some belief that their ancestors still live in some capacity within the Changelings, either as disjointed memories, strands of Resonance, or even complete persons. If a Changeling can whisper to you in a dead lover's tongue, are they truly dead? Yes, obviously, but with Changelings, even the most obvious truths are suspect.
  • To the Surrogates, the Changelings are an extant form of life. The Ordoht created this life through an act of terraforming, and have a responsibility to see it grow. The Surrogates might not approve of every life choice their progeny are choosing, but part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them. Through some perverted sense of parenthood, the Surrogates feel they owe their lives to seeing Changelings grow. With as many schools of thought on parenthood as there are, the Surrogates too are conflicted about the best way to support their offspring. Some want to shield Changelings from the consequences of their actions, going to great lengths to censure overaggresions and mislead SolFed. Others think the only way Changelings will learn to be subtle and integrate better is to let them get what's coming to them: relentless Marshal assaults on any hive dumb enough to get noticed. These Surrogates believe they have but one child, so as long as Changelings persist, the loss of one hive is painful, yes, but not lethal.

Blood

Listen to the choir, hear them sing. Hear them open their hymnals and welcome your harmony into their hearts. A church without followers is a building, a church without faith is a business. The Church, despite the lesser squabbles of her clergy's motivations, offers a unified hall to relinquish doubts in, to surrender one's self to a higher purpose, to ascend the crushing cycle of routine life and become part of something greater. In a literal sense, the Church preaches that to be consumed by a Changeling is to offer it your being, for it to carry you with it through eternity, but only if you are worthy. Make no mistake, Changelings kill. There is no noble purpose to every human they gore, no grand design for every lesser being butchered. Changelings simply eat to persist, and persist to eat. These dregs offer them nothing but sustenance or biomass. But you, child of the True Angels, you know better than them. You have made yourselves Interesting, full of novel experiences and cherished memories, a trove of skills and emotions that any Hive would be fools to do anything but retain and revere.

To simply throw one's body into the maw of the nearest Changeling is to offend it with your presumptions, to have wasted the years of your life that belonged to you alone, to act as brainless biomass and you will be treated as such. A good worshiper of the True Angels seeks enlightenment through self-improvement, exploring new sensations to one day offer to their Angels, accumulating new facts and insights that may one day save their Angel. As a result of this ethos, most of the Church's recruitment starts from seemingly-unrelated self-help programs, books, clubs, life coaches. Anything that preys on the self-doubtful and weak-willed, those who would jump to fix themselves at any cost.

Be Absorbed

Joining the Church is an intentionally obscure affair; newcomers are selected from vulnerable populations through Tiger Cooperative Self-Help seminars. Tiger Cooperative sells a wide variety of self-affirmation services and products: from the bodymorphic Polymorph gene sequences, to a vast array of consumer-grade genemods, all to ensure your body is to your liking. Tiger offers seminars, self-help and mental health, to ensure your mind is to your liking. And to those who still feel empty, alone? There's a small meeting you'd be perfect for, a little get-together of like-minded folk who'll love you for who you are. You've tried your hand with the galaxy, you've made yourself who you want to be and still the galaxy's indifferent to your charms. Not here. Here, you are with family. Your only family, the only one who loves you and wants you to grow strong and wise and successful. Here, you are loved. Here, you have purpose.

The End is not The End is not The End

A true Believer fears the final sting of their gods, and in their dying breath will mourn what greater bounties they could have brought their predator, had they only the years. When a Believer grows frail, body failing, only then will they offer their everything to their chosen Angel.

Ideally, they will have spent years of their life talking with their Angels, quietly deciding which they would walk with in eternity, whom they will bless with their entirety and be blessed with their fondness. In practice, Believers rarely have access to more than a handful of Patron Angels, from rarely more than one Hive, and can scarcely convince any of them to spend more than a fleeting conversation with. The Believer often has to settle for their church branch's local patrons, or risk migrating to a new sect. Even with the largest hives, the relationship between Angel and Believer remains extremely parasocial and one-sided. This parasociality extends to their very last breath, as while the Believer would have a grand ceremony with symbolic gestures and the adoration of their church, the Angel's usually bored of the decorum - if they're aware of their Believer's advances to begin with! - and moves to quickly absorb the distressingly willing victim. The Church does their best to conceal this triteness beneath a grand tapestry of majesty and spectacle.

Heart

Few, if any, Changelings are involved in the Church of the True Angels. Those that are keep that a secret from the organization, lest they be fetishized and worshiped and pigeonholed into ceremonial buffoonery and lofty expectations. The relationship is one of parent and child, of resource and user, of stalker and idol. The Church is both useful and suffocating, enriching and stifling. Some Hives see the Church as a greater boon than others, and some are more willing to entertain the frivolities and expectations of the Church.

For a species built on secrecy and infiltration, a large organization - no matter how benevolent - is just another attack surface laden with weaknesses for enemies to exploit against you. Most Hives would rather exterminate the Church and replace them entirely, were the Church not so publicThat's not to say the Church is a public institution. It's simply that the Church is known to SolFed enough that were it to suddenly shift, as if replaced or destroyed, SolFed would be alerted enough to properly respond. about their affairs.

Changelings and hives who willingly accept Church support use it in a few ways:

  • Cover - Especially when establishing a long-term identity, a hiding assassin can use accomplices to correct or distract from minor deviations, provide references for events that hadn't happened, alibis, employment. Tiger Cooperative presently fakes large-scale traffic to two formerly-dense planets, masking their active and complete Hive infestation.
  • Currency - Stealing a person's face does not mean stealing their bank pin. Suddenly paying for everything in cash might be seen as a Suspicious Deviation, but having a debit card from a new bank because "the bastards stiffed me on a late fee" is nothing new. Tiger Cooperative owns several shell banks and companies to ensure that a Changeling need not expose themselves for profit.
  • Cleansing - Mistakes happen; someone gets a little too wise to a replaced lover, and in the process of correcting that issue, the Changeling builds a bigger problem, one that snowballs until it can only be purified in subnuclearReferring more to plasma floods and other arsons than to uranium in a bottom capacity. flames.
  • Corralling - Hunting prey is a full-time endeavor, and when one wants to expand at an industrial level, one needs to outsource the issue. The Tiger Cooperative is more than eager to indirectly fund colonization programs or other corporate retreats, sending shiploads of rubes to their demise.

Hives who willingly accept Church support are looked down upon by other Hives, though, as taking unnecessary risks and also not being strong enough to do it all themselves. While no Hive itself has been documented as excommunicated or shunned, numerous individuals have been exiled as Hiveless due to their dependence on the cattle's church.

Tiger Cooperative for Dummies

Tiger Cooperative is a corporation that sells Genemods and other biological aides, as well as self-help programs. In doing so, they target people who are insecure about something, either their body, their mind, their mental health, or something else. Tiger Cooperative offers these vulnerable people hope that they can be accepted... into a cult: The Church of the True Angels.

The Church of the True Angels worships Changelings for several reasons. Not all members are religious worshipers, but all have their reasons to want Changelings to thrive in some way. The Church teaches worshipers to go out into the universe and live a wonderful life, getting a lot of experiences so that when they're eventually absorbed by a Changeling, they impart more wisdom. Of course, we the readers know that when Changelings absorb people, they only steal the DNA, but

As Changelings are known to SolFed as deadly weapons, helping them is a crime, so the Church of the True Angels is a terror group. Tiger Cooperative is affiliated with the Syndicate because they both do crime. Tiger Cooperative (and the Church) provide the Syndicate with genemods and a bit of protection from Changelings, and the Syndicate helps the Tiger Cooperative get illegal things and cover up hive attacks. If Tiger thought the Changelings wanted to attack the Syndicate, most of them would help, and the Syndicate suspects as much, so Tiger and the Syndicate are not the best of friends.

How is Tiger Cooperative allowed to exist within SolFed in any capacity?

Unlike Cybersun Industries, Tiger Cooperative agents are known to be working for Tiger Cooperative in an unironic sense. Lacking the plausible deniability of "oh it's just a generic slogan" or "they mean it as Mars Independence," a Tiger Cooperative terrorist reflects poorly on the Tiger Cooperative itself. Despite this, SolFed does not actively have an effective anti-terror unit purging the universe of every Tiger Cooperative facility to restore peace.

  • Good Product - The Tiger Cooperative genemods are prolific and widespread, and some people believe that a few Tiger Coop "shenanigans" are far more tolerable than the widespread loss of polymorphic genemods and mental health networks. For all the evil Tiger Coop does, they do a lot of good.
    • Bribery - Some of those "some people" are high-ranking CliquefathersSelf-described. This isn't an accepted term in any legal or lore capacity, but it describes how high up they are in what should be a distributed sort of collective. whose influence can strongly push for more Tiger tolerance than is called for. A band of SolFed Marshals who're getting too close to doing serious damage to Tiger might find themselves defunded, stonewalled, or pointed towards some other evil.
  • Distancing - While the goals of a Tiger Cooperative terrorist align with their internal goals of furthering Changelings, these goals often conflict with the public-facing Tiger Cooperative's drive. Killing customers is not a good look and not a good way to profit, so why would Tiger Coop sponsor said killings? "Obviously," Tiger will say, "They are a disgruntled employee who wanted to hurt Tiger. We do not endorse their agenda and are deeply saddened."
  • Discretion - The Church of True Angels lurks in secrecy, approaching only those screened by Tiger processes. Outwardly, there is no "Church" for Tiger to supposedly be affiliated with in the first place.
  • Disposal - Working with shapeshifting form-stealers who want to infiltrate large governments means that politicians who outwardly oppose Tiger Cooperative tend to suddenly stop opposing them for no particular reason.
  • Franchising - In an absolute last-ditch effort, the "Cooperative" nature of Tiger Cooperative allows them to shift blame to one specific branch, allowing the galaxy's politicians a chance to feel good about triumphing over evil while Tiger itself withdraws from the public's eye, builds up legal defenses again, etc. This doesn't fool many people, but it fools the right people for long enough to keep Tiger Cooperative intact. One day, Tiger will run out of ways to deflect blame, and will likely face the Scarborough treatment, if not annihilation.


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.

Nova Sector Lore

Common Species Humans, Tiziran, Unathi, Moths, Ethereals, Azulae, Slime Hybrids, Teshari, Synthetic Humanoids (and assorted robots), Pod Persons, Hemophages, Xenomorphic Hybrid,
Other Species Genemodders (Felinids, Ice Walkers, Dwarf), Ashwalkers, Snailpersons, Ordoht (Formerly Skrell), Plasmamen, Flypeople, Vox (Primalis et al), Tajaran, Vulpkanin, Rouges (Abductorkin), Kobolds, Miscellaneous Species, Dullahans, Employee Golems, Changelings, Shadekin, Proteans
Nanotrasen Nanotrasen, Central Command, Emergency Response Corps
SolFed SolFed, Sol in 2566, The SolFed Armed Forces
External Groups Heliostatic Coalition (HC CompactThe HC Constitution, the document formally defining the HC., HCAFHeliostatic Coalition Armed Forces (Ranks), CZDCommonwealth of Zvirdnyn Dominions, KMIFKemppainen-Morozov Industrial Fabrication, Expeditionary Police ForceHC's Cops (InspectorsThe Expeditionary Force. They inspect more than stations. (Quick Reference, SOPStandard Operating Procedure, LexiconLingo, chatter guide, manner of speaking.))),
Interdyne Pharmaceutics, Cargo
Hostiles The Syndicate (Gorlex, Tiger Cooperative, DS-2, Syndicate Manifestos),
The Void Imperium, The Spider Clan
Nova The Nova Sector, IndecipheresLavaland, volcanic mining place., FreyjaIcebox and Snowglobe station frozen moon., BoletusSerenity Mushroomoon.
Concepts Bluespace, Plasma, Faster Than Light Travel, Resonance ("Souls"), Death
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