A small principality in the Pleiades. A member state of the Pax Imperium
Category: Civilizations
Kingdom Basics
INHABITED PLANETS:
Number: 48 (As of the Pax Imperium year 314)
Planetary Population: 58,832,700,000
INHABITED MOONS, DWARF PLANETS, ASTEROIDS, AND OTHER BODIES:
Number: 415 (As of Pax Imperium year 314)
Provincial Population: 49,401,900,000
TOTAL POPULATION: 108,234,600,000
Pilgrimage of the Sun
A religious hike done traditionally done by teen boys with their father on Midsummer’s day on various worlds in the Pax imperium. Varying in length between a few miles and several weeks. The goal is to walk out a scale model of the local system, starting with its star in the center and then ending with the furthest of the giant planets.
Culturally the walk functions as one right of passage from childhood into adulthood with the goal of showing teens how large the system is and how small they are in comparison to it. The spiritual purpose varies from sect to sect, but it is often said to teach humility.
The New Rationalists often use the ritual as an opportunity to rigorously challenge what they see as the dominant anthropocentric view of the universe. Although as humanity expands to the stars and finds no other sentient species waiting for them, this view has become less and less popular.
The practice of the pilgrimage has been supported by various religious sects over time. It is currently most heavily practiced by the New Rationalists but also supported by various Christian and Muslim groups as well, including the Apollonian Catholic Church.
Gendarme
The Gendarme are the policing unit of the Human Resources department. They are separate than the military but have units that act as paramilitary enforcers if necessary.
The Catastrophe
A particularly bloody battle between the factions of the board of directors of the Unity Corporation in the year 239 CE. The conflict became so intense it nearly resulted in civil war and the breakup of the corporation.
Governenment
The Unity Corporation is a corporate state that has existed on Old Earth for over five hundred years. The Corporation started functioning as a state entity before the founding of the Pax Imperium. In fact the House of Athena forced the creation of the Pax Imperium as a superstructure of government over the Unity at the end of the [TK] war.
Although it has state powers, the Unity still functions as a corporation with every citizen forced to work as an employee. This form of government developed out of its mission as a public corporation which was to attain as much capital as possible for its shareholders. At the time of its ascendance the Unity and a few other corporate players recognized that holding state power was a means by which they could best further their mission. After a period of struggle the Unity became the sole victor and ruler of all of Old Earth. However, the mission had not changed, and the Unity already held many off-world companies and large tracts of real estate. Unity ambitions soon turned to consolidating the whole galaxy under its control. Its drive to control the galaxy was only checked when the Kingdom of Athena and other state entities fought a bloody war that ended with the creation of the Pax Imperium.
The Unity is nominally controlled by its citizens who are all supposedly shareholders of the corporation. In truth it is run by a small oligarchy known as the board of the Directors. Jockeying for position among the members of the board is a violent and often bloody affair. The winner of these affairs is often appointed as CEO of the corporation and chairman of the board of directors. The old fashioned notion that a corporate board of directors is to provide oversight to the management of the company has long disappeared as the two groups are often synonymous.
The Apollonian Catholic Church
The Apollonian Catholic Church is the dominant Christian offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church that appeared some two hundred years after humanity established its first interstellar colony. At the time its creation was seen as a means for Roman Christianity to grapple with the philosophical realities of human colonization of the galaxy. Eight hundred years later, in the Pax Imperium year 300, the Apollonian church had become the dominant sect of Roman Catholicism. The Church is best known for its black robes, red sashes, and the revival of celibacy among its priests.
The Apollonian Catholic Church is the favored denomination of the House of Athena.
Olympia
Olympia is the capital city of the House of Athena, located on the planet Athena. The king’s palace sits on the high hills above the city, looking down on it. The climate is tropical and humid.
Reeducation
Unity citizens are all members of the Unity Corporation. Each of them is assigned their work, salary and rank in service to the corporation. Reeducation is supposed to serve as a means by which a citizen can change their qualifications and enter a different job for the company. However, in reality reeducation camps are work camps that serve as indoctrination centers for those who have run afoul of the authorities in some way. Harsh in every way, residents of reeducation camps often die from overwork, outright murder, or starvation before they are reassigned to new work. Even if they survive, the gap in their work history is a sure sign that they served time in a reeducation camp and makes them unemployable by almost all corporate divisions. Sentencing to reeducation is at the least the end of any material comfort and more often than not a death sentence.
Gate Construction Mission D102
The interstellar gate construction mission to the Acadia system, launched August 3, 328 and scheduled to go active on April 1, 375. The mission was piloted by Roger Gillian and Helena Porter who would spend five years ship time before arrival, a time debt of forty-two years.